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 "The Shape of Water" earned a leading 13 nominations, including
nods for best picture, screenplay, director Guillermo del Toro
and actors Sally Hawkins, Richard Jenkins and Octavia Spencer.
The nominations for the Oscars, the highest honors in the
industry, were notable for their wide range and for embracing
stories about and by women and people of color.
"I've never seen such variety that I can remember. There's
something in there for everybody," said Laurie Metcalf,
nominated for her supporting role in "Lady Bird."
"Shape of Water" has been celebrated as a visual feast about a
woman who falls in love with a strange river creature.
"For 25 years, I've been preaching that the dark poetry and
emotion of my stories are fairytales for modern times," Mexican
director del Toro told Reuters.
Jenkins called it a film "about love and acceptance and empathy
and not being judgmental."
Sweeping British World War Two drama "Dunkirk," from Warner
Bros., followed with eight nominations, including for director
Christopher Nolan.
But Fox Searchlight's quirky "Three Billboards," about an angry
woman seeking justice for her daughter's murder, has dominated
Hollywood's awards season so far, winning the top prize at the
influential Screen Actors Guild awards on Sunday.
It got seven Oscar nods, with Golden Globe and Screen Actors
Guild winners Frances McDormand and Sam Rockwell competing in
the acting race, along with Woody Harrelson.
European betting firm Betway made "Three Billboards" favorite on
Tuesday to win best picture, closely followed by "The Shape of
Water."
The awards will be presented in Hollywood on March 4, hosted for
a second year by late night TV star Jimmy Kimmel.
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The six other best picture nominees are "Call Me By Your Name,"
a luscious coming of age gay romance set in Italy; British war
film "Darkest Hour," starring best actor front-runner Gary
Oldman as Winston Churchill; racial satire "Get Out";
mother-daughter tale "Lady Bird," disturbing romance "Phantom
Thread" starring Daniel Day-Lewis in what he says will be his
last movie; and press freedom movie "The Post."
"In a world that seems to be yearning for true statesmanship, to
see Churchill’s words and legacy resonate so strongly... leaves
us with full hearts today," the producers of "Darkest Hour" said
in a statement.
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Twentieth Century Fox and its independent film units dominated
the studio tally, with 27 nominations.
Following months of headlines about sexual misconduct in
Hollywood and beyond, and campaigns for female empowerment,
women and their stories resonated with the 8,000 voters of the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Greta Gerwig became only the fifth woman ever to be nominated
for a best director Oscar, for "Lady Bird." The movie also won a
nominations for stars Saoirse Ronan and Metcalf.
After two years of controversy over a largely white Oscar
line-up, people of color also did well. Mary J. Blige, Octavia
Spencer, Denzel Washington and Daniel Kaluuya all got acting
nods.
"Get Out," Jordan Peele's modern racial satire told in the form
of a thriller, won directing and screenplay nominations on top
of a coveted best picture nod.
"It was a big risk to make this movie and it could have gone
very wrong and the fact that everybody came together and made it
work was welcome," Peele told Reuters.
Interracial romantic comedy "The Big Sick" won a screenplay
nomination.
Meryl Streep, 68, extended her lead as the most-nominated actor
ever to 21, with her nomination for "The Post," Steven
Spielberg's drama about the Washington Post's decision to
publish secret papers about the Vietnam War.
Streep, starring as Post publisher Katharine Graham, said in a
statement she was honored by the nomination "for a film I love,
a film that stands in defense of press freedom, and inclusion of
women’s voices in the movement of history."
But there were plenty of first time nominees, including Timothee
Chalamet, 22, experiencing a sexual awakening in "Call Me By
Your Name," Margot Robbie and Allison Janney for ice-skating
movie "I, Tonya," and veteran British actress Lesley Manville
for "Phantom Thread."
(Reporting by Jill Serjeant and Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by
Frances Kerry)
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