Academy Award nominations: The Shape of Water's record equalling 13 nods

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23 Jan, 2018 05:04 PM8 mins to read

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The Shape Of Water, starring Sally Hawkins and Octavia Spencer, has picked up the most nods at the 2018 Academy Awards.

The Shape Of Water, Dunkirk and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri received the most nods as the Academy Awards nominations 2018 were announced in Los Angeles this morning.

Christopher Plummer, 88, the actor who replaced disgraced Kevin Spacey at the very last minute, has received a Best Supporting Actor nomination

Other shock names included, musician Mary J. Blige who received her first Oscar nomination in the Best Supporting Actress category, and Octavia Spencer who became the first black actress to receive multiple nods ahead of the 90th annual awards.

Tiffany Haddish and Andy Serkis revealed the full list live from the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater, just under six weeks before the ceremony is due to take place.

The 90th annual Academy Awards will be held live from Los Angeles' Dolby Theater on March 4 and hosted by talk show host Jimmy Kimmel.

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Angelina Jolie was noticeably snubbed along with All The Money In The World star Michelle Williams and actor James Franco, who has been the subject of multiple sexual harassment claims in Hollywood.

Cambodian drama First They Killed My Father failed to make the list of nods in the Best Foreign Language Film category.

Directors Steven Spielberg and Ridley Scott were also missed when the 2018 nominations were announced.

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Tying the record set by Titanic in 1998, 13 nominations for The Shape of Water means the fantasy drama has surpassed awards season buzz.

The film was recognised in categories including Original Screenplay, Original Score, Cinematography, Best Supporting Actress and Best Actress, among others.

Set in the 1950s, the film follows a strange and beautiful relationship between an amphibious creature and a local janitor.

Octavia Spencer becomes the first black actress to receive multiple nominations at the Academy Awards, with a nod for The Shape of Water.

Octavia (who plays Zelda Fuller) and co-star Sally Hawkins (in the role of Elisa Esposito) are the standout stars from the production, earning Best Supporting Actress and Best Actress nods, respectively.

In 2017, Octavia became the first black actress to get a follow-up Oscar nomination after winning in 2012, but on Tuesday she made history by becoming nominated on multiple times.

British wartime flick Darkest Hour, along with its lead actor Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill, has been tipped for great things

As well as notable nods for Best Actor, which went to Gary Oldman, wartime film Darkest Hour got six nominations, compared to eight for fellow Brit flick Dunkirk.

Biographical drama Darkest Hour follows the early days of Winston Churchill as the British Prime Minister in which he must decide whether to negotiate with Hitler, or fight on against incredible odds.

Considered one of the biggest and best-received films of the year, Darkest Hour is already the talk of awards season and as such, a strong six nominations went to the production.

With his second Oscars nomination, British lead actor Oldman is hotly-tipped to win the Best Actor award for his portrayal of Churchill.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy was his first nomination for Best Actor in 2012, but he is hoping to go onto victory in 2018, following the run of critical acclaim.

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Meanwhile, Dunkirk, which stars Tom Hardy, Harry Styles and Mark Rylance, is about the code-named 'Operation Dynamo' evacuation of allied soldiers from the beaches in France during World War II.

The action film is nominated in the Film Editing, Director, Cinematography, Sound Editing and Best Picture categories, though the ensemble cast has not been recognised.

Crime drama Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri was previously said to be 'steamrollering' through awards season.

The film surrounds grieving mother Mildred Hayes (by actress Frances McDormand) who seeks justice for her daughter's rape and murder.

Dissatisfied with the work of the local police department, enraged Mildred constructs three unmissable billboards on the road leading out of Ebbing, designed to ask the major questions about the lacklustre investigation.

Biopic I, Tonya, which premiered in Sydney, Australia on Tuesday is the much-talked about skating film starring Margot Robbie as competitive ice skater Tonya Harding.

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For the film, the Australian leading actress has received her first ever acting nomination, five years after the success of her breakout role in Wolf Of Wall Street.

Up against her, Ladybird's leading lady Saoirse Ronan is hoping it will be third time lucky, as she is named in the Best Actress category, against The Shape of Water's Hawkins, Three Billboards' Frances McDormand and Meryl Streep for The Post, which will be her 21st nomination in total.

There was triumph for Ladybird in the Best Director category, as Greta Gerwig became the first female to pick up a nomination in eight years, with her four-times nominated teen film.

The coming-of-age comedy follows an artistically inclined seventeen-year-old girl (Saoirse) growing up with her mother in Sacramento, California.

In 85 out of 89 years of Academy Awards history, the film directors field has come back with an all-male list of nominations, which makes Greta only the fifth ever female name.

This year, in the 90th year, Greta will face strong competition from Christopher Nolan (Dunkirk), Jordan Peele (Get Out), Paul Thomas Anderson (Phantom Thread) and Guillermo del Toro (The Shape of Water).

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Another remarkable nod goes to US musician Mary J. Blige, who is the first person to be recognised in an acting category and a musical category in the same year.

Several films, and their stars have already experienced runaway success in the start to the 2018 awards season.

Sunday night's Screen Actors Guild Awards belonged to the film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

As well as taking the Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, castmembers Sam Rockwell and McDormand took the gongs for Male Actor in a Supporting Role and Female Actor in a Leading Role.

Before that, the Golden Globes once again highlighted the success of Three Billboards, which won Best Motion Picture - Drama.

Lady Bird took home Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy, and the film's star Saoirse Ronan won Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy.

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So far, Darkest Hour actor Oldman has won the Golden Globe award and the Screen Actors Guild for his role as Winston Churchill and is therefore hotly tipped for Oscars victory.

This will be the first Academy Awards ceremony since the sex scandal - brought on by multiple allegations made against producer Harvey Weinstein - which rocked Hollywood in 2017.

The fallout prompted Star Trek actor Anthony Rapp to go public with allegations that two-time Academy Award winning actor Kevin Spacey abused him when he was 14, and Spacey was 12 years his senior.

House Of Cards' Spacey was pulled from the production of one of this year's biggest films All The Money In The World, at the eleventh hour.

Just weeks before the film was due for release, scenes were completely reshot by leading actors Michelle Williams and Mark Wahlberg, with Christopher Plummer stepping into Spacey's shoes as the richest man in the world, J Paul Getty.

For his role in the thriller, about the high-profile kidnapping of his Getty's grandson, 88-year-old Plummer has now been nominated in the Best Supporting Actor category for his stunning last-minute performance.

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It is the only nomination that the film received, despite great expense incurred for the reshooting.

Other Best Supporting Actor nominations go to Willem Dafoe (The Florida Project), Woody Harrelson (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri), Richard Jenkins (The Shape of Water) and Sam Rockwell (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri).

Controversially, James Franco won Best Performance by an Actor - Musical or Comedy for The Disaster Artist at this year's Golden Globes, yet his attendance at the Oscars has been called into question, after harassment claims lodged against him.

He was noticeably left off the nominations list this year, despite denying the claims on late-night shows days before nomination voting closed last Friday.