Unofficial Academy Awards Discussion Board

A split for me, as I see it has been for most.

Three Billboards gets my vote for Best Picture, but I have to side with the DGA and AMPAS on Best Director.

I find Guillermo del Toro's vision in The Shape of Water to be exhilarating.

The Original BJ wrote:I feel like I’ve discussed all of these films amply, so I’ll just say I picked Three Billboards for Best Picture, and Paul Thomas Anderson for Best Director.

I made the exact same choices

I feel like I’ve discussed all of these films amply, so I’ll just say I picked Three Billboards for Best Picture, and Paul Thomas Anderson for Best Director.

This was an interesting year that was hard to get a real hold on until well into precursor season. That being said, there were few also-rans in the Best Picture race with any real momentum. I'd predicted an 8-film field but was pleasantly surprised to see Phantom Thread surge at the last minute. Also in the mix were The Florida Project, The Big Sick, I, Tonya and Mudbound, which I had my eye on as a spoiler due to Netflix's ubiquity and its resonance with the new Academy membership.

Other films touted for a possible Best Picture nod were The Disaster Artist, Blade Runner 2049, Wonder Woman, Logan, Star Wars: The Last Jedi (how times have changed that these were all taken seriously as contenders despite genre bias!), Molly's Game and All the Money in the World.

In Directing, the major snub was easily Martin McDonagh's for a presumptive Best Picture frontrunner. Steven Spielberg and Luca Guadagnino's ommissions were also surprises to some. In the mix were Sean Baker, a critics' favourite for The Florida Project, Ridley Scott, getting a Golden Globe nomination for Best Damage Control for All the Money in the World, Dee Rees who would have made history as the first black woman to be nominated in this category (and with her choice of projects, still might), Denis Villeneuve for a film that some found too cerebral to take all the way, and Aaron Sorkin for a much-hyped project that may have come a few years too late to succeed in the changing demographic and generic field of contenders in the late 2010s.

del Toro had this in the bag though some thought Greta Gerwig and Jordan Peele's narratives would upset or that Dunkirk passion could take Nolan all the way. Paul Thomas Anderson's nomination was a real, and welcome, surprise.

In Best Picture, an eclectic field of contenders with balanced odds ultimately narrowed to a race between The Shape of Water and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri - ultimately voters chose the more oblique critique of contemporary concerns and tensions.

Call Me by Your Name, compared to Carol as far as its niche in the race went, outperformed that film and made good (to some extent) on the promise it made coming out of Sundance. Get Out was a bona fide and essentially '2017' phenomenon that many saw as a dark horse for the gold. Dunkirk was a BO hit though perhaps outdated as awards catnip, Lady Bird was sold as a Juno-for-adults and made waves as an indie release. The Post's quick turnaround - which I always saw as a cynical ploy to hit the NYT Online subscription crowd for ballot placements - hindered its campaign and its inclusion here was ultimately an afterthought. Phantom Thread's nomination came nearly out of nowhere especially considering the tepid Academy response to PTA's previous two films. And Darkest Hour - well, voters needed to justify awarding Oldman's ham with some Best Picture filigree.