‘Shape of Water’ leads Oscar noms – ‘Lady Bird’s’ Gerwig becomes 5th woman nominated for best director

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NEW YORK, Jan 23, (Agencies): Guillermo del Toro’s lavish monster romance “The Shape of Water” fished out a leading 13 nominations, Greta Gerwig became just the fifth woman nominated for best director and “Mudbound” cinematographer Rachel Morrison made history as the first woman to earn a nod in that category in nominations announced Tuesday for the 90th annual Academy Awards.

Oscar voters put forward nine best-picture nominees: “The Shape of Water,” “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” “Lady Bird,” “Get Out,” “The Post,” “Dunkirk,” “Call Me By Your Name” and “Phantom Thread.”

The cascading fallout of sexual harassment scandals throughout Hollywood put particular focus on the best director category, which for many is a symbol of gender inequality in the film industry. Gerwig follows only Lina Wertmuller, Jane Campion, Sofia Coppola and Kathryn Bigelow, the sole woman to win (for “The Hurt Locker”).

Also nominated for best director was “Get Out” director Jordan Peele. He becomes the fifth black filmmaker nominated for best director, and third to helm a best-picture nominee, following Barry Jenkins last year for “Moonlight.”

Though all of the front-runners — Frances McDormand (“Three Billboards”), Gary Oldman (“Darkest Hour”), Allison Janney (“I, Tonya”), Sam Rockwell (“Three Billboards”) — landed their expected nominations, there were surprises.

Denzel Washington (“Roman J. Israel, Esq.”) was nominated for best actor, likely eclipsing James Franco (“Disaster Artist”). Franco was accused of sexual misconduct, which he denied, just days before Oscar voting closed.

Last year’s Oscars broadcast, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, drew 32.9 million viewers for ABC, a four percent drop from the prior year. More worrisome, however, was a steeper slide in the key demographic of adults aged 18-49, whose viewership was down 14 percent from 2016.

Though the show ran especially long, at three hours and 49 minutes, it finished with a bang: the infamous envelope mix-up that led to “La La Land” being incorrectly announced as the best picture before “Moonlight” was crowned.

This year, the academy has prohibited the PwC accountants who handle the envelopes from using cellphones or social media during the show.

The accounting firm on Monday also unveiled several reforms including the addition of a third balloting partner in the show’s control room.

Neither of the PwC representatives involved in the mishap last year, Brian Cullinan or Martha Ruiz, will return to the show.

But the movie business has larger accounting problems. Movie attendance hit a 24-year low in 2017 despite the firepower of “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” “Beauty and the Beast” and “Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2.” An especially dismal summer movie season was 92 million admissions shy of summer 2016, according to the National Alliance of Theater Owners.

Favorite

Still, the summer produced one best-picture favorite, “Dunkirk,” which grossed $525.6 million worldwide. Warner Bros.’ Patty Jenkins’ “Wonder Woman,” released in June to $821.8 million in ticket sales, became the highest grossing movie ever directed by a woman, though it did not receive any Oscar nods.

But the box-office hit that carved the most unlikely path to the Oscars is “Get Out.” It opened back in February on Oscar weekend, and went on to pocket $254.7 million worldwide. Though “Get Out” and “Dunkirk” lend a blockbuster punch to the best-picture field — something that has historically helped ratings of the broadcast — the other films in the mix are smaller indies.

It was a dominant if bittersweet day for 20th Century Fox. Its specialty label, Fox Searchlight, is behind both “Three Billboards” and “The Shape of Water,” and Fox released “The Post.” Yet those wins may soon count for the Walt Disney Co, which last month reached a deal to purchase Fox for $52.4 billion.

Both Amazon and Netflix failed to crack the best picture category but earned nominations elsewhere. Netflix’s “Mudbound” scored a best-supporting nod for Mary J. Blige and Amazon’s “The Big Sick” grabbed a nomination for Holly Hunter in the same category. “The Big Sick” also scored an original screenplay nod.

After 90 long years, another glass ceiling has finally been broken at the Motion Picture Academy.

“Mudbound” cinematographer Rachel Morrison made history Tuesday by becoming the first female director of photography to receive an Oscar nomination. The recognition comes on the heels of a similar milestone with the American Society of Cinematographers, which nominated Morrison’s “Mudbound” work earlier this month.

“I’m glad that people are recognizing the craft of it and not making decisions based on tokenism; Rachel’s work is on the screen,” “Mudbound” director Dee Rees said on a recent episode of Variety’s “Playback” podcast. “Go to Sandi Sissel, go to Ellen Kuras, go to Rachel Morrison — women have been making interesting images for a long time.”

Morrison won the New York Film Critics Circle’s cinematography prize in December. She was also nominated for a Critics’ Choice Award along with recognition from the Chicago and North Carolina film critics organizations.

“Mudbound” was also nominated for best supporting actress (Mary J. Blige), best adapted screenplay and best original song (making Blige a double nominee). The other cinematography Oscar nominees were “Blade Runner 2049” (Roger Deakins’ 14th nomination to date, the most among active lensers), “Darkest Hour,” “Dunkirk” and “The Shape of Water.”

Morrison’s work can next be seen in Marvel’s upcoming “Black Panther.”

The Academy Awards — hosted by Jimmy Kimmel for the second time — will air live on ABC on March 4.

Here is the list of 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”.

* Lead Actor: Timothee 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.”

* Lead 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”.

* 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”.

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

* Director: “Dunkirk,” Christopher Nolan; “Get Out,” Jordan Peele; “Lady Bird,” Greta Gerwig; “Phantom Thread,” Paul Thomas Anderson; “The Shape of Water,” Guillermo del Toro.

* Animated Feature: “The Boss Baby”; “The Breadwinner”; “Coco”; “Ferdinand”; “Loving Vincent”.

* Animated Short: “DeKalb Elementary”; “The Eleven O’Clock”; “My Nephew Emmett”; “The Silent Child”; “Watu Wote/All of Us”.

* Adapted Screenplay: “Call Me by Your Name,” James Ivory; “The Disaster Artist,” Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber; “Logan,” Scott Frank & James Mangold and Michael Green; “Molly’s Game,” Aaron Sorkin; “Mudbound,” Virgil Williams and Dee Rees.

* 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.

* Cinematography: “Blade Runner 2049,” Roger Deakins; “Darkest Hour,” Bruno Delbonnel; “Dunkirk,” Hoyte van Hoytema; “Mudbound,” Rachel Morrison; “The Shape of Water,” Dan Laustsen.

* Best Documentary Feature: “Abacus: Small Enough to Jail”; “Faces Places”; “Icarus”; “Last Men in Aleppo”; “Strong Island”.

* 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: “Dear Basketball”; “Garden Party”; “Lou”; “Negative Space”; “Revolting Rhymes”.

* Best Foreign Language Film: “A Fantastic Woman” (Chile); “The Insult” (Lebanon); “Loveless” (Russia); “On Body and Soul (Hungary); “The Square” (Sweden).

* Film Editing: “Baby Driver,” Jonathan Amos, Paul Machliss; “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, Theo Green; “Dunkirk,” Alex Gibson, Richard King; “The Shape of Water,” Nathan Robitaille; “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” Ren Klyce, Matthew Wood.

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

* Production Design: “Beauty and the Beast” “Blade Runner 2049”; “Darkest Hour”; “Dunkirk”; “The Shape of Water”.

* 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” from “Mudbound,” Mary J. Blige; “Mystery of Love” from “Call Me by Your Name,” Sufjan Stevens; “Remember Me” from “Coco,” Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Robert Lopez; “Stand Up for Something” from “Marshall,” Diane Warren, Common; “This Is Me” from “The Greatest Showman,” Benj Pasek, Justin Paul.

* Makeup and Hair: “Darkest Hour,” Kazuhiro Tsuji, David Malinowski, Lucy Sibbick; “Victoria and Abdul,” Daniel Phillips and Lou Sheppard; “Wonder,” Arjen Tuiten.

* Costume Design: “Beauty and the Beast”; “Darkest Hour”Phantom Thread”; “The Shape of Water”; “Victoria and Abdul”.

* Visual Effects: “Blade Runner 2049,” John Nelson, Paul Lambert, Richard R. Hoover, Gerd Nefzer; “Guardians 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, Chris Corbould, Neal Scanlon; “War for the Planet of the Apes,” Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, Daniel Barrett, Joel Whist.

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