As the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences celebrated 90 years
of excellence in cinema, what I was thought we’d see was a bigger birthday bash
for Oscar, but it was quite an entertaining show anyway
Photos, courtesy: AMPAS
Now the thing with Jimmy Kimmel is that we weren’t expecting a mega
musical number with tons of back-up dancers, or a pre-recorded comedy sketch
spoofing the nominated films, or anything like that. After last year’s Oscars,
I did expect Kimmel to just be his funny self, with his matter-of-factly
delivery making his punchlines even more hilarious. So when the show began and we
saw an old-tape version of the live telecast, I thought it would get bigger and
lead to something more, but it didn’t and I soon realized it didn’t have to.
Kimmel came on and he was funny. And then I just sat back to enjoy Hollywood’s
biggest night.
But before I get on to the high points of the show, I have to say this: I
think Kimmel should’ve left surprising unsuspecting people to last year’s Dolby
Theatre visitors. Taking the surprise out of the Dolby this time was a
bit much. Yes, it was cool to see Gal Gadot and Emily Blunt and the rest giving
away snacks and hot dogs from a hot dog cannon, but just for a second.
And now, the biggest highlights of the Oscars this year.
1. THE JET-SKI
It was hilarious. No one’s ever thought of something like this to remind winners
to not get carried away with their acceptance speeches. It wasn’t going to be
very effective; but then the playing-off music and the brutal mic-switch-off anyway
takes care of never-ending acceptance speeches. But the jet-ski became a
constant joke after Helen Mirren modeled with it like it was on a tele-shopping
sale. From the first acceptance by supporting actor winner Sam Rockwell, to one
of the last speeches, by lead actor winner Gary Oldman, the jet-ski was the gift
that kept on giving. And the icing on the cake was to see costume design winner
Mark Bridges (Phantom Thread)
actually ‘winning’ the jet-ski at the end for having given the shortest
acceptance speech.
2. THE A/V PRESENTATION ABOUT INCLUSION
It’s what Hollywood needs. It’s what the audience needs to see. I don’t always
blame studios for going straight, white, macho male with most projects. Those
are the ones that work because those are the ones that people mostly want to see. But there
are exceptions to that, and movies like Wonder Woman prove it. And it
works both ways. Audiences also need to be exposed to inclusion for movies that
are inclusive, which steer away from stereotypes, to help the evolution of art
and storytelling. And then we won’t always have movies about straight, white
dues made by straight, white dudes. Instead straight, white dudes can also get
used to seeing movies about people like Kumail Nanjiani made by people like
Kumail Nanjiani—which was expressed so well by Nanjiani. And speaking of inclusion, I love how Sandra Bullock and Emma Stone drew attention to the only women nominated in the categories they presented
3. FRANCES McDORMAND WINNING
THE NIGHT
A simple yet extremely effective move, McDormand asking all women
nominees to stand up just elevated her acceptance speech to another level. She
found an interactive and spot-on way to bring attention to the women and drive
a point home. “Look around, ladies and gentlemen, because we all have stories
to tell and projects we need financed. Don’t talk to us about it at the parties
tonight,” McDormand said. “Invite us into your office in a couple days, or you
can come to ours—whichever suits you best—and we’ll tell you all about them.”
4. THE CELEBRATION THAT IS
MERYL STREEP
When McDormand asked the ladies to stand up, and people seemed hesitant,
she said, “Meryl, if you do it, everybody else will.” And they did. Meryl Streep
is always a celebration at the Oscars, because she breaks records every year or
so. And there are always jokes about her, in reference to her, and including
her. But this year, what took the cake was Jodie Foster and Jennifer Lawrence ‘bitching’
about Meryl to her face, as they went up to present. Foster said Streep had ‘I
Tonya’d’ her, which put her on crutches. And Lawrence said Streep had tripped
her once. It was so random, and so spectacular.
5. FAYE DUNAWAY AND WARREN
BEATTY
It was déjà vu and it was everything we needed. Yes of course there
would be jokes about last year’s ‘wrong envelope’ debacle and how La La Land
was accidentally declared the best picture before everyone realized it was
actually Moonlight. Kimmel mocking accounting firm, PriceWaterhouseCooper’s
commitment to getting it right ‘this time’ was funny, obviously, and then
showing us that ‘this envelope’ would be the one to be opened before the best
picture was announced was also hilarious, but what took the cake was having
Dunaway and Beatty back for a do-over. It was just what was needed for the
Oscars to laugh and make us laugh at their expense. And it was the best throwback they could have had to last year's mess up.
And that was the end. The Shape Of
Water won best picture, Mark Bridges won the jet-ski, Jimmy Kimmel said they ran out of time for Matt Damon, and everyone went to
the after-parties. Another awards season comes to an end.
THE COMPLETE LIST OF OSCAR
WINNERS 2018
Best Motion 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
Achievement In Direction
Dunkirk – Christopher Nolan
Get Out – Jordan Peele
Lady Bird – Greta Gerwig
Phantom Thread – Paul Thomas Anderson
The Shape of Water – Guillermo Del Toro
Performance By An Actress In A
Leading Role
Sally Hawkins – The Shape Of Water
Frances McDormand – Three
Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Margot Robbie – I, Tonya
Saoirse Ronan – Lady Bird
Meryl Streep – The Post
Performance By An Actor In A
Leading Role
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
Performance By An Actress In A
Supporting Role
Mary J Blige – Mudbound
Allison Janney – I, Tonya
Lesley Manville – Phantom Thread
Laurie Metcalf – Lady Bird
Octavia Spencer – The Shape of
Water
Performance By An Actor In A
Supporting Role
Willem Dafoe – The Florida Project
Woody Harrelson – Three Billboards
Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Richard Jenkins – The Shape Of
Water
Christopher Plummer – All the
Money in the World
Sam Rockwell – Three Billboards
Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Adapted Screenplay
Call Me By Your Name – screenplay by James Ivory
The Disaster Artist – screenplay by Scott
Neustadter & Michael H Weber
Logan – screenplay by Scott Frank
& James Mangold and Michael Green; story by James Mangold
Molly's Game – written for the screen by
Aaron Sorkin
Mudbound – screenplay by Virgil
Williams and Dee Rees
Original Screenplay
The Big Sick – written by Emily V Gordon
& Kumail Nanjiani
Get Out – written by Jordan Peele
Lady Bird – written by Greta Gerwig
The Shape of Water – screenplay by Guillermo del
Toro & Vanessa Taylor; story by Guillermo del Toro
Three Billboards Outside
Ebbing, Missouri – written by Martin McDonagh
Best Animated Feature
Boss Baby
The Breadwinner
Coco
Ferdinand
Loving Vincent
Cinematography
Blade Runner 2049 – Roger Deakins
Darkest Hour – Bruno Delbonnel
Dunkirk – Hoyte van Hoytema
Mudbound – Rachel Morrison
The Shape of Water – Dan Laustsen
Film Editing
Baby Driver – Paul Machliss &
Jonathan Amos
Dunkirk – Lee Smith
I, Tonya – Tatiana S Riegel
The Shape of Water – Sidney Wolinsky
Three Billboards Outside
Ebbing, Missouri – Jon Gregory
Sound Editing
Baby Driver – Julian Slater
Blade Runner 2049 – Mark Mangini and Theo Green
Dunkirk – Richard King and Alex
Gibson
The Shape of Water – Nathan Robitaille and
Nelson Ferreira
Star Wars: The Last Jedi – Matthew Wood and Ren Klyce
Sound Mixing
Baby Driver – Julian Slater, Tim Cavagin
and Mary H Ellis
Blade Runner 2049 – Ron Bartlett, Doug Hemphill
and Mac Ruth
Dunkirk – Mark Weingarten, Gregg
Landaker and Gary A Rizzo
The Shape of Water – Christian Cooke, Brad Zoern
and Glen Gauthier
Star Wars: The Last Jedi – David Parker, Michael
Semanick, Ren Klyce and Stuart Wilson
Original Score
Dunkirk – Hans Zimmer
Phantom Thread – Jonny Greenwood
The Shape of Water – Alexandre Desplat
Star Wars: The Last Jedi – John Williams
Three Billboards Outside
Ebbing, Missouri – Carter Burwell
Original Song
‘Mighty River’ – Mudbound
(Mary J Blige, Raphael Saadiq & Taura Stinson)
‘The Mystery of Love’ – Call Me By
Your Name (Sufjan Stevens)
‘Remember Me’ – Coco (Kristen
Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez)
‘Stand Up for Something’ – Marshall
(Common & Diane Warren)
‘This Is Me’ – The Greatest
Showman (Benji Pasek & Justin Paul)
Costume Design
Beauty and the Beast – Jacqueline Durran
Darkest Hour – Jacqueline Durran
Phantom Thread – Mark Bridges
The Shape of Water – Luis Sequeira
Victoria and Abdul – Consolata Boyle
Make-Up And Hairstyling
Darkest Hour – Kazuhiro Tsuji, David
Malinowski & Lucy Sibbick
Victoria and Abdul – Daniel Phillips & Lou
Sheppard
Wonder – Arjen Tuiten
Production Design
Beauty and the Beast – production design by Sarah
Greenwood; set decoration by Katie Spencer
Blade Runner 2049 – production design by Dennis
Gassner; set decoration by Alessandra Querzola
Darkest Hour – production design by Sarah
Greenwood; set decoration by Katie Spencer
Dunkirk – production design by Nathan
Crowley; set decoration by Gary Fettis
The Shape of Water – production design by Paul
Denham Austerberry; set decoration by Shane Vieau and Jeff Melvin
Visual Effects
Blade Runner 2049 - John Nelson, Gerd Nefzer,
Paul Lambert & Richard R Hoover
Guardian of the Galaxy Vol 2 - Christopher Townsend, Guy
Williams, Jonathan Fawkner & Dan Sudick
Kong: Skull Island - Stephen Rosenbaum, Jeff
White, Scott Benza & Mike Meinardus
Star Wars: The Last Jedi - Ben Morris, Mike
Mulholland, Neal Scanlan & Chris Corbould
War for Planet of the Apes - Joe Letteri, Daniel
Barrett, Dan Lemmon & Joel Whist
Best Documentary Feature
Abacus
Faces Places
Icarus
Last Men in Aleppo
Strong Island
Animated Short
Dear Basketball
Garden Party
Lou
Negative Space
Revolting Rhymes
Live Action Short
DeKalb Elementary
The Eleven O'Clock
My Nephew Emmet
The Silent Child
Watu Wote/All of Us
Documentary Short
Edith + Eddie
Heaven Is a Traffic Jam on the
405
Heroin(e)
Knife Skills
Traffic Stop
Best Foreign Language Film
A Fantastic Woman (Chile)
The Insult (Lebanon)
Loveless (Russia)
On Body and Soul (Hungary)
The Square (Sweden)
