‘Get Out’ and ‘The Shape of Water’ Come up Big with Oscar Nominations

Awards shows are lame and really don’t matter . . . but boy am I super happy right now.  2017 was a great year for horror and the movie industry has been doing a surprising job of recognizing that fact with all the awards and accolades handed out to films like “Get Out” and “The Shape of Water.”  And while that’s all been great, the real test has been how the Oscars would handle their nominations.  Well, it warms my cold heart to say that the Academy has made it rain on the horror genre and given out 18 nominations to three movies.

Let’s start with the movie that received a grand total of 13 nominations today: “The Shape of Water.”  First of all, that’s a pretty damn impressive number considering the most any movie has ever gotten is 14.  Secondly, I’m honestly shocked the “The Shape of Water” has gotten as much love as it has.  Don’t get me wrong, I loved the hell out of it, but I didn’t think it would be the kind of thing that would appeal to award shows.  It’s pretty incredible to see all the love Guillermo Del Toro has gotten and, even it doesn’t win the awards listed below, it’s great to see him finally getting broader recognition. So here’s what “The Shape of Water” is nominated for:

• Best Picture
• Lead Actress – Sally Hawkins
• Supporting Actor – Richard Jenkins
• Supporting Actress – Octavia Spencer
• Director – Guillermo Del Toro
• Original Screenplay – Guillermo Del Toro and Vanessa Taylor
• Cinematography – Dan Laustsen
• Film Editing – Sidney Wolinsky
• Sound Editing – Nathan Robitaille and Nelson Ferreira
• Sound Mixing – Glen Gauthier, Christian Cooke and Brad Zoern
• Production Design – Paul D. Austerberry, Jeffrey A. Melvin, and Shane Vieau
• Original Score – Alexandre Desplat
• Costume Design – Luis Sequeira

Of course, “The Shape of Water” will be facing off against some pretty stiff competition in each category and in the Best Picture category it’ll be up against eight other films including the other big horror frontrunner “Get Out.” The Jordan Peele directed movie took four nominations today and here they are:

• Best Picture
• Lead Actor – Daniel Kaluuya
• Director – Jordan Peele
• Original Screenplay – Jordan Peele

And if you’ve been keeping count, then you’ll know that we’re only at 17 nominations so far.  So who was the mystery final nomination for? Well it’s for none other than “King Kong: Skull Island” which nabbed a nomination for Visual Effects.

The Oscars will air on ABC on March 4th, be sure to get your Team Guillermo shirts ready to go.