Just like I predicted: The Shape of Water was the big winner of the Oscar night by taking home the top prize (Best Picture) and 3 other golden men for Best Director, Best Original Score and Best Production Design.
After a later awards season where Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri took home almost every top prize (Golden Globe of Best Motion Picture - Drama, BAFTA Award of Best Film, SAG Award of Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble Cast, and a People's Choice Award of Toronto International Film Festival last Fall), truth is: no one payed enough attention to Martin McDonagh's absence from the Best Director nominees shortlist! Plus, no one seemed to realise how Three Billboards is about negative feelings (racism and vengeance) and gun use! Yeah... Guns! Of course I can't speak for the Academy members, but since the AMPAS supports anti-Trump policies, Three Billboards would be a "not nice" choice for Best Picture or Best Original Screenplay. I know the movie is also about a mother's love (that's why Frances McDormand won, and she kinda deserves it for the deer scene alone!) and redemption (that's why Sam Rockwell won Best Supporting Actor)... So, since the Academy was able to honour the movie's most noble things, they could go for another contender.
So, which contender would make for the best Best Picture winner? Darkest Hour got a lucky Best Picture nomination and the same can be said about Phantom Thread, so being nominated is already "Victory!" screaming-worthy and Call Me By Your Name snub at Best Director and Best Supporting Actor (both Armie Hammer and/or Michael Stuhlbarg) meant it was not as loved as Moonlight or Brokeback Mountain were. Only Dunkirk, Lady Bird, Get Out and The Shape of Water would "fit" the role.
Dunkirk is an epic history lesson (and an amazing well-crafted cinematic experience), but with no direct message for today's society. Lady Bird is a movie about a girl, directed and written by a woman, but in spite of such a feminist powerhouse contender, it is a coming-of-age comedy-drama that feels fresh that isn't properly "relevant" (yet, one of the year's very best movies by far). Get Out is a delicious all-black horror/thriller satire and it would make an historic Best Picture winner, but some could claim black cinema was already recognized last year with Moonlight (so, Get Out took home Best Original Screenplay, making Jordan Peele the first African-American to win in this category). The Shape of Water was not controversial (if you exclude [SPOILER] banging the fish-man [END OF SPOILER]), it was the most nominated movie of the year, a product of a truly creative mind and it did well at the box-office - plus, it features a Trump-like vilain, a woman who's a victim of sexual harassment, pays tribute to Golden Age of Hollywood and it shows that the only characters who are able to connect are the ones that can't talk. The Shape of Water was the obvious choice in the time of Time's Up movement, when Trump policies seem to challenge the artists to raise their voices in a world dominated by social media and stereotypes.
Best Director: Guillermo del Toro, The Shape of Water
Best Actor: Gary Oldman, Darkest Hour
Best Actress: Frances McDormand, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Best Supporting Actor: Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Best Supporting Actress: Allison Janney, I, Tonya
Best Original Screenplay: Get Out, Jordan Peele
Best Adapted Screenplay: Call Me by Your Name, James Ivory
Best Foreign Picture: A Fantastic Woman (CHILE)
Best Animated Feature: Coco
Best Visual Effects: Blade Runner 2049
Best Editing: Dunkirk, Lee Smith
Best Animated Short: Dear Basketball
Best Live Action Short: The Silent Child
Best Documentary Short: Heaven Is a Traffic Jam on the 405
Best Original Score: The Shape of Water, Alexander Desplat
Best Original Song: "Remember Me” from Coco
Best Production Design: The Shape of Water, Paul D. Austerberry, Shane Vieau and Jeffrey A. Melvin
Best Cinematography: Blade Runner 2049, Roger Deakins
Best Costume Design: Phantom Thread, Mark Bridges
Best Makeup and Hairstyling: Darkest Hour
Best Documentary Feature: Icarus
Best Sound Editing: Dunkirk, Richard King and Alex Gibson
Best Sound Mixing: Dunkirk, Gregg Landaker, Gary Rizzo and Mark Weingarten
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