90th Academy Awards
The 90th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2017, and took place at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. The ceremony was held on March 4, 2018, rather than its usual late-February date to avoid conflicting with the 2018 Winter Olympics. During the ceremony, AMPAS presented Academy Awards (commonly referred to as Oscars) in 24 categories. The ceremony, which was televised in the United States by ABC, was produced by Michael De Luca and Jennifer Todd and directed by Glenn Weiss . Comedian Jimmy Kimmel hosted for the second consecutive year. In related events, the Academy held its 9th Annual Governors Awards ceremony at the Grand Ballroom of the Hollywood and Highland Center on November 11, 2017. On February 10, 2018, in a ceremony at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, the Academy Scientific and Technical Awards were presented by host Patrick Stewart. "The Shape of Water" won four awards, including Best Picture. Other winners included "Dunkirk" with three awards, "Blade Runner 2049", "Coco", "Darkest Hour", and "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" with two awards, and "Call Me by Your  Name", "Dear Basketball", "A Fantastic Woman", "Get Out", "Heaven Is a Traffic Jam on the 405", "I, Tonya", "Icarus", "Phantom Thread", and "The Silent Child" with one. With a viewership of 26.5million, it is the third-least watched ceremony since Nielsen began keeping track of the ratings records. Winners and nominees. The nominees for the 90th Academy Awards were announced on January 23, 2018, at 5:22 a.m. PST (13:22 UTC), at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, California, by actors Tiffany Haddish and Andy Serkis. "The Shape of Water" led all nominees with thirteen nominations; "Dunkirk" came in second  with eight. The winners were announced during the awards ceremony on March 4, 2018. Greta Gerwig became the fifth woman to be nominated for Best Director. At age 22, Best Actor nominee Timothée Chalamet was the third-youngest person nominated in that category and the youngest since 19-year-old Mickey Rooney for his role in "Babes in Arms" in 1939. At age 88, Best Supporting Actor nominee Christopher Plummer became the oldest ever performer nominated for a competitive Oscar. By virtue of her nominations for Best Supporting Actress and Best Original Song for "Mudbound", Mary J. Blige was the  first person to be nominated for both acting and songwriting in the same year. At age 89, Best Adapted Screenplay winner James Ivory became the oldest winner of a competitive Oscar. Jordan Peele was the first African American winner for Best Original Screenplay. Rachel Morrison became the first woman nominated for Best Cinematography. In the same field, Roger Deakins won his first Oscar from 14 nominations (starting with 1994's "The Shawshank Redemption"). Awards. Winners are listed first, highlighted in boldface, and indicated with a double dagger (). Governors Awards. The Academy held its 9th annual Governors Awards ceremony on November  11, 2017, during which the following awards were presented: Presenters and performers. The following individuals, listed in order of appearance, presented awards or performed musical numbers. Ceremony information. Despite the mixed reception received by the preceding year's ceremony, the Academy rehired Michael De Luca and Jennifer Todd as producers for the second consecutive year. In May 2017, it was announced that Jimmy Kimmel would return as host for a second consecutive year. “Mike and Jennifer produced a beautiful show that was visually stunning. And Jimmy proved, from his opening monologue all the way through a finale we could never  have imagined, that he is one our finest hosts in Oscar history,” said AMPAS president Cheryl Boone Isaacs in a press release announcing the return of the show's producers and hosts. Kimmel expressed that he was thrilled to be selected to emcee the gala again, commenting, "Hosting the Oscars was a highlight of my career and I am grateful to Cheryl [Boone Isaacs], Dawn [Hudson], and the Academy for asking me to return to work with two of my favorite people, Mike De Luca and Jennifer Todd. If you think we screwed up the ending this year, wait until  you see what we have planned for the 90th anniversary show!" Kimmel became the first person to host consecutive ceremonies since Billy Crystal hosted the 69th and 70th ceremonies held in 1997 and 1998 respectively. Several others participated in the production of the ceremony and related events. Harold Wheeler served as musical director for the ceremony. Production designer Derek McLane designed a new stage for the ceremony which prominently featured a curtain made of forty-five million Swarovski crystals. During the nominations announcement, several vignettes featuring Priyanka Chopra, Rosario Dawson, Gal Gadot, Salma Hayek, Michelle Rodriguez, Zoe Saldana, Molly Shannon , Rebel Wilson and Michelle Yeoh were shown before several categories highlighting the importance of below-the-line crafts in the film production. Four days prior to the ceremony, the Academy in conjunction with the Los Angeles Philharmonic hosted a special concert at the Walt Disney Concert Hall highlighting the Best Original Score nominees and the involvement of music in the film making process. During the performance of Best Song nominee "Stand for Something", ten individuals such as activist Dolores Huerta, Me Too movement founder Tarana Burke, chef and humanitarian José Andrés, and author Janet Mock appeared onstage to represent people  who epitomized the message of the song. In view of the previous year's Best Picture announcement error, actors Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway returned to present the award again. Traditionally, the previous year's Best Actor winner usually presented the Best Actress award. However, Best Actor winner Casey Affleck reportedly decided not to attend the ceremony due to his sexual harassment accusations. Jodie Foster and Jennifer Lawrence presented the award together in his place. The Best Actor award was presented by actresses Jane Fonda and Helen Mirren. Box office performance of Best Picture nominated films. At the time of  the nominations announcement on January 23, 2018, the combined gross of the nine Best Picture nominees at the North American box offices was $568.2 million, with an average of $63.1 million per film. When the nominations were announced, "Dunkirk" was the highest-grossing film among the Best Picture nominees with $188 million in domestic box office receipts. "Get Out" was the second-highest-grossing film with $175.6 million, followed by "The Post" ($45.7 million), "Darkest Hour" ($41 million), "Lady Bird" ($39.1 million), "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" ($32.2 million), "The Shape of  Water" ($30.4 million), "Call Me by Your Name" ($9.1 million), and "Phantom Thread" ($6.3 million). Critical reviews. The show received a mixed reception from media publications. Some media outlets received the broadcast positively. Hank Stuever of "The Washington Post" remarked, "In his second year, Kimmel has shown that the telecast needn't be anything but sharp and sure, with a funny host whose bits are manageable, shareable and – best of all – forgotten. We're not making showbiz history here; we're just trying to get through another Oscar night." CNN's Brian Lowry quipped, "The Oscars are  a big, unwieldy beast, which invariably try to serve too many masters. Yet if the intent was ultimately to maintain a celebratory tone without ignoring either the outside world or the elephant in the room throughout this year's awards, host Jimmy Kimmel and the show itself largely succeeded." Television critic Daniel Fienberg of "The Hollywood Reporter" wrote, "How did Kimmel do overall? With the exception of the theater stunt and two unnecessary toss-off Matt Damon jokes — Kimmel really can't resist — I thought he was good, probably even better than last year." Others were more critical of the  show. Television critic Maureen Ryan of "Variety" said, "All things considered, the show had a more or less low-key vibe. Normally it takes about two hours for the numbing effect to set in, but despite host Jimmy Kimmel's best efforts, Sunday's telecast started to feel a bit languid and low-energy far earlier." She also added, "The ceremony probably felt so ambiguous and conflicted in part because everyone in that room — and many at home — know how much more work needs to be done before true inclusion is the norm and all the offenders are driven from  the industry." "Time" television columnist Daniel D'Addario commented, "Kimmel, a talk show host who has been inspiring and catalyzing in the past year while discussing issues personally connected to him, seemed flat and uninspired in his monologue when dealing with topics that demanded laceration." David Wiegand of the "San Francisco Chronicle" wrote, "Even the hope that the noise of clapping might keep the audience at home and in the theater awake, there was little of that for anything except the entrance of actors of advance age." Ratings and reception. The American telecast on ABC drew in an average of 26.5  million people over its length, which was a 19% decrease from the previous year's ceremony. The show also earned lower Nielsen ratings compared to the previous ceremony with 14.9% of households watching the ceremony. In addition, it garnered a lower 18–49 demo rating with a 6.8 rating among viewers in that demographic. At the time, it earned the lowest viewership for an Academy Award telecast since figures were compiled beginning with the 46th ceremony in 1974. In July 2018, the ceremony presentation received eight nominations for the 70th Primetime Emmy Awards. Two months later, the ceremony won one of  those nominations for Glenn Weiss's direction of the telecast. Section::::"In Memoriam". The annual "In Memoriam" segment was introduced by Jennifer Garner. Singer Eddie Vedder performed the Tom Petty song "Room at the Top" during the tribute. External links. Official websites News resources Analysis Other resources