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OSCARS 2018

The Shape of Water comes out on top at the Oscars

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- Guillermo del Toro’s film has become the latest Venice Film Festival winner to scoop Best Picture at the Oscars, while Europe did well in the technical categories

The Shape of Water comes out on top at the Oscars
Director Guillermo del Toro with his Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director (© Frederic J Brown/AFP/Getty Images)

The Venice Golden Lion winner The Shape of Water has won Best Picture and Best Director for Mexico’s Guillermo del Toro at the Oscars. The film scooped four awards in total, including a second Oscar for French composer Alexandre Desplat, while Canadian trio Paul D AusterberryShane Vieau and Jeff Melvin won Best Production Design. 

British actor Gary Oldman won Best Actor for his turn playing Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
. The Joe Wright film also picked up the Oscar for Make-up and Hairstyling for Kazuhiro Tsuji, David Malinowski and Lucy Sibbick.

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One of the most popular wins of the night saw British cinematographer Roger Deakins finally snag the Best Cinematography Oscar. The British filmmaker had previously been nominated 13 times without ever winning. He was visibly touched to finally be able to walk on stage on his 14th visit to the ceremony to pick up the statuette for his work on Blade Runner 2049 [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
. Denis Villeneuve’s sequel to the Ridley Scott classic also won Best Visual Effects.

During the evening, the awards were spread across the board, with no single film dominating. The Film4-backed Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
went home with two acting awards, Best Actress for Frances McDormand, who also made the most outstanding speech of the ceremony when she asked all of the female nominees to stand up, and Best Supporting Actor for Sam Rockwell

Best Short Film – Live Action was won by engaged British co-directors Chris Overton and Rachel Senton for their touching film The Silent Child. Senton translated her speech into sign language as she spoke. 

European films and filmmakers dominated the technical categories. Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
took home three awards, including Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing and Best Editing. The London-set fashion tale Phantom Thread won Best Costumes. It was a mixed night for European filmmakers, with Best Documentary being handed to Bryan Fogel’s Icarus, which won out over Agnès Varda’s documentary Faces Places [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
. Several European productions or co-productions, The Square [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ruben Östlund
film profile
]
, On Body and Soul [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ildiko Enyedi
interview: Ildiko Enyedi
interview: Réka Tenki
film profile
]
and Loveless [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Andrey Zvyagintsev
film profile
]
, were also nominated in the Best Foreign-language Film category, in which Sebastián Lelio’s A Fantastic Woman [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
, a co-production between Chile, Germany, the USA and Spain, eventually emerged victorious. Another big winner was US legend James Ivory, who won Best Adapted Screenplay for his work on Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me by Your Name [+see also:
trailer
Q&A: Luca Guadagnino
film profile
]
. Overall, though, it was a night that will leave Mexicans rejoicing for quite some time.

Here is the full list of winners:

Best Picture
The Shape of Water – Guillermo del Toro

Best Director
Guillermo del Toro - The Shape of Water

Best Actor in a Leading Role
Gary Oldman – Darkest Hour [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
(UK)

Best Actress in a Leading Role
Frances McDormand – Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
(UK/USA)

Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Sam Rockwell - Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Allison Janney – I, Tonya

Best Adapted Screenplay
James Ivory – Call Me by Your Name [+see also:
trailer
Q&A: Luca Guadagnino
film profile
]
(Italy/France/USA/Brazil)

Best Original Screenplay
Jordan Peele – Get Out (USA/Japan) 

Best Animated Feature
Coco – Lee Unkrich, Adrian Molina

Best Foreign-language Film
A Fantastic Woman [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
 – Sebastián Lelio (Chile/Germany/USA/Spain)

Best Documentary Feature
Icarus – Bryan Fogel

Best Cinematography
Roger Deakins – Blade Runner 2049 [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
 (USA/UK/Canada)

Best Costume Design
Phantom Thread

Best Film Editing
Dunkirk [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
(UK/Netherlands/France/USA)

Best Make-up and Hairstyling
Kazuhiro Tsuji, David Malinowski, Lucy Sibbick - Darkest Hour 

Best Original Score
Alexandre Desplat - The Shape of Water

Best Original Song
"Remember Me", Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Robert Lopez – Coco 

Best Production Design
Paul D Austerberry, Shane Vieau, Jeff Melvin - The Shape of Water

Best Sound Editing
Dunkirk

Best Sound Mixing
Dunkirk

Best Visual Effects
Blade Runner 2049 

Best Documentary Short
Heaven Is a Traffic Jam on the 405 – Frank Stiefel 

Best Animated Short Film
Dear Basketball – Glen Keane, Kobe Bryant 

Best Live Action Short Film
The Silent Child – Chris Overton, Rachel Shenton (United Kingdom)

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