Official 90th Oscar Nominations Discussion Thread (1 Viewer)

[cinemiracle]

I'm disappointed that This is Me didn't win. Anyhow, I'm not into the Oscars any longer and haven't been for some time as too many inferior nominees win the awards. I like Shape of Water, but, I don't consider it Best Picture material. Besides some visuals, I think it's overrated.

I have worked in the film industry for 30 years and believe me THE SHAPE OF WATER is a masterpiece and fully deserved the best film award.

 

[benbess]

Disney should let Fox Searchlight keep making quality films.

The whole film world shouldn't be made of "tentpole blockbuster" movies. I felt it was really sad when Disney started making only tentpole movies 10 years ago, which imho was the triumph of excessive greed over art. I still like many of Disney's tentpole movies, and a few of them, like Coco, The Last Jedi, etc. are tentpole movies that also are wonderful movies with fine artistic qualities. But not every movie should have to make a commercial case for itself with a c. $150 million or higher budget. Some movies, like the $19.5 million The Shape of Water, only can really get greenlit at that size. If you outlaw all movies below c. $150m, many good stories just can't get told....

 

[Robert Crawford]

I have worked in the film industry for 30 years and believe me THE SHAPE OF WATER is a masterpiece and fully deserved the best film award.

To each his own. I liked the film and will buy it on 4K/UHD disc, but I don't love it. Perhaps I will with future viewings. By the way, what does being in the film industry has to do with it?

 

[benbess]

• Best Sound Mixing
  
  
  
  
  Kevin Winter/Getty Images
  Dunkirk, Mark Weingarten, Gregg Landaker and Gary A. Rizzo (WINNER)
  
  Baby Driver, Julian Slater, Tim Cavagin and Mary H. Ellis
  
  Blade Runner 2049, Ron Bartlett, Doug Hemphill and Mac Ruth
  
  The Shape of Water, Christian Cooke, Brad Zoern and Glen Gauthier
  
  Star Wars: The Last Jedi, David Parker, Michael Semanick, Ren Klyce and Stuart Wilson

Best Sound Editing

• 
  
  
  Kevin Winter/Getty Images
  Dunkirk, Richard King and Alex Gibson (WINNER)
  
  Baby Driver, Julian Slater
  
  Blade Runner 2049, Mark Mangini and Theo Green
  
  The Shape of Water, Nathan Robitaille and Nelson Ferreira
  
  Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Matthew Wood and Ren Klyce"

Nice recognition of the amazing sound design of Dunkirk imho.

 

[TravisR]

Bill Paxton?

I looked it up and he was added last minute to last year's segment.

The most outrageous In Memoriam omission is Tobe Hooper. The guy directed The Texas Chain Saw Massacre which is a masterpiece and in the Museum Of Modern Art & made a Sight & Sound Top 250 list but I guess George Romero (who is also richly deserving of recognition) was enough to cover the horror genre for the Academy.

 

[TravisR]

The Best Animated Picture Award is such a farce. It is obvious that Pixar/Disney keeps winning simply because it is PIXAR or DISNEY and not necessarily because it was the best picture.

I LOVED Coco but I agree. I'm sure many voters dismiss the animated category as not being serious or worth their time and they just vote for Pixar.

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

Enjoyed the show and have no problem with The Shape of Water taking Best Picture. There was a lot of love in that room, and deservedly so, for Guillermo del Toro, who obviously has a lot of love and praise for the Hollywood films he grew up with and was inspired by.

 

[Keith Cobby]

Nice to see the finest filmmaker of his generation win for sound editing.

 

[mattCR]

I've seen all the long form animated, and thought, honestly, there were only two "real" contenders; Breadwinner and CoCo. I loved Breadwinner, but I thought CoCo was truly deserving of the award. Disney/Pixar is not the only one who has won this category, I think we've seen Dreamworks win it as well, I'd have to go back and check.

But CoCo earned it (IMHO); I certainly felt it should have had a BP nod...

 

[TonyD]

I have worked in the film industry for 30 years and believe me THE SHAPE OF WATER is a masterpiece and fully deserved the best film award.

Hmm.

I’ve been watching movies for over 40 years.

I liked the movie but not that much.

 

[Mark Booth]

Some friends of mine saw The Shape of Water this weekend. I was chatting with them before the Oscars and asked them if, at the end, they thought

Spoiler

Sally Hawkins's character was magically transformed into a gill-breathing creature, or, if their minds considered the likelihood that her character was a mixed species from the very beginning. That she was born from one human parent and one creature parent. That the marks on her neck were dormant gills all along.

They admitted their thought was the former and then also said that the second scenario makes a lot of sense and explains

Spoiler

her attraction to the creature and his to her.

Personally, believing the second makes it a better film in my mind.

Mark

 

[Malcolm R]

I LOVED Coco but I agree. I'm sure many voters dismiss the animated category as not being serious or worth their time and they just vote for Pixar.

Or those with children just let their kids tell them who to vote for. Doubtful that the kids have watched all the nominees, but I'm sure they've all seen the latest Pixar film.

 

[TonyD]

I think the second scenario was clearly the intention.
Was no accident that they focused on them relatively early in the film

 

[Vic Pardo]

Lowest rated Oscar show--ever! Down 16% from last year.

The only enthusiastic fans of the show are all on this forum!

 

[Steve Y]

The second scenario is the only one that makes sense for The Shape of Water. The only downside is I guessed the connection very early in the film, so it wasn't a surprise for me. Maybe it wasn't supposed to be?

The central relationship in this film was too much like a fable (which was probably the point) to have the kind of emotional complexity I usually need to really invest in a pair of lovers. But I loved the film aesthetically, and am overjoyed that a genre picture got the top prize this year.

 

[TravisR]

Lowest rated Oscar show--ever! Down 16% from last year.

Thanks to audience fragmentation, no one needs to watch the actual broadcast so it's no surprise that it's the lowest rated show ever. The ratings will be even lower next year and lower the year after that.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Thanks to audience fragmentation, no one needs to watch the actual broadcast so it's no surprise that it's the lowest rated show ever. The ratings will be even lower next year and lower the year after that.

Yeah, people are watching on their mobile devices or streaming it on some other device or service.

With that said, this year's awards had zero buzz.

 

[Robert Crawford]

http://variety.com/2018/film/news/frances-mcdormand-oscar-stolen-thief-arrested-1202718123/

 

[Malcolm R]

They might as well combine sound mixing and sound editing into a single award, since both categories duplicated all the nominees and the same film won both.

The Oscars won by The Shape of Water are exactly the awards it won at the Critics' Choice Movie Awards.

 

[Worth]

They might as well combine sound mixing and sound editing into a single award, since both categories duplicated all the nominees and the same film won both.

I've never understood why those are split up. It's like having separate cinematography and lighting categories.