Best Picture: The Shape of Water
Best Director: Guillermo del Toro for The Shape of Water
Guillermo del Toro picked up the Oscar for Best Director for The Shape of Water, because that was the only way to retroactively give him an Oscar for Pan’s Labyrinth. The Shape of Water also picked up Best Picture, which… I mean, at least it wasn’t Three Billboards, right?
I saw The Shape of Water weeks ago and I wasn’t really feeling it, but I respect del Toro and his career, and I’m fine with thinking that they gave him the Oscar more for his body of work than for this particular film. The Shape of Water is a technical marvel – everything is very DAMP and WATERY all the time, there are some crazy special effects and more. Mostly, I think my problem was with the script more than the direction, so I’m glad Jordan Peele & James Ivory won the Screenplay awards and not del Toro.
Do you think people will regret giving this film the Best Picture Oscar a few years from now? I think they might. It’s not like this was a weak Best Picture field, and people felt passionately about Get Out, Lady Bird and Call Me By Your Name. My guess is those three films split a lot of ballots and The Shape of Water (and del Toro) became the de facto “consensus” choices. All in all… yeah, I’m glad it wasn’t Three Billboards. That’s the best I can say. Oh, I’ll also say this: it’s nice that yet another Mexican director took home the Oscar! We can’t build a wall, America, we’re getting all of our best directors south of the border.
.@RealGDT wins Best Director at the #Oscars: "I am an immigrant" https://t.co/WEehgSZAgR pic.twitter.com/UHYBEX2Bht
— Hollywood Reporter (@THR) March 5, 2018
Photos courtesy of WENN.
I LOVED this movie! Wanted to see it once more right afterwards. It was pure magic and Guillermo is a genius. I think it’s also one of the few female led films to win BP.
I loved it as well. I think it will stand the test of time. Get Out has more cultural significance and will be the one people remember decades from now, but if it wasn’t going to be Get Out, I’m happy with The Shape of Water.
Lady Bird was good, but I forgot about it within 24 hours. Phantom Thread had more of a lasting effect on me than Lady Bird (and I graduated high school in 2005.)
I’m excited to see it. Some girlfriends of mine have watched it 5 times – so clearly it has some fans! Pan’s Labyrinth was a true masterpiece, but I think this film stands on its own as well.
I enjoyed Shape, but not nearly as much as I, Tonya. I can’t believe it wasn’t nominated.
I, Tonya was definitely robbed of a nom, totally agree!
Agree, I, Tonya was very skillfully made and it was my favorite. It was also very funny.
I agree. Del Toro is a consummate director and well deserving of the award, he oversees every detail of his projects and is a true visionary artist. I really loved Get Out and Lady Bird, (haven’t yet seen CMBYN), and thought they were both timely, relevant films, but neither one of them struck me as being as immaculately directed or as brilliantly conceived as Shape of Water.
Plus, Del Toro’s pure joy in receiving the award, and his passion for all things Hollywood completely charmed me. I had the experience of working on set as an extra in one of his films, and he seems to be a lovely man who lives for film.
It was my favorite movie ! Loved the entire cast but thought that Sally Hawkins performance was excellent especially since she didn’t speak and had to act through gestures and facial expressions. Del Toro is an amazing writer!
I totally agree! I was able to see all the best picture nominations this year as well as the films with leading acting noms and The Shape of Water was my favorite by far. It felt so charming and timeless but also different than anything I’ve ever seen. Sally Hawkins was amazing and I was puling for her to upset for Best Actress. Frances is great too, but Sally was robbed.
I’m with you. Huge fan of the man, I am forever holding a grudge against the academy for not awarding the amazing story The Fawn’s Labyrinth was and now… Now I’m happy for him and his wonderful paths of storytelling. I’m Torontonian and we had an amazing Del Toro exhibition in the Bata Shoe museum just this winter which again reminded me of his amazing and unmatched ways of seeing things. Congrats, maestro!
I think the movie will hold up just fine. I know this is an unpopular opinion but I thought Lady Bird was pedestrian; it’s a story that’s been told over and over again.
I posted this another board; Shape was in my opinion a visually stunning movie about human nature and the nature of monsters / beasts. Simply put, no matter what’s out there humans have the capacity to be far worse than any monsters we imagine in our heads.
My top movies of the year were easily Shape, Get Out, Dunkirk, Call Me, and iTonya. I was shocked that Get Out was even nominated and iTonya wasn’t. I figured that they’d never give it to Get Out or Call Me. I would imagine the top vote getters were probs: Shape, Three Billboards, and Dunkirk. I don’t think any of the other movies even had a chance.
Thank you! I feel like I’ve been screaming into the wind. The white feminism on this site is overwhelming. LADYBIRD STOLE FROM ‘REAL WOMEN HAVE CURVES.’ The director of that movie CRIED over this and NOBODY
acknowledges this blatant plagiarism. Actually they did. Ladybird was shut out at the Oscars and rightly so!
I don’t like lady bird, it’s annoying.
i am not sure it is plagiarism, I just think that the story has been told numerous times before. I admit that it has been awhile since I watched Real Women, but I did not make the connection.
I agree with the poster who said that she forgot about it immediately.
I agree 100%. I went into Lady Bird expecting it to be great and it was a massive disappointment: like you, I felt I’d seen the story so many times before. “Pedestrian” is by far the best description of it I’ve seen.
Of the nominated films, my favorites were: Shape of Water and Get Out. Some of my favorite performances were in The Florida Project – Willem Defoe was nominated, but there were a few others there that should have been too imo.
At times I felt like Del Toro was whacking me over the head with his message. Michael Shannon’s character was so one dimensional. A little more depth there would have been nice.
As an aside, Del Toro has also been accused of plagiarism for Shape.
Sally was so good. She and Saoirse were so above the rest of their field and it makes me sad they got no love. Frances is amazing but she was always my #3.
I can agree with the Best Director though I feel like it’s more for his body of work, and being loved in HW for bringing something unique to the table, but Best Picture? Really? The movie was a slog, only saved by good visuals and charming side characters. It’s a bitter win for me, I felt the same when La La Land was announced the last time.
But the worst for tSoW? It also bagged the Best Original Score oscar. That is a travesty. The music for the film was a tooth-achingly sugary icing on an ‘acceptable’ if a bit dry and boring cake.
Meh.
I absolutely loved the soundtrack. Have it on repeat on Spotify, it transports me to the movie. So glad it won!
Good on you. It gave me rotten teeth, I’m going to charge Del Toro and Desplat with the dentist bill.
I loved The Shape of Water. This year’s La La Land for me was Lady Bird tbh. So much praise and hype over a cute coming of age movie? But I am still mad that TSoW got the best score. I can only imagine they did not watch Phantom Thread. Jonny Greenwood made the best score of the year.
Yeah, Phantom Thread (or Dunkirk) should have won best score.
I haven’t seen the film, but I know Jonny always comes through with something powerful.
No no – that horrid overpowering score nearly ruined Phantom Thread for me! It was the worst part of that movie and it would have been better with no music at all!
I am with you on this one. I think his movies in general are way overrated.
I’m so glad. I absolutely loved it, I cried and laughed. I had to go see it again. I love Sally, she should have won. I also loved Pan’s Labytinth but The Shape of Water completely deserved to win.
Wait, I don’t get it: what was wrong with Three Billboards? I adored that movie and wanted it to win!
I had a problem with the following: making a joke out of police brutality, an officer visciously beating two people and suffering no repercussions, the fire bombing, the dialogue, the characters were truly caricatures, Abby Cornish’s absolutely distracting accent, the lone minority female character being arrested because of her association with the lead character and then that storyline was just dropped, and then to end the movie with two loathsome people going on a road trip. LOL.
But here’s the thing, I can acknowledge that the individual performances of Rockwell and McDormand were good, so I have no problems with them winning. But the movie has a whole? No thank you. It was like rural small town Ametica stereotype 101.
And in my opinion it’s the type of movie that Rose’s parents would have liked. 😊😂
I’m sure the officer suffering no repercussions and the friend arrested and then let go were there to illustrate how effed up the police officers and the townspeople were (they were quite nice until something disturbed their daily routine).
I’m with you- I loved it and didn’t think of it as a cop redemption movie at all
I am obsessed w/ Shape of Water and cannot stop thinking about it. Very stoked for del Toro, who has brought so much gorgeous fantasy to the big screen over the years.
I knew this was gonna win. I’ve just watched Billboard earlier today and didn’t find it anything special except for the acting. So, I wanted this film to win instead. Sally Hawkins was robbed though! She was amazing in this film!
His speeches were great. Human, artistic and political all at once.
Pan’s Labyrinth is in my top 5 movies of all time (and I HAAAAATE horror movies). That was a masterpiece and he should have picked up an Oscar for that film.
Agreed, Pan’s Labyrinth was superior work, and his best work to date. That’s a beautiful film and the experience of how it made me feel after watching it stayed with me. He should have won for that.
Meh about the Shape of Water winning. If they were going to go with a sci fi film, they should’ve picked Blade Runner 2049. Glad it won for cinematography, at least.
Get visuals however, I found the storyline very predictable.
*Great
100% agree.
Kaiser…I love you and don’t get me wrong, but I feel like there are a lot of things you don’t really “feel” except maybe Juan Martin del Potro, lol. 😛
But yeah. Personally, I loved The Shape of Water. I think things get hyped a lot and people build up expectations that certainly fall a bit short, but I thought this was a timely film and a testament to how much del Toro loves his monsters. I’m not mad about him winning it either.
Oh come on. Guillermo is a genius so I understand the best director but best picture? Really? It seems like they just want to give him all the awards this year for some reason. The shape of water won because pan’s labyrinth should’ve won years ago
I’m not surprised The Shape of Water won, considering the silly preferential ballot the Academy has for the Best Picture category. It keeps giving us bland winners instead of the movie people actually wanted to win (my guess is that would have been either Three Billboards or Get Out this year). The Shape of Water was the “let’s make everyone happy” choice, since everyone agreed the liked it but I doubt it was first place in many rankings.
Let me hear you whisper by Paul Zindel.
I like GDT. But this BP Oscar, at least in part, belongs to Paul Zindel. Because he already wrote this story.
Not cool, man.
Zindel’s family is suing. I can’t imagine they will lose. SoW is lifted directly from Let Me Hear You Whisper.
Very much deserved. It was a beautiful film. I wish Sally won for Best Actress!
Yay! He should have won for Pan’s Labyrinth actually and it could have been his second Oscar! Happy for him!
I’m still pissed that Dunkirk didn’t get any love this season. I appreciate that Christopher Nolan doesn’t pander for awards and let the film speak for itself but come on, it was far superior to 3 Billboards and at least deserved a win for cinematography. Plus Nolan doesn’t rely on cgi to make his films which makes it even more impressive.
It should have been Call Me By Your Name, but frankly it’s amazing that was even nominated. The Oscars usually shy away from films with such a strong European feel, even when they include American actors and financing.
I don’t think it’s going to be looked on as a mistake. Not when pedestrian dreck like The Kings Speech, Argo, The Artist, Crash, A Beautiful Mind, The English Patient etc. has won.
The English Patient is very good. And I think Argo is good.
Directing yea I can agree. But best picture? Nope Get Out was robbed. I’m glad it wasn’t Three Billboards but Get Out was far and away the best movie nominated.
I’m glad that in the Trump Era, latinos win important awards, especially mexicans. I’m rooting for everyone latino always.
The Shape of water was my favorite movie, so happy for its win! And I love Del Toro, a such sweet man.
Some people dont get that best movie is a combination of all aspects of film. There are movies with great stories, but the cinematography is not amazing. There is movies with heart, but the editing is lacking.
Best picture is supposed to have it all. I love GDT, he is an expert in detail and even he had great contenders in drama telling I truly believe SOW is a great job all together.
It was a great night for Latin America. Guillermo del Toro as an inmigrant winning. Una mujer fantástica from Chile being awarded with best foreign film and Coco and his celebration of the Mexican heritage. I’m so happy.
Lady bird on the other hand was for the the Boyhood of 2017. Never got the hype and I gratuated from high school in 2002. Saoirse should had won for Brooklyn anyway which to me was a better movie overall.
Boyhood is good!
I know many ppl were grossed out by the sex implied but the movie is actually really good. I’m glad Guillermo and his movie won, I think that even when this can be seen as a reposition for previous movies (Pan’s Labyrinth was robbed Best Direction and Best Foreign Film that year), SoW has merits of itself for these 2 awards.
Not my kind of movie, but it was imaginative. I only liked Darkest Hour from this year’s crop of nominees.
I love this movie so much. Top of the year with CMBYN, with Lady Bird close behind.