Something in the Water
Canadian-made creature feature shapes up to be the frontrunner as 90th Oscar noms are announced
Guillermo del Toro’s lavish monster romance The Shape of Water fished out a leading 13 nominations, Greta Gerwig became just the fifth woman nominated for best director and Mudbound director of photography Rachel Morrison made history as the first woman nominated for best cinematography in nominations announced Tuesday for the 90th annual Academy Awards.
The Shape of Water, shot in Toronto and Hamilton, came just shy of tying the record of 14 nominations shared by All About Eve, Titanic and La La Land. Toronto producer J. Miles Dale shares in the best picture nomination for the film. He called the film’s nominations a big win for Canada.
“Other than Guillermo and the cinematographer and some of the actors, every single person on this film was Canadian and really kind of from Toronto — so it absolutely is I think unprecedented, frankly, in terms of the type of recognition,” Dale said Tuesday.
Del Toro’s dark fantasy scored a wide array for nominations for its cast (Sally Hawkins, Richard Jenkins, Octavia Spencer), del Toro’s directing, its sumptuous score (by Alexandre Desplat) and technical craft. Other Canadians nominated for the film include production designers Paul Austerberry, Jeff Melvin and Shane Vieau; sound editors Nathan Robitaille and Nelson Ferreira; sound mixers Christian Cooke, Brad Zoern and Glen Gauthier; costume designer Luis M. Sequeira; and film editor Sidney Wolinsky.
Reached by phone Tuesday in Los Angeles, del Toro said The Shape of Water has resonated because it explodes “the myth of ‘us and them.’ ”
“You realize that we are all, in some way or another, a bit of an outsider in different ways,” said del Toro. “Not fearing the other but embracing the other is the only way to go as a race. The urgency of that message of hope and emotion is what sustained the faith for roughly half a decade that the movie needed to be made.”
Oscar voters put forward nine best-picture nominees: The Shape of Water, Martin McDonaugh’s rage-fuelled comic drama Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (which came in second with seven Oscar nods), Gerwig’s nuanced coming-of-age tale Lady Bird, Jordan Peele’s horror sensation Get Out, Joe Wright’s Winston Churchill drama Darkest Hour, Steven Spielberg’s timely newspaper drama The Post, Christopher Nolan’s Second World War epic Dunkirk, Luca Guadagnino’s tender love story Call Me By Your Name and Paul Thomas Anderson’s twisted romance Phantom Thread.
The cascading fallout of sexual harassment scandals throughout Hollywood put particular focus on the best director category, which for many is a symbol of gender inequality in the film industry. Gerwig follows only Lina Wertmuller, Jane Campion, Sofia Coppola and Kathryn Bigelow, the sole woman to win (for The Hurt Locker).
Also nominated for best director was Peele. He becomes the fifth black filmmaker nominated for best director, and the third to helm a best-picture nominee, following Barry Jenkins last year for Moonlight. Though all of the acting front-runners — Frances McDormand (Three Billboards), Gary Oldman (Darkest Hour), Allison Janney (I, Tonya), Sam Rockwell (Three Billboards) — landed their expected nominations, there were surprises.
Denzel Washington (Roman J. Israel, Esq.) was nominated for best actor, likely eclipsing James Franco (Disaster Artist). Franco was accused of sexual misconduct, which he denied, just days before Oscar voting closed. The category’s other nominees were a retiring veteran — Daniel Day-Lewis for what he’s said is his final performance (Phantom Thread) — and a pair of breakouts: Timothee Chalamet (Call Me By Your Name) and “Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out).
Meryl Streep, who stars as Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham in The Post, notched her 21st Oscar nomination. She was joined for best actress by McDormand, Hawkins, Saoirse Ronan (Lady Bird) and Margot Robbie (I, Tonya).
Canadian legend Christopher Plummer, who replaced Kevin Spacey in Ridley Scott’s All the Money in the World, snuck into the best supporting actor category. Added to the film in reshoots little more than a month before the film’s release, Plummer is now, at 88, the oldest acting nominee ever.
Though the favourites are largely independent films, a number of blockbusters fared well, including five nods for Blade Runner 2049, four for Star Wars: The Last Jedi, three for Baby Driver, two for Beauty and the Beast and two for Pixar’s Coco, which is up for best animated feature.
The Breadwinner, based on the novel by Canadian author Deborah Ellis, will go up against Coco. The Canadian co-production has a superstar executive producer in Angelina Jolie and features Toronto actress Saara Chaudry as the voice of the lead character.
While Quebec’s Denis Villeneuve missed out on a best director nomination for Blade Runner 2049, the film did pick up a number of nods in other categories. Canadian Dennis Gassner is nominated for best production design on the film starring fellow Canadian Ryan Gosling.
Though many minorities were still absent from the acting categories, four black actors — Washington, Kaluuya, Spencer and Mary J. Blige (Mudbound) — are among the 20 acting nominees.
It was a good day for women, generally speaking, with the notable nominations for Morrison and Gerwig, but the love stopped short of one of the most populist femaledriven projects of the year: Wonder Woman. The Patty Jenkins directed blockbuster received zero nominations.