Oscar Predix for the year in film 2017
In under a week’s time, on the 5th day of the 2018 new year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will open its polls to their members for nominations across a range of categories for the year in film 2017. On the 12th of January, the polls will close… and almost a fortnight later on the 23rd of January, the nominees for the 90th Academy Awards will be announced. The actual Oscar ceremony takes place this time on the 4th of March, giving the nominees well over a month’s time to lobby for themselves.
The precursor season is all but over. Most of the critics’ bodies have made their preferences known, and now only the Golden Globes, BAFTA and Guilds remain to seal the races for the films in contention. This year has been unravelling of sorts for Hollywood, and international cinema. With Harvey Weinstein’s precipitous fall from grace, followed in quick succession by so many other players right up till Kevin Spacey… the social juggernaut that was the #MeToo movement… the Academy this time around will find itself not merely voting for their preferences, but their leanings. Coming so soon after the Academy having to combat the #OscarsSoWhite charge, and the controversial win handed to Casey Affleck last year, the 90th Oscars promise to be psychosocially charged. Here then are my predictions, the earliest in recent memory, for the 90th Academy Awards. These predictions have been arrived at by studying the overall trend of films in the precursor season, the support garnered from various critics’ bodies and a certain old-fashioned hunch. Even then, given the year that it has been, we might as well see a film like All The Money In The World make a late surge if only to laud it for replacing Kevin Spacey with Christopher Plummer barely weeks before release and successfully carrying out a reshoot and post-production to meet the original release deadline. That’s the kind of directorial feat which may find artistic respect and social resonance given the year that we have had. Nevertheless, here goes-
Best Film
DUNKIRK Warner Bros. Pictures
GET OUT Universal Pictures
LADY BIRD A24 and Focus Features
THE POST 20th Century Fox and Universal Pcitures
THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Fox Searchlight Pictures
If the Academy nominates 6 films, then the film that gets in will be
CALL ME BY YOUR NAME Sony Pictures Classics
If the Academy nominates 7 films, then
THE SHAPE OF WATER Fox Searchlight Pictures
If they go with 8 films,
THE FLORIDA PROJECT A24
If 9, then
DARKEST HOUR Focus Features
And with 10,
MUDBOUND Netflix
Potential Spoiler- THE BIG SICK
Dark Horse- PHANTOM THREAD
Long Shot- I, TONYA
Surreal Surprises- BLADE RUNNER 2049; ALL THE MONEY IN THE WORLD
Sneak Up- WONDER WOMAN
Best Director
Guillermo Del Toro THE SHAPE OF WATER
Martin McDonagh THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI
Christopher Nolan DUNKIRK
Jordan Peele GET OUT
Steven Spielberg THE POST
Extremely Likely- Luca Guadagnino CALL ME BY YOUR NAME
Potential Spoiler- Greta Gerwig LADY BIRD
Dark Horse- Sean Baker THE FLORIDA PROJECT
Unlikely Long Shot- Dee Rees MUDBOUND
Sneak Up- Joe Wright DARKEST HOUR
Best Actor in a Leading Role
Timothee Chalamet CALL ME BY YOUR NAME
Daniel Day-Lewis PHANTOM THREAD
James Franco THE DISASTER ARTIST
Tom Hanks THE POST
Gary Oldman DARKEST HOUR
Potential Spoilers- Daniel Kaluuya GET OUT; Denzel Washington ROMAN J. ISRAEL, ESQ.
Dark Horse- Jake Gyllenhaal STRONGER
Sneak Up- Christian Bale HOSTILES
Best 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
Dark Horses- Jessica Chastain MOLLY’S GAME; Judi Dench VICTORIA AND ABDUL
Surreal Surprise- Emma Stone BATTLE OF THE SEXES
Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Willem Dafoe THE FLORIDA PROJECT
Armie Hammer CALL ME BY YOUR NAME
Woody Harrelson THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI
Richard Jenkins THE SHAPE OF WATER
Sam Rockwell THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI
Potential Spoilers- Michael Stuhlbarg CALL ME BY YOUR NAME; Jason Mitchell MUDBOUND
Dark Horse- Steve Carell BATTLE OF THE SEXES
Long Shot- Christopher Plummer ALL THE MONEY IN THE WORLD
Sneak Up- Mark Rylance DUNKIRK
Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Mary J. Blige MUDBOUND
Hong Chau DOWNSIZING
Holly Hunter THE BIG SICK
Allison Janney I, TONYA
Laurie Metcalf LADY BIRD
Potential Spoiler- Octavia Spencer THE SHAPE OF WATER
Surreal Surprises- Lesley Manville PHANTOM THREAD; Tiffany Haddish GIRLS TRIP
Sneak Up- Kristin Scott Thomas DARKEST HOUR
Best Foreign Film
Una Mujer Fantastica A FANTASTIC WOMAN Chile
Aus Dem Nichts IN THE FADE Germany
FOXTROT Israel
Nelyubov LOVELESS Russia
THE SQUARE Sweden
Dark Horse- L’Insulte THE INSULT Lebanon
Long Shot- Inxeba THE WOUND South Africa
Best Animated Feature
THE BREADWINNER GKIDS, Elevation Pictures and Studio Canal
COCO Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
FERDINAND 20th Century Fox
THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE Warner Bros. Pictures
LOVING VINCENT Altitude Film Distribution and Next Film
Potential Spoiler- DESPICABLE ME 3
Dark Horses- THE BOSS BABY; THE BIG BAD FOX AND OTHER TALES…; BIRDBOY: THE FORGOTTEN CHILDREN
Long Shots- MARY AND THE WITCH’S FLOWER; CARS 3; CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS: THE FIRST EPIC MOVIE; THE GIRL WITHOUT HANDS
Unlikely Long Shot- IN THIS CORNER OF THE WORLD
Best Documentary
CHASING CORAL Jeff Orlowski
CITY OF GHOSTS Matthew Heineman
FACES PLACES Agnes Varda
JANE Brett Morgen
STRONG ISLAND Yance Ford
Likely Switch- LAST MEN IN ALEPPO
Potential Spoiler- ICARUS
Dark Horse- EX-LIBRIS: NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
Long Shot- AN INCONVENIENT SEQUEL: TRUTH TO POWER
Unlikely Long Shot- ONE OF US
Sneak Ups- HUMAN FLOW; LA 92; LONG STRANGE TRIP; UNREST
Best Original Screenplay
GET OUT Jordan Peele
LADY BIRD Greta Gerwig
THE POST Liz Hannah and Josh Singer
THE SHAPE OF WATER Guillermo Del Toro and Vanessa Taylor
THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Martin McDonagh
Potential Spoilers- THE BIG SICK; PHANTOM THREAD
Surreal Surprise- DARKEST HOUR
Sneak Ups- THE FLORIDA PROJECT; DUNKIRK
Best Adapted Screenplay
CALL ME BY YOUR NAME James Ivory, based on the novel of the same name by Andre Aciman
THE DISASTER ARTIST Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, based on the non-fiction book of the same name by Greg Sestero and Tom Bissell
MOLLY’S GAME Aaron Sorkin, based on the memoir of the same name by Molly Bloom
MUDBOUND Dee Rees and Virgil Williams, based on the novel of the same name by Hillary Jordan
WONDER Jack Thorne, Steve Conrad and Stephen Chbosky, based on the novel of the same name by R.J. Palacio
Long Shots- VICTORIA AND ABDUL; WONDER WOMAN; THE BEGUILED; WONDERSTRUCK
Cult Siphoner- LOGAN
Best Production Design
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Sarah Greenwood
BLADE RUNNER 2049 Dennis Gassner
DUNKIRK Nathan Crowley
THE POST Rick Carter
THE SHAPE OF WATER Paul D. Austerberry
Potential Spoiler- DARKEST HOUR
Long Shot- PHANTOM THREAD
Surreal Surprise- MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS
Sneak Up- MUDBOUND
Best Cinematography
BLADE RUNNER 2049 Roger Deakins
DARKEST HOUR Bruno Delbonnel
DUNKIRK Hoyte Van Hoytema
MUDBOUND Rachel Morrison
THE SHAPE OF WATER Dan Laustsen
Potential Spoiler- THE POST
Dark Horse- CALL ME BY YOUR NAME
Surreal Surprises- WONDER WHEEL; WONDERSTRUCK
Best Editing
DUNKIRK Lee Smith
GET OUT Gregory Plotkin
THE POST Michael Kahn and Sarah Broshar
THE SHAPE OF WATER Sidney Wolinsky
THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Jon Gregory
Dark Horse- BABY DRIVER
Long Shot- BLADE RUNNER 2049
Surreal Surprise- CALL ME BY YOUR NAME
Cult Siphoner- DARKEST HOUR
Best Costume Design
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Jacqueline Durran
THE GREATEST SHOWMAN Ellen Mirojnick
PHANTOM THREAD Mark Bridges
THE SHAPE OF WATER Luis Sequeira
VICTORIA AND ABDUL Consolata Boyle
Potential Spoiler- DARKEST HOUR
Dark Horses- THE POST; MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS; BLADE RUNNER 2049; THE BEGUILED
Long Shot- WONDER WOMAN
Best Original Score
DARKEST HOUR Dario Marianelli
DUNKIRK Hans Zimmer
PHANTOM THREAD Jonny Greenwood
THE POST John Williams
THE SHAPE OF WATER Alexandre Desplat
Long Shots- THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI; STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI
Surreal Surprise- VICTORIA AND ABDUL
Sneak Up- BLADE RUNNER 2049
Best Original Song
Mighty River MUDBOUND Performed by Mary J. Blige
Mystery Of Love CALL ME BY YOUR NAME Performed by Sufjan Stevens
Evermore BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Performed by Dan Stevens and Josh Groban
Remember Me COCO Performed by Benjamin Bratt, Miguel and Natalia Lafourcade
This Is Me THE GREATEST SHOWMAN Performed by Keala Settle
Potential Spoiler- Stand Up For Something MARSHALL
Long Shots- It Ain’t Fair DETROIT; Prayers For This World CRIES FROM SYRIA; I Don’t Wanna Live Forever FIFTY SHADES DARKER; Never Forget MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS
Best Sound Mixing
BABY DRIVER Julian Slater, Mary H. Ellis and James Peterson
BLADE RUNNER 2049 Theo Green and Mac Ruth
DUNKIRK Richard King and Mark Weingarten
THE SHAPE OF WATER Glen Gauthier and Paul Gosse
STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI Ren Klyce and Stuart Wilson
Dark Horses- WONDER WOMAN; WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES
Long Shots- THE GREATEST SHOWMAN; DETROIT; DARKEST HOUR
Sneak Up- THE POST
Best Sound Editing
BABY DRIVER Julian Slater
BLADE RUNNER 2049 Christopher S. Aud, Lee Gilmore and Greg Ten Bosch
DUNKIRK Richard King
STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI Ren Klyce and Matthew Wood
WONDER WOMAN James Mather
Likely Switch- THE SHAPE OF WATER
Potential Spoiler- WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES
Dark Horse- DETROIT
Long Shots- DARKEST HOUR; COCO
Best Visual Effects
BLADE RUNNER 2049 Julien Cimino, Michelle Eisenreich (Double Negative), Sabrina Gagnon, Kim Menaster (MPC), Karen M. Murphy, Chad Nixon (MPC), Annie Normandin (Atomic Fiction) and Adam O’Brien-Locke (Rodeo FX)
DUNKIRK Mike Chambers and Matthew Plummer (Double Negative)
THE SHAPE OF WATER Luke Groves (Mr. X Inc.)
STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI Stacy Bissell, Daniel Booty (Industrial Light & Magic), Marie-Cecile Dahan (Rodeo FX), Tim Keene, Eunice Khoo (Base FX), Danielle Legovich (Industrial Light & Magic), Janet Lewin (Lucasfilm), Leila Nicotera (One Of Us), Christopher Raimo, Tom Seed and Signe Vinther (Ghost VFX)
WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES Ruth Irvine-Hauer (Weta Digital), Hayley Perkins (Blur Studio), Jennifer Lee Scheer (Park Road VFX) and Ryan Stafford
Potential Spoilers- OKJA; GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2
Dark Horse- VALERIAN AND THE CITY OF A THOUSAND PLANETS
Best Make-Up & Hair Styling
DARKEST HOUR Ivana Primorac
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2 John Blake and Camille Friend
I, TONYA Deborah La Mia Denaver and Adruitha Lee
Likely Switch- WONDER
Potential Spoiler- BRIGHT
So that’s that, then. I shall revisit this space when the nominations are announced on the 23rd of January, 2018. Join me to see how many of these predictions come good. Until then, have a great year end, and best wishes in advance for a rollicking New Year. May the Film Gods be ever smiling upon us in 2018!
– Abhishek ‘Abzee’ Bandekar
SATYAMSHOT 
December 30, 2017 at 10:26 AM
Livewire’s prediction was Tubelight .. Let’s see 😉
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December 31, 2017 at 2:35 AM
The deasil of study seems well researched and in depth…
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December 31, 2017 at 11:13 AM
What an exhaustive post Abzee, respect.
Out of all the 12-13 films listed in the Best Film Category , I have only seen The Big Sick.
Hoping to watch Dunkirk soon, as soon as it is out on DVD.
Baaki- don’t care !!
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December 31, 2017 at 11:17 AM
If you have Amazon Prime the Big Sick is available there.
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December 31, 2017 at 11:29 AM
yeah, that’s where I watched !!
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December 31, 2017 at 12:25 PM
haven’t seen it yet myself.
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December 31, 2017 at 10:08 PM
Mudbound is on Netflix.
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January 8, 2018 at 11:25 AM
Abzee, thanks for the Mudbound recommendation, Watched it last weekend, not an easy watch but what a great script and recreation of that era.
I guess no one had it easy in those days.
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January 10, 2018 at 9:32 AM
Glad you liked it. Found it to be uniformly impressive, and a great experiment in having multiple narrators. Almost felt like reading a novel and watching a play with individual monologues, while at the same time delivering an absolute cinematic experience.
And such lovely lines.
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January 11, 2018 at 2:03 PM
Agree on the multiple narration bit.
Aside- I think if they removed the brief (unnecessary nudity ) and toned down the violence a bit, it could have been a movie for a wider audience.
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January 12, 2018 at 12:15 AM
Netflix also has quite a few documentaries that are in the running for Oscar gold.
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January 5, 2018 at 10:07 AM
Great News, Amazon has moved all of its subscription based “Heera” content to Amazon Prime.
So if you have Prime , you can now watch Newton, Chef, Simran, and thousands of other Hindi, Tamil, Telgu and Marathi movies for free.
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January 5, 2018 at 10:10 AM
that’s great! thanks.
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January 5, 2018 at 7:26 PM
Thanks, I had not known that — great to hear!
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January 10, 2018 at 9:33 AM
What’s Heera?
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January 11, 2018 at 2:05 PM
Heera woh jo ab Na rahaa..LOL
It was a subscripting based service like Netflix by Amazon specifically for Indian audience , for a while Amazon and Netflix were competing to get the newer and better content, which was a win win for us.
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December 31, 2017 at 10:11 PM
Thank you. I don’t claim to have seen all of these either… in fact, I may have seen just about 10 in all across categories. These predictions have always been about gauging the Oscar race by virtue of traction and momentum earned during the precursor season.
Dunkirk, I must say, is an experience for the big screen.
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January 5, 2018 at 7:29 PM
On a different note, I found All the Money in the World to be fantastic — riveting from first minute to last, and Plummer and Michelle Williams were outstanding (hard to believe Spacey could have done a better job here). Hollywood doesn’t make this sort of unpretentious-yet-intelligent commercial movie for adults anymore: either one has stuff targeted at juveniles, OR enactments of various sorts of identity politics…
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January 5, 2018 at 8:03 PM
It was also a pleasure to enjoy a relatively large cast where everyone had a meaty role. I’d been thinking the same thing while re-visiting Kaala Pathar a few days ago (it had been years since I’d last seen it): here was Bachchan at the peak of his stardom, and instead of the film being a mere vehicle for his stardom, Shatru, Shashi, Neetu Singh, even Raakhee all had strong moments and dialogues. There’s a very specific pleasure that these “all-star” casts afford (not to be confused with the ensemble cast, which can also be fantastic — think “The Usual Suspects” — but does not involve this interplay of star signatures), that contemporary stars are too “managed”, too productized, to allow us. Can’t even imagine a film like “Rajput” getting made today, much less the top star willing to share this much screen time.
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January 5, 2018 at 8:21 PM
Abzee, as is true every year, your list testified to your deep love of cinema, but also to your appreciation of the entire spectrum of arts and craft that makes a film possible. There are a number of films here I haven’t seen (“Dunkirk”, I must confess, I was never in the mood for, I’ve kinda had it with both WWII films and Nolan to some extent), but from what I have seen I think this was a strong year for Hollywood: The Shape of Water was just magical, Wonder Woman was a classic of the superhero genre (and made it fresh, something I wouldn’t have thought possible after the overdose in recent years), All the Money in the World was gripping and taut (and achieved the impossible, making outsize wealth seem at once glamorous and seductive, as well as sordid and corrupting), and then there was Coco, a great great film, one of the best and most winning I’ve seen in years…
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January 10, 2018 at 9:42 AM
Completely understand and relate to what you are saying. One of the joys of the multistarrers of the 70s was watching all these stars play off each other gamely. And why only Kaala Patthar, it was true for so many other Bachchan starrers of the time where despite him being at his peak, these films accommodated others. As you rightly put it, cannot imagine this nowadays with agencies manouevering every small move of their star (read brand) and the actors themselves have huge egos to share screen space. The last proper masala film that I can think of which managed to give every actor in it his/her moment is Khakee.
Btw, strange that you mention Rajput, since I was about to say how Rajesh Khanna missed out on being a part of all those multistarrers because of his own issues. Rajput is perhaps the only exception.
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January 11, 2018 at 2:12 PM
Re- Btw, strange that you mention Rajput, since I was about to say how Rajesh Khanna missed out on being a part of all those multistarrers because of his own issues. Rajput is perhaps the only exception.
He also had Dharam Kanta, Kudrat and Vijay which were also kinda exception rather than a rule for him.
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January 10, 2018 at 9:35 AM
Can’t wait to see the film. Had a chance to be there for its India premiere, but in true filmi style, chose meeting my dear cousin brother instead who had just returned from Spain after over a year.
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January 11, 2018 at 4:05 PM
Hope your cousin wasn’t “finding” himself there!
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January 11, 2018 at 2:19 PM
I also now want to watch Post ..
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December 31, 2017 at 11:36 AM
Why disaster artist is missing from the list ? Dont understand hysteria about Shape of the water which i hated.
Only films i am yet to watch are The Post and Phantom thread which are releasing next week here.
Regardless of whatever happens, Disaster artist, Call be your name,
Three billboards and I Tonya are most worthy of nominations and potential winners.
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January 1, 2018 at 1:02 AM
http://www.rediff.com/movies/report/the-best-foreign-films-of-2017/20171231.htm
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January 1, 2018 at 1:25 AM
Dunkirk and Wonder Woman. And The Shape of The Water.
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January 1, 2018 at 7:15 AM
I’m holding out hope that Bria Vinaite—very long odds, but still!—somehow gets in for her brilliant breakthrough performance as the poor white trash with questionable mothering skills in “The Florida Project.” She owns that movie. Definitely deserving of a Best Actress Oscar nomination.
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January 1, 2018 at 9:26 PM
Almost Everyone has phantom thread in their favs list. But i cant understand what makes shape of water so popular. I hated it as much as Her from 2013.
http://www.indiewire.com/2017/12/directors-best-movies-tv-2017-guillermo-del-toro-denis-villeneuve-luca-guadagnino-1201911679/9/
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January 1, 2018 at 9:36 PM
I absolutely loved Shape of Water! My tweet on this after seeing it [slightly altered here]:
[The Shape of Water is at this late date a rare fulfillment of the promise of cinema. It is not simply a bold, near-visionary fairy tale but also one replete with sly (and wry!) cultural, political commentary. To watch the Shape of Water is to wish to enter its liquid worlds. It is to be captured by one of the medium’s most beautiful romances. Equally to be completely seduced by the sights and sounds of this dreamscape. It is also, and most profoundly, to understand that the inhuman is simply the disavowed human. Myths and fairy tales have always intuited this but the narratives of evolutionary science also confirm it. In our own, more immediate age of biogenetic ‘breaking of the vessels’ the Shape of Water offers intimations… foretells love stories yet to come… ]
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January 9, 2018 at 1:47 PM
They should hand out awards for hypocrisy, preening, and lack of self-awareness.
Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/455252/golden-globes-fiasco-hypocrisy-preening-no-self-awareness?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Smith
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January 9, 2018 at 1:49 PM
I am not immune to Oprah’s charms, but President Winfrey is a terrible idea. It also underscores the extent to which Trumpism — the kowtowing to celebrity and ratings, the repudiation of experience and expertise — has infected our civic life. The ideal post-Trump politician will, at the very least, be a deeply serious figure with a strong record of public service behind her. It would be a devastating, self-inflicted wound for the Democrats to settle for even benevolent mimicry of Mr. Trump’s hallucinatory circus act.
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January 9, 2018 at 4:49 PM
It is better, if you delete the comment and you yourself post in relevant thread. Only thing editable in name.
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January 9, 2018 at 4:56 PM
Ok, will wait for Abeze’s response .
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January 10, 2018 at 10:00 AM
I chose to not watch the Globes this year, because for the first time in recent memory, the event was broadcast deferred by an hour in India. And since I was already getting updates about the winners an hour before they were being telecast here, watching it seemed pointless. But I did turn on to watch Oprah’s speech after #Oprah2020 began trending almost immediately after her speech. It was undoubtedly one of the highlights of the night. Measured, with just the right amount of resolve and taking the men aboard as well (in contrast Natalie Portman’s quip came off as rude and counterproductive even in that it in a way advocated for tokenism), Oprah’s speech did seem like flagging off a campaign. But even before I read this article, I too had this feeling whether the alternative should be yet again someone symbolizing the cult of personality.
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January 9, 2018 at 1:52 PM
Sorry Abzee for posting these articles here, as I felt that they belong here however if you have an issue I can most certainly request Satyam/Munna to move them to the general thread .
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January 10, 2018 at 9:49 AM
I have no issues with this link being shared here on this post. And you are right, given that the Golden Globes is a precursor to the Oscars, and the fact that this year the Awards season will naturally be more socially and politically charged, your link naturally fits the conversation.
If however, you or the moderators feel that this topic will have a better chance to be discussed as a separate post, please go ahead and do so. But I have no issues with it being here.
🙂
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January 12, 2018 at 11:58 AM
The Los Angeles Times has reported that, on the heels of a Golden Globe win, actor and director James Franco has been accused by five women of sexual misconduct. The allegations vary from examples that would clearly represent sexual harassment or even assault to some that occupy a hazier area of propriety.
One particular claim stuck out to me as less innocuous than it might seem to people who have not worked in the entertainment industry. Actress Sarah Tither-Kaplan, a student of Franco’s, claims that while working on one of his films in which she agreed to perform nude, she was approached by a producer the day of shoot on the set and asked if she wanted to perform in a bonus “orgy scene” with Franco. Tither-Kaplan and other actresses were also asked to perform in a nude scene that was entirely unscripted.
http://thefederalist.com/2018/01/12/james-franco-entertainment-needs-new-rules-sex-scenes/
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January 23, 2018 at 8:52 AM
Final nomination list :
The shape of water tops the list
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January 23, 2018 at 9:22 AM
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January 23, 2018 at 9:23 AM
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
Directing
Christopher Nolan, Dunkirk
Jordan Peele, Get Out
Greta Gerwig, Lady Bird
Paul Thomas Anderson, Phantom Thread
Guillermo del Toro, Shape of Water
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.
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
Actress in a Supporting Role
Mary J. Blige, Mudbound
Allison Janney, I, Tonya
Laurie Metcalf, Lady Bird
Lesley Manville, Phantom Thread
Octavia Spencer, The Shape of Water
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
The Disaster Artist
Logan
Molly’s Game
Mudbound
Original Screenplay
The Big Sick
Get Out
Lady Bird
The Shape of Water
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Animated Feature Film
The Boss Baby
The Breadwinner
Coco
Ferdinand
Loving Vincent
Foreign Language Film
A Fantastic Woman (Chile)
The Insult (Lebanon)
Loveless (Russia)
Body and Soul (Hungary)
The Square (Sweden)
Documentary Feature
Abacus: Small Enough to Jail
Faces/Places
Icarus
Last Men in Aleppo
Strong Island
Cinematography
Blade Runner: 2049
Darkest Hour
Dunkirk
Mudbound
The Shape of Water
Film Editing
Baby Driver
Dunkirk
I, Tonya
The Shape of Water
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Production Design
Beauty and the Beast
Blade Runner: 2049
Darkest Hour
Dunkirk
The Shape of Water
Costume Design
Beauty and the Beast
Darkest Hour
Phantom Thread
The Shape of Water
Victoria & Abdul
Makeup and Hairstyling
Darkest Hour
Victoria & Abdul
Wonder
Original Score
Dunkirk
Phantom Thread
The Shape of Water
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Original Song
“Mighty River,” Mudbound
“Mystery of Love,” Call Me by Your Name
“Remember Me,” Coco
“Stand Up for Something,” Marshall
“This Is Me,” The Greatest Showman
Sound Editing
Baby Driver
Blade Runner 2049
Dunkirk
The Shape of Water
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Sound Mixing
Baby Driver
Blade Runner 2049
Dunkirk
The Shape of Water
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Visual Effects
Blade Runner 2049
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Kong: Skull Island
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
War for the Planet of the Apes
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January 23, 2018 at 9:24 AM
would love to see Shape of Water win big.
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January 23, 2018 at 9:45 AM
I absolutely loved this movie. Best of 2017 for me, though I can see many won’t find anything extraordinary in it but who finds that in it will adore it.
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January 23, 2018 at 9:27 AM
Once again Abzee your predictions are uncannily correct!
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January 31, 2018 at 7:33 PM
Greatest Oscar winners ever
https://www.theguardian.com/film/ng-interactive/2018/jan/24/all-time-oscars-academy-awards
Greatest Oscar winners ever: who is the best director of all time?
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/jan/31/greatest-oscar-winners-best-director-of-all-time-francis-ford-coppola-kathryn-bigelow-frank-capra
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February 8, 2018 at 6:34 AM
How Did ‘The Shape of Water’ Become the Film to Beat at the Oscars?
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February 8, 2018 at 3:21 PM
Who is the best Oscar-winning supporting actor of all time?
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/feb/08/greatest-oscar-winners-ever-best-supporting-actor-joe-pesci-heath-ledger-christopher-walken
Who is the best Oscar-winning supporting actress of all time?
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/feb/07/oscars-best-supporting-actress-tilda-swinton-viola-davis-gloria-grahame
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February 8, 2018 at 4:38 PM
I would also have voted for Walken in the Deer Hunter. It’s a film I have a great weakness for anyway.
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March 4, 2018 at 10:24 PM
Is it just the depressed me or someone else finding the OSCARS this year truly pathetic?? Just can’t wait for it to be over..
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March 4, 2018 at 11:30 PM
Congrats to Gary Oldman for his wonderful display of Churchill: irrespective of the fact that he was a demonic racist when it came to Indians…
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March 4, 2018 at 11:34 PM
Frances McDormand: Well-deserved trophy for best actress.
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March 4, 2018 at 11:59 PM
I haven’t seen the film but from the trailers and clips it seems like one of those typical Hollywood biopics where the subject strides through the film exuding an “I’m ME! In a biopic on my own life!”-vibe…
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March 5, 2018 at 12:09 AM
Also glad that it didn’t go to the usual suspects: Streep or Daniel; though Daniel of course happens to be a favorite.
I must say this is one of the most tepid Oscar ceremonies I have seen. Kimmel was a disaster trying to be low-key. Frances’s hyper-ventilating acceptance speech put-to-shame Streep’s OTT performance in August Osage.
Haven’t seen ANY movie for the past 2 months due to some issues but need to see many, many Hollywood movies. I have missed out on ALL of them…quite interested in watching THE SHAPE OF WATER..
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March 5, 2018 at 12:28 AM
Shape of Water, Ladybird, Call me by your name all very good and well worth watching…
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March 5, 2018 at 7:29 PM
to be honest I find the Oscars unwatchable. At least for a number of years. I just watch a few minutes of the main awards. Usually I tell someone to inform me when these are on. Can’t bear to watch the whole thing! I did want The shape of water and del Toro to win and was happy on this score.
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March 4, 2018 at 11:47 PM
Yeah pretty boring Oscars…yet I still watched the entire thing. lol. I think a lot of it has to do with is that there were very few ‘good’ movies let alone ‘great’ movies. Has to be the weakest year for quality movies, IMO.
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March 4, 2018 at 11:49 PM
Oscar winners-
Best Picture
THE SHAPE OF WATER
Best Director
Guillermo Del Toro THE SHAPE OF WATER
Best Actor in a Leading Role
Gary Oldman DARKEST HOUR
Best Actress in a Leading Role
Frances McDormand THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI
Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Sam Rockwell THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI
Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Allison Janney I, TONYA
Best Foreign Film
A FANTASTIC WOMAN
Best Animated Feature
COCO
Best Documentary
ICARUS
Best Original Screenplay
GET OUT
Best Adapted Screenplay
CALL ME BY YOUR NAME
Best Production Design
THE SHAPE OF WATER
Best Cinematography
BLADE RUNNER 2049
Best Editing
DUNKIRK
Best Costume Design
PHANTOM THREAD
Best Original Score
THE SHAPE OF WATER
Best Original Song
Remember Me COCO
Best Sound Mixing
DUNKIRK
Best Sound Editing
DUNKIRK
Best Visual Effects
BLADE RUNNER 2049
Best Make-up and Hair Styling
DARKEST HOUR
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March 4, 2018 at 11:57 PM
Sick of continued American fixation on Churchill. It is completely lazy and a function of colonial privilege to never have heard of the Bengal famine, much less link it to Churchill’s policies…
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March 5, 2018 at 12:32 AM
GreatBong – 5 million killed in genocide but hey he is white man and our man
Despite all the politics that is now the @TheAcademy the Hollywood film industry has no problem giving the Best Actor award to someone playing, as a hero, a man who through his actions caused genocide in India and made no apologies for it.
Before you point out, I have no problem with a movie made on Churchill. My problem is a movie that lionizes Churchill by taking a slice of his life. It’s like a film about Hitler only when he was an artist.
Churchill took conscious decisions that led to the deaths of 2 million people. Just think about that for a while.
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March 5, 2018 at 12:49 AM
With The Crown, The Gathering Storm and the two Churchill films last year, Hollywood does seem to have a strange Churchill fetish for sure.
There was also something equally distasteful about Victoria And Abdul where there seemed to be an underlying repugnant attempt at suggesting that Victoria was somehow removed from the racialist tendencies of the Empire and was a champion of cultural inclusivity against odds.
That Oldman and Dench do great job as actors is besides the point, of course.
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March 5, 2018 at 12:42 AM
Random thoughts-
A decidedly sombre affair, and some of the activism was a bit in-your-face… But if there ever was a time for in-your-face rubbing it in, it is now. You could call it all tokenism to make a statement, but they all worked for me… Dropping Casey Affleck and thereby changing their norm of preceding Actor-Actress winners to present this year’s trophies; the first leading transgender actress Daniela Vega from the Oscar winner of the night earlier A Fantastic Woman to introduce the song from that May-December gay romance Call Me By Your Name; to correcting history by awarding James Ivory for that same film who thanked his now deceased business and life partner of many years Ismail Merchant; the embracing of their sexuality by the homosexual makers behind the animated winner Coco; the special segment on MeToo and Time’sUp; winners such as Del Toro, Oldman and Desplat highlighting their immigrant status alongwith presenters such as Lupita Nyong’O and Kumail Nanjiani who really drove home the point on diversity in the video segment; the loud cheers when first ever female nominee for cinematography Rachel Morrison’s name was read out; ditto Greta Gerwig for Lady Bird; all the Original Song nominees and performances which touched on a range of prevalent moods; Jordan Peele winning for his zeitgeist work Get Out and finally to Frances McDormand’s win and her SPEECH!
History was also corrected when Roger Deakins won his long overdue Oscar after 13 unsuccessful Best Cinematographer nominations.
Netflix has an Oscar to its name by way of the documentary winner Icarus. The future is here!
And lastly, Kobe Bryant is an Academy Award winner now! FTW!
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March 5, 2018 at 12:44 AM
The night was boring as far as the locked in status of the major winners. Except Best Picture, nothing was up for grabs going into the night.
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March 5, 2018 at 4:39 AM
Gal Gadot sighting was enough for me 🙂
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March 5, 2018 at 1:00 AM
Also, didn’t expect to see Sridevi in the In Memoriam reel. Shashi Kapoor was also shown. His association with Merchant Ivory of course exposed western audiences to his work. Still can’t believe that we lost them both, even though Shashi was in a deteriorating condition. Sridevi’s demise was just sudden… Despite being a non-fan, I really wasn’t able to process it and was unable to express anything about it on any forum. Guess a part of me refused to offer any condoling message as some sort of denial.
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March 5, 2018 at 1:52 AM
Churchil. Read this thread and ….
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March 5, 2018 at 2:13 AM
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March 5, 2018 at 2:23 AM
Nice touch…
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March 5, 2018 at 2:31 AM
Chalo, atlast something that made rishi happy!
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March 5, 2018 at 3:05 AM
And here’s to the likes of Kumail Nanjiani; who came up with the stupidest statement of the decade, when he equated KENYA with PAKISTAN and said people have difficulty in recognizing PAKISTAN on the world-map.
Absolutely, since the US was so all-over-the-place and just stumbled upon OBL in Abbotabad, southwest of the Pakistan Military Academy in Bilal Town, Abbottabad, a suburb housing many retired military officers!!
If you want to talk of ‘diversity’, gather the cajones to accept what your country is doing to rest of the world, and especially India…
There, I said it…
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March 5, 2018 at 7:16 PM
You’re a good person An Jo but you’re objectively wrong on this one bro. He specified noone from Hollywood would recognize Pakistan on a map..which is probably true!
Also going to have to disagree on what Pakistan is doing “to the rest of the world, and especially India”. You can’t just blame every mess in that region on Pakistan…when it is objectively clear the blame can be split from India, Afghanistan, Pakistan and the US itself! Blaming Pakistan for every problem continues to be a low hanging fruit for some on this blog.
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January 22, 2019 at 9:57 AM
Abzee Bhai 2018 favorites pick karney ka time aa gaya .
Nominations are out.
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January 22, 2019 at 10:14 AM
ROMA and the favourite 10 nominations each and BP 8.
Curon gonna win at least 1 and max 3 here
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January 22, 2019 at 11:10 AM
yaar , I will be honest with you, watched 5-7 minutes of ROMA, par naa jheli gai. will try again later.
Liked Soni a lot though. Close was good too.
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January 22, 2019 at 6:28 PM
Rangan on Soni-
https://www.filmcompanion.in/fc-at-venice-2018-zhang-yimou-ying-jennifer-kent-the-nightingale-ivan-ayr-soni
This year, we have Ivan Ayr’s feature debut, Soni (Hindi), which revolves around a New Delhi sub-inspector (Soni, played by Geetika Vidya Ohlyan) and her supervisor, Kalpana (Saloni Batra). This is a rare kind of feminist film. On the one hand, we have masculine oppressors of every stripe: a man who harasses a woman on a bicycle at night, men who do drugs in the ladies’ toilet, schoolboys who play a cruel joke on a classmate having her period, cops who demand a bribe, a man who abandons his wife after a trauma, a Navy hotshot who drinks and drives, and even idiots who crank-call the police helpline and ask for the woman-cop’s number. But there is no anger against them. Soni is less of a polemic, more of a quiet character study. It’s more interested in observing Soni and Kalpana as they negotiate these men, these situations.
Like Chaitanya Tamhane and Gurvinder Singh, Ivan Ayr speaks the language of international cinema, and yet, services the inherent Indianness of his story. We are seeing a new generation of filmmakers who aren’t simply aping an accepted arthouse style, but instead respecting the rigour and craft it takes to tell a story while also respecting the audience. Despite the horrors listed in the paragraph above, there is no melodrama. Soni is a fly-on-the-wall observation of the days in these women’s lives, with each scene captured in a single take. (The cinematographer is David Bolen.) It’s an artistic choice that isn’t about showing off so much as immersing us in these events without editing manipulations (like reaction shots). It works beautifully.
Even the clash of personalities isn’t a device to bring about fiery drama. Soni is the quintessential middle-class Angry Young Woman, who acts first and thinks later. (Geetika is phenomenally real; she brings to mind the early Anita Kanwar.) Kalpana is an upper-class cop with a penchant for protocol. When Soni beats up a harasser, Kalpana says she should have followed the rules, but later, we see there’s concern, too. What if the man was carrying a weapon? Soni is a true “women’s film.” It passes the Bechdel test with flying colours, and yet, there are man problems. Soni is estranged from her husband. (Her badge doesn’t have a last name.) Kalpana has to keep crossing the personal/professional boundary with her husband (also a senior cop), while fending off hints that it’s time she had a baby. I kept thinking about the matter of gaze. Soni proves that the gender of the filmmaker isn’t as important as the sensitivity, the empathy they bring to the table. That’s a good thought with which to close this year’s Venice Film Festival.
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