The red carpet has been furled as the 90th Academy Awards (and all the hype surrounding them) comes to a close for another year. This awards season, and indeed the current cultural moment, is being heralded as something of a new beginning; at last, steps being made towards a greater representation of groups generally forgotten or marginalised in the entertainment industries and beyond. Without wanting to entirely deflate any celebration balloons that are being hoisted, I would advise proceeding with cautious optimism; optimism for broader representation in the film space (and Awards space), caution for guarding against pinning our hopes for the film space on overcoming said representation problem. Once (if) this representation problem is resolved, the self-centred human heart dictates that another problem will take its place. Don’t get me wrong, I think working hard to address the rep-problem is important but we have to recognise that these problems stem from the human heart (read: self-serving, power-hungry, desire to control etc.), and a belief in the ability of humanity to solve THIS problem on its own is misplaced.
Onwards, then, to less significant matters.
The Shape of Water won 4 Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director. Overall, no huge surprises really. I thought Agnes Varda’s Faces Places would take the Documentary Feature but it was beaten out by Netflix’s Icarus dealing with the Russian doping scandal. The ceremony itself was largely uneventful. Kimmel was uneventful. Nearly all the speeches appropriately fell into the current cultural moment (as detailed above) and there were some wonderfully fun and elegant clothes on display.
I hit 16 out of 21 predictions (did not bother with the shorts as I have not seen any of the nominees). Missed: Original Screenplay, Editing, Production Design, Sound Mixing, and Documentary. Should have gone with the smart money on Jordan Peele’s Get Out winning for its screenplay, and Dunkirk‘s editing and sound mixing were worthy winners. Super happy to see Roger Deakins finally win his first Academy Award for Blade Runner 2049. For those unfamiliar with his name, you are probably familiar with at least some of his excellent filmography; Barton Fink (1991), The Shawshank Redemption (1994), Dead Man Walking (1995), Fargo (1996), Kundun (1997), The Big Lebowski (1998), O Brother Where Art Thou? (2000), The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001), A Beautiful Mind (2001), The Village (2004), Jarhead (2005), No Country For Old Men (2007), The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007), Doubt (2008), Revolutionary Road (2008), A Serious Man (2009), True Grit (2010), Skyfall (2012), Prisoners (2013), Unbroken (2014), and Sicario (2015). No wins for Lady Bird (5 noms), Mudbound (4 noms), Star Wars: The Last Jedi (4 noms), or Baby Driver (3 noms).
Here is the full list of winners, carefully colour-coded according to my predictions (green for correct, red for incorrect plus *my prediction):
- Best Picture – The Shape of Water
- 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 – Jordan Peele (Get Out) *Martin McDonagh (Three Billboards)
- Best Adapted Screenplay – James Ivory (Call Me By Your Name)
- Best Film Editing – Lee Smith (Dunkirk) *Sidney Wolinsky (The Shape of Water)
- Best Cinematography – Roger Deakins (Blade Runner 2049)
- Best Production Design – Paul D. Austerberry, Jeffrey A. Melvin, Shane Vieau (The Shape of Water) *Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer (Darkest Hour)
- Best Sound Editing – Alex Gibson and Richard King (Dunkirk)
- Best Sound Mixing – Gregg Landaker, Gary Rizzo, Mark Weingarten (Dunkirk) *Ron Bartlett, Doug Hemphill, Mac Ruth (Blade Runner 2049)
- Best Visual Effects – John Nelson, Gerd Nefzer, Paul Lambert, Richard R. Hoover (Blade Runner 2049)
- Best Original Score – Alexandre Desplat (The Shape of Water)
- Best Original Song – “Remember Me” (Coco); Music & Lyrics by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez
- Best Costume Design – Mark Bridges (Phantom Thread)
- Best Make-Up and Hairstyling – Kazuhiro Tsuji, David Malinowski, Lucy Sibbick (Darkest Hour)
- Best Animated Feature – Coco (Lee Unkrich and Darla K. Anderson)
- Best Documentary Feature – Icarus (Bryan Fogel and Dan Cogan) *Faces Places (Agnes Varda, JR, and Rosalie Varda)
- Best Foreign Language Film – A Fantastic Woman (Chile, dir. Sebastián Lelio)
TALLY
- The Shape of Water – 4 wins (Best Picture, Director, Production Design, Original Score)
- Dunkirk – 3 wins (Editing, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing)
- Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri – 2 wins (Actress, Supporting Actor)
- Darkest Hour – 2 wins (Actor, Make-Up & Hairstyling)
- Blade Runner 2049 – 2 wins (Cinematography, Visual Effects)
- Coco – 2 wins (Animated Feature, Original Song)
- I, Tonya – 1 win (Supporting Actress)
- Call Me By Your Name – 1 win (Adapted Screenplay)
- Get Out – 1 win (Original Screenplay)
- Phantom Thread – 1 win (Costume Design)
- Icarus – 1 win (Documentary Feature)
- A Fantastic Woman – 1 win (Foreign Language Film)
The Draff 