Best and funniest moments of Oscars 2018: The Shape of Water and Frances McDormand steal the show

The biggest night of Hollywood celebrated the best names of the industry, with The Shape of Water earning the Best Picture Oscar, and Gary Oldman of Darkest Hour and Frances McDormand of Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri winning the Best Actor and Best Actress Oscars, respectively. Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk bagged three honours: Best Film Editing, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing. Among animation films, Pixar’s Coco won the Best Animated Feature Film and Best Original Song Oscars. 

Here are the major takeaways of the 90th Academy Awards:

Jimmy Kimmel’s Oscar monologue

Jimmy Kimmel's monologue was a collection of quips on #MeToo, women empowerment and US president Donald Trump. He said the Oscar statue was perhaps the “most beloved and respected man in Hollywood” because he “keeps his hands where you can se them”, “never says a rude word” and, most importantly, has “no penis at all”.

Winners Sam Rockwell, Frances McDormand, Allison Janney and Gary Oldman (left to right). Photo: Reuters

Tribute to Shashi Kapoor, Sridevi

In a two-minute musical, Eddie Vedder performed "In Memoriam", paying tributes to artists the film industry lost in the past year: Bollywood stars Shashi Kapoor and Sridevi were remembered, along with former James Bond Roger Moore, French star Jeanne Moreau, actors Martin Landau and Harry Dean Stanton, actor and playwright Sam Shepard, and directors George Romero and Jonathan Demme.

Best Film

The Shape of Water, the fairy tale romance between a mute woman and a fish-man won in four categories: the Best Production Design, Original Score, Best Director and Best Picture. It is being seen as a victory for the genre of science fiction which has, for long, faced a bias.

Fish jokes floated on Twitter:

Jet Ski for shortest speech

Mark Bridges wins. Photo: Reuters

There was a Jet Ski for the shortest acceptance speech and Phantom Thread constume designer Mark Bridges won it. 

Frances McDormand and inclusion rider

Frances McDormand asks women to stand as she accepts the Oscar for Best Actress for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. Photo: Reuters

The Best Actress honour for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri was the second Oscar for Frances McDormand. Her speech was a winner too. "If I may be so honoured to have all female nominees in every category stand with me in this room tonight. Meryl (Streep), if you do it, everybody else will, come on,” she said. "Look around, look around... We all have stories to tell and projects we need financed. I have two words to leave with you tonight, ladies and gentleman: inclusion rider," she said.

This refers to a clause that can be inserted into contracts insisting that film casts and crews meet diversity. 

Guillermo and immigrant experience

Guillermo del Toro accepts the Oscar for Best Picture for The Shape of Water. Photo: Reuters

Best Director winner Guillermo del Toro spoke about the immigrant experience. The Shape of Water maker said, “We are living in a country all of our own. Part of it is here, part of it is Europe, part of it is everywhere. Everyone that is dreaming of using fantasy to tell the stories about things that are real in the world today, you can do it... This is the door. Kick it open and come in.”

Few female winners

Compared to 33 male artists, only six women, including two actresses, took home the Academy Awards this year. It is the lowest number of female winners since 2012.  

Finally Roger Deakins!

Roger Deakins wins the Best Cinematography Oscar for Blade Runner 2049 (Reuters)

Cinematographer Roger Deakins, who has been nominated 14 times, earned the much deserved honour! Finally, he got the Oscar for Blade Runner 2049. "I love my job. I have been doing it a long time as you can see," he said.

Meryl Streep memes

Was Meryl Streep caricaturing the fairy godmother from Shrek? Well, many felt so.

No prize for spotting the difference!

Is the font on envelopes bigger than the statue?

Last year, instead of Moonlight, La La Land was initially announced as the Best Picture winner. Dubbed “envelopegate”, it became the most shocking moment at the Oscars. This year, all eyes were on the envelopes and the choice of font didn’t escape the audience.

So long!

It was a long watch not because of the speeches, but for the montages.

House of Cards teaser during Oscar telecast

Netflix gave the world the first glimpse into the revamped final season of House of Cards following star Kevin Spacey’s departure during the Oscars telecast after the actor fielded child abuse allegations.

Also read: How not to remember Sridevi