2018 Oscar: Big Winners and Big Snubs
Now that the full list has officially been released (here), let’s take a look at some of the winners and, equally important, the biggest of this year’s nominations.
Winners
Over 7 nominations: The Shape of Water, Dunkirk, and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri all won with 13, 8, and 7 nominations respectively. Obviously that doesn’t mean they’ll take home the most prizes, but it does show how much these movies were loved by the Academy.
Jordan Peele and Get Out: Jordan Peele’s masterpiece Get Out is spectacular. But it’s also kind of a horror movie which is often looked down on by the academy. So for it to be nominated in 4 categories, including Best Picture and Director is something special. Including Peele, there have only been five black directors ever nominated and none have won. So Jordan Peele could potentially make history in a few weeks.
Netflix: Last year was the first year the Oscars nominated a film produced and distributed by a streaming service.The Academy’s reasoning has been that streaming services don’t give films a minimal theatrical release, which is a requirement to be nominated. To tackle this, in 2016, Amazon gave Manchester by the Sea a traditional theatrical run before it became available for streaming. It was nominated in six categories ultimately winning two. This year Mudbound was nominated in four categories. They accomplished this with some caveats. 1) Mudbound first debuted at Sundance 2017. So while the film was distributed by Netflix, it was produced independently. 2) Netflix gave Mudbound a theatrical run starting the same day it was released for streaming. So while the Academy is more accepting to streaming services, there still is a long way to go until a film that is produced and distributed purley on a streaming service will be nominated.
Rachel Morrison: One of the four awards that Mudbound was nominated for was cinematography with Rachel Morrison as the cinematographer. This is the first time a female has been nominated in this category. Unfortunately, with some of the other nominations in the category (notably Dunkirk, Blade Runner 2049, and The Shape of Water) I find it unlikely she will win, but the nomination is still an achievement.
Logan: Logan isn’t the first comic book film to be nominated for an Oscar, but it is the first to be listed outside of a technical category such as visual effect, makeup, etc. Adapted Screenplay is about how the screenplay is actually written. Voters scour through dozens of scripts to determine which ones are written the best. So for a comic book film to be listed in this category is a huge step.
Snubs
Logan: That’s right, Logan is both a winner and a snub this year. A lot can be said about how fantastic Logan is as a film, but I think the real travesty is the absence of nominations for Hugh Jackman as Lead Actor and Patrick Stewart as Supporting Actor. They both gave such great performances that I think they both deserved to be nominated. These two categories were stacked this year though. So while I’m upset by their absence, it’s also pretty understandable.
The LEGO Batman Movie Animated Feature: I think this is one of my biggest outcries, especially since The Lego Movie also got snubbed in 2015. The Animated Feature category includes: Loving Vincent, Coco, The Breadwinner, Ferdinand, and The Boss Baby. Ferdinand and The Boss Baby? I can accept Ferdinand with receiving 70% on Rotten Tomatoes, but The Boss Baby got a measly 52%. Now compare those to The LEGO Batman Movie’s 91%!! No comparison! Even the viewer scores follow the same pattern of The LEGO Batman Movie being significantly higher. I know critic scores on Rotten Tomatoes isn’t the end all be all, but it is a good indicator. Here’s what I think happened: All of these movies came out closer to the end of the year and it was more at the front of people’s minds. Which unfortunately left The LEGO Batman Movie forgotten.
James Franco Lead Actor in The Disaster Artist: This one may or may not be warranted, and I may be treading on some shaky waters here, so hear me out. James Franco was nominated for a Golden Globe (which he won) and a Screen Actors Guild Award for his transformative performance into the mysterious Tommy Wiseau. However, after the Golden Globes, allegations of sexual misconduct began to come to the surface. With the last of them coming out the night before the Academy closed their nomination period. There’s no telling exactly how much this played into the nominations, but with the inclusion of Denzel Washington’s performance in Roman J. Israel, Esq. (A film that was panned by critics and audiences alike) I’d say it was a huge factor. Now… this is the shaky waters, I 100% think that James Franco should have been nominated for his performance, it was fantastic! If these allegations are true, he will get what’s coming to him, but that doesn’t change the performance he delivered. But seriously… if he did the things the women accused him of, he definitely deserves what’s coming, and maybe this is the start of that karma.
Michael Stuhlbarg Supporting Actor in The Shape of Water and The Post and Call Me by Your Name: Of the three movies that Michael Stuhlbarg (right) was in, I’ve seen two of them. But just to be a part of three different movies that were nominated for best picture is quite a feat. While Stuhlbarg did fantastic in these films, the problem I have with this particular snub is I don’t know who he would replace in the Supporting Actor category. So while it is kind of a snub, it is just a tough year.
Martin McDonagh Director of The Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Tom Hanks Supporting Actor in The Post, and Steven Spielberg Director of The Post: I don’t have much to say about these ones. Three Billboards was fantastic and much of that comes down to McDonagh as director. The Post was also good which came down to both Hanks performance and Spielberg’s directing. I think it just came down to not enough spots in the categories.
Wonder Woman: There’s quite the internet stir over Wonder Woman’s exclusion from any category. While I personally understand it, I thought Wonder Woman was fantastic. I also don’t know where it could have gone. There were films that were better directed, acted, and definitely films with better visual effects. So while I understand the disappointment, Wonder Woman just wasn’t good enough of a film to deserve the recognition.
