90th Academy Awards: Best Actor

Oscars 2018: Best Actor

With the Academy managing to get the winner of the Best Actor category absolutely spot on last year, with Casey Affleck's performance in Manchester By The Sea one of the best on-screen character depictions I have seen in recent history, the spoils this year all seem to be heading in the direction of Britain's own Gary Oldman, whose portrayal of Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour is one of uncanny excellence, a performance with much more credence and power than simply stating it's Oldman's "turn" to win an Oscar after being seemingly snubbed for previous nominations in a similar vein to Leonardo DiCaprio's seemingly odds on win for 2016's The Revenant. With Daniel Day Lewis shining as always in his so-called final role as Reynolds Woodcock in Paul Thomas Anderson's Phantom Thread and Daniel Kaluuya creating his own personal waves in Jordan Peele's Get Out, either performers would be worthy of awards success, whilst Timothée Chalamet and Denzel Washington fill up the remainder of the ballot paper for Call Me By Your Name and Roman J. Israel, Esq. respectively. In regards to missed nominations, Christian Bale's outstanding performance as Captain Joseph Blocker in Hostiles has been shockingly snubbed in every major awards ceremony worldwide, whilst the more out-of-there mind could argue Vince Vaughn's career changing role in Brawl In Cell Block 99 could easily have seen recognition too. Anyhow, here are the main points: 

Winner - Gary Oldman (Darkest Hour)

Personal Favourite - Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out)

Nomination Snub - Christian Bale (Hostiles)

90th Academy Awards: Best Picture

Oscars 2018: Best Picture

With the 90th Academy Awards set to take place on the 4th of March, we begin our examination of the nominations and major snubs in each of the major categories with the prestigious Best Picture nod, a category which features this year, nine movies vying for the chance to win the top prize and whilst the easiest course is to examine elsewhere where movies have done particularly well, including winners at the Golden Globes and BAFTA's, the Oscars do tend do pop out the odd surprise, with last year's Moonlight win being arguably being the most iconic in recent history. With the top two in contention for the prize being The Shape of Water and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, it would be great to see Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk potentially take away for the award, but with its' total snub at the BAFTA's, a ceremony with a predominantly British-centred gaze when it comes to choosing the winners, Nolan's Oscar vacuum may seemingly go on. Elsewhere, the likes of Get Out, Lady Bird and Call Me By Your Name prove that independent, ideas based movies continue to be recognised, whilst Darkest Hour and The Post seem to be the box-ticking historical dramas which although have a wide range of merits, really have no chance of taking home the award, and even with Paul Thomas Anderson's Phantom Thread potentially being the worthy outsider for the prize, it can be hard to argue between the top two favourites which have been dominating award ceremonies over the past few months. When it comes to nomination snubs, Denis Villeneuve's Blade Runner 2049 is the obvious misstep whilst the widely acclaimed Logan and Julia Ducournau's Raw are too movies which easily could have been chosen with an eye-widening and forward thinking Academy. Anyhow, here are the predictions...

Winner - Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Personal Favourite - Dunkirk

Nomination Snub - Blade Runner 2049