The nominations for the 90th Academy Awards have today been announced, with Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water leading the way with 13 nominations.
Announced by Andy Serkis and Tiffany Haddish, the Academy have seemingly responded to recent pressure and mounting cultural backlash by stringing along a number of surprising nominees, with heightened diversity in comparison to other contemporary awards announcements.
Most notably, Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird) and Jordan Peele (Get Out) have received nominations for Best Picture, Original Screenplay and Director. The films also scored nominations for their leading performers Saoirse Ronan (Lady Bird) and Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out), as well as a Best Supporting Actress nomination for Laurie Metcalf in Lady Bird.
As mentioned, however, it was unsurprisingly The Shape of Water that led the way with nominations in five of the top six categories including Best Picture, Director and Original Screenplay for del Toro, Actress for Sally Hawkins, Supporting Actress for Octavia Spencer and Supporting Actor for Richard Jenkins. Recent Golden Globe and SAG Award winner Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri also had a strong showing with nominations for Best Picture, Actress (Frances McDormand), Supporting Actor for both Woody Harrelson and Sam Rockwell, and Original Screenplay, although surprisingly Martin McDonagh missed out on a Director nomination. In his place are the aforementioned del Toro, Gerwig and Peele, along with Christopher Nolan for Dunkirk and one of the nomination’s biggest surprise players Phantom Thread for Paul Thomas Anderson.
Phantom Thread scored expected nominations for Best Actor for Daniel Day-Lewis and Costume Design, but surprisingly managed to sneak into the Best Picture category and also earn Lesley Manville a Best Supporting Actress nomination. Elsewhere Meryl Streep scored her 21st nomination for her leading role in The Post, Denzel Washington managed to break into the Best Actor race for Roman J. Israel, Esq., likely in place of the once expected nomination of James Franco, who has recently faced sexual harassment allegations. Critical darling Call Me By Your Name earned just four nominations including Picture and Best Actor for young Timothée Chalamet, Gary Oldman continued on his predicted path to his first Best Actor win with confirmation of his nomination for Darkest Hour (also nominated for Best Picture) and Margot Robbie scooped a first nomination for her leading role in I, Tonya, with Allison Janney also earning a nomination for the film for Supporting Actress.
As expected, The Shape of Water, Dunkirk and Blade Runner 2049 dominated the technical categories with each scoring nominations for cinematography, visual effects, sound and production design. The divisive Star War: The Last Jedi muscled in with four nominations in sound, visual effects and score, Kong: Skull Island surprisingly found itself nominated for visual effects alongside Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and War for the Planet of the Apes. Perhaps most notably, Rachel Morrison has been nominated for best cinematography for her work on Mudbound, becoming the first female cinematographer ever to be nominated for an Academy Award.
The 90th Academy Awards will be hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and will take place on Sunday March 4th at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, for a full list of the nominees check here.
