Everybody knew that the Oscars were not going to be purely about film, and to nobody’s surprise, they were not. Whether it was Jimmy Kimmel’s jabs at Trump, or people calling out The Academy for awarding alleged rapist Kobe Bryant, a lot of non-film related stuff happened. However, this year’s Oscars had some solid nominations, and it will be these movies that drive Hollywood the next year, so they should not be overlooked.
First, let’s talk about the elephant in the room: Guillermo Del Toro’s brain child The Shape of Water. It won four Oscars for Production Design, Original Score, Best Director, and Best Picture. The Shape of Water follows the relationship between an amphibious, humanoid creature and a mute woman, showing the transcendent characteristic of love, while exploring issues such as abuse of authority, racism, and the disgust for the LGBTQ+ community that still exist. The setting of the movie—a secret American testing facility during the Cold War era—has a particular color palette, ranging from different shades of blue and green to bright yellows and bleak whites. It is most definitely a movie that deviates from the mold of best picture winners and shows that The Academy is trying to get rid of its attached stereotypes. Usually a movie about slavery, a real life story about abuse, or a clichéd love story gets nominated for and wins best picture. Despite being a good movie overall, I found some tonal inconsistencies within The Shape of Water that detracted from the experience.
Besides The Shape of Water and its semi-controversial Best Picture win, there were some expected winners. This includes Dunkirk for Best Sound Mixing and Best Sound Editing, since it was the sound that gave the movie its claustrophobic feel and tense atmosphere, amplifying the visuals. Whether it was the horns of approaching fighter planes to do runs on Dunkirk or hundreds of soldiers battling with raging waters, the film owes a great portion of its overall style to its sound.
Another winner who certainly deserved the Oscar was Roger Deakins, who came away with Best Cinematography for Blade Runner 2049. His work made Blade Runner 2049 the visual masterpiece it is, with every set piece having its own personality ranging from the clean whites of the valley of California, the bright reds of Las Vegas, or the dark streets of Los Angeles separated by bright neon signs. Besides the color palette of the movie, the creative uses of lighting, such as bouncing light off of water to create more subtle and natural lighting, or the smooth camerawork that allows the viewer to take it all in and appreciate the composition of the shots make Roger Deakins deserving of his Oscar. As he walked up on stage, everybody in the crowd could be seen smiling. This was Deakins’s fourteenth nomination but his first win, ending the long wait to see him rewarded for his contributions to cinema.
Other nominees that many agreed deserved their wins were Get Out for Best Original Screenplay, as there is little precedent for a horror movie with as much clever, detailed and topical social commentary as Get Out. Frances McDormand earned support for her win as Best Actress in a Leading Role in Three Billboards, and Gary Oldman won a deserved Oscar for his portrayal of Winston Churchill in the film Darkest Hour. Combined with his makeup, which was recognized with Oscar, Oldman’s portrayal of Winston Churchill is captivating. His performance carries the whole movie.
There were some other, more controversial wins within the Oscars, such as Coco for Animated Feature Film. Though Pixar undoubtedly worked its magic again, it was sad to see Loving Vincent, a movie entirely composed of paintings that depicted the last years of Van Gogh in an intriguing way, lose. Another controversial win was Dunkirk for Best Film Editing, as Baby Driver leaned heavily on and succeeded due to its editing. There is even a scene in the movie that is edited in such a way that the song “Tequila” by The Button Down Brass and Ray Davies is recreated using gunshots. These snubs were not considered controversial by all, but many people, however, argue that the The Academy’s decision-making process is oddly complicated and questionable, as the voters’ first choices are often less important than their second picks.
The 2018 Oscars were a lot to take in, as there were and still are debates going on about the winners and the way Jimmy Kimmel hosted the show, the #MeToo movement, the shake-ups in Hollywood in relation to sexual-abuse allegations, and the political spectrum within the US. Most of the awards, especially the major ones, found their deserved winners in the eyes of many fans, and the art of filmmaking was successfully celebrated through the speeches given by the winners, the well-crafted montages that made us all remember the magic provided by film, and the awards themselves.
