2018 Oscars: 'The Shape of Water' scoops best picture, director

The annual Hollywood movie awards season climaxed with the most-nominated film, Guillermo del Toro's The Shape of Water, winning best picture and best director at the Oscars presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles.

It remained a favourite throughout the run-up and also took away minor Oscars original music score and production design.

In one of his two acceptance speeches, the Mexican-born director, producer and actor made a pitch for universal values:

"In the last 25 years I've been living in a country all of our own. Part of it is here, part of it is in Europe, part of it is everywhere. Because I think that the greatest thing our art does and our industry does is to erase the lines in the sand. We should continue doing that when the world tells us to make them deeper."

In the other major awards, Frances McDormand won best actress for Four Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, while Gary Oldman won actor for playing wartime prime minister Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour.

How they rate at box office
Box office returns are no guarantee of success, as a variety of political and other issues come into play from voting members of the academy.

In recent years, blockbusters have been ignored and this year's war epic, Dunkirk, is an exception. It was the 14th highest-grossing film in the US last year, just ahead of Get Out, a horror film with a racial theme.

The Shape of Water and Four Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri are ranked at 50th and 55th respectively.

Dunkirk also clicked with New Zealand audiences, coming in at fifth last year with box office takings of $4.1 million. The closest to this is the $1.9m from Darkest Hour, which depicts Churchill becoming Britain's leader during a week in June 1940 leading up to the Dunkirk evacuation. 

Darkest Hour has a New Zealand connection, as the screenplay is written by Anthony McCarten (Ladies Night), who was also a producer. 

Latest local box office returns show The Shape of Water at $636,000 after six weeks, while the revenge thriller Three Billboard Outside Ebbing, Missouri has $1.7m (eight weeks) and newspaper drama The Post is at $1.2 m (seven weeks). None of the four other best picture nominations has cracked the $1m mark.

The full list, with winners in bold, is:

Best motion picture of the year
Call Me by Your Name
Darkest Hour
Dunkirk
Get Out
Lady Bird
Phantom Thread
The Post
The Shape of Water
Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri

Performance by an actress in a leading role
Sally Hawkins in The Shape of Water
Frances McDormand in Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri
Margot Robbie in I, Tonya
Saoirse Ronan in Lady Bird
Meryl Streep in The Post

Performance by an actor in a leading role
Timothée Chalamet in Call Me by Your Name
Daniel Day-Lewis in Phantom Thread
Daniel Kaluuya in Get Out
Gary Oldman in Darkest Hour
Denzel Washington in Roman J Israel, Esq

Performance by an actress in a supporting role
Mary J Blige in Mudbound
Allison Janney in I, Tonya
Lesley Manville in Phantom Thread
Laurie Metcalf in Lady Bird
Octavia Spencer in The Shape of Water

Performance by an actor in a supporting role
Willem Dafoe in The Florida Project
Woody Harrelson in Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri
Richard Jenkins in The Shape of Water
Christopher Plummer in All the Money in the World
Sam Rockwell in Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri

Animated feature film
The Boss Baby
The Breadwinner
Coco
Ferdinand
Loving Vincent

Cinematography
Roger A Deakins, Blade Runner 2049
Bruno Delbonnel, Darkest Hour
Hoyte van Hoytema, Dunkirk
Rachel Morrison, Mudbound
Dan Laustsen, The Shape of Water

Costume design
Jacqueline Durran, Beauty and the Beast
Jacqueline Durran, Darkest Hour
Mark Bridges, Phantom Thread
Luis Sequeira, The Shape of Water
Consolata Boyle, Victoria & Abdul

Directing
Christopher Nolan, Dunkirk
Jordan Peele, Get Out
Greta Gerwig, Lady Bird
Paul Thomas Anderson, Phantom Thread
Guillermo del Toro, The Shape of Water

Documentary feature
Abacus: Small Enough to Jail
Faces Places
Icarus, Bryan Fogel and Dan Cogan
Last Men in Aleppo
Strong Island

Documentary short subject
Edith+Eddie
Heaven Is a Traffic Jam on the 405, Frank Stiefel
Heroin(e)
Knife Skills
Traffic Stop

Film editing
Paul Machliss and Jonathan Amos, Baby Driver
Lee Smith, Dunkirk
Tatiana S Riegel, I, Tonya
Sidney Wolinsky, The Shape of Water
Jon Gregory, Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri

Foreign language film of the year
A Fantastic Woman (Chile)
The Insult (Lebanon)
Loveless (Russia)
On Body and Soul (Hungary)
The Square (Sweden)

Makeup and hairstyling
Kazuhiro Tsuji, David Malinowski and Lucy Sibbick, Darkest Hour
Daniel Phillips and Lou Sheppard, Victoria & Abdul
Arjen Tuiten, Wonder

Music written for motion pictures (Original score)
Hans Zimmer, Dunkirk
Jonny Greenwood, Phantom Thread
Alexandre Desplat, The Shape of Water
John Williams, Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Carter Burwell, Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri

Music written for motion pictures (Original song)
Mighty River from Mudbound. Music and lyric by Mary J Blige, Raphael Saadiq and Taura Stinson
Mystery Of Love from Call Me by Your Name. Music and lyric by Sufjan Stevens
Remember Me from Coco. Music and lyric by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez
Stand Up For Something from Marshall. Music by Diane Warren Lyric by Lonnie R Lynn and Diane Warren
This Is Me from The Greatest Showman. Music and lyric by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul

Production design
Beauty and the Beast Production Design: Sarah Greenwood. Set decoration: Katie Spencer
Blade Runner 2049 Production design: Dennis Gassner. Set decoration: Alessandra Querzola
Darkest Hour Production design: Sarah Greenwood. Set decoration: Katie Spencer
Dunkirk Production design: Nathan Crowley. Set decoration: Gary Fettis
The Shape of Water Production design: Paul Denham Austerberry. Set decoration: Shane Vieau and Jeff Melvin

Animated short film
Dear Basketball
Garden Party
Lou
Negative Space
Revolting Rhymes

Live action short film
DeKalb Elementary
The Eleven O’Clock
My Nephew Emmett
The Silent Child, Chris Overton and Rachel Shenton
Watu Wote/All of Us

Sound editing
Baby Driver
Blade Runner 2049
Dunkirk, Alex Gibson and Richard King
The Shape of Water
Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Sound mixing
Baby Driver
Blade Runner 2049
Dunkirk, Mark Weingarten, Gregg Landaker and Gary Rizzo
The Shape of Water
Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Visual effects
Blade Runner 2049
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2
Kong: Skull Island
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
War for the Planet of the Apes

Adapted screenplay
Call Me by Your Name, James Ivory
The Disaster Artist
Logan
Molly’s Game
Mudbound

Original screenplay
The Big Sick
Get Out, Jordan Peele
Lady Bird
The Shape of Water
Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri

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