Guillermo Del Toro’s fantasy romance The Shape of Water bagged 13 Oscar nominations while Christopher Nolan’s world War II drama Dunkirk followed with eight nods on Tuesday. The ceremony for the 90th edition, organised by the Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences, will be held in Los Angeles on March 4.
History was made in the name of Mudbound cinematographer Rachel Morrison, who became the first woman to be nominated for a Best Cinematography award in the history of the awards.
The dark horse Get Out, the horror comedy directed by Jordan Peele, received four nominations, while James Mangold’s Logan, in no way a front-runner in the awards season, got an Oscar nod for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Nine films are in contention for Best Picture. Apart from Dunkirk, The Shape of Water and Get Out, the nominees are Martin McDonagh’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Joe Wright’s Winston Churchill biopic Darkest Hour, Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread, Steven Spielberg’s The Post, Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me By Your Name and Greta Garwig’s Ladybird.
Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049, universally lauded by critics but a damp squib at the box office, received five nominations in the technical categories: Cinematography, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Visual Effects and Production Design.
The Beguiled, which got Sofia Coppola a Best Director win at the Cannes Film Festival last year, was ignored at the Academy Awards after a no-show at the Golden Globes. Patty Jenkins’s blockbuster Wonder Woman did not receive a single nomination, unlike other special effects-driven franchise films of the year such as Star Wars: The Last Jedi, War for the Planet of the Apes and Logan.
Greta Garwig, however, was vindicated with a Best Director nomination after being overlooked by the Golden Globes. She will be competing with Christopher Nolan, Guillermo Del Toro, Paul Thomas Anderson and Jordan Peele.
Awards season favourites Timothee Chalamet (Call Me By Your Name), Gary Oldman (who has already the Golden Globe for Best Actor for his performance as Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour) and Daniel Day-Lewis (Phantom Thread) have all been nominated for Best Actor. Joining them are Denzel Washington for Roman J Israel Esq and Daniel Kaluuya for Get Out.
The Best Actress nominations offered no surprises. Meryl Streep received her 21st Academy Award nomination for her role as The Washington Post publisher Katherine Graham in The Post. She will be competing with Sally Hawkins (The Shape of Water), Saoirse Ronan (Ladybird), Margot Robbie (I, Tonya) and Frances McDormand (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri).
McDormand aside, the two other principal actors from Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri also received Oscar nods – both Sam Rockwell and Woody Harrelson have been nominated for Best Supporting Actor. Richard Jenkins (The Shape of Water), Christopher Plummer (All The Money In The World) and Willem Dafoe (The Florida Project) are the other nominees.
Academy Award winner Octavia Spencer got nominated for Best Supporting Actress for The Shape of Water. Alison Janney, having already won a Golden Globe for I, Tonya, has also received a nomination in the same category. The other nominees are Laurie Metcalf (Ladybird), Lesley Manville (Phantom Thread) and Mary J Bilge (Mudbound).
The nominations for Best Original Score echoed the Golden Globes list, with one difference: John Williams (Star Wars: The Last Jedi) in place of his own work for The Post. The other nominees are Hans Zimmer (Dunkirk), Jonny Greenwood (Phantom Thread), Alexandre Desplat (The Shape of Water) and Carter Burwell (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri).
Stand Up For Something from Marshall was a surprise entry in the Best Original Song category. It will be competing with Mystery of Love (Call Me By Your Name), Remember Me (Coco), This Is Me (The Greatest Showman) and Mighty River (Mudbound).
Comedian Jimmy Kimmel will host the awards ceremony for a second consecutive year. He is the only person in the history of the Oscars after Billy Crystal (1997 and 1998) to be the host two years in a row.