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Fox Searchlight's fantasy drama "The Shape of Water," about a woman who falls in love with a strange river creature, led the Oscar nominations on Tuesday with 13 nods, including the top prize for best picture.

LOS ANGELES: Fox Searchlight's fantasy drama "The Shape of Water," about a woman who falls in love with a strange river creature, led the Oscar nominations on Tuesday with 13 nods, including the top prize for best picture.

It will contend with gay romance "Call Me By Your Name," British World War Two dramas "Darkest Hour" and "Dunkirk," racial thriller "Get Out," mother-daughter tale "Lady Bird," romance "Phantom Thread," press freedom movie "The Post" and dark comedy "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" for the best picture award at the Academy Awards ceremony in Hollywood on March 4.

"The Shape of Water" earned nominations in all major categories, including for its director Guillermo del Toro, and for actors Sally Hawkins, Richard Jenkins and Octavia Spencer.

"Dunkirk," from Warner Bros., followed with eight nominations, including for director Christopher Nolan. "Three Billboards," also from Fox Searchlight, had seven, including acting nods for Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson and Sam Rockwell.

Greta Gerwig became only the fifth woman ever to be nominated for a best director Oscar, for "Lady Bird." The movie also won a lead actress nomination for Saoirse Ronan and for supporting actress Laurie Metcalf. </s> NEW YORK (AP) — Guillermo del Toro's lavish monster romance "The Shape of Water" has landed a leading 13 nominations and Greta Gerwig became just the fifth woman nominated for best director by the Academy Awards.

"Mudbound" cinematographer Rachel Morrison made history as the first woman ever nominated in the category in nominations announced Tuesday.

The film academy voted in nine films as best picture contenders: "The Shape of Water," ''Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri," ''Lady Bird," ''Get Out," ''The Post," ''Dunkirk," ''Call Me By Your Name" and "Phantom Thread."

"The Shape of Water" came just shy of tying the record of 14 nominations shared by "All About Eve," ''Titanic" and "La La Land." </s> The Shape of Water triumphed in the closest Best Picture race in years to take the top prize at the 90th Academy Awards.

Guillermo Del Toro’s gorgeously envisioned and assembled film about a mute woman whose job ends up putting her in contact with a sea creature kept in captivity by shade government officials, only to befriend and ultimately fall in love with said creature, put Academy voters under its genre-blending, Old Hollywood-evoking spell.

Del Toro quoted Steven Spielberg from the podium, saying that the Oscar-winning director told him, “If you find yourself at the podium, remember that you are part of a legacy […] a world of filmmakers, and be proud of it.”

Del Toro dedicated the Best Picture win to young filmmakers around the world, saying, “Everyone that is dreaming of a parable, of using genre and fantasy to tell the 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.”

Going into Sunday night’s Academy Awards, while the acting races were all but sewn up, Best Picture was perhaps as wide open as it’s ever been. The Shape of Water entered with the most nominations (13), while Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri had triumphed at the Golden Globes, SAG Awards, and BAFTA, but director Martin McDonagh was surprisingly left off of Oscar’s Best Director ballot, opening the door for any number of possibilities.

In a reprise — or perhaps more accurately an exorcism — of last year’s Best Picture wrong-envelope-opening disaster, Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway emerged to once again present the Best Picture award. “It’s so nice seeing you again,” Beatty said to a crowd of nervous and wary A-listers. This time, nothing was left to chance.

With this win, The Shape of Water becomes the first film since Braveheart in 1995 to win Best Picture without so much as a nomination from the Screen Actors Guild in their Best Ensemble category. Despite some early defeats in the craft categories, Shape picked up awards for Production Design and Original Score before Del Toro took the Best Director trophy that pretty much everyone was predicting he would. </s> The Shape of Water has swept the 2018 Oscar nominations with 13 noms, including Best Picture and Best Director. And Get Out didn't disappoint with noms for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor. Actress-comedian Tiffany Haddish and actor-director Andy Serkis, joined by Academy President John Bailey, announced the 90th Academy Awards nominations today (January 23) live from the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater via a global live stream on Oscar.com, Oscars.org, the Academy's digital platforms, a satellite feed and broadcast media. Haddish and Serkis announced the nominees in 11 categories at 5:22 a.m. PT, with pre-taped category introductions by Academy members Priyanka Chopra, Rosario Dawson, Gal Gadot, Salma Hayek, Michelle Rodriguez, Zoe Saldana, Molly Shannon, Rebel Wilson and Michelle Yeoh. Haddish and Serkis announced the remaining 13 categories at 5:38 a.m. PT.

At 5:22 a.m. PST, the nominees were announced in the following categories: Cinematography, Costume Design, Film Editing, Makeup and Hairstyling, Original Score, Production Design, Animated Short Film, Live Action Short Film, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing and Visual Effects. At 5:38:30 a.m. PST, the nominees will be announced in the following categories (listed here in no particular order): Actor in a Leading Role, Actor in a Supporting Role, Actress in a Leading Role, Actress in a Supporting Role, Animated Feature Film, Directing, Documentary Feature, Documentary Short Subject, Foreign Language Film, Original Song, Best Picture, Adapted Screenplay and Original Screenplay.

Some of the big nominations in all categories went to Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, The Post, Lady Bird, Darkest Night, and Call Me by Your Name, Dunkirk and Phantom Thread, all of which garnered Best Picture nominations. When it all was said and done, Guillermo del Toro's The Shape of Water lead the way with 13 nominations, followed by Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk with eight nominations and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri with seven nominations.

Get Out filmmaker Jordan Peele became just the third filmmaker in Oscar history to receive nominations for writing and directing for his first feature film as a director. That feat was only accomplished by Warren Beatty for Heaven Can Wait (1978), nominations which he shared with Buck Henry, and James L. Brooks with Terms of Endearment (1983). Greta Gerwig also became just the fifth woman to be nominated for Best Director, followed by Lina Wertmüller for Seven Beauties (1976), Jane Campion for The Piano (1993), Sofia Coppola for Lost in Translation (2003) and Kathryn Bigelow, who won the award for The Hurt Locker (2009). Meryl Streep also extends her record as the most-nominated performer ever with 21 nominations with her nod for Best Actress for The Post.

Academy members from each of the 17 branches vote to determine the nominees in their respective categories - actors nominate actors, film editors nominate film editors, etc. In the Animated Feature Film and Foreign Language Film categories, nominees are selected by a vote of multi-branch screening committees. All voting members are eligible to select the Best Picture nominees. Active members of the Academy are eligible to vote for the winners in all 24 categories beginning Tuesday, February 20 through Tuesday, February 27. The 90th Oscars will be held on Sunday, March 4, 2018, at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood, and will be televised live on the ABC Television Network. The Oscars also will be televised live in more than 225 countries and territories worldwide. Here is the full list of winners. </s> We’re handicapping the odds on the nine Best Picture contenders for the March 4 Academy Awards. Today: The Shape of Water.

Guillermo del Toro made his finned infatuation fantasy as much for himself as for his audience, since he’s long adored movie monsters.

But The Shape of Water certainly has its hooks into Academy voters, who have given a leading 13 Oscar nominations to del Toro’s captivating tale of a mute cleaning woman who falls in love with a humanoid water creature.

It’s by far the obvious choice for a Best Picture win, a feeling bolstered by the many lead-up prizes the film has earned. But will it be the actual choice at Sunday’s awards ceremony, given that the preferential ballot for this category — and the vote-sharing it entails — often leads to surprise results?

I’m betting The Shape of Water will indeed take Best Picture, despite the fact there’s an omission the size of Moby Dick in its pre-Oscars school of awards fish: no nomination for Best Ensemble from the Screen Actors Guild. Only once before has a SAG ensemble non-nominee gone on to win Oscar’s Best Picture, and that was Braveheart in 1995. </s> New Delhi: The 90th Academy Awards have come to an end, where 'Shape of Water' was awarded the best picture Oscar.

In what had been considered the closest Oscar race in many years, the Guillermo del Toro directorial defeated strong competition from 'Get Out,' 'Lady Bird' and 'Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.'

"I want to dedicate this, to every young filmmaker, the youth that is showing us how things are done. Really, they are. In every country in the world," the 53-year-old helmer said.

The cold war-set fantasy thriller stars Sally Hawkins as a mute cleaning woman who discovers a bizarre aquatic-human hybrid in a tank at a secret government lab, and helps it escape.

The flick led to the Mexican filmmaker's first Oscar nod for best picture - though Del Toro was also nominated in 2007 for best original screenplay and best foreign language film for 'Pan's Labyrinth.'

Having led the nominations list with 13, 'The Shape of Water' won four Oscars, including best original score, director and best original design.

The film managed to bag an Oscar despite it being the subject of a plagiarism controversy in recent weeks,.

After the nominations were announced, the family of late playwright Paul Zindel launched legal action over "glaring similarities" between 'The Shape of Water' and Zindel's 1969 play 'Let Me Hear You Whisper.' </s> ABOVE: Michael Shannon confronts Sally Hawkins and Octavia Spencer in ‘The Shape of Water.’ Photo courtesy Fox Searchlight.

The 90th annual Academy Awards announced the nominations on Tuesday with “The Shape of Water” leading the pack with 13 nominations including Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay.

Gay love story “Call Me By Your Name” earned four nominations for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Song for “Mystery of Love” by Sufjan Stevens and Best Actor for Timothée Chalamet.

“A Fantastic Woman,” a Chilean film starring transgender newcomer Daniela Vega, also earned a nomination for Best Foreign Language Film.

Notable nominations this year include Jordan Peele (“Get Out”) and Greta Gerwig (“Lady Bird”) for Best Director. Peele is only the fifth African American director to receive the honor while Gerwig is only the fifth woman in the history of the awards to be nominated.

The 90th Academy Awards, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, airs on Sunday, March 4 on ABC.

Check out the 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”

Best Actress

 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”

Best Actor

 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”

Best Original Screenplay

 “The Big Sick”

 “Get Out”

 “Lady Bird”

 “The Shape of Water”

 “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”

Best Adapted Screenplay

 “Call Me by Your Name”

 “The Disaster Artist”

 “Logan”

 “Molly’s Game”

 “Mudbound”

Best Documentary Feature

 “Abacus (Small Enough to Jail)”

 “Faces/Places”

 “Icarus”

 “Last Men in Aleppo”

 “Strong Island”

Best Documentary Short

 “Eden and Eddie”

 “Heaven Is a Traffic Jam on the 405”

 “Heroin/e”

 “Knife Skills”

 “Traffic Stop”

Best Supporting Actor

 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”

Best Film Editing

 “Baby Driver”

 “Dunkirk”

 “I, Tonya”

 “The Shape of Water”

 “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”

Best 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”

Best Production Design

 “Beauty and the Beast”

 “Blade Runner 2049”

 “Darkest Hour”

 “Dunkirk”

 “The Shape of Water”

Best Costume Design

 “Beauty and the Beast”

 “Darkest Hour”

 “Phantom Thread”

 “The Shape of Water”

 “Victoria & Abdul”

Best Sound Editing

 “Baby Driver”

 “Blade Runner 2049”

 “Dunkirk”

 “The Shape of Water”

 “Star Wars: The Last Jedi”

Best Sound Mixing

 “Baby Driver”

 “Blade Runner 2049”

 “Dunkirk”

 “The Shape of Water”

 “Star Wars: The Last Jedi”

Best Original Score

 “Baby Driver”

 “Blade Runner 2049”

 “Dunkirk”

 “The Shape of Water”

 “Star Wars: The Last Jedi”

Best Original Song

 “Might River” (“Mudbound”)

 “The Mystery of Love” (“Call Me By Your Name”)

 “Remember Me” (“Coco”)

 “Stand Up for Something” (“Marshall”)

 “This is Me” (“The Greatest Showman”) </s> The Shape of Water, Guillermo del Toro’s surreal fantasy-romance, has won the Academy Award for best picture, beating out eight other films, including Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, which won the Golden Globe for best motion picture drama and was a serious contender for the top award at the Oscars.

In accepting the best picture Oscar on behalf of The Shape of Water, director del Toro said he wanted to dedicate his win to young filmmakers around the world. Best picture wasn’t the first award of the night for The Shape of Water — it went into the night with 13 nominations, the most of any film this year, and came away with four wins, including one for best original score and a best director win for del Toro.

The Shape of Water is a sci-fi love story, set in a rainy imagining of Baltimore in 1962. It’s a tale of outsiders — starring Sally Hawkins as Elisa, a mute woman who works as a janitor and lives alone above a movie theater, just one of the film’s many self-aware nods to the transformative powers of art.

Elisa’s only friends are her next-door neighbor Giles (Richard Jenkins), a heartbreakingly lonely gay man, and Zelda (played with down-to-earth compassion by Octavia Spencer), Elisa’s coworker and interpreter. Elisa befriends, saves and falls in love with a sea creature that’s being held captive in the government lab where she works.

The Shape of Water is, at different points, a Cold War drama, a heist movie and a fairytale. While less overtly political than some of its competitors in the best picture field — Get Out and The Post were both thought of and heralded as films specifically responding to the Trump era — the film’s portrayal of a sea monster brought to the U.S. from a South American river as an oppressed outsider can easily be read as an immigrant story. Speaking to Indiewire in November, del Toro discussed how making The Shape of Water had been an intensely personal process for him.

“This movie is a healing movie for me,” he said. “For nine movies I rephrased the fears of my childhood, the dreams of my childhood, and this is the first time I speak as an adult, about something that worries me as an adult. I speak about trust, otherness, sex, love, where we’re going. These are not concerns that I had when I was 9 or 7.” </s> Guillermo del Toro’s monster thriller The Shape of Water has won the Venice Film Festival’s top prize, the Golden Lion.

A jury led by American actress Annette Bening chose the film from among 21 competing at the 74th annual festival – an edition where the world’s social divisions and the spectre of climate change resonated through many of the entries.

The Shape of Water beat contenders including George Clooney’s Suburbicon and Alexander Payne’s Downsizing. In a four-star review, the Guardian’s Xan Brooks described it as “stylish and charming; red meat for the senses with some sugar on top”.

The runner-up Grand Jury Prize on Saturday went to Israeli director Samuel Maoz’s Foxtrot.

Palestinian actor Kamel El Basha and British actress Charlotte Rampling took the festival’s acting trophies.

The world’s oldest film festival wrapped up on Saturday after 11 days that brought stars including Clooney, Matt Damon and Jennifer Lawrence to the canal-crossed Italian city.
The Shape of Water wins a leading four awards, including Best Picture, followed by Dunkirk, which won three awards.