With this year’s Oscars taking place slightly later than usual, it feels like we’ve been waiting an age to find out which films, actors and directors would be up for prizes.
On Tuesday (23 January) afternoon the time finally came for the shortlists were finally revealed and as expected, ‘The Shape Of Water’ and ‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri’ led the way.
But while some of the nominations were quite predictable, the Academy did throw in a number of unexpected nods and shocking snubs, while making history in the process.
Here are the 12 most surprising things about the 2018 Academy Award nominations...
1. Christopher Nolan landed his first ever Best Director nomination
It’s hard to believe but Christopher has never received a nod in this category before - despite the fact a number of his films have been Oscar winners, including 2014’s ‘Interstellar’.
‘Dunkirk’ is up for a total of eight awards, including Best Picture, Original Score and Production Design.
2. Radiohead’s guitarist is now an Oscar nominee
Jonny Greenwood created the score for ‘Phantom Thread’, which reunited director Paul Thomas Anderson with Daniel Day-Lewis, 10 years after the pair worked together on the Oscar-winning drama ‘There Will Be Blood’.
3. Netflix made history
The streaming service’s foray into creating original films is paying off, as Mary J Blige’s nomination for ‘Mudbound’ marks the first time that Netflix has received an Academy Award nomination in an acting category.
4. ‘Get Out’ got what it deserves...
What does it deserve, you ask? ALL THE NOMINATIONS.
After receiving two at the Golden Globes, and another two from Bafta, ‘Get Out’ scored four Oscar nods, in the Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay categories.
5. ...But ‘The Florida Project’ did not
‘The Florida Project’ was the underdog everyone was rooting for. And while Willem Dafoe managed to sneak into the Best Supporting Actor category, the indie film was cruelly overlooked in the Best Picture and cinematography categories.
6. ‘The Boss Baby’ is officially an Oscar-nominated film
If we’d told you this time last year that an animated film about a baby, who is also secret agent, would be up for an Academy Award, the appropriate reaction would have been a giant laugh.
Yet here we are, 11 months after the movie released and not only is a sequel on the way(!) but an Oscars statuette could also be gracing the loo of the producer who made it.
Hollywood sure does know how to throw a curveball.
7. James Franco was not nominated
Despite winning the Best Actor prize at the Golden Globes, James won’t be going on to Oscars glory.
The actor has hit headlines for negative reasons in recent weeks, and while it’s impossible to say whether sexual misconduct allegations - which he has denied - have played a part in the omission, his absence from the shortlist is worthy of note.
8. ‘I, Tonya’ was overlooked in the Makeup & Hairstyling and Best Picture categories
Sorry, but have the Academy seen the work that went into Margot Robbie and Allison Janney’s transformations?
Make-up artist Deborah La Mia Denaver previously revealed how she turned Margot into Tonya, describing how she used prosthetics while working with limited time and money.
And despite its stars receiving nods in the acting categories, ‘I, Tonya’ won’t fight it out for the biggest award of the night, Best Picture.
9. The Best Supporting Actor category threw up multiple shocks
First of all, there are the stars who have been overlooked. Namely, Call Me By Your Name’s Armie Hammer and Michael Stuhlbarg.
Christopher Plummer’s inclusion is impressive, especially given that he filmed his ‘All The Money In The World’ scenes just weeks ago, when Ridley Scott decided to remove Kevin Spacey from the movie.
10. Greta Gerwig (finally) received a Best Director nod
After being overlooked by Bafta and the Golden Globes, the director could be about to have the last laugh, after nabbing the most sought-after nomination of the lot.
Greta is also up for Best Original Screenplay, having penned the film’s script, while its stars Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf are up for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress, respectively.
11. At 22, Timothée Chalamet is the youngest Best Actor nominee in Oscars history
This title would have gone to Daniel Kaluuya, 28, had the ‘Call Me By Your Name’ star been overlooked. This is the first time two actors under 30 have been nominated in the category.
12. ‘In The Fade’ didn’t receive a Best Foreign Language Film nomination
Diane Kruger was rewarded with the Best Actress prize at at Cannes Film Festival when the German movie premiered there in 2017 and it went on to win Best Film at this month’s Golden Globes.
Sadly, it seems that the Academy weren’t as taken with the release.
