The nominees for the Academy awards have been announced for this year. For me the most notable inclusions are "genre" films in the Best Picture category. It's unusual for genre films to get much love from the Academy in this category (Peter Jackson's The Return of the King is so far the only fantasy film to ever win Best Picture) so it will be interesting to see if either Guillermo Del Toro's fairy tale fantasy (The shape of water) or Jordan Peele's modern gothic horror (Get out) will take the out the Oscar. They're both up against more traditionally "Oscar-worthy" films in this category so it seems unlikely, in my opinion ( but if you're interested in knowing more, may I direct you to this graph showing how the genre preferences of the Academy for Best Picture stack up)
Oscar nominated movies must have opened in the previous calendar year, which means that some (but not all) of these films are now available in New Zealand. Flicks has a useful list of where and how you can watch the 2018 Oscar-nominated movies locally.
As for the library collection, below are the 2018 Oscar-nominated films available for loan on DVD or with tie-in reading material. See how many you can watch/read ahead of the awards ceremony on Sunday, 4 March (Monday, 5 March here if you're planning on watching live).
2018 Oscar nominated films available on DVD
- Baby driver (film editing, sound editing, sound mixing)
- Beauty and the beast (production design, costume design)
- The big sick (writing - original screenplay)
- Bladerunner 2049 (cinematography, visual effects, production design, sound editing, sound mixing)
- The Boss Baby (animated feature film)
- Dunkirk (best picture, directing, cinematography, production design, film editing, sound editing, sound mixing, original score)
- Get out (best picture, directing, actor in a leading role, writing - original screenplay)
- Guardians of the Galaxy, vol. 2 (visual effects)
- Kong: Skull Island (visual effects)
- Logan (writing - adapted screenplay)
- Victoria & Abdul (costume design, makeup and hairstyling)
- War for the planet of the apes (visual effects)
Related books and soundtracks
A number of this year's nominated films are either based on books or have tie-in titles or soundtracks, so you might want also want to check out:
- Baby driver
- Beauty and the beast
- The Boss Baby
- The Breadwinner (film nominated for animated feature)
- Call me by your name (film nominated for best picture, actor in a leading role, writing - adapted screenplay, original song)
- Darkest hour (film nominated for best picture, actor in a leading role, cinematography, production design, costume design, makeup and hairstyling)
- The disaster artist (film nominated for writing - adapted screenplay)
- Dunkirk
- Logan (film loosely based on the Old Man Logan comic book series)
- Molly's game (film nominated for writing - adapted screenplay)
- Mudbound (film nominated for actress in a supporting role, cinematography, writing - adapted screenplay, original song)
- Revolting Rhymes (film nominated for animated short)
- Star Wars: The last jedi (multiple tie-in books focusing on individual characters, design and vehicles - film nominated for visual effects, sound editing, sound mixing, original score)
- The story of Ferdinand (film "Ferdinand" nominated for animated feature)
- Victoria & Abdul
- Weta Workshops presents the world of Kong: A natural history of Skull Island
- Wonder (film nominated for makeup and hairstyling)
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