I’m excited for the Academy Awards on Sunday! Here are the nominees in each category. The gold star indicates the nominee that I
think will win, and the red heart is for the one I think is most deserving.
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 ★
The award could go to The
Shape of Water, but I think Three Billboards will prevail. As for my favorite among the nominees, I
liked all nine a lot, but the one that stuck with me the most was Darkest
Hour. My two favorite movies of the
year were not nominated: I, Tonya and God’s Own Country.
DIRECTING
·
Christopher Nolan, Dunkirk
·
Jordan Peele, Get Out
·
Greta Gerwig, Lady Bird
·
Paul Thomas Anderson, Phantom Thread ♥
·
Guillermo del Toro, The Shape of Water ★
Guillermo del Toro deserves to win. But Paul Thomas Anderson is my favorite
director of all time, and Phantom Thread is
just the latest of his many distinctive achievements.
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
Tough call between
McDormand and Streep, who was extraordinary in The Post. Robbie was excellent as well.
ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING
ROLE
·
Mary J. Blige, Mudbound
·
Allison Janney, I, Tonya★
·
Lesley Manville, Phantom Thread
·
Laurie Metcalf, Lady Bird ♥
·
Octavia Spencer, The Shape of Water
I adore Allison Janney, but
Laurie Metcalf had a tougher acting challenge and succeeded gloriously.
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.
Lots of people are excited
about Chalamet, but I think he was just being his moody teen self. Oldman blew me away. Should have been on the list: Josh O’Connor
for God’s Own Country.
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 ★♥
I’ve been a fan of Sam
Rockwell for many years. Glad to see him
getting accolades. Should have been
nominated: Ben Mendelsohn for his memorable work as King George VI in Darkest
Hour. Also two actors from Marshall,
Sterling K. Brown and Josh Gad. And what
about Michael Shannon, terrifying in The Shape of Water?
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
·
Emily Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani, The Big Sick
·
Jordan Peele, Get Out ★
·
Greta Gerwig, Lady Bird ♥
·
Guillermo del Toro, The Shape of Water
·
Martin MCDonagh, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
The scripts for Three
Billboards and Get Out are both wildly creative, but both have
imperfections. The Lady Bird script
is perfect. Ruben Östlund deserved recognition here for
his wildly original and biting script for The Square.
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
·
James Ivory, Call Me by Your Name ★
·
Scott Neustader and Michael H.
Weber, The Disaster Artist ♥
·
James Mangold et al, Logan
·
Aaron Sorkin, Molly's Game
·
Dee Rees and Virgil Williams, Mudbound
I’m glad that James Ivory
will final win an Oscar, but I loved the script for The Disaster Artist.
ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
·
The
Boss Baby
·
The
Breadwinner
·
Coco
★♥
·
Ferdinand
·
Loving
Vincent
Didn’t see any of them, but
my posse of pre-teen critics loved Coco.
ANIMATED SHORT FILM
·
Dear
Basketball
· Garden Party
★♥
·
LOU
·
Negative
Space
·
Revolting
Rhymes
If people who didn’t bother
to watch the shorts voted anyway, Dear Basketball may win. But the clear winner for both creativity and
gorgeous animation is Garden Party.
CINEMATOGRAPHY
·
Roger Deakins, Blade Runner 2049 ★
·
Bruno Delbonnel, Darkest Hour
·
Dan Laustsen, The Shape of Water
·
Rachel Morrison, Mudbound
·
Hoyte van Hoytema, Dunkirk ♥
Tough
category to predict. Sentimental
favorite is Roger Deakins (Blade Runner), who has never won, but that
move was too dark and dull for my taste.
Dunkirk had incredible camerawork. Where is the nomination for Sayombhu Mukdeeprom
for the incredibly beautiful Call Me By Your Name?
COSTUME DESIGN
·
Beauty
and the Beast
·
Darkest
Hour
·
Phantom
Thread ★♥
·
The
Shape of Water
·
Victoria
& Abdul
This one is between Beauty
and the Beast and Phantom Thread.
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
·
Abacus:
Small Enough to Jail
·
Faces
Places ★
·
Icarus
·
Last
Men in Aleppo
·
Strong
Island ♥
DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT
·
Edith+Eddie
♥
·
Heaven
Is a Traffic Jam on the 405 ★
·
Heroin(e)
·
Knife
Skills
·
Traffic
Stop
FILM EDITING
·
Baby
Driver
·
Dunkirk
★
·
I,
Tonya ♥
·
The
Shape of Water
·
Three
Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Baby Driver
might steal this one.
FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
·
A
Fantastic Woman ★
·
The
Insult
·
Loveless
·
On
Body and Soul
·
The
Square ♥
MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING
·
Darkest
Hour ★
·
Victoria
& Abdul
·
Wonder
♥
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
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
Great category! I really don’t know which song will win. All five are fantastic.
PRODUCTION DESIGN
·
Beauty
and the Beast
·
Blade
Runner 2049
·
Darkest
Hour
·
Dunkirk
· The Shape of Water
★♥
For the underwater opening credits, the bathroom
flooding, the blackened finger, and so much more!
LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM
·
DeKalb
Elementary
·
The
Eleven O'Clock
·
My
Nephew Emmett
·
The
Silent Child ★
·
Watu
Wote (All of Us) ♥
A very strong group of
nominees. My Nephew Emmett is my
second favorite mainly because it features the fabulous Jasmine Guy.
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 ♥
