2018 OSCAR NOMINATIONS ANNOUNCED

"The Shape of Water",  Guillermo del Toro’s love story between a mute woman and a sea creature, leads the field of the 90th Academy Awards nominations with the film receiving thirteen. The dark comedy, "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" follows with nine nominations and "Dunkirk", Christopher Nolan's epic WWII drama, received seven.

This year, the Oscars sort of went back to the traditional way of announcing the nominations with Andy Serkis and Tiffany Haddish (who had to settle for this moment as they were passed over for Oscar nods for their highly praised work in "War For the Planet of The Apes" and "Girl Trip") were on board live with an unseen audience wildly applauding after each nomination was read. While Ms Haddish certainly brought some bright humor to the early morning presentation, we also had to endure her mangling many people's names throughout the brief telecast. Just a little rehearsal would have made the things run much more smoothly.

The nomination I'm most shocked and thrilled about is for Lesley Manville for her outstanding supporting performance in "Phantom Thread". I'm so glad she was not overlooked and she really deserves this honor. I'm also happy about the showing of "Get Out" with the socially-conscience horror film receiving a Best Picture nod and Jordan Peele getting two nominations for Best Original Screenplay and Best Director with him being only the fifth African-American to receive an Oscar nod in this category.

Other notable nominations include Rachel Morrison who became the first woman nominated for a Best Cinematography Oscar for her work in "Mudbound". Greta Gerwig, whose coming-of-age dramedy, "Lady Bird" received five nominations, has become only the fifth woman nominated as Best Director.  Christopher Plummer, who quickly replaced the disgraced Kevin Spacey in the role of J. Paul Getty in the drama, "All The Money in The World", has become the oldest acting nominee in Oscar history at the age of eighty-eight for his supporting role in the film. And Meryl Streep has once again broken her own record by receiving her twenty-first acting nomination with her amazing performance in "The Post" while Roger Deakins received his fourteenth Best Cinematography nomination for his undeniably impressive work in "Blade Runner 2049" yet still has never won. I'm seriously rooting for you, Roger. You are long overdue.

The 90th Annual Academy Awards will be held on March 4, 2018 at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood with Jimmy Kimmel returning as host.

Here is the complete list of the 2018 Oscar Nominations:

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”

Best Director:

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

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.”

Best Actress:

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”

Best Supporting Actor:

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”

Best Supporting Actress:

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

Best Adapted Screenplay:

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

Best Original Screenplay:

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

Best Foreign Language Film:

“A Fantastic Woman” (Chile)
“The Insult” (Lebanon)
“Loveless” (Russia)
“On Body and Soul (Hungary)
“The Square” (Sweden)

Best Animated Feature:

“The Boss Baby”
“The Breadwinner”
“Coco"
“Ferdinand"
“Loving Vincent"

Best Documentary Feature:

“Abacus: Small Enough to Jail"
“Faces Places"
“Icarus"
“Last Men in Aleppo"
“Strong Island"

Best Cinematography:

Roger Deakins, "Blade Runner 2049"
Bruno Delbonnel, "Darkest Hour"
Hoyte van Hoytema, "Dunkirk"
Rachel Morrison, "Mudbound"
Dan Laustsen, "The Shape of Water"

Best Film Editing:

Jonathan Amos, Paul Machliss, "Baby Driver"
Lee Smith, "Dunkirk"
Tatiana S. Riegel, "I, Tonya"
Sidney Wolinsky, "The Shape of Water"
Jon Gregory, "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri"

Best Animated Short:

"Dear Basketball”
"Garden Party"
"Lou"
"Negative Space"
"Revolting Rhymes"

Best Documentary Short Subject:

“Edith + Eddie"
"Heaven is a Traffic Jam on the 405"
"Heroin(e)"
"Knife Skills"
"Traffic Stop"

Best Live Action Short Film:

"DeKalb Elementary"
"The Eleven O’Clock"
"My Nephew Emmett"
"The Silent Child"
"Watu Wote/All of Us"

Best Production Design:

Sarah Greenwood (Production Designer); Katie Spencer (Set Decorator), "Beauty and the Beast"
Dennis Gassner (Production Designer); Alessandra Querzola (Set Decorator), "Blade Runner 2049"
Sarah Greenwood (Production Designer); Katie Spencer (Set Decorator), "Darkest Hour"
Nathan Crowley (Production Designer); Gary Fettis (Set Decorator), "Dunkirk"
Paul D. Austerberry (Production Designer); Jeffrey A. Melvin & Shane Vieau (Set Decorator), "The Shape of Water"

Best Makeup and Hair:

Kazuhiro Tsuji, David Malinowski and Lucy Sibbick, "Darkest Hour"
Daniel Phillips and Lou Sheppard, "Victoria and Abdul"
Arjen Tuiten, "Wonder"

Best Costume Design:

Jacqueline Durran, "Beauty and the Beast"
Jacqueline Durran, "Darkest Hour"
Mark Bridges, "Phantom Thread"
Luis Sequeira, "The Shape of Water"
Consolata Boyle, "Victoria and Abdul"

Best Original Score:

Hans Zimmer, "Dunkirk"
Jonny Greenwood, "Phantom Thread"
Alexandre Desplat, "The Shape of Water"
John Williams, "Star Wars: The Last Jedi"
Carter Burwell, "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri"

Best Original Song:

“Mighty River” from "Mudbound",  Written by Mary J. Blige, Raphael Saadiq & Taura Stinson
“Mystery of Love” from "Call Me by Your Name”, Written by Sufjan Stevens
“Remember Me” from "Coco", Written by Kristen Anderson-Lopez & Robert Lopez
“Stand Up for Something” from “Marshall”, Written by Diane Warren & Common
“This Is Me” from "The Greatest Showman", Written by Benj Pasek & Justin Paul

Best Sound Editing:

Julian Slater, "Baby Driver"
Mark Mangini & Theo Green, "Blade Runner 2049"
Alex Gibson & Richard King, "Dunkirk"
Nathan Robitaille & Nelson Ferreira, "The Shape of Water"
Ren Klyce & Matthew Wood, "Star Wars: The Last Jedi"

Best Sound Mixing:

Mary H. Ellis, Julian Slater & Tim Cavagin, "Baby Driver"
Mac Ruth, Ron Bartlett & Doug Hephill, "Blade Runner 2049"
Mark Weingarten, Gregg Landaker & Gary A. Rizzo, "Dunkirk"
Glen Gauthier, Christian Cooke & Brad Zoern, "the Shape of Water"
Stuart Wilson, Ren Klyce, David Parker & Michael Semanick, "Star Wars: The Last Jedi"

Best Visual Effects:

John Nelson, Paul Lambert, Richard R. Hoover and Gerd Nefzer, "Blade Runner 2049"
Christopher Townsend, Guy Williams, Jonathan Fawkner and Dan Sudick, "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2"
Stephen Rosenbaum, Jeff White, Scott Benza and Mike Meinardus, "Kong: Skull Island"
Ben Morris, Mike Mulholland, Chris Corbould and Neal Scanlon, "Star Wars: The Last Jedi"
Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, Daniel Barrett and Joel Whist, "War For The Planet of The Apes"