Oscars Serve Up Predictable Night With ‘Shape Of Water’ Taking Top Prize

Author: Beth Accomando / Source: KPBS Public Media

Photo caption: — Photo credit: A.M.P.A.S.

Guillermo del Toro proving that “The Shape of Water” did indeed win best picture Oscar, March 4, 2018.

The 90th Academy Awards took place last night, and the correct best picture winner was announced by Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty, unlike what happened last year.

OK, I have to admit I missed the chaos and unexpected moments of last year’s Oscars when Dunaway and Beatty announced that “La La Land” had won best picture of the year only to be corrected on the air and be told they needed to actually give the Oscar to “Moonlight” instead.

I felt bad for the filmmakers who had to hand off the award, but it did make for the most exciting finish of an Academy Awards show ever.

But last night’s show ran without any noticeable hitches and without much excitement. Almost everyone who won was predicted to win (you can check out all the winners here) and everyone behaved very nicely onstage even when he or she offered up political comments.

Older female celebrities such as Eva Marie Saint, Rita Moreno, Jane Fonda and Helen Mirren made up a good chunk of the presenters. It felt like a show where everyone was trying their best to say the right thing and be on their best behavior. It was as if Hollywood was saying, “Look we can do better” and those who felt outside of Hollywood were saying, “we want a change and for now we will ask for it in a polite manner.”

From left, Ashley Judd, Annabella Sciorra and Salma Hayek, three of the women who have accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual abuse and misconduct, took center stage at Sunday night’s Oscar ceremonies to introduce a video about Hollywood needing to allow for more diverse voices, March 4, 2018.

The Academy has been trying to rebound from the #OscarSoWhite hashtag that started a few years back.

It worked to purge some older, white male members and replace them with younger and more diverse new members.

It also succeeded this year in delivering a pretty diverse list of nominees and in actually handing out awards to some of those people like Guillermo del Toro and Jordan Peele. And the Oscar show made every effort to hit every politically correct button starting with host Jimmy Kimmel’s opening monologue addressing diversity, Me Too and Time’s Up movements to providing a montage of actors and filmmakers talking about what Hollywood needs to do to truly let more diverse voices have a platform. It also allowed three of Harvey Weinstein’s accusers, Ashley Judd, Annabella Sciorra and Salma Hayek to have center stage to address both the issue of sexual harassment and abuse in Hollywood and the need for more diversity in the industry.

The winners

“The Shape of Water” took home four of the 13 Oscars it was nominated for including the big wins for best picture and best director for Guillermo del Toro. Del Toro’s film is like a poster child for what the Academy seemed to want to say with the night. His film was about outsiders, and it included a mute woman, a gay, an African-American, and a non-human character plus a diversity of film genres. It was also co-written by a woman and was helmed by Mexican-born Del Toro. Del Toro identified himself and an “immigrant” and noted that he watched “foreign films” like “E.T.” growing up. His genuine and heartfelt speech provided the perfect close to the evening

“Growing up in Mexico I thought this could never happen,” Del Toro said in accepting his best picture Oscar. “It happens. And I want to tell you, everyone that is dreaming of a parable, of using genre or fantasy to tell stories about the things that are real in the world today, you can do it. This is a door, kick it open, and come in. Thank you very much.”