By Nguyen Bui Vu

Every year since 1929, the global film industry holds its biggest celebration in the form of the Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars. This year’s Oscars ceremony, now in its 90^th iteration, was held at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

Host of the evening was none other than Jimmy Kimmel, who as handled hosting duties in the previous year when Moonlight won Best Picture (as made known by the infamous envelope gaffe). Prior to the ceremony, the nominees were announced on the 23^rd of January by Tiffany Haddish of Girls Trip fame and Andy Serkis of Lord of the Rings fame. The most nominated film was The Shape of Water with 13 nominations under its belt, from Best Picture to Best Film Editing.

There were some notable milestones when it came to the nominations, one of them being Rachel Morrison being the first female cinematographer ever to be nominated for her work in Mudbound. Other milestones of note were Greta Gerwig being only the fifth female to be nominated for Best Director for her work in Lady Bird, and Jordan Peele being only the fifth African-American to be nominated for Best Director for his work in Get Out, as well as being the first African-American to receive nominations for producing, directing and writing within in the same year.

This year’s ceremony was just as politically driven as the last, with the Me Too and Time’s Up movement taking centre stage in addressing the plight of sexual harassment and abuse towards women in the Western movie industry. There were also calls for greater representation of women working in Hollywood, as exemplified by Frances McDormand’s request for the female nominees in all categories to stand up alongside her when she won Best Actress in a Leading Role for Three Billboards. Furthermore, there were plenty of digs against the Trump administration’s policy towards immigration, particularly his handling on the DACA recipients (colloquially known as Dreamers), as immortalised by the opening remarks made by Kumail Nanjiani and Lupita Nyong’o in presenting Best Production Design.

Nevertheless, the ceremony went on without much of a hitch. The winners were fairly predictable in all of the categories, particularly for acting, with Gary Oldman winning Best Leading Actor, Frances McDormand winning Best Leading Actress, Sam Rockwell winning Best Supporting Actor and Allison Janney winning Best Supporting Actress, as cemented by their wins in the BAFTAs, Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Other wins worth mentioning are Kobe Bryant being the first NBA player to win an Oscar for his short film Dear Basketball, James Ivory being the oldest person to win a competitive Oscar for his screenplay of Call Me by Your Name at the age of 89; Jordan Peele being the first African-American to win Best Original Screenplay for his work in Get Out and Roger Deakins winning his first ever Oscar for Best Cinematography for Blade Runner 2049 after a total of 14 nominations within the category. However, the biggest winner of the night was costume designer Mark Bridges of Phantom Thread for providing the shortest speech of the ceremony (clocked in at around 36 seconds), which ultimately won him a jet ski and a trip to Lake Havasu in Arizona.

The winners of the night are fully listed below:

Best Picture: The Shape of Water

Best Director: Guillermo del Toro for The Shape of Water

Best Actor: Gary Oldman for Darkest Hour

Best Actress: Frances McDormand for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Best Supporting Actor: Sam Rockwell for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Best Supporting Actress: Allison Janney for I, Tonya

Best Original Screenplay: Jordan Peele for Get Out

Best Adapted Screenplay: James Ivory for Call Me by Your Name

Best Animated Feature: Coco

Best Animated Short Film: Dear Basketball

Best Live Action Short Film: The Silent Child

Best Documentary Short Subject: Heaven Is a Traffic Jam on the 405

Best Documentary Feature: Icarus

Best Original Score: The Shape of Water

Best Original Song: ‘Remember Me’ from Coco

Best Sound Editing: Dunkirk

Best Sound Mixing: Dunkirk

Best Production Design: The Shape of Water

Best Cinematography: Blade Runner 2049

Best Makeup and Hairstyling: Darkest Hour

Best Costume Design: Phantom Thread

Best Film Editing: Dunkirk

Best Visual Effects: Blade Runner 2049