Eye For Film >> News >> The Shape Of Water is Oscar Best Picture

The Shape Of Water is Oscar Best Picture

Get Out and Call Me By Your Name win screenplay awards

by Jennie Kermode

Oscars on parade Photo: Prayitno

Aside from the main acting awards, which went to Gary Oldman and Frances McDormad as expected, tonight's Oscars were full of surprises. For the first time in Oscar history, in their 90th ceremony, the award for Best Picture went to a science fiction film, The Shape Of Water. Guillermo Del Toro also took Best Director for the film, saying "I am an immigrant...The greatest thing our art does and our industry does is to erase the lines in the sand. We should continue doing that when the world tells us to make them deeper."

In the first result of the evening, Sam Rockwell won Best Supporting Actor for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, going on to thank "everyone who has ever looked at a billboard." He dedicated his win to old friend Philip Seymour Hoffman.

When Frances McDormand received her award for the same film, she asked all the women in the audience who had been nominated for awards to stand up, and said that they all have projects in need of finance - if men are serious about equality in the industry they must put their money where their mouths are.

Jordan Peele became the first ever black winner of the Best Original Screenplay award, for Get Out. "I want to thank everyone who helped me raise my voice," he said on receiving the award, "I love you for shouting out at the theatre, for shouting out at the screen." Earlier, on the red carpet, he had been saying that his film would never have been noticed by awards committees if it had not been for fans spreading good word of mouth.

After 13 previous nominations with no success, Roger Deakins finally won a Best Cinematography award, for Blade Runner 2049.

Two years after Tangerine almost-but-not-quite made it to Oscar success, Chile's A Fantastic Woman by winning Best Foreign Language Film (on behalf of Chile) telling a story about a trans woman who is played by a trans actress. Contrary to rumour, it's not the first feature film with a trans person in the lead - 52 Tuesdays and Boy Meets Girl also got there before it - but it's still unusual, and star Daniela Vega is getting rave reviews for her work. She also became the Oscars' first ever openly trans presenter.

"We tried to take a step forward toward a world where all children can grow up seeing characters in movies that look and talk and live like they do. Marginalised people deserve to feel like they belong. Representation matters," said Coco director Lee Unkrich, collecting the award for Best Animated Feature. He added that his biggest thank you of all went to the people of Mexico.

The award for Best Live Action Short went to The Silent Child, a film about how deaf people can find themselves excluded from the world around them. Young star Maisie Sly, who had previously failed to communicate when interviewers on the red carpet didn't seem to take account of her circumstances, went up on stage to sign her thanks for the award.

One of the first people to arrive on the red carpet tonight was James Ivory, who won the Best Adapted Screenplay award for Call Me By Your Name, dressed in a smart black suit with a black bow tie and a Timothée Chalamet t-shirt.

After all that black at earlier awards events this season, we saw a burst of delicate colours on the red carpet. Allison Williams, there to support Get Out, had a spectacular champagne ballgown, Star Wars: The Last Jedi's Kelly Marie Tran was in powder blue, Viola Davis and Saoirse Ronan were pretty in pink, Salma Hayek was in lavender, and Zoey Deutch, nominated for her The Disaster Artist screenplay, sported silver frills. Ezia Gonzalez, there for Baby Driver, wowed fans in a simple yellow dress with loose hair and next to no jewellery. Rita Moreno decided to wear the same gown she wore when she won her Oscar in 1962.

The cast of Black Panther were in regal form in black and metallic shades, with Chadwick Boseman in a striking black suit with silver embellished back and shoulders, and Lupita Nyong'o in a stunning black and gold gown.

Michael Stuhlbarg looked like one of the happiest people on the red carpet - with appearancs in The Post, Call Me By Your Name and The Shape Of Water, he had a 30% chance of being among those collecting a Best Picture award.

Those awards in full:-

Best Picture