Here’s a quick rundown of the 2018 Academy Award nominations, and yes, Hollywood is quite aware of the spotlight of social controversy being squarely on them!

Kam Williams

The Shape of Water, Guillermo del Toro’s surreal, cross-species love story landed the most Academy Award nominations (13), including for Best Director, Picture and Original screenplay, as well as trio of acting categories. Dunkirk (8) was next, followed by Three Billboards (7), Darkest Hour (6) and Phantom Thread (6).

Up for Oscars are some familiar faces, like Denzel Washington (Roman J. Israel, Jr.) and perennial-nominee Meryl Streep (The Post). Meanwhile, conspicuously absent from the roster are a number of disgraced Hollywood icons whose careers went up in flames in the wake of rape allegations.

There’s Harvey Weinstein who, for years, had been a fixture on the aisle on Oscar night. But this go-round, The Weinstein Company’s entire slate was snubbed, most notably, the critically-acclaimed and strategically-released Wind River.

Just a couple weeks ago, James Franco was the toast of Tinseltown after winning a Golden Globe for The Disaster Artist. Since then, several women stepped forward to accuse him of sexual misconduct. Now, it’s his career that’s a disaster, suffering such a precipitous fall from grace that he didn’t even earn an Academy Award nomination.

The voters showed little love to Baby Driver, this critic’s pick for #1 film of the year, giving it only a handful of nominations in technical categories. In this case, you can blame #MeToo casualty Kevin Spacey for torpedoing the summer sleeper’s Oscar chances right along with his own.

At least that picture got released. The same can’t be said for Louis C.K.’s I Love You, Daddy whose premiere was postponed indefinitely after he admitted to some pretty bizarre, unwanted behavior in front of five different women.

For those still in the running, the 90th Academy Awards will air on ABC on Sunday, March 4th. The show will be staged at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel. But don’t surprised if one or two nominees get knocked out of contention for sexual pecadilloes that come to the surface between now and Oscar night.

 

Complete List of 2018 Academy Award Nominees

 

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

 

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

Timothée Chalamet, Call Me by Your Name

Daniel Day-Lewis, Phantom Thread

Daniel Kaluuya, Get Out

Gary Oldman, Darkest Hour

Denzel Washington, Roman J. Israel, Esq.

 

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

 

ACTRESS IN A LEADING 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

 

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Mary J. Blige, Mudbound

Allison Janney, I, Tonya,

Lesley Manville, Phantom Thread

Laurie Metcalf, Lady Bird

Octavia Spencer, The Shape of Water

 

BEST DIRECTOR

Dunkirk, Christopher Nolan

Get Out, Jordan Peele

Lady Bird, Greta Gerwig

Phantom Thread, Paul Thomas Anderson

The Shape of Water, Guillermo del Toro

 

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

The Boss Baby

Breadwinner

Coco

Ferdinand

Loving Vincent

 

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

Abacus: Small Enough to Jail

Faces, Places

Icarus

Last Men In Aleppo

Strong Island

 

DOCUMENTARY SHORT

Edith+Eddie

Heaven is a Traffic Jam on the 405

Heroin(e)

Knife Skills

Traffic Stop

 

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

A Fantastic Woman, Chile

The Insult, Lebanon

Loveless, Russia

On Body and Soul, Hungary

The Square, Sweden

 

WRITING (ADAPTED SCREENPLAY)

Call Me by Your Name

The Disaster Artist

Logan

Molly’s Game

Mudbound

 

WRITING (ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY)

The Big Sick

Get Out

Ladybird

The Shape of Water

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

 

ORIGINAL SONG

“Mighty River,” Mudbound

“Mystery of Love,” Call Me by Your Name

“Remember Me,” Coco

“Stand Up for Something,” Marshall

“This is Me,” The Greatest Showman

 

PRODUCTION DESIGN

Beauty and the Beast

Blade Runner 2049

The Darkest Hour

Dunkirk

The Shape of Water

 

CINEMATOGRAPHY

Blade Runner 2049

Darkest Hour

Dunkirk

Mudbound

The Shape of Water

 

COSTUME DESIGN

Beauty and the Beast

Darkest Hour

Phantom Thread

The Shape of Water

Victoria & Abdul

 

SOUND EDITING

Baby Driver

Blade Runner 2049

Dunkirk

The Shape of Water

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

 

SOUND MIXING

Baby Driver

Blade Runner 2049

Dunkirk

The Shape of Water

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

 

MUSIC (ORIGINAL SCORE)

Dunkirk

Phantom Thread

The Shape of Water

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

 

SHORT FILM (ANIMATED)

Dear Basketball

Garden Party

Negative Space

Lou

Revolting Rhymes

 

SHORT FILM (LIVE ACTION)

Dekalb Elementary

The Eleven O’Clock

The Silent Child

All of Us

My Nephew Emmet

 

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

 

FILM EDITING

Baby Driver

Dunkirk

I, Tonya

The Shape of Water

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

 

MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING

Darkest Hour

Victoria & Abdul

Wonder