OSCARS 2018: FRANCES McDORMAND, ‘THE SHAPE OF WATER’, AND A JET-SKI

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—cinematography and direction, respectively. 

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)