Pixar’s Coco won the animation feature Oscar and produced a stirring acceptance speech from director Lee Unkrich, who praised Mexico’s “endlessly beautiful culture and traditions,” adding: “Marginalised people deserve to feel like they belong. Representation matters.”
Chile’s A Fantastic Woman by Sebastian Lelio earned a big cheer when it was named best foreign-language film. Immediately after that award, Allison Janney took to the stage to collect her award for best actress in a supporting role for I, Tonya.
Fox Searchlight’s The Shape Of Water – which began the night as the lead contender on 13 nominations – won its first Oscar about an hour into Sunday’s 90th annual Academy Awards.
Guillermo del Toro’s fantasy romance won achievement in production design forPaul D. Austerberry, Jeffrey A. Melvin, and Shane Vieau.
Bryan Fogel’s Russian doping scandal film Icarus was named best documentary feature. “We hope Icarus is a wake-up call – yes about Russia, but about telling the truth, now more than ever,” Fogel said.
The first award of the night at the 90th annual Academy Awards went to Sam Rockwell for best actor in a supporting role for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.
Richard King and Alex Gibson won achievement in sound editing for Dunkirk, and the film also prevailed in the sound mixing category as Gregg Landaker, Gary Rizzo, Mark Weingarten collected their awards.
The award for makeup and hairstyling was presented to Kazuhiro Tsuji, David Malinowski, Lucy Sibbick for Darkest Hour. Following that in short order was the achievement in costume design, which went to Mark Bridges for Phantom Thread.
In another strong message of support for diversity – not to mention a thinly veiled attack on the Trump administration – Lupita Nyong’o (Black Panther) and Kumail Nanjiani (The Big Sick) referenced their immigrant roots. “We are dreamers,” Nyong’o said. Dreams are the foundation of Hollywood. And dreams are the foundation of America.” “To all the dreamers out there,” Nanjiani said, “we stand with you.”
Show host Jimmy Kimmel, in his second consecutive year in the role, kicked off the evening with a reference to last year’s best picture mix-up, before referencing the Hollywood sex scandal and speaking in favour of change.
“This year when you hear your name called, don’t get up right away,” Kimmel said in reference to last year’s mix-up when the best picture award was mistakenly presented to La La Land before it correctly went to Moonlight.
On Harvey Weinstein sex scandal, he said: “If we can work together to stop sex harassment in the workplace, women will only have to deal with harassment every other place they will go.”
He praised the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements that sprung up in response to the avalanche of reports and revelations over sexual predators in the industry. “What they’re doing it important… this is a night for positivity,” Kimmel said.
There was also a mention of the huge discrepancy in pay received by Mark Wahlberg and Michelle Williams in their All The Money In The World reshoot scenes. Noting how both worked for the same agency, Kimmel got a big laugh when he said, “And if you can’t trust an agent…” Kimmel reserved words of praise for the success of commercial smash and cultural touchstone Black Panther, and riffed good-naturedly on its box office success at times in the show.
In the short film categories, Dear Basketball won for animation.
INITIAL OSCARS PRE-REPORT: Fox Searchlight’s The Shape Of Water heads into the 90th annual Academy Awards on Sunday (March 4) with 13 nominations and is the clear front-runner. However there could well be triumphs along the way for Focus Features, Universal and NEON with the likes of Darkest Hour, Get Out and I, Tonya all in play, as well as Searchlight’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.
Another tumultuous year for Hollywood has brought the subject of sexual predators stemming from the Harvey Weinstein scandal into sharp focus. Weinstein, whose company was sold last week to a consortium led by former Obama administration official Maria Contreras-Sweet and billionaire Ron Burkle, will be far away from the Dolby Theatre, however the gathering might of the Time’s Up and #MeToo movements will be in evidence.
There has been no call for a ’black carpet’ in support of victims à la Golden Globes, although it will be worth watching to see if stars bring activists as their dates, and acceptance speeches are expected to be politically charged.
Host Jimmy Kimmel, who returns after a strong debut last year, has indicated he will address the matter in his opening monologue. And speaking of last year, who can forget that momentous show finale, when a snafu by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) meant best picture presenters Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty were given the wrong envelope and announced La La Land the winner before Moonlight was declared the correct victor.
There have been reports that Dunaway and Beatty will return to present the best picture award on Sunday. The Academy had not returned calls to Screen at time of writing to clarify the matter. PwC says it has put protocols in place to ensure a mistake like the one from last year does not happen again. These include extra homework for attending PwC executives, who have been tasked with memorising all the winners.
Among the deserved nominations, several things are worth bearing in mind. Mudbound has given us two trailblazing women. DoP Rachel Morrison has become the first woman to receive an Oscar nomination in the cinematography category, while Mary J. Blige this year became the first person to be nominated for both acting and music Oscars, in the same year.
Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird) is only the fifth woman nominated for the best directing Oscar after Lina Wertmüller (Seven Beauties, 1977), Jane Campion (The Piano, 1994), Sofia Coppola (Lost In Translation, 2004), and Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker, 2010). Thus far Bigelow is the only woman to have won the Oscar. And hats off again to another true pioneer, Meryl Streep, who in January earned her 21st acting nod, for The Post. She is highly unlikely to win, but the record-holding actor – no male or female has earned as many career Academy Award nominations – is an extraordinary role model.
Jordan Peele (Get Out) is only the fifth black man nominated for the best directing Oscar after John Singleton (Boys N The Hood, 1992), Lee Daniels (Precious, 2010), Steve McQueen (12 Years A Slave, 2014), and Barry Jenkins (Moonlight, 2017). No black man has ever won the award. Peele is also only the third man to be nominated for best picture, directing, and original screenplay after Warren Beatty for Heaven Can Wait in 1979, and James L Brooks for Terms Of Endearment in 1984.
If Guillermo del Toro follows up his DGA win with his first best directing Oscar for The Shape Of Wate, this will be the fourth time in the last five years that a Mexican has claimed the prize after Alfonso Cuarón (Gravity, 2014) and Alejandro G Iñárritu (Birdman 2015, The Revenant 2016).
Cinematographer Roger Deakins is nominated for his 14th best cinematography Oscar and has never one. He won the ASC (American Society of Cinematographers) award this year but don’t be distracted by that – he has won that prize for The Shawshank Redemption, The Man Who Wasn’t There, and Skyfall. Could Blade Runner 2049 be the one that breaks his Oscars duck?
Several nominees have doubled up in 2018. Briton Jacqueline Durran is in the running for best costume design for Darkest Hour and Beauty And The Beast, while Sarah Greenwood and Katie Spencer are in contention in the best production design category for Beauty And The Beast and Darkest Hour.
There is a long way to go today before we get to the best picture presentation. ABC kicks off proceedings on the red carpet at 3.30pm Pacific Time outside Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre, heading into the network’s live broadcast at 5pm Pacific Time.
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