Diversity the winner
Hosts acknowledge last year’s best picture gaffe in historic Oscars ceremony
Diversity took centre-stage — while protest took a back seat — at this year’s Oscars with a ceremony that acknowledged both last year’s infamous envelope mistake and the #metoo movement that swept Hollywood in 2017. The otherwordly fairytale The
Shape of Water took out best picture, which was again presented by last year’s presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway.
The win makes the movie this year’s best-winning and most-nominated film, with four wins and 13 nominations. The film also nabbed best director, best original score and best production design.
Host Jimmy Kimmel, Dunaway and Beatty each acknowledged last year’s best picture gaffe, during which the award was mistakenly given to La La
Land instead of Moonlight. Remarked Kimmel: “This year, when you hear your name called, don’t get up right away, we don’t want it to be a whole thing.”
Kimmel also referenced producer Harvey Weinstein’s downfall and the #metoo movement, saying: “What happened with Harvey was long overdue, the world is watching us, we need to set an example”.
Allison Janney fulfilled expectations by winning the best supporting actress award for her performance as Tonya Harding’s mother in I, Tonya.
Sam Rockwell won best supporting actor for his performance in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, while Gary Oldman won best actor for his performance as Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour.
Best actress winner Frances McDormand’s acceptance speech made for one of the more memorable moments as she accepted the award for her fiery performance as a grieving mother in Three Billboards.
McDormand invited all of the female nominees in the room to stand up in the crowd with her, saying: “Look around ladies and gentleman, because we all have stories to tell and projects we need financed.”
McDormand finished with two words — “inclusion rider” — a reference to a clause actors put in contracts to ensure gender and racial equality in hiring on movie sets.
The Oscars were a much more muted ceremony than the Golden Globes, when protest and black outfits dominated the ceremony.
The Oscars only featured brief moments that pushed the envelope, such as Emma Stone reference the gender disparity of the best directing category by saying “these four men, and Greta Gerwig”.
Gerwig was only the fifth woman to be nominated for a best directing Oscar.
Get Out writer-director Jordan Peele’s win for best original screenplay was a milestone for Hollywood diversity, with Peele’s genre-defying film proving the box-office power of diverse films.