2018 Oscar Nominations came out this morning, which means you’ve already seen them if you give any kind of a shit (if you don’t but now you’re embarrassed, the list is included here). That being said, most women have not been kept up at night wondering whether Blade Runner 2049 will be nominated for sound editing—we’ve been wondering whether the combined forces of #MeToo and #TimesUp (or “The Weinstein Effect,” as Deadline refers to it) were enough to get Hollywood to start paying attention to the women they’ve overlooked. And while a small, solid gold statue isn’t exactly turning back the clock on inequality, it’s a lovely gesture that every one of us would accept, and a lot better than anything the US Government has offered up as its own sexual assault dirty laundry has been aired. In light of the revelation that Hollywood is a criminal hell pit of highly confident rapists recent events, let’s take a closer look at how the Academy’s nominations played out (specifically, men v. women nominated, duh).
Overall Nominations: The Numbers
After analyzing every single person specifically (aka excluding Best Picture/Best Foreign Film) given an Oscar nomination this year, I reached the following conclusions: 1) Hollywood names are gender neutral AF (or maybe just men’s names, since every name I Googled to make sure wound up being a man) and 2) there’s been some progress, but this list is still laughably male-oriented. The breakdown: 66 of the nominations handed out were for men/all-male groups, while only 42 nominations were given a group/individual involving even a single woman. On the individual level, it’s even worse—44 women were nominated, compared to 136 men. This means most of the teams nominated had a gender ratio that shouldn’t be seen outside of Bachelorette group dates (aka 12 men to 1 woman), and also means that Hollywood still seems to have a hard time trusting women to make movies all on their own. Sigh.
The Worst Categories
While I’ll never demand that women go into a profession that forces them to sit in a dark room all day for the sake of equality (*cough* Sound Mixing *cough*), I’ll also never err on the side of assuming fewer women are in a certain profession for a lack of interest. Traditionally, institutional misogyny plays more of a role in blocking women from certain roles, so I’ll go ahead and drag the following categories with a clear conscience. For Sound Editing, we have 9 male nominees and 0 women. For Sound Mixing, we have 15 male nominees, and 1 woman (somehow even worse?). For Original Score, we have 5 men and 0 women. For Visual Effects, TWENTY men, and 0 women. And of course, for both Directing and Cinematography, 4 men vs. 1 woman (though at least Greta Gerwig’s Golden Globe snub was reversed, and Rachel Morrison is actually the first female cinematographer to EVER be nominated. Wow).
The Best Categories
And the reverse categories! In Costume Design, we have 3 women nominated and 2 men. In Production Design, we have 5 women nominated and…oh wait, still 5 men. I thought Original Screenplay was one of the better categories too, but turns out that’s 3 women and 4 men. And Animated Feature, where 4/5 nominees included a woman on the team? 4 women, 8 men. Okay, I’ve sensed the pattern and give up. Costume Design is the only category for 2018 where more women are nominated than men. Jesus.
The takeaway here? While it’s very nice of the Academy to take a year off from showering Woody Allen in gold, and take a cue from James Franco’s sexual assault allegations that it was okay not to like The Disaster Artist, there’s still a long way to go in terms of creating a genuinely equal workforce in Hollywood (spoiler: the race breakdown on this list looks even worse). So let’s hope all the badass women who did make this list go on to win, be promoted, and start some female-dominated studios—if for no other reason than the fact that I’d love to see the female version of an Entourage movie in 2020.
This morning, Hollywood woke up early to congratulate itself on another great year, and by that we mean the Oscar nominations were announced. It’s not a very surprising list this year, with most of the favorites from other awards shows showing up in force, but there are a few interesting choices to analyze. The actual Oscars are in March this year because of the Olympics, so you might actually have time to see a few of the movies, imagine that!
Surprise: Greta Gerwig
Let’s hear it for the LADIES!!! Greta Gerwig landed a nomination for directing Lady Bird, becoming just the fifth woman EVER to be nominated in this category. Lady Bird is amazing and Greta is very deserving, so this is only really a surprise because the Academy usually prefers, um, white dudes. Four for you Greta, you go Greta.
Snub: James Franco
After the super shocking revelation this month that James Franco is a fucking creep, it was unclear whether the voting period was late enough to stop him from getting an Oscar nomination for The Disaster Artist. He may have won the Golden Globe, but when it comes to the Oscars he’s officially canceled. Bye!!!
Surprise: ‘Darkest Hour’
Gary Oldman (aka Sirius Black) has been winning every major award for his performance as Winston Churchill, but Darkest Hour got a surprising invite to the Best Picture party. If you’re trying to watch all the nominated movies, sorry but you’re going to have to sit through two hours of World War II shit. We don’t make the rules here.
Snub: Tiffany Haddish
Tiffany Haddish was the surprise breakout star of the summer in Girls Trip, and she generated some modest awards buzz, but the Academy decided to go with five less surprising choices. Apparently even the best delivery of lines like “BOOTY HOLE” don’t win you an Oscar, go figure.
Surprise: Netflix
Netflix’s original movie Mudbound made a big splash, landing four nominations, including Supporting Actress for Mary J. Blige. Yeah, that’s right, Mary J. Blige can act, and you can witness it for yourself on Netflix without even leaving your bed. Rachel Morrison also became the first woman ever (!!!) to be nominated for Best Cinematography, so she deserves to get wasted on a Tuesday.
Snub-ish: Actors of Color
Remember a few years ago when the Academy failed to nominate any non-white actor for two fucking years in a row? Well, things have gotten a little better, but not good enough. This year, four out of 20 acting nominees are black, and the rest are white AF. We love Meryl Streep, but come on.
Surprise: ‘Get Out’
Get Out came away with four nominations, all in major categories: Best Picture, Actor, Director, and Original Screenplay. It deserved recognition, but still surprising that the Academy actually embraced a horror movie centered around black people that came out in February. Also let this sink in: two years ago, Jordan Peele was known as “the short one from Key & Peele.” Now he’s a double Oscar nominee.
Snub: ‘Fifty Shades Darker’
It’s just not fair at this point. What do Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey have to do to get a little respect around here? For the second movie in a row, they’ve been completely ignored by the Oscars. They have one more movie coming out next month, so we’ll keep our fingers crossed for a Best Picture nomination next year.
Surprise: ‘Beauty And The Beast’
Yeah I know it was only nominated for Costume Design and Production Design, but didn’t this movie come out at least three years ago? What year is it? Who am I?
Read the full list of nominees below.
Best picture
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
Directing
Christopher Nolan (Dunkirk)
Jordan Peele (Get Out)
Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird)
Paul Thomas Anderson (Phantom Thread)
Guillermo Del Toro (The Shape Of Water)
Actress in a leading role
Sally Hawkins (The Shape Of Water)
Frances McDormand (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri)
Margot Robbie (I, Tonya)
Saoirse Ronan (Lady Bird)
Meryl Streep (The Post)
Actor in a leading role
Timothée Chalamet (Call Me By Your Name)
Daniel Day-Lewis (Phantom Thread)
Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out)
Gary Oldman (Darkest Hour)
Denzel Washington (Roman J. Israel, Esq.)
Writing (original screenplay)
The Big Sick
Get Out
Lady Bird
The Shape Of Water
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Writing (adapted screenplay)
Call Me By Your Name
The Disaster Artist
Logan
Molly’s Game
Mudbound
Animated feature film
The Boss Baby
The Breadwinner
Coco
Ferdinand
Loving Vincent
Music (original song)
“Mighty River” (Mudbound)
“Mystery of Love” (Call Me By Your Name)
“Remember Me” (Coco)
“Stand Up for Something” (Marshall)
“This is Me” (The Greatest Showman)
Documentary (feature)
Abacus: Small Enough To Jail
Faces Places
Icarus
Last Men In Aleppo
Strong Island
Documentary (short subject)
Edith + Eddie
Heaven Is A Traffic Jam On The 405
Heroin(e)
Knife Skills
Traffic Stop
Foreign language film
A Fantastic Woman
The Insult
Loveless
On Body And Soul
The Square
Actor in a supporting role
Willem Dafoe (The Florida Project)
Woody Harrelson (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri)
Richard Jenkins (The Shape Of Water)
Christopher Plummer (All The Money In The World)
Sam Rockwell (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri)
Actress in a supporting role
Mary J. Blige (Mudbound)
Allison Janney (I, Tonya)
Lesley Manville (Phantom Thread)
Laurie Metcalf (Lady Bird)
Octavia Spencer (The Shape Of Water)
Makeup and hairstyling
Darkest Hour
Victoria & Abdul
Wonder
Film editing
Baby Driver
Dunkirk
I, Tonya
The Shape Of Water
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
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
Music (original score)
Dunkirk
Phantom Thread
The Shape Of Water
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Short film (live action)
DeKalb Elementary
The Eleven O’Clock
My Nephew Emmett
The Silent Child
Watu Wote/All Of Us
Short film (animated)
Dear Basketball
Garden Party
Lou
Negative Space
Revolting Rhymes
Sound mixing
Baby Driver
Blade Runner 2049
Dunkirk
The Shape Of Water
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Sound editing
Baby Driver
Blade Runner 2049
Dunkirk
The Shape Of Water
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Costume design
Beauty And The Beast
Darkest Hour
Phantom Thread
The Shape Of Water
Victoria & Abdul
Cinematography
Blade Runner 2049
Darkest Hour
Dunkirk
Mudbound
The Shape Of Water
Production design
Beauty And The Beast
Blade Runner 2049
Darkest Hour
Dunkirk
The Shape Of Water
