Sam Rockwell, Frances McDormand, Allison Janney, and Gary Oldman
It went off without a hitch! This year, the Best Picture winner was Guillermo del Toro’s love story from the Black Lagoon, The Shape of Water. We’re sure. We checked the envelope. Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway were on hand again this year to present the big award as a do-over from last year’s infamous envelope gaffe. The Shape of Water was the big winner of the night, picking up four awards: Best Picture, Best Director (Guillermo del Toro), Best Original Score, and Best Production Design.
The awards were spread around evenly to the Best Picture nominees, with the exception of Lady Bird. Greta Gerwig’s coming of age story set in 2002 Sacramento was nominated for five Oscars, and it did not win any. The people of the Internet are displeased. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri won awards for Sam Rockwell as Best Supporting Actor and Frances McDormand as Best Actress. McDormand gave a rousing speech asking all of the nominated females in all of the categories to stand up and be recognized. She then challenged the studio heads and production companies to set a meeting with these women to tell their stories.
Gary Oldman won his first Oscar for his portrayal of Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour. Oldman received a standing ovation from his peers as he walked to the stage to accept his award. As is customary, he thanked his wife, his children, and mentioned his mother who will be 99 later this year. One interesting note: Oldman was previously married to another of the night’s nominee’s, Phantom Thread’s Lesley Manville. Allison Janney picked up the award for Best Supporting Actress for her work in I, Tonya, and thanked her avian costar for his help on the film. Jordan Peele made history as the first African-American to win the award for Best Original Screenplay for his film Get Out. I will admit, I was hoping that he would accept the film by doing his President Obama impression. Overall, the big prizes of the night went to the frontrunners. The only surprises were that Icarus won for Best Documentary Feature and Blade Runner 2049 won the award for Best Cinematography.
The other big winner of the night was Mexican and South American culture. The Pixar animated film about Dia de los Muertos, Coco, won awards for Best Animated Feature Film and Best Original Song (“Remember Me”). Mexican director Guillermo del Toro won the award for Best Director, as well. The phrase “Viva la Mexico” was uttered more times than in any other Oscar telecast. The winner of the Best Foreign Language Film was A Fantastic Woman from Chile, the first time Chile has won in this category and only its second nomination. This was Hollywood’s way of telling President Donald Trump where he could stick his wall.
Ultimately, the show was a bit of a dud. Jimmy Kimmel’s opening was bland and safe. The only thing slightly edgy he said was the Oscar was the perfect man because in a post-Harvey Weinstein Hollywood, a man who can keep his hands to himself and doesn’t have a penis is the best kind of man. Other than that, it was highly unmemorable. Throughout the show, things seemed to get progressively worse. He decided to take a field trip with a group if 10-15 A list stars to the movie theater across the street. The idea was to show the movie-going public the industry’s appreciation. Like last year’s tourists who walked into the Dolby Theater, the bit fell flat and lasted far too long. Kimmel also tried a bit where his 9 year-old self met the cast of Star Wars. It was the most awkward two minutes of the show. One ongoing gag that did work was the fact that Kimmel tried to get the night’s winners to keep their acceptance speeches short and sweet by telling them that the shortest speech would receive a Jet Ski. Helen Mirren even came out to be the Price is Right-esque model and show it off while it spun around on a platform. The winner of the Jet Ski, Mark Bridges, the costume designer of Phantom Thread with a speech that was 29 seconds long.
The best part of the show was seeing Oscar winners of the past present several of the awards. 1954’s Best Supporting Actress winner for On The Waterfront, Eva Marie Saint presented the award for Best Costume Design, 1961’s Best Supporting Actress winner for West Side Story, Rita Morano (wearing the same dress that she wore to the Oscars when she won in 1962) presented the award for Best Foreign Language Film, and 1978’s Best Supporting Actor winner for The Deer Hunter, Christopher Walken presented the award for Best Original Score. Due to allegations of sexual harassment, last year’s Best Actor winner, Casey Affleck declined the Academy’s invitation to present the award for Best Actress this year. Instead, the award for Best Actress was presented by two-time Best Actress winner for The Accused and Silence of the Lambs Jodie Foster and the Best Actress winner for Silver Liniings Playbook, Jennifer Lawrence. Not to be outdone, the Best Actor award was not presented by last year’s winner Emma Stone. It was instead presented by Hollywood royalty Jane Fonda (Best Actress winner for Klute and Coming Home) and Helen Mirren (Best Actress winner for The Queen). Stone was given the honor of presenting the award for Best Director.
That’s it; I officially declare the 2017/2018 Awards Season closed! What did you think of the show? Were you hoping for a surprise ending like last year’s best picture mess-up? Did you like Jimmy Kimmel? Weren’t Maya Rudolph and Tiffany Haddish the best part of the show? Let us know what you think! Leave us a comment below or contact us on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.
-Ariadne Ansbro
Full list of winners:
BEST PICTURE
Call Me By Your Name
Darkest Hour
Dunkirk
Get Out
Lady Bird
Phantom Thread
The Post
WINNER: The Shape of Water
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
BEST ACTOR
Timothée Chalamet, Call Me By Your Name
Daniel Day-Lewis, Phantom Thread
Daniel Kaluuya, Get Out
WINNER: Gary Oldman, Darkest Hour
Denzel Washington, Roman J. Israel, Esq.
BEST ACTRESS
Sally Hawkins, The Shape of Water
WINNER: Frances McDormand, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Margot Robbie, I, Tonya
Saoirse Ronan, Lady Bird
Meryl Streep, The Post
BEST DIRECTOR
Dunkirk, Christopher Nolan
Get Out, Jordan Peele
Lady Bird, Greta Gerwig
Phantom Thread, Paul Thomas Anderson
WINNER: The Shape of Water, Guillermo del Toro
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Mary J. Blige, Mudbound
WINNER: Allison Janney, I, Tonya
Lesley Manville, Phantom Thread
Laurie Metcalf, Lady Bird
Octavia Spencer, The Shape of Water
BEST 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
WINNER: Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
The Big Sick, Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani
WINNER: Get Out, Jordan Peele
Lady Bird, Greta Gerwig
The Shape of Water, Guillermo del Toro and Vanessa Taylor
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Martin McDonagh
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
WINNER: Call Me By Your Name, James Ivory
The Disaster Artist, Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber
Logan, Scott Frank, James Mangold, Michael Green
Molly’s Game, Aaron Sorkin
Mudbound, Virgil Williams and Dee Rees
PRODUCTION DESIGN
Beauty and the Beast
Blade Runner 2049
Darkest Hour
Dunkirk
WINNER: The Shape of Water
CINEMATOGRAPHY
WINNER: Blade Runner 2049
Darkest Hour
Dunkirk
Mudbound
The Shape of Water
VISUAL EFFECTS
WINNER: Blade Runner 2049
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Kong: Skull Island
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
War for the Planet of the Apes
COSTUME DESIGN
Beauty and the Beast
Darkest Hour
WINNER: Phantom Thread
The Shape of Water
Victoria & Abdul
SOUND EDITING
Baby Driver
Blade Runner 2049
WINNER: Dunkirk
The Shape of Water
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
SOUND MIXING
Baby Driver
Blade Runner 2049
WINNER: Dunkirk
The Shape of Water
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
ANIMATED SHORT FILM
WINNER: Dear Basketball
Garden Party
Lou
Negative Space
Revolting Rhymes
LIVE-ACTION SHORT FILM
DeKalb Elementary
The Eleven O’Clock
My Nephew Emmett
WINNER: The Silent Child
Watu Wote/All of Us
ORIGINAL SCORE
Dunkirk
Phantom Thread
WINNER: The Shape of Water
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
FILM EDITING
Baby Driver
WINNER: Dunkirk
I, Tonya
The Shape of Water
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING
WINNER: Darkest Hour
Victoria & Abdul
Wonder
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
WINNER: A Fantastic Woman, Chile
The Insult, Lebanon
Loveless, Russia
On Body and Soul, Hungary
The Square, Sweden
BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT
Edith and Eddie
WINNER: Heaven Is A Traffic Jam on the 405
Heroin(e)
Knife Skills
Traffic Stop
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Abacus: Small Enough to Jail
Faces Places
WINNER: Icarus
Last Man in Aleppo
Strong Island
ORIGINAL SONG
“Mighty River,” Mudbound
“Mystery of Love,” Call Me By Your Name
WINNER: “Remember Me,” Coco
“Stand Up For Something,” Marshall
“This Is Me,” The Greatest Showman
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
The Boss Baby
The Breadwinner
WINNER: Coco
Ferdinand
Loving Vincent
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