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.