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And the Nominees Are...




The official nominations for the 2018 Academy Awards are here. As is the case every year, there were some surprises along the way. Below are the nominations for each category along with my biggest takeaways.

BEST PICTURE
Call Me by Your Name
Darkest Hour
Dunkirk
Get Out
Lady Bird
Phantom Thread
The Post
The Shape of Water
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

 Biggest Takeaways: I was really rooting for Phantom Thread but I doubted its chances to get in. It ended up doing much better than I thought it would and that makes me very happy. Get Out becomes just the third horror film ever to be nominated for Best Picture, following in the footsteps of The Exorcist (1973) and The Silence of the Lambs (1991).  I really hoped that either Logan or Wonder Woman would maybe sneak in, but figured they wouldn't. Finally, I really wish Coco would have been nominated for Best Picture because it honestly deserved it.

BEST DIRECTOR
Christopher Nolan - Dunkirk
Greta Gerwig - Lady Bird
Guillermo del Toro - The Shape of Water
Jordan Peele - Get Out
Paul Thomas Anderson - Phantom Thread

 Biggest Takeaways: This list is insanely good. Though I agree with the PTA nomination, I was still shocked to see him nominated over Three Billboard's director, Martin McDonagh. Also, I thought it would be either Gerwig or Peele but was super excited to see both actually get in. This category is just amazing.

BEST ACTOR
Timothée Chalamet - Call Me by Your Name
Daniel Day-Lewis - Phantom Thread
Daniel Kaluuya - Get Out
Gary Oldman - Darkest Hour
Denzel Washington - Roman J. Israel, Esq.

 Biggest Takeaways: Once again, no Jake Gyllenhaal. Chalamet, Day-Lewis, Kaluuya and Oldman have been constants at most major award shows, but that fifth spot was always shifting and I thought Gyllenhaal deserved it more than anyone else. Another very deserving actor was Hugh Jackman for Logan. A shame, really, that they were both completely overlooked.

BEST ACTRESS
Sally Hawkins - The Shape of Water
Frances McDormand - Three Billboards
Margot Robbie - I, Tonya
Saoirse Ronan - Lady Bird
Meryl Streep - The Post

 Biggest Takeaways: No real surprise here. Very strong, if slightly predictable, category.

SUPPORTING ACTOR
Willem Dafoe - The Florida Project
Woody Harrelson - Three Billboards
Richard Jenkins - The Shape of Water
Christopher Plummer - All the Money in the World
Sam Rockwell - Three Billboards

 Biggest Takeaways: I was kind of surprised not to see either Armie Hammer or Michael Stuhlbarg from Call Me by Your Name here. Both were very deserving of nominations and thought at least one of them would make it in. I also wish we could have seen Patrick Stewart sneak in here for Logan.

 SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Mary J. Blige - Mudbound
Allison Janney - I, Tonya 
Lesley Manville - Phantom Thread
Laurie Metcalf - Lady Bird
Octavia Spencer - The Shape of Water

 Biggest Takeaways: Lesley Manville made it in and I am extremely happy about that. Phantom Thread just didn't seem to have any momentum leading to these nominations and this is one of the categories that it was constantly being overlooked in so seeing her get the nomination is great. It is sad not to see Holly Hunter in here for The Big Sick. I thought she deserved it more than Octavia Spencer but this is overall a fantastic line-up.

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Call Me by Your Name - James Ivory
The Disaster Artist - Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber
Logan - Scott Frank, James Mangold & Michael Green
Molly's Game - Aaron Sorkin
Mudbound - Virgil Williams & Dee Rees

Biggest Takeaways: Logan officially becomes the first comic book film to be nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay, an extremely well-deserved honor for the film. Though I believe it deserves honors in many other areas, this is still a huge victory for comic book fans.

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
The Big Sick - Emily V. Gordon & Kumail Nanjiani
Get Out - Jordan Peele
Lady Bird - Greta Gerwig
The Shape of Water - Guillermo del Toro & Vanessa Taylor
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri - Martin McDonagh

Biggest Takeaways: Extremely difficult category here. Very nice to see The Big Sick get a nomination here. Much like with Logan, this is a great way to give recognition to the greatness that these films achieved in genres that are often overlooked during awards season.

FINAL NOTES
This is an undeniably great year for film. I love how much diversity there is across most categories. I'm still blown away by the amount of love that Phantom Thread, Get Out and Lady Bird received. It has been an immensely fun awards season and I we will get a few surprises come March 4.

Here are some interesting facts I found about this year's nominees:

  • Should Guillermo del Toro win for Best Director, he will become the 4th Mexican winner in the past 5 years. He would join Alfonso Cuaron (Gravity, 2014) and Alejandro G. Iñarritu (Birdman, 2015 and The Revenant, 2016). 
  • Rachel Morrison (Mudbound) became the first female cinematographer to ever be nominated for the Best Cinematography award. 
  • Mary J. Blige (Mudbound) becomes the first person ever to be nominated for Best Supporting and Best Original Song in the same year.
  • Jordan Peele has become the third ever debuting director to be nominated for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay. He is also only the fifth black director to be nominated for Best Director and could be come the first to win it. 
  • Greta Gerwig has become just the 5th female director nominated for an award in directing. Only Kathryn Bigelow has won the award for her directing on The Hurt Locker.
  • Meryl Streep has extended her record for acting nominations to 21. In second place? Jack Nicholson and Katherine Hepburn are tied with 12 nominations.
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