The Shape of Water takes top Oscars on a Hollywood night charged with politics

Jason Korsner
The Shape of Water’s 4 Oscars included Best Picture and Best Director

Guillermo del Toro’s romantic fantasy The Shape of Water has triumphed over Martin McDonagh’s visceral thriller Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri in what appeared to be a two-horse race for the Best Picture Oscar.

The result looked more likely after McDonagh missed out on a directing nomination, resulting in the traditional Best Picture-Best Director double going to del Toro.

On a night charged with politics – with many stars wearing Time’s Up badges in recognition of victims of the Harvey Weinstein harassment scandal and Oscars So White still ringing in their ears – the Shape of Water was a safe, uncontroversial winner. But it’s unusual for a film to win Best Picture and Director without any of the other creative prizes – its total of four also comprised Best Score and Best Production Design.

Sam Rockwell and Frances McDormand are both nominated for their roles in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
The Oscars for Sam Rockwell and Frances McDormand were the only wins for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

The acting honours were among the most predictable in years, with all four going to the same group of actors who’ve been picking up trophy after trophy since the start of Awards Season; Gary Oldman was rewarded for his portrayal of Sir Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour, Allison Janney’s bullying mother earned her another statuette for best supporting actress in I, Tonya and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri collected the both the best supporting actor prize for Sam Rockwell and the most expected award of the night – best actress prize for Frances McDormand, who persuaded all the female nominees to stand, as she called for more support for women’s projects in Hollywood.

But despite being one of the most hotly tipped films, they were the only two categories to be won by Three Billboards. McDonagh had been expected to collect the best original screenplay prize as a consolation for missing out on a directing nomination, but that honour went instead to Jordan Peele, for the racially charged thriller Get Out. The best adapted screenplay went to Call Me By Your Name, written by James Ivory, who – at coming up to 90 years of age – becomes the oldest ever Oscar winner, being born before the first ceremony.

Other awards on the night went to Coco, for Best Animated Feature and Best Song, while Chile’s transgender drama A Fantastic Woman was named the Best Foreign Language film, over the Palme d’Or winner The Square and the London Film Festival winner Loveless.

The veteran British cameraman Roger Deakins finally converted an Oscar nomination into a win for Blade Runner 2049, which was also honoured for its visual effects. Three other technical awards went to Christopher Nolan’s Second World War epic Dunkirk. Phantom Thread – a film about a dress-maker – deservedly won the Best Costume prize, while the honours for hair and make-up went to the team who transformed Gary Oldman into the balding, portly Churchill for Darkest Hour.

With the Oscars largely honouring the most established film-makers in the business, one of the few categories that can give a boost to those earlier in their careers is the best live action short and this went to two former Hollyoaks actors, Rachel Shenton and Chris Overton for The Silent Child. Accepting the award in sign language, Shenton said she’d promised their six year old star that she would sign the speech. “My hands are shaking a little bit so I apologise,” she added.

So as another awards season comes to an end, the main awards were uncontroversial, the acting awards were about as predictable as any in recent memory and with recognition for Get Out and McDormand’s rousing speech, politics remains as high in people’s minds as the art, if not noticeably transforming the winners.

And here is the full list of winners at the 90th Academy Awards:

Best picture

  • Winner: The Shape of Water
  • Call Me By Your Name
  • Darkest Hour
  • Dunkirk
  • Get Out
  • Lady Bird
  • Phantom Thread
  • The Post
  • Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Best actress

  • Winner: Frances McDormand – Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
  • Sally Hawkins – The Shape of Water
  • Margot Robbie – I, Tonya
  • Saoirse Ronan – Lady Bird
  • Meryl Streep – The Post

Best actor

  • Winner: Gary Oldman – Darkest Hour
  • Timothee Chalamet – Call Me By Your Name
  • Daniel Day-Lewis – Phantom Thread
  • Daniel Kaluuya – Get Out
  • Denzel Washington – Roman J Israel, Esq

Best supporting actress

  • Winner: Allison Janney – I, Tonya
  • Mary J Blige – Mudbound
  • Lesley Manville – Phantom Thread
  • Laurie Metcalf – Lady Bird
  • Octavia Spencer – The Shape of Water

Best supporting actor

  • Winner: Sam Rockwell – Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
  • 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

Best director

  • Winner: The Shape of Water – Guillermo Del Toro
  • Dunkirk – Christopher Nolan
  • Get Out – Jordan Peele
  • Lady Bird – Greta Gerwig
  • Phantom Thread – Paul Thomas Anderson

Best adapted screenplay

  • Winner: Call Me By Your Name – screenplay by James Ivory
  • The Disaster Artist – screenplay by Scott Neustadter & Michael H Weber
  • Logan – screenplay by Scott Frank & James Mangold and Michael Green; story by James Mangold
  • Molly’s Game – written for the screen by Aaron Sorkin
  • Mudbound – screenplay by Virgil Williams and Dee Rees

Best original screenplay

  • Winner: Get Out – written by Jordan Peele
  • The Big Sick – written by Emily V Gordon & Kumail Nanjiani
  • Lady Bird – written by Greta Gerwig
  • The Shape of Water – screenplay by Guillermo del Toro & Vanessa Taylor; story by Guillermo del Toro
  • Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri – written by Martin McDonagh

Best foreign language film

  • Winner: A Fantastic Woman (Chile)
  • The Insult (Lebanon)
  • Loveless (Russia)
  • On Body and Soul (Hungary)
  • The Square (Sweden)

Best original song

  • Winner: Remember Me – Coco (Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez)
  • Mighty River – Mudbound (Mary J Blige, Raphael Saadiq & Taura Stinson)
  • The Mystery of Love – Call Me By Your Name (Sufjan Stevens)
  • Stand Up for Something – Marshall (Common & Diane Warren)
  • This Is Me – The Greatest Showman (Benji Pasek & Justin Paul)

Best original score

  • Winner: The Shape of Water – Alexandre Desplat
  • Dunkirk – Hans Zimmer
  • Phantom Thread – Jonny Greenwood
  • Star Wars: The Last Jedi – John Williams
  • Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri – Carter Burwell

Best animated feature

  • Winner: Coco
  • The Boss Baby
  • The Breadwinner
  • Ferdinand
  • Loving Vincent

Best documentary feature

  • Winner: Icarus
  • Abacus
  • Faces Places
  • Last Men in Aleppo
  • Strong Island

Best cinematography

  • Winner: Blade Runner 2049 – Roger Deakins
  • Darkest Hour – Bruno Delbonnel
  • Dunkirk – Hoyte van Hoytema
  • Mudbound – Rachel Morrison
  • The Shape of Water – Dan Laustsen

Best costume design

  • Winner: Phantom Thread – Mark Bridges
  • Beauty and the Beast – Jacqueline Durran
  • Darkest Hour – Jacqueline Durran
  • The Shape of Water – Luis Sequeira
  • Victoria and Abdul – Consolata Boyle

Best make-up and hairstyling

  • Winner: Darkest Hour – Kazuhiro Tsuji, David Malinowski & Lucy Sibbick
  • Victoria and Abdul – Daniel Phillips & Lou Sheppard
  • Wonder – Arjen Tuiten

Best production design

  • Winner: The Shape of Water – production design by Paul Denham Austerberry; set decoration by Shane Vieau and Jeff Melvin
  • Beauty and the Beast – production design by Sarah Greenwood; set decoration by Katie Spencer
  • Blade Runner 2049 – production design by Dennis Gassner; set decoration by Alessandra Querzola
  • Darkest Hour – production design by Sarah Greenwood; set decoration by Katie Spencer
  • Dunkirk – production design by Nathan Crowley; set decoration by Gary Fettis

Best visual effects

  • Winner: Blade Runner 2049 – John Nelson, Gerd Nefzer, Paul Lambert & Richard R Hoover
  • Guardian of the Galaxy Vol 2 – Christopher Townsend, Guy Williams, Jonathan Fawkner & Dan Sudick
  • Kong: Skull Island – Stephen Rosenbaum, Jeff White, Scott Benza & Mike Meinardus
  • Star Wars: The Last Jedi – Ben Morris, Mike Mulholland, Neal Scanlan & Chris Corbould
  • War for the Planet of the Apes – Joe Letteri, Daniel Barrett, Dan Lemmon & Joel Whist

Best film editing

  • Winner: Dunkirk – Lee Smith
  • Baby Driver – Paul Machliss & Jonathan Amos
  • I, Tonya – Tatiana S Riegel
  • The Shape of Water – Sidney Wolinsky
  • Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri – Jon Gregory

Best sound editing

  • Winner: Dunkirk – Richard King and Alex Gibson
  • Baby Driver – Julian Slater
  • Blade Runner 2049 – Mark Mangini and Theo Green
  • The Shape of Water – Nathan Robitaille and Nelson Ferreira
  • Star Wars: The Last Jedi – Matthew Wood and Ren Klyce

Best sound mixing

  • Winner: Dunkirk – Mark Weingarten, Gregg Landaker and Gary A Rizzo
  • Baby Driver – Julian Slater, Tim Cavagin and Mary H Ellis
  • Blade Runner 2049 – Ron Bartlett, Doug Hemphill and Mac Ruth
  • The Shape of Water – Christian Cooke, Brad Zoern and Glen Gauthier
  • Star Wars: The Last Jedi – David Parker, Michael Semanick, Ren Klyce and Stuart Wilson

Best animated short

  • Winner: Dear Basketball
  • Garden Party
  • Lou
  • Negative Space
  • Revolting Rhymes

Best live action short

  • Winner: The Silent Child
  • DeKalb Elementary
  • The Eleven O’Clock
  • My Nephew Emmet
  • Watu Wote/All of Us

Best documentary short

  • Winner: Heaven Is a Traffic Jam on the 405
  • Edith + Eddie
  • Heroin(e)
  • Knife Skills
  • Traffic Stop