Rachael Kaines shares her Oscars 2018 wish list.
The Oscars are here again. After the snafu of last year and the extremely unlikely event of the voters actually picking the best film for best film, all bets are off this year. “Oscar bait” films seem to be doing worse year on year, which makes for much better pickings and increasingly harder to predict winners.
Here are some predictions, or rather a wish list of sorts. (predictions are in bold)
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
With such a strong year, this is not an easy decision. Call Me By Your Name gets my vote, if only simply because it was the best cinema experience I had all year, and I would quite happily sit down at any moment and watch it again. It would be The Florida Project if not for its shocking omission.
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.
DDL doesn’t need another.
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
Willem Dafoe’s poignant turn in The Florida Project was one of the most pleasant surprises of last year.
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
Because: boiler suit.
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
No one else is going to come out of this fight alive.
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
Torn between PTA and Nolan here. Both highly influential directors who have been producing incredible films for more than a decade without a single Academy Award between them.
ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
The Boss Baby
Breadwinner
Coco
Ferdinand
Loving Vincent
Obviously, Coco should win. I hope that The Boss Baby takes it in a similar way as Moonlight from last year — they announce Coco the winner but have to send them all back to their seats
WRITING (ADAPTED SCREENPLAY)
Call Me by Your Name
The Disaster Artist
Logan
Molly’s Game
Mudbound
James Ivory’s adaptation is a thing of beauty. It transforms a highly subjective narrative into an incredible film, carefully amplifying some parts of the novel and omitting others.
WRITING (ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY)
The Big Sick
Get Out
Lady Bird
The Shape of Water
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Get Out will one day be looked back upon as a major turning point in cinema.
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
Is this even a question? Sufjan 4eva.
CINEMATOGRAPHY
Blade Runner 2049
Darkest Hour
Dunkirk
Mudbound
The Shape of Water
Rachel Morrison is the only woman to ever be nominated for an Oscar for cinematography, and she deserves this.
COSTUME DESIGN
Beauty and the Beast
Darkest Hour
Phantom Thread
The Shape of Water
Victoria & Abdul
Surely this needs no explanation.
MUSIC (ORIGINAL SCORE)
Dunkirk
Phantom Thread
The Shape of Water
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
The fact that Jonny Greenwood now writes scores is an incredible gift from above, and we should reward him accordingly.
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
The Apes trilogy has firmly been leading the charge in visual effects since its first iteration. The effects are so good in this film, they will make you almost care about visual effects. Almost.