Mar 5, 2018
WINNER: Best picture
And the winner is…
The Shape of Water
The other nominees were:
Call Me By Your Name
Darkest Hour
Dunkirk
Get Out
Lady Bird
Phantom Thread
The Post
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
They’re back!
Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway return to the stage to present best picture. What could possibly go wrong this year?
“As they say, presenting is lovelier the second time around,” jokes Faye.
As they were being introduced by Jimmy Kimmel, the chat show host joked that what happened last year was just “Waterhouse under the bridge.”
Usually, you get the best actor from the previous year presenting the award to the best actress – and vice versa.
But things were changed up a bit when Casey Affleck decided to pull out of presenting (he’d won the Oscar for Manchester by the Sea at the 2017 awards).
Instead, we’ve had the best actress award presented by Jodie Foster and Jennifer Lawrence, and the best actor presented by Helen Mirren and Jane Fonda.
Emma Stone, who would have traditionally given out that Oscar, was the presenter for best director instead.
WINNER – Best actress
Frances McDormand for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
No surprises here – McDormand has won every best actress prize going this awards season, including the same accolade at the Baftas and the Golden Globes.
“I’m hyperventilating a little bit. If I fall over pick me up cause I’ve got some things to say,” she says.
“I want to thank Martin McDonagh look what you did. We are a bunch of hooligans and anarchists but we do clean up nice.
She continues: “If I may be so honoured to have all the female nominees stand with me in this room tonight. The film makers the producers the directors, the writers, the cinematographers, the songwirters, the designers,” she says – as many women in the audience get to their feet.
“Look around, because we all have stories to tell,” McDormand says. “I have two words to leave with you tonight: Inclusion rider.”
*The whole world Googles the term inclusion rider*
The other nominees were:
Sally Hawkins – The Shape of Water
Margot Robbie – I, Tonya
Saoirse Ronan – Lady Bird
Meryl Streep – The Post
WINNER: Best actor
Gary Oldman – Darkest Hour
“My deepest thanks to the academy for this glorious prize,” Oldman says.
“The movies – such is their power – captivated a young man from South London and gave him a dream.
“I’d like to salute Winston Churchill who has been marvellous company on what has been an incredible journey.”
Oldman also thanks his mother who is “99 years young next birthday” and who is “watching from the comfort of her sofa”.
“Put the kettle on – I’m bringing Oscar home.”
The award was presented by Jane Fonda and Helen Mirren.
The other nominees were:
Timothee Chalamet – Call Me By Your Name
Daniel Day-Lewis – Phantom Thread
Daniel Kaluuya – Get Out
Denzel Washington – Roman J Israel, Esq
WINNER: Best director
The Shape of Water – Guillermo Del Toro
Accepting the prize, he says: “I am an immigrant, like many of you… and I think the greatest thing our industry does is to erase the lines in the sand, we should continue doing that when the world tells us to make them deeper.
He also thanks Fox Searchlight, “because in 2014 they came to listen to a mad pitch, and they believed that a fairytale about an amphibian man and a mute woman was a sure bet.”
This is the fourth win for a Mexican director in five years.
The other nominees in this category were:
Dunkirk – Christopher Nolan
Get Out – Jordan Peele
Lady Bird – Greta Gerwig
Phantom Thread – Paul Thomas Anderson
Emma Stone is presenting the award for best director
It doesn’t feel like there have been any huge surprises yet. Most of those expected to pick up Oscars have done so – several of whom, like Allison Janney and Sam Rockwell, had already collected an armful of awards for their films.
But we could have a few surprises still to come, as we’re not too far away from finding out who’s won best picture.
It’s been such a tightly-fought race and still feels, at this stage, like it could go to a number of films.
The Shape of Water went into the Academy Awards as the film holding the most nominations – but some feel it has lost its momentum in the best picture race. Then there’s Three Billboards – but some feel a few of its characters were problematic.
Now that Jordan Peele has picked up the original screenplay for Get Out, could he go all the way and win best picture? It would certainly be a popular win. On the red carpets at all the pre-Oscars awards and events this week, it was the film the other stars seemed to mention the most.
We don’t have long to go to find out…
In Memoriam
The In Memoriam section pays tribute to some of the figures from the world of film we’ve lost in the past year.
Eddie Vedder performed Tom Petty’s Room at the Top.
Sir Roger Moore, Sridevi, Jonathan Demme, John Heard, Don Rickles and Shashi Kapoor are among the names remembered.
