When I started writing film reviews full time back in late-June I always had the Academy Awards as the first long-term destination; last year I had only seen one of the films nominated for Best Picture (Arrival), so I targeted the Academy Awards, and my knowledge of films in each category, as a basis for how well I’ve managed to keep up with all the releases. Today, the Academy Awards have released all their nominations and I’m going to give my brief thoughts on what films have and haven’t made the lists, and give an early-prediction based on what I’ve seen and heard.
Best Picture
Nominations: Call Me By Your Name; Darkest Hour; Dunkirk; Get Out; Lady Bird; Phantom Thread; The Post; The Shape of Water; Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri.
Have seen: Darkest Hour; Dunkirk; Get Out; The Post; Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri.
Haven’t seen (yet): Call Me By Your Name; Lady Bird; Phantom Thread; The Shape of Water
The Academy Awards have the ability to nominate any number from five to ten films in this category, and I was pleasantly surprised to see them hit a higher number to add more variety to the category. While mostly not surprising, I was quite pleased to see Get Out receive this nomination, as horror films, despite it being a fantastically entertaining film, are normally ignored. I was also happy to see Dunkirk as part of the list (both of these films would probably have missed out on a list of five), as, despite it also being a brilliant film, its summer release meant it was always a worry about how well they could maintain its status heading into the new year. My early-prediction is The Shape of Water is taking this, purely because of them receiving 13 total nominations, the highest by any film this year. I’ll be watching it next week, and seeing its Academy Awards nomination success has made me a lot more excited about watching it.
Early prediction: The Shape of Water.
Best Actor
Nominations: Timothee Chalamet (Call Me By Your Name); Daniel Day-Lewis (Phantom Thread); Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out); Gary Oldman (Darkest Hour); Denzel Washington (Roman J Israel, Esq).
Have seen: Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out); Gary Oldman (Darkest Hour).
Haven’t seen (yet): Timothee Chalamet (Call Me By Your Name); Daniel Day-Lewis (Phantom Thread); Denzel Washington (Roman J Israel, Esq).
This is Gary Oldman’s award, isn’t it? He’s already got the Golden Globe and should get the BAFTA (with him portraying a British figure) so it makes sense that surely Gary Oldman will take the hat-trick of awards. Unfortunately in this category I’ve only seen on competitor for Gary Oldman’s performance as I never got round to Call Me By Your Name and Roman J Israel, Esq. upon their release and Phantom Thread is due out soon, but I have heard very good things about Daniel Day-Lewis’ performance (and it’s his final performance so could well use that to swing it in his favour). I was disappointed to not see Hugh Jackman nominated for his fantastic performance in Logan; I knew going in it wouldn’t be overly recognised, as superhero films are largely ignored for the main categories, but he gave a very, very good performance. And whatever their feelings about Tom Hanks are have continued, as, arguably, he gave a better performance than Streep in The Post but isn’t here.
Early prediction: Gary Oldman (Darkest Hour).
Best Actress
Nominations: Sally Hawkins (The Shape of Water); Frances McDormand (Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri); Margot Robbie (I, Tonya); Saoirse Ronan (Lady Bird); Meryl Streep (The Post).
Have seen: Frances McDormand (Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri); Meryl Streep (The Post).
Haven’t seen (yet): Sally Hawkins (The Shape of Water); Margot Robbie (I, Tonya); Saoirse Ronan (Lady Bird).
In what is quite a nice changeup for the acting roles, the Best Actress award is far more competitive than the men’s, even more so pleasing considering the year that Hollywood has had; to have so many women competing for their top prize but so few men must be a nice story for them to tell. Of the two I’ve seen Frances McDormand has to be the better performance (surely Meryl Streep is only here because of her name? I love Meryl Streep but her performance wasn’t even the best in The Post, let alone of all year). But I’ve heard many, many good things about Saoirse Ronan’s performance and I’m eagerly awaiting Lady Bird’s release in the UK to check it out.
Early prediction: Saoirse Ronan (Lady Bird).
Other categories:
Supporting Actor:
Willem Dafoe (The Florida Project); Woody Harrelson (Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri); Richard Jenkins (The Shape of Water); Christopher Plummer (All the Money in the World); Sam Rockwell (Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri).
Early prediction: Chritopher Plummer (All the Money in the World).
Supporting Actress:
Mary J. Blige (Mudbound); Allison Janney (I, Tonya); Lesley Manville (Phantom Thread); Laurie Metcalf (Lady Bird); Octavia Spencer (The Shape of Water).
Early prediction: Lesley Manville (Phantom Thread). As of yet I’ve seen none of these films so this really is just a name out of a hat.
Best Director:
Christopher Nolan (Dunkirk); Jordan Peele (Get Out); Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird); Paul Thomas Anderson (Phantom Thread); Guillermo del Toro (The Shape of Water).
Early prediction: Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird).
Animated Feature:
The Boss Baby; The Breadwinner; Coco; Ferdinand; Loving Vincent.
Early prediction: Coco.
Adapted Screenplay:
James Ivory (Call Me by Your Name); Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber (The Disaster Artist); Scott Frank, James Mangold & Michael Green (Logan); Aaron Sorkin (Molly’s Game); Virgil Williams & Dee Rees (Mudbound).
Early prediction: James Ivory (Call Me by Your Name).
Original Screenplay:
Emily V. Gordon & Kumail Nanjiani (The Big Sick); Jordan Peele (Get Out); Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird); Guillermo del Toro & Vanessa Taylor (The Shape of Water); Martin McDonagh (Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri).
Early prediction: Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird).
Cinematography:
Roger Deakins (Blade Runner 2049); Bruno Delbonnel (Darkest Hour); Hoyte van Hoytema (Dunkirk); Rachel Morrison (Mudbound); Dan Laustsen (The Shape of Water).
Early prediction: Roger Deakins (Blade Runner 2049).
Film Editing:
Jonathan Amos & Paul Machliss (Baby Driver); Lee Smith (Dunkirk); Tatiana S. Riegel (I, Tonya); Sidney Wolinsky (The Shape of Water); Jon Gregory (Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri).
Early prediction: Lee Smith (Dunkirk).
Sound Editing:
Julian Slater (Baby Driver); Mark Mangini & Theo Green (Blade Runner 2049); Alex Gibson & Richard King (Dunkirk); Nathan Robitaille & Nelson Ferreira (The Shape of Water); Ren Klyce & Matthew Wood (Star Wars: The Last Jedi).
Early prediction: Mark Mangini & Theo Green (Blade Runner 2049).
Sound Mixing:
Mary H. Ellis, Julian Slater & Tim Cavagin (Baby Driver); Mac Ruth, Ron Bartlett, Doug Hephill (Blade Runner 2049); Mark Weingarten, Gregg Landaker & Gary A. Rizzo (Dunkirk); Glen Gauthier, Christian Cooke & Brad Zoern (The Shape of Water); Stuart Wilson, Ren Klyce, David Parker & Michael Semanick (Star Wars: The Last Jedi).
Early prediction: Mary H. Ellis, Julian Slater & Tim Cavagin (Baby Driver).
Production Design:
Sarah Greenwood & Katie Spencer (Beauty and the Beast); Dennis Gassner & Alessandra Querzola (Blade Runner 2049); Sarah Greenwood & Katie Spencer (Darkest Hour); Nathan Crowley & Gary Fettis (Dunkirk); Paul D. Austerbetty, Jeffrey A. Melvin & Shane Vieau (The Shape of Water).
Early prediction: Dennis Gassner & Alessandra Querzola (Blade Runner 2049).
Original Score:
Hans Zimmer (Dunkirk); Jonny Greenwood (Phantom Thread); Alexandre Desplat (The Shape of Water); John Williams (Star Wars: The Last Jedi); Carter Burwell (Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri).
Early prediction: Hans Zimmer (Dunkirk).
Original Song:
Mary J. Blige – Mighty River (Mudbound); Sufjan Stevens – Mystery of Love (Call Me by Your Name); Kristen Anderson-Lopez & Robert Lopez – Remember Me (Coco); Dianne Warren & Common – Stand Up for Something (Marshall); Benk Pasek & Justin Paul – This Is Me (The Greatest Showman).
Early prediction: Benk Pasek & Justin Paul – This Is Me (The Greatest Showman)
Makeup and Hair:
Kazuhiro Tsuji, David Malinowski & Lucy Sibbick (Darkest Hour); Daniel Phillips & Lou Sheppard (Victoria and Abdul); Arjen Tuiten (Wonder).
Early prediction: Kazuhiro Tsuji, David Malinowski & Lucy Sibbick (Darkest Hour)
Costume Designn
Jacqueline Durran (Beauty and the Beast); Jacqueline Durran (Darkest Hour); Mark Bridges (Phantom Thread); Luis Sequeira (The Shape of Water); Consolata Boyle (Victoria and Abdul).
Early prediction: Jacqueline Durran (Beauty and the Beast).
Visual Effects:
John Nelson, Paul Lambert, Richard R. Hoover & Gerd Nefzer (Blade Runner 2049); Christopher Townsend, Guy Williams, Jonathan Fawkner & Dan Sudick (Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2); Stephen Rosenbaum, Jeff White, Scott Benza & Mike Meinardus (Kong: Skull Island); Ben Morris, Mike Mulholland, Chris Corbould & Neal Scanlan (Star Wars: The Last Jedi); Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, Daniel Barrett & Joel Whist (War for the Planet of the Apes).
Early prediction: John Nelson, Paul Lambert, Richard R. Hoover & Gerd Nefzer (Blade Runner 2049).
Best Foreign Language Film:
A Fantastic Woman (Chile); The Insult (Lebanon); Loveless (Russia); On Body and Soul (Hungary); The Square (Sweden).
Early prediction: N/A.
Best Documentary Feature:
Abacus: Small Enough to Jail; Faces Places; Icarus; Last Men in Aleppo; Strong Island.
Early prediction: N/A.
Best Documentary Short Subject:
Edith+Eddie; Heaven is a Traffic Jam on the 405; Heroin(e); Knife Skills; Traffic Stop.
Early prediction: N/A.
Best Live Action Short Film:
DeKalb Elementary; The Eleven O’Clock; My Nephew Emmett; The Silent Child; Watu Wote/All of Us.
Early prediction: N/A.
Animated Short:
Dear Basketball; Garden Party; Lou; Negative Space; Revolting Rhymes.
Early prediction: N/A.
Steve James 