The 2018 Academy Awards: Breaking Down Barriers

The Academy Awards, also known as The Oscars, are one of the highest awards one can receive in the film industry. Watched annually by millions of people, The Oscars are one of the biggest events of the award season. The 90th Academy Awards will be hosted by Late-Night Show host Jimmy Kimmel, who also hosted the last Academy Awards. Some of the biggest categories are Best Picture, Best Actor/Actress in a Leading Role, and Best Actress/Actor in a Supporting Role, Best Director, Best Screenplay (either adapted or original), Best Original Song, and Best Animated Feature. The movie with the most nominations is The Shape of Water, a fantasy/drama film that has 13 nominations.

Diversity is always an issue when it comes to award shows. This year’s nominees are quite diverse, as opposed to 2016’s #oscarssowhite movement, which protested the lack of non-white nominees. Last year, the nominees were slightly more diverse, Moonlight, the story of a young African-American gay man growing up, won Best Picture, and Mahershala Ali became the first Muslim man to win an Oscar. This year, more historical breakthroughs will take place. Three of the nominees for Best Director are non-white, and “Mudbound” cinematographer Rachel Morrison also made history as the first woman nominated for Best Cinematography. All of the Best Picture nominees have a balance between male and female leads, and four of the acting nominees are black. While this is an important step in diversifying The Oscars, one must wonder why it has taken so long for these Oscars to become diverse, with a Muslim man finally winning just one year ago, and a woman being nominated for a major category this year. In the current world, where social justice and equality have finally taken center stage, it is important that we recognize the accomplishments of people of color and women.

Here are the nominations for the biggest categories in The Oscars:

Best Picture:

• Call Me by Your Name
• Dunkirk
• The Florida Project
• Get Out
• Lady Bird
• The Post
• The Shape of Water
• Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Best Actor in a Lead Role:

• Timothée Chalamet: “Call Me by Your Name”
• Daniel Day-Lewis: “Phantom Thread”
• James Franco: “The Disaster Artist”
• Daniel Kaluuya: “Get Out”
• Gary Oldman: “Darkest Hour”

Best Actress in a Lead 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”

Best Director:

• “Dunkirk” Christopher Nolan
• “The Florida Project” Sean Baker
• “Lady Bird” Greta Gerwig
• “The Shape of Water” Guillermo del Toro
• “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” Martin McDonagh

Best Screenplay (Adapted):

• “Call Me by Your Name”: James Ivory
• “The Disaster Artist”: Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber
• “Logan”: Scott Frank & James Mangold and Michael Green
• “Molly’s Game”: Aaron Sorkin
• “Mudbound”: Virgil Williams and Dee Rees

Best Screenplay (Original):

• “The Big Sick”: Emily V. Gordon & Kumail Nanjiani
• “Get Out”: Jordan Peele
• “I, Tonya”: Steven Rogers
• “Lady Bird”: Greta Gerwig
• “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”: Martin McDonagh

Best 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”

Best Actress in a Supporting Role:

• Mary J. Blige: “Mudbound”
• Hong Chau: “Downsizing”
• Holly Hunter: “The Big Sick”
• Allison Janney: “I, Tonya”
• Laurie Metcalf: “Lady Bird”

Best Animated Feature:

• “The Boss Baby”
• “The Breadwinner”
• “Coco”
• “The Lego Batman Movie”
• “Loving Vincent”

Best Original Song:

• “Evermore” from “Beauty and the Beast”
• “Mystery of Love” from “Call Me by Your Name”
• “Remember Me” from “Coco”
• “This Is Me” from “The Greatest Showman”
• “Stand Up for Something” from “Marshall”

To see the full list of Oscar nominations, click here.

*This post has been updated on March 5, 2018. (Winners are in bold)