Earlier today, The 90th Academy Awards in Hollywood celebrated not only 90 years of the most prestigious and recognised achievement in film, but an era of diversity, ultimately proving that power of film knows no boundaries.
Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water had entered the ceremony as the overwhelming favourites with a whopping 13 nominations, ultimately taking home 4 impressive wins for Best Production Design, Best Original Music Score, Best Director and the big one of the night, Best Picture.
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri secured the awards for Best Actress in a Leading Role for Frances McDormand (who delivered what was easily the most rousing speech of the night, getting all female nominees to rise to their feet), and Best Supporting actor for Sam Rockwell. Allison Janney also won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in I, Tonya, while the ever remarkable Gary Oldman won Best Actor in a Leading Role for his eerily accurate portrayal of Prime Minister Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour.
As looks are a major part of film, Kazuhiro Tsuji, David Malinowski, Lucy Sibbick were awarded for Makeup and Hairstyling for their work on Oldman, while Mark Bridges took home the Best Costume Design trophy for his work in Phantom Thread.
Dunkirk ruled the soundscape, winning awards for Sound Mixing and Sound Editing, also nabbing an award for Film Editing – which proved to be the first ever trophy for Australia’s own Lee Smith. The award for Original song went to ‘Remember Me’ from the hit animated film Coco, which also won the award for Best Animated Feature. Former Lakers player Kobe Bryant is now the first basketball player in history to win an Oscar, with his film Dear Basketball the winner for Best Animated Short. Chris Overton and Rachel Shenton rounded out these awards, winning the award for a Live Action Short Film in The Silent Child, beating out Australia’s Josh Lawson.
The historical importance of this year’s Academy Awards did not stop there however, as Jordan Peele was awarded Best Original Screenplay for his critically acclaimed film Get Out. He is the first African-American to ever win in the category. Call Me By Your Name meanwhile acknowledged the power of love in all its forms, winning Best Adapted Screenplay, its only award of the night.
Blade Runner 2049 further cemented its roots in visual mastery, winning the Award for Visual Effects, while the legendary Roger Deakins earned his long-awaited award for Cinematography – his first from 14 nominations.
Last but not least, we explore the far reaches of our world, as well as the fact to the fiction, with A Fantastic Woman winning the award for Best Foreign language Film. The film’s lead actress also made history as the first openly Trans actress to present an award at the Academy Awards. Icarus was awarded with the Best Documentary Feature, while Heaven is a Traffic Jam on the 405 won the Documentary Short Subject award.
Congratulations to all the winners and nominees once again, for more information and the full list of both winners and nominees, you can click here.
———-
