2018 Oscar nominations diverse
The film can also be read as a tribute to threatened outsiders in a movie industry called out in recent months and years, via the #MeToo, #TimesUp and #OscarsSoWhite movements, for its patriarchal, sexually predatory and racist failings. The 8,400 Academy members were clearly sending a signal with their choices, and Dunkirk and Three Billboards both have perceived negatives: the former is a summer blockbuster that some say glorifies war; the latter has been criticized as marginalizing its Black characters while telling a story of a grieving mother’s fight to catch a murdering male sex predator.
The other six Best Picture nominees — Call Me by Your Name, Darkest Hour, Get Out, Lady Bird, Phantom Thread and The Post — likewise had perceived minuses (too small, too genre, too strange, etc.), but it really all came down to a numbers game, with The Shape of Water being the most popular and safest choice among a list of really strong movies. It also has the advantage of being a love story set in the past (the Cold War early 1960s) — something that has always appealed to Oscar voters.
And there are a lot of pluses in these agreeably diverse Oscar nominations. Greta Gerwig is only the fifth woman ever to be nominated in the Best Director category for her semi-autobiographical coming-ofager Lady Bird, which besides Best Picture also garnered her a Best Original Screenplay nom, plus nominations for Best Actress for Saoirse Ronan and Best Supporting Actress for Laurie Metcalf. This should take away the sting of Gerwig’s snub for Best Director at the Golden Globes, a situation presenter Natalie Portman noted when she pointedly referred to the “all-male nominees” in the category.
And Jordan Peele is only the fifth Black man to be nominated for Best Director, for his Best Picture candidate Get Out, a horrifying racial satire that also earned him a Best Original Screenplay nod plus a Best Actor slot for Daniel Kaluuya.
Gerwig and Peele are also firsttime solo feature filmmakers, making their Oscar nominations tally all the more impressive.
There’s a significant first in Rachel Morrison’s nomination for Best Cinematography for the racethemed post-Second World War drama Mudbound; she’s the first woman to enter this previous allmale enclave. Mudbound also scored noms for Best Supporting Actress (Mary J. Blige), Best Adapted Screenplay (Dee Rees and Virgil Williams) and Best Original Song (“Mighty River”), although it failed to get a Best Picture berth or a Best Director bid for Rees, possibly because it’s a Netflix movie with a scant theatrical release.
The most notable snub among the Oscar nominations is James Franco’s MIA status in the Best Actor category. He’d been considered a strong candidate for The Disaster Artist, which he also directed, but recent sexual-misconduct allegations against him likely sunk his chances.
But the #MeToo reckoning helped Canadian-born Christopher Plummer, once again the oldest Oscar acting nominee at age 88. He’s up for Best Supporting Actor for his All the Money in the World performance of stingy billionaire J. Paul Getty, having replaced scandal-shamed actor Kevin Spacey in a remarkable lastminute reshoot of the film just a few weeks prior to its December release.
Taken all together, these Oscar nominations are a fair representation of a Hollywood that is artistically sound, but morally and legally unsteady.
The Academy still has to get its act together with announcing Best Picture candidates, however. After joking about last year’s La La Land/ Moonlight screw-up at the Oscars ceremony, presenters Tiffany Haddish and Andy Serkis then proceed-
These Oscar nominations are a fair representation of a Hollywood that is artistically sound, but morally and legally unsteady
ed to mispronounce and stumble over many of the films and producer names they read out for the nine Best Picture nominees. Peter Howell is the Star’s movie critic. His column usually runs Fridays.