The 2018 Oscar nominations are in

Rebecca Loncar, Staff Writer

The 2018 Oscars are fast approaching and the nominees have been announced. With that, there were some snubs and some surprises.

One of the perhaps, biggest surprises of the nominations this year was the fact that Christopher Nolan’s critically acclaimed “Dunkirk,” received only 8 nominations and is second in the nominations only behind “The Shape of Water,” which received 13 total nominations.

The category of Best Director has some of the most popular discussions right now with nominees including Christopher Nolan with “Dunkirk”, who has never actually won Best Director, despite his stunning work in films such as “The Dark Knight” trilogy. “Lady Bird”’s Greta Gerwig is the fifth woman to be nominated for the award and “Get Out”’s Jordan Peele is the fifth black director for the award.

Best Film Editing was snubbed of another excellent option in an otherwise complete list, only missing “All the Money in the World”’s editor Claire Simpson. Her work isn’t as showy as “Dunkirk”’s Lee Smith, but she did completely re-edit in nine days all the scenes with Kevin Spacey who was replaced by Christopher Plummer.

It wasn’t a shock when “Beauty and the Beast”’s costume designer, Jacqueline Durran, was announced as an option for Best Costume Design, with Belle’s gorgeous golden dress and the beast’s magnificent work of costuming. Katharine Graham’s work in “The Post” is getting snubbed with no nomination however, which is a total loss.

“Get Out”’s leading actor, Daniel Kaluuya, is a good contender for Best Actor for his outstanding work in his expressions for “Get Out”. He is up against Daniel Day-Lewis, and Denzel Washington.

This category has served some controversy over who  will take home the Oscar. Many seem to favor Daniel Day-Lewis or Gary Oldman, but this is anyone’s game this year. James Franco and Tom Hanks were both snubbed a nomination, being beaten out by Denzel Washington. Franco’s snub may have been due to sexual assault accusations by five women. Hank’s however, just straight up got snubbed a nomination for his wonderful performance in “The Post.”

It’s no surprise that Sally Hawkins is up for Best Actress for her performance in “The Shape of Water”. Meryl Streep’s role in “The Post” landed her a nomination as well.

This category is one to be watching this year with so many good nominations. Margot Robbie from “I, Tonya”, Saoirse Ronan from “Lady Bird”,  and Frances McDormand with “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”, also all snagged nominations for the prestigious category.

“Logan” has broken an unlucky streak for “superhero” movies recently.

Superhero movies however with comic book origins tend to not be up to par with the Academy’s standards. “Logan”, however has broken this streak with a nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.

All in all, the list this year is excellent, with only a few losses of movies that deserved the nom. The lists are in and let the best movies win. Tune into The 90th Annual Academy Awards (The Oscars) on March 4 2018.