‘The Shape of Water’ Wins 4 Oscars Including Best Picture

In a year that lacked a clear front-runner from minute one, the year in film for 2017 came to a close last night when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences handed out its annual awards and crowned director Guillermo Del Toro and his film The Shape of Water the best of the best. The fantasy film with more than a few nods to "Old Hollywood" nabbed four awards, making it the big winner of the night.

In fact, only two Best Picture nominees went home totally empty handed: Greta Gerwig's Lady Bird and Steven Spielberg's The Post. Call Me By Your Name grabbed the award for Best Adapted Screenplay, finally giving legendary 89-year old filmmaker James Ivory his first statuette. Jordan Peele took the Best Original Screenplay award for his directorial debut Get Out. Gary Oldman and the team of makeup artists that transformed him into Winston Churchill both took home Oscars for their work in Darkest Hour.

Dunkirk nabbed some well-deserved technical awards for Editing, Sound Mixing, and Sound Editing, while Phantom Thread was recognized for its Costume Design. Even the people who hated Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri were forced to admit the performances were great, which is how it went home with two awards: Frances McDormand for Best Actress and my boo, Sam Rockwell, for Best Supporting Actor.

Outside the Best Picture race, Allison Janney joined Rockwell in the "Won on the First Try" club, taking home Best Supporting Actress for I, Tonya. Pixar's Coco took home two awards, Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song, while Blade Runner 2049 won two well-deserved awards for Visual Effects and Cinematography, netting iconic cameraman Roger Deakins his first Oscar after fourteen tries.

The Russian doping scandal doc Icarus—which is available to stream now on Netflix—took the award for Documentary Feature and Chile scored its first victory in the Best Foreign Language Film category thanks to A Fantastic Woman.

In a nearly four-hour ceremony, there were next to no surprises or upsets. Honestly, the biggest shock for me was when Blade Runner 2049 won for Visual Effects, and that wasn't even that shocking. Also Kobe Bryant has an Oscar now, and unlike with his wife, he won't have to pay to keep it.

Jimmy Kimmel did fine as host in his second outing. He's the right mix of smarm and charm that works well to cut Hollywood down to size. He needs to stop these incessant bits with "regular folks" schmoozing with movie stars, though. It's not necessarily unfunny, but it's not what anyone wants to see two and a half hours into the ceremony. So yeah, no major surprises, no major goof-ups. Most every film went home with something, which is always nice to see. But don't be shocked that the best movie of the year didn't win Best Picture. It's happened like four times in the history of the Oscars. Five, tops.

Images via Oscar.com