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 The Warner Bros. movie, featuring Gal Gadot as the
sword-wielding Wonder Woman, was the first stand-alone female
superhero film since 2005 and earned some $825 million globally,
making its filmmaker Patty Jenkins, 46, the highest-grossing
female director in Hollywood.
But at Tuesday's Oscar nominations, Jenkins was left off the
director's race and the film was snubbed in the best picture
category, despite nods for other movies about women and made by
women.
Instead, it was Guillermo del Toro's surreal fantasy romance
"The Shape of Water" that led the Oscar nominations with 13
nods.
Speaking to Reuters, del Toro said that despite the omission of
"Wonder Woman" at the Oscars, the impact of the film was
"undeniable."
"Not only did ('Wonder Woman') break this archaic notion that
this grand superhero-sized myth was done for 'the boys,' but it
delivered it at a level of excellency that is a high watermark,"
the filmmaker said.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has
traditionally disdained big action and superhero movies in favor
of smaller art-house fare, like last year's Oscar champion
"Moonlight" and this year's dark comedy "Three Billboards
Outside Ebbing, Missouri," which landed seven nods.
Since 1990, only the 2003 fantasy epic "Lord of the Rings; The
Return of the King" snapped that trend to win the top Oscar
honor. Sci-fi movie "Avatar," still the biggest box office movie
of all time, received a best picture nomination in 2010 but lost
out to "The Hurt Locker."
SUCCESS FOR 'GET OUT'
This year's surprises include four nominations - including best
picture, and best actor for Daniel Kaluuya - for Jordan Peele's
"Get Out," in which an African-American man finds himself
trapped at his white girlfriend's house with her strange family.
The $5 million horror movie from Universal Pictures became a box
office success with more than $250 million globally and became a
talking point around modern day race relations in America. See
interactive graphic http://tmsnrt.rs/2E1pwi3
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"I think that there's a piece of the black experience that is
communicated in the film and through Daniel's performance that
people of color recognize and haven't seen and that people not of
color needed to see as well," Peele told Reuters.
Veteran actor Christopher Plummer, 88, was also a surprise contender
in the supporting actor race for Sony Pictures' Getty kidnapping
film "All the Money in the World." Plummer boarded the movie a month
before its release, replacing actor Kevin Spacey because of sexual
misconduct allegations.
Plummer stepped in after Spacey was accused of sexual misconduct by
multiple men. Spacey issued an apology for the first reported
incident, involving actor Anthony Rapp.
"Everything has happened so quickly of late that I am still a
trifled stunned but excited by it all," Plummer said in a written
statement of his nomination.
James Franco was excluded from the best actor race for "The Disaster
Artist" after facing accusations of sexual misconduct earlier this
month following his Golden Globe win.
Franco said the accusations were "not accurate." He lost out on
Sunday at the Screen Actors Guild awards to Gary Oldman for "Darkest
Hour."
Other snubs included Steven Spielberg in the directing race for
press freedom movie "The Post," and its star Tom Hanks. "Mudbound"
was left out of best picture and its filmmaker, Dee Rees, was also
excluded from the directing race, but she landed a nod for adapted
screenplay.
German film "In The Fade," which won the Golden Globe for best
foreign language film and received praise for its lead star Diane
Kruger, was left out of the Oscar foreign language race.
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