The Ultimate Oscars Post- 2018

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences award movies every year on various categories. Though there are various institutions that award movies every year, The Academy's Oscars are still considered the most prestigious and movie enthusiasts across the world look forward for this. The Academy brings into light so many underappreciated movies with the Oscars that the world would probably not pay that much of interest otherwise. Last year's Moonlight, the Best Picture Academy Award winner is such an example, for a movie which wasn't paid any heed until it was nominated for the Oscars. Though there have been quite a few misfires from The Academy, rewarding the wrong movie or actor or actress every now and then, it maintains it's credibility by actually contributing to the Industry and in it's willingness to develop for better every passing year.

We will be looking at movies that are nominated for Oscars 2018, major categories in this post and will draw out possible winner in each of them.

Best Picture

Nominations:

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

The Shape of Water

Call Me By Your Name

Lady Bird

The Post

Get Out

Darkest Hour

Dunkirk

Phantom Thread 

This is the category with at least three favorites this time. Three Billboards is character study at it's best. It has some really powerful performances from it's lead actors that all of them are nominated at their own categories with two characters competing against each other in Best Supporting Actor category. The aesthetic, the timeline, the emotions and the raw power in the movie is unprecedented. 

The Shape of Water on the other hand is a story of love and loss. It's got a great underlying theme of how people hate something or somebody that is different from them. The cinematography is wonderful. Color palette chosen is soothing to the eyes. Sally Hawkins steals the show as a mute lone nobody. Call Me By Your Name is art in it's purest form. The beauty of France in 1980's is beautifully captured. First love and all the feeling from it are presented onto the screen in such a way that you'll experience each and every emotion. Timothee Chalamet is the new found here. Future superstar.

Lady Bird and Get Out has their own backing. With a realistic depiction of growing up in modern age, Lady Bird is a fresh take on adolescence whereas Get Out is a horrific allegory on modern racism. Both great movies in their own way. 

Though Dunkirk, Darkest Hour, The Post and Phantom Thread are all great movies including the 5 others nominated, I'll have my chips placed on Three Billboards. I've not seen a character study that powerful since I can remember!

Will Win: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

Best Director

Nominations:

Guillermo Del Toro (The Shape of Water)

Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird)

Christopher Nolan (Dunkirk)

Paul Thomas Anderson (Phantom Thread)

Jordan Peele (Get Out)

Christopher Nolan did something totally different with a very common world war drama. He put all his characters at the center of his film and told the story in different perspectives. Guillermo Del Toro, on the other hand, put a picture out as a tale. A tale that doesn't really fit in one basket of Genres. Is it a Fantasy? a Science Fiction? just another Fairy Tale? A Thriller? The Shape of Water is all of these. Also, a work of art.

This is a difficult category with a tough competition. With a win at BAFTA, Guillermo looks strong aas ever to take home the prestige.

Will Win: Guillermo Del Toro/ Christopher Nolan for The Shape of Water/ Dunkirk. I'm leaning towards Guillermo.

Best Actor

Nominations:

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)

 

Hands down, Gary Oldman. This man is finally gonna get his due. Though he has some tough competition in the form of the best actor of this generation, arguably the best actor ever going to retire after this movie, Daniel Day-Lewis and young and gracefully talented find Timothee Chalamet, Gary just gave an impeccable performance as the infamous Prime Minister, Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour. I guess there's not gonna be any doubt in this category.

Will Win: Gary Oldman for Darkest Hour.

Best Actress

Nominations:

Frances McDormand (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri)

Meryl Streep (The Post)

Sally Hawkins (The Shape of Water)

Saoirse Ronan (Lady Bird)

Margot Robbie (I, Tonya)

Frances McDormand is a powerhouse of an actress. To portray the role she did in Three Billboards with such a grace is a herculean task. She is indisputable. Yet, Sally Hawkins managed to give Frances a run for her money here. Sally gives a moving performance with no dialogue. A mute loner cannot get any better than Sally Hawkins. It's a shame such a wonderful performance has to lose, but to a more wonderful performance.

Though I love Margot Robbie, she just doesn't stand a chance between these two powerhouses.

Will Win: Frances McDormand. It'd be a welcome surprise if Sally Hawkins wins.

Best Supporting Actress

Nominations: 

Laurie Metcalf (Lady Bird)

Allison Janney (I, Tonya)

Mary J. Blige (Mudbound)

Leslie Manville (Phantom Thread)

Octavia Spencer (The Shape of Water)

Another tough call. Laurie Metcalf as a mother longing love from her teenage daughter and the person that is holding her family together is wonderful. Allison Janney, the abusive mother of Tonya Harding is a different ball game altogether. Allison Janney is stronger after winning BAFTA for I, Tonya in the same category. This is gonna be one of the categories that'll be looked forward to the most.

The actresses are ruling this Oscars!

Will Win: Laurie Metcalf/ Allison Janney for Lady Bird/ I, Tonya. I'm leaning towards Laurie Metcalf.

Best Supporting Actor

Nominations:

Sam Rockwell (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri)

Woody Harrelson (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri)

Willen Dafoe (The Florida Project)

Christopher Plummer (All the Money in the World)

Richard Jenkins (The Shape of Water)

Sam Rockwell. No second thoughts. After all those great performances in movies like Moon, Seven Psychopaths and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, this guy's gonna get his due.

Will Win: Sam Rockwell

Best Animated Feature Film

Nominations:

Coco 

The Breadwinner

Boss Baby

Ferdinand

Loving Vincent

This is a disappointment. Coco is the only movie that is great in all the nominations. A heartwarming tale of family with full of vibrant colors and awesome music, Coco is just undisputed. Coco is far more superior to all the other movies nominated with Boss Baby here to just fill in a  vacant position and not because of it's worthiness. Best Animated Feature was never so boring.

Will Win: Coco 

Snubs

There will always be few movies that didn't get their fair share of recognition. This year wasn't different. Just giving a few of them due credit here.

Mudbound: Should've been nominated for Best Picture, Best Director (Dee Rees) and Best Actress (Carey Mulligan). It'd be some competition in Best Director Category.

Wonder Woman: For Best Director (Patty Jenkins). She did a great job with the movie. Best Production Design is another category where Wonder Woman should've been recognized. Beauty and the Beast is a joke in this category, which is nominated.

Blade Runner 2049: For Best Movie and Best Director (Dennis Villenueve). This is the best art can get. It's a shame box office numbers effected the movie's chance at Oscars.

James Franco: Best Actor for The Disaster Artist. The man did a fine job transforming into a lunatic. In the wake of allegations against him, it's totally understandable the Academy didn't want to turn controversial in this case though.

A Special Mention here is for the song This is Me from The Greatest Showman. That is one song that can move and  groove millions alike with some of the greatest lyrics of all time and extraordinary music backed by great composition. Though this is gonna be undisputed winner at Original Song category, just couldn't not bring the song up! 

Though 2017 was a collectively bad year and Hollywood is no exception to this, so many great films still managed to grace our lives. As always, Oscars have brought several movies into limelight and a lot of them will be getting their due credit in few hours from now. I really wish the winners be those I predicted as those are the ones I've put closest to my heart. However, quite a few categories are here with tough competition and I'm looking forward to be surprised here and there. May the best man/woman/movie win! 

Ciao!