The Nominees for This Year’s Academy Awards Have Been Announced

It's Oscar time again gang, and this year's nominees fell pretty predictably in line with the various guild awards and other precursors like the Golden Globes. The big story is Guillermo Del Toro's The Shape of Water leading all films with 13 nominations, more than Schindler's List, The English Patient, and My Fair Lady. The fantasy film landed nominations in all of the major categories except for Best Actor, as it didn't really have a candidate for that as Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, and Michael Stuhlbarg were all pushed for Supporting Actor—with only Jenkins emerging a nominee.

Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk landed the second most nominations with 8, including a first Best Director nomination for the Dark Knight helmer. Close behind with seven nominations is Martin McDonagh's spectacular Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, including nominations for Frances McDormand and dual Supporting Actor nominations for Sam Rockwell and Woody Harrelson. I couldn't be happier Woody got recognized, I just hope it doesn't split voters, although the rest of that category is full of great actors who've never won an Oscar... and Christopher Plummer. 

Speaking of, was I the only one hoping against hope that Kevin Spacey might get a nomination for Baby Driver and somehow end up competing with Plummer? I know I wasn't... Spacey was praying for that same scenario. But he was absent from the list, as was James Franco despite giving the best performance of his career in The Disaster Artist. I guess this will be the first Oscars without any accused predators in attendance, right? 

An interesting thing to note is that critics favorites all landed fewer nominations but they all came in the big categories. Lady Bird's five nominations are in Picture, Director, Actress, Supporting Actress, and Original Screenplay. Same with Get Out's four coming in Picture, Director, Actor, and Original Screenplay. Call Me By Your Name's four nominations are in Picture, Actor, Screenplay, and Original Song oddly enough. Compare this with a film like Dunkirk that got Picture, Director, and then a slew of technical nominations. If you've seen Dunkirk, that's not totally unsurprising as it doesn't really feature a stand-out performance, except perhaps Mark Rylance.

The two most surprising contenders, strangely enough, both seem built to win awards. Joe Wright's Darkest Hour got a number of technical nominations and a Best Actor nom for Gary Oldman, but I was genuinely surprised when it turned up in the Best Picture race. Then there's Paul Thomas Anderson's Phantom Thread, which was mostly ignored by critics and guild awards alike, but then scored six nominations, including a surprising second Best Director nod for PTA and a long overdue first nomination for his frequent composer Jonny Greenwood.

Check out the full list of nominees below and let me know your thoughts in the comments section below? Any big snubs you're pissed about? Any surprises that made you happy? Sound off!

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

Best Director

Christopher Nolan, Dunkirk

Jordan Peele, Get Out

Greta Gerwig, Lady Bird

Paul Thomas Anderson, Phantom Thread

Guillermo Del Toro, The Shape of Water

Best Actress

Sally Hawkins, The Shape of Water

Frances McDormand, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, MO

Margot Robbie, I, Tonya

Saoirse Ronan, Lady Bird

Meryl Streep, The Post

Best Actor

Timothee 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.

Best Supporting Actress

Mary J. Blige, Mudbound

Allison Janney, I, Tonya

Lesley Manville, Phantom Thread

Laurie Metcalfe, Lady Bird

Octavia Spencer, The Shape of Water

Best Supporting Actor

Willem Dafoe, The Florida Project

Woody Harrelson, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, MO

Richard Jenkins, The Shape of Water

Christopher Plummer, All the Money in the World

Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, MO

Best Original Screenplay

The Big Sick (Emily V. Gordon & Kumail Nanjiani)

Get Out (Jordan Peele)

Lady Bird (Greta Gerwig)

The Shape of Water (Guillermo del Toro & Vanessa Taylor)

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (Martin McDonagh)

Best Adapted Screenplay

Call Me by Your Name (James Ivory)

The Disaster Artist (Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber)

Logan (Screenplay by Scott Frank & James Mangold and Michael Green; Story by James Mangold)

Molly's Game (Aaron Sorkin)

Mudbound (Dee Rees & Virgil Williams)

Best Animated Feature

The Boss Baby

The Breadwinner

Coco

Ferdinand

Loving Vincent

Best Foreign Language Film

A Fantastic Woman, Chile

The Insult, Lebanon

Loveless, Russia

On Body and Soul, Hungary

The Square, Sweden

Best Documentary Feature   

Abacus: Small Enough to Jail

Faces Places

Icarus

Last Men in Aleppo 

Strong Island

Cinematography

Blade Runner 2049

Darkest Hour

Dunkirk

Mudbound

The Shape of Water

Film Editing

Baby Driver

Dunkirk

I, Tonya

The Shape of Water

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, MO

Production Design

Beauty and the Beast

Blade Runner 2049

Darkest Hour

Dunkirk

The Shape of Water

Costume Design

Beauty and the Beast

Darkest Hour

Phantom Thread

The Shape of Water

Victoria & Abdul

Hair & Makeup

Darkest Hour

Victoria & Abdul

Wonder

Original Score

Dunkirk (Hans Zimmer)

Phantom Thread (Jonny Greenwood)

The Shape of Water (Alexandre Desplat)

Star Wars: The Last Jedi (John Williams)

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (Carter Burwell)

Original Song

"Mighty River" (Mudbound)
Music and lyrics by Mary J. Blige, Raphael Saadiq and Taura Stinson

"The Mystery of Love" (Call Me by Your Name)
Music and lyrics by Sufjan Stevens

"Remember Me" (Coco)
Music and lyrics by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez

"Stand Up for Something" (Marshall)
Music by Diane Warren, lyrics by Lonnie R. Lynn and Diane Warren

"This Is Me" (The Greatest Showman)
Music and lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul

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

Sound Mixing

Baby Driver

Blade Runner 2049

Dunkirk

The Shape of Water

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Sound Editing

Baby Driver

Blade Runner 2049

Dunkirk

The Shape of Water

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Live Action Short Subject

DeKalb Elementary

The Eleven O’Clock

My Nephew Emmett

The Silent Child

Watu Wote/All of Us

Animated Short Subject

Dear Basketball

Garden Party

Lou

Negative Space

Revolting Rhymes

Documentary Short Subject

Edith and Eddie

Heaven is a Traffic Jam on the 405

Heroin(e)

Knife Skills

Traffic Stop

Photo Credit: Splash News / Backgrid USA / Pacific Coast News