2017 was a big year for movies, but only the best of the best would be able to win the highest movie honors. On Tuesday, Jan. 23, cinematographer and president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences John Bailey, along with actors Andy Serkis and Tiffany Haddish, announced the nominees of the 90th Academy Awards.
This year, nine films were nominated for Best Picture including “Call Me By Your Name,” “Darkest Hour,” “Dunkirk,” “Get Out,” “Lady Bird,” “Phantom Thread,” “The Post,” The Shape of Water” and “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.”
“The Shape of Water” received the most praise from the Academy this year, with a total of 13 nominations including Best Director, Best Actress and many technical categories such as Best Cinematography, Best Sound Mixing and Best Production Design. Following close behind were “Dunkirk” with eight nominations and “Three Billboards” with seven nominations.
Cabrini sophomore Scott Tierney felt that all the nominees for best picture deserved their nominations despite, only seeing “Get Out,” “The Shape of Water,” “The Post” and “Dunkirk.” However, he was surprised that films like “Baby Driver,” “It” and “The Disaster Artist” got little-to-no attention from the Academy and that “I, Tonya” did not get nominated for Best Picture. In addition, despite praising the cinematography and sound editing of “Dunkirk,” he felt that it was overhyped.
“It was a decent movie,” Tierney said. “However I feel that there were better war movies than this within the past couple years, ‘Hacksaw Ridge’ being one.”
Despite this, Tierney feels that the nominees this year were excellent choices. Some of his highest hopes include either “Get Out” or “The Post” winning Best Picture, Sally Hawkins or Saoirse Ronan winning Best Actress, “Blade Runner 2049” winning Best Production Design and “Baby Driver” winning Best Sound Mixing.
Juniata College junior Callie Daughn-Wood, despite being a fan of the Oscars, did not have a chance to see much of this year’s nominated films. The only Oscar-nominated films that she saw were “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” “The Boss Baby,” “War for the Planet of the Apes” and “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.” However, she feels that the films she has watched and the ones that were nominated for Best Picture deserve their Oscars.
“I remember I wanted Leonardo DiCaprio to get an Oscar for the longest time and I thought that ‘The Revenant’ should get it even though I hadn’t watched it yet,” Daughn-Wood said. “I ended up watching it a long while later and was glad that it won.”
Villanova University junior Carter Young, despite only seeing “Logan” and “The Last Jedi,” feels that many of the films nominated, such as “The Disaster Artist,” “Dunkirk” and “Get Out,” deserved their nominations as well. He was especially fond of “Logan” which has been nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay, because to him, the movie was like “The Dark Knight” of the X-Men films.
“It did a very good job at differentiating itself from other superhero movies,” Young said. “It was unlike any other superhero film I have ever seen.”
In addition, Young also felt that Jordan Peele‘s nomination of Best Director for “Get Out” was well deserved as well as Christopher Nolan’s nomination for “Dunkirk.”
Assistant Provost of International Affairs and co-founder of the honors program Dr. Paul Wright has a different point of view about the Oscars. He sees it more as an industry and an organization that hits and misses as much as any organization. Wright also pointed out that the Oscars are a dog-eat-dog industry.
Out of all the films nominated for Best Picture this year, Wright has seen “Get Out,” “Phantom Thread,” “Three Billboards,” “The Shape of Water” and “Dunkirk.” Wright was especially fond of “Get Out,” claiming that it was culturally significant and will be analyzed for years to come.
“It is a film that confronts liberal white America with it’s own racism as opposed to more obvious targets,” Wright said. “It is a withering indictment of ‘blue state’ racism.”
Wright also praised “Dunkirk” for it’s ability to intensify the evacuation of Dunkirk by keeping the story focused on a select group of individuals. He also claimed that “The Shape of Water” was a beautiful love letter to classic monster films and the genre of the misunderstood outsider.
In addition, despite feeling that “Three Billboards” had a few problems, Wright loved the performances. Especially Frances McDormand, who has been nominated for Best Actress; however, Wright was disappointed that films like “Mudbound,” “The Big Sick” and “The Florida Project” were overlooked by the Academy.
Wright is very hopeful that McDormand wins Best Actress and that “Get Out” wins Best Director and Best Original Screenplay for Jordan Peele; however, one win that he feels is long overdue is Roger Deakins who was nominated for Best Cinematography for “Blade Runner 2049.”
“Deakins has never won an Oscar after decades of stunning work and 14 nominations,” Wright said. “His work includes ‘Barton Fink,’ ‘The Shawshank Redemption,’ ‘No Country for Old Men‘ and ‘Sicario‘ to name a few.”
The 2018 Academy Awards is scheduled to air on March 4th at 8:00 p.m. EST on ABC and will be hosted by Jimmy Kimmel. Despite the heavy competition some films have, people feel that their nominations were well earned and are excited to see the results.
“I don’t really have a stake in who wins or loses the Oscars this year,” Daughn-Wood said. “I’m sure they all deserve to win.”
