Shape Of Water wins big at Oscars on activism-fuelled night, Latest Movies News - The New Paper
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Shape Of Water wins big at Oscars on activism-fuelled night

It won four of the 13 Academy Awards it was nominated for on an activism-fuelled night

Romantic fantasy The Shape Of Water won the Oscar for Best Picture on Sunday on a night where themes of female empowerment and activism almost overshadowed the awards.

The movie's Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro won Best Director, dashing the hopes of a rare win by a woman or a black film-maker.

The Shape Of Water, about a mute cleaning woman who falls in love with a strange river creature and is a fable about the mistreatment of the powerless, had gone into the ceremony with a leading 13 nominations. It won a total of four Academy Awards.

It won despite a plagiarism lawsuit filed in Los Angeles last month claiming its unusual plot was lifted from a 1969 American play.

Del Toro has denied ever seeing or hearing about the play.

Greta Gerwig's independent mother-daughter tale Lady Bird came away empty-handed while the racial satire Get Out got just one award - for Best Original Screenplay - despite speculation that its bold take on modern race relations might take the top prize.

"I stopped writing this movie about 20 times because I thought it was impossible. I thought it wasn't going to work," Get Out director and screenwriter Jordan Peele said.

Britain's Gary Oldman won his first Oscar for playing World War II leader Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour, while Frances McDormand's woman in a vengeful fury was a popular best actress winner for dark comedy Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

McDormand, 60, whose character seemed to channel the anger of the #MeToo movement that has dominated Hollywood and beyond, asked all the female nominees - across directing, cinematography, costumes and some 20 other categories - to stand up in the audience and be recognised.

"Look around, ladies and gentlemen," she urged the glittering crowd in the Dolby Theatre.

STORIES

"Because we all have stories to tell and projects we need financed."

Oscar host Jimmy Kimmel tackled Hollywood's sexual misconduct scandal with pointed jokes on a night that became a platform for activists on issues ranging from gun violence and the Black Lives Matter movement to sexism and immigration.

Activists also called for underrepresented film-makers to seize on the momentum of the past year.

Kimmel quipped that the tall golden Oscar statue itself was "the most beloved and respected man in Hollywood".

"He keeps his hands where you can see them, he never says a rude word and most importantly he has no penis at all. He is literally a statue of limitations. That is the kind of man we need more of," he said.

Elsewhere, awards were spread around, recognising first-timers, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues and films inspired by other cultures.

Gay romance Call Me By Your Name won Best Adapted Screenpla; A Fantastic Woman, Chile's groundbreaking story about a transgender woman, won Best Foreign Language Film; and Mexican-inspired Coco was named Best Animated Feature.

Sam Rockwell and Allison Janney took home their first Oscars for their supporting roles in Three Billboards and independent ice-skating movie I, Tonya respectively.

Rap artist Common and singer Andra Day brought the leaders of activist movements, including #MeToo and Black Lives Matter, onstage for a performance of their Oscar-nominated song Stand Up For Something.

Director Ava DuVernay, Salma Hayek, Kumail Nanjiani and others spoke in a video segment about progress in smashing barriers in the industry around racism and sexism.

Kenyan-Mexican actress Lupita Nyong'o and Pakistani-American Nanjiani also spoke out on behalf of America's so-called Dreamers - hundreds of thousands of young people whose parents brought them to the US illegally, and whose fate is now uncertain.

"Dreams are the foundation of Hollywood and dreams are the foundations of America," Nyong'o said. - REUTERS


MAIN WINNERS

BEST PICTURE

The Shape Of Water

BEST DIRECTOR

Guillermo del Toro (The Shape Of Water)

BEST ACTOR

Gary Oldman (Darkest Hour)

BEST ACTRESS

Frances McDormand (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Sam Rockwell (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Allison Janney (I, Tonya)

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

Coco

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Get Out

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Call Me By Your Name

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

Remember Me (Coco)

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