My Thoughts on the 2018 Oscar Nominations

In case you weren't aware, the 90th annual Oscar Nominations were announced this morning and I've listed them all below for your convenience. Last night I published My 2018 Oscar Nominee Picks & Predictions where I put forth my hypothetical ballots and predictions for what would be announced this morning. I've put the nominees I correctly predicted in bold, gold text and the ones I picked in my ballot that were actually nominated in red text. For those curious, I predicted five categories exactly, and all but one of the nominees in seven different categories.

My Thoughts

There are A LOT of takeaways from this morning's nominees. Plenty of record-breaking nominations and first-time nominees, but I'm not going to mention ALL of them because you can easily Google those if you're curious. I was excited to see many of my favorites show up among the crop of nominees including The Shape of Water, Blade Runner 2049, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Baby Driver, and Logan to name a few. Most of these were expected, but there's been a notorious bias against comic book movies in the major branches of the Academy (non-technical categories), and so it was awesome to see Logan overcome that with a Best Adapted Screenplay nomination (it's the first comic book film to earn that nomination by the way). It was also cool to see Kong: Skull Island and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 deservedly recognized for Best Visual Effects. Sure, those slots could have gone to The Shape of Water and Dunkirk... but those films have 13 and 8 nominations respectively, so I think it will be ok in the end.

Surprises: Denzel Washington for Best Actor, Paul Thomas Anderson and Lesley Manville for Best Director and Best Supporting Actress, BOTH Sam Rockwell and Woody Harrelson for Best Supporting Actor in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, and Kong: Skull Island and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 for Best Visual Effects.

Snubs: The LEGO Batman Movie for Best Animated Feature, Blade Runner 2049 for Best Picture and Best Director, Wind River for many categories, James Franco for Best Actor in The Disaster Artist, Hugh Jackman and Sir. Patrick Stewart for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor in Logan, Martin McDonagh for Best Director with Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 for Best Makeup and Hairstyling.

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"

Best Director

Christopher Nolan, "Dunkirk"

Greta Gerwig, "Lady Bird"

Guillermo del Toro, "The Shape of Water"

Jordan Peele, "Get Out"
Paul Thomas Anderson, "Phantom Thread"

Best Actor

Daniel Day-Lewis, "Phantom Thread"
Daniel Kaluuya, "Get Out"
Denzel Washington, "Roman J. Israel, Esq."

Gary Oldman, "Darkest Hour"

Timothée Chalamet, "Call Me By Your Name"

*Best Actress*

Francis McDormand, "Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri"

Sally Hawkins, "The Shape of Water"

Saoirse Ronan, "Lady Bird"

Margot Robbie, "I, Tonya"

Meryl Streep, "The Post"

Best Supporting Actor

Christopher Plummer, "All the Money in the World"
Richard Jenkins, "The Shape of Water"
Sam Rockwell, "Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri"
Willem Dafoe, "The Florida Project"
Woody Harrelson, "Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri"

Best Supporting Actress

Allison Janney, "I, Tonya"

Laurie Metcalf, "Lady Bird"
Lesley Manville, "Phantom Thread"
Mary J. Blige, "Mudbound"
Octavia Spencer, "The Shape of Water"

Best Original Screenplay

"The Big Sick"

"Get Out"
"Lady Bird"
"The Shape of Water"

"Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri"

Best Adapted Screenplay

"Call Me By Your Name"
"The Disaster Artist"
"Logan"
"Molly's Game"
"Mudbound"

Best Film Editing

"Baby Driver"

"Dunkirk"
"I, Tonya"

"The Shape of Water"
"Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri"

*Best Cinematography*

"Blade Runner 2049"
"Darkest Hour"

"Dunkirk"
"Mudbound"

"The Shape of Water"

Best Costume Design

"Beauty and the Beast"

"Darkest Hour"

"Phantom Thread"
"The Shape of Water"
"Victoria & Abdul"

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

"Darkest Hour"
"Victoria & Abdul"
"Wonder"

*Best Production Design*

"Beauty and the Beast"
"Blade Runner 2049"

"Darkest Hour"
"Dunkirk"

"The Shape of Water"

Best 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"

*Best Sound Editing*

"Baby Driver"
"Blade Runner 2049"

"Dunkirk"
"The Shape of Water"

"Star Wars: The Last Jedi"

*Best Sound Mixing*

"Baby Driver"

"Blade Runner 2049"

"Dunkirk"
"The Shape of Water"

"Star Wars: The Last Jedi"

Best Original Song

"Mighty River" from "Mudbound"
"Mystery of Love" from "Call Me By Your Name"
"Remember Me" from "Coco"
"Stand Up for Something" from "Marshall"
"This is Me" from "The Greatest Showman"

Best Original Score

"Dunkirk"

"Phantom Thread"
"Star Wars: The Last Jedi"
"The Shape of Water"
"Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri"

Best Animated Feature

"The Boss Baby"
"The Breadwinner"

"Coco"
"Ferdinand"

"Loving Vincent"

Best Short Film, Live Action

"DeKalb Elementary"
"The Eleven O'Clock"
"My Nephew Emmett"
"The Silent Child"
"Watu Wote/All of Us"

Best Short Film, Animated

"Dear Basketball"

"Garden Party"

"Lou"

"Negative Space"

"Revolting Rhymes"

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 Jame on the 405
"Heroin(e)"
"Knife Skills
"Traffic Stop"

Best Foreign Language Film

"A Fantastic Woman"
"The Insult"
"Loveless"
"On Body and Soul"
"The Square"