Have seen um all as well besides Three Billboards and The Post - will see them both soon though! Heard really mixed reviews about TB so I'm going in with low expectations to make sure I won't feel dissatisfied. Frances hardly dissapoints, so we'll see how it is! The Post looks like plain-old oscar bait though, so I'm going in to that with actually really low expectations. May be surprised, although I doubt it.

From the films I have seen, here are my opinions:

Call Me By Your Name really stuck with me and resonated with me on a personal level - also just the the subtle way of story-telling I found very admirable. Also - entirely agree with you guys about Visions of Gideon being the better and more impactful song. That final scene was heartbreaking and amazing at the same time, Timothee is quite the actor!!

Lady Bird was okay, I saw it a couple times, and though it's very down to earth and chill in it's storytelling, just whenever I look back on it - it seems to me that it was incredibly over-hyped pre-release which most people now feel like they have to follow the herd of critics by calling it the best film of the year, which lol no. Definitely not. Still a great directorial debut that I enjoyed watching.

Phantom Thread was great! It had that signature-style of zany storytelling that PTA is known for - found myself laughing at scenes due to it's subtle dark-comedy. A strange film - a beautiful character study. Daniel Day Lewis and Vicky Krieps' chemistry was great, I felt like the 2 were working off of eachother really well in the film. It felt very natural.

The Shape of Water; had such high expectations for this. It's a great story that I feel had it been told in a more subtle fashion - I would've loved it a significant amount more. Guillermo del Toro is an interesting director in that he always does an amazing job in creating atmosphere and clever ways to convey simple stories, but it's always been hit or miss with him imo. I saw this one almost 2 months ago now, and it's just remained kind of a dissapointed memory in my mind considering I was so stoked for it. It just had such a black/white way of storytelling that I was really let down by.

Get Out is great! It's so much more than just a social commentary film - the entire film is just seeping with genuine authenticity. Truly unsetteling, and it had that Kubrickian touch at times, which gets me excited for future films by Peele.

Darkest Hour, lol talk about pandering! Sure, as a character study it's something - Gary Oldman's performance was pretty great, but god damn, could there possibly be a more safe option for a nominee? The Post maybe... but yeah, came in with low-expectations and most definitely was not impressed, so yeah, this one was a stinker - I feel like there a handful of other films that got snubbed that deserved the nomination instead, but hey, it's the academy, guess we gotta expect their 2-3 safe choices.

Dunkirk - meh, I liked it for what it was. Felt like Nolan really captured the feeling of fear and anxiety really well - as you felt unsettled while watching it. The cinematography was on point as well, it's just a lack of connection to the story just ultimately made this film pretty forgettable, especially for Nolan standards.

How I'd rank them so far:

1. Call Me By Your Name
2. Phantom Thread
3. Get Out
4. Lady Bird
5. Dunkirk
6. The Shape of Water
-------
7. Darkest Hour

Am incredibly dissapointed in the academy for snubbing The Florida Project and Good Time - especially the prior. Those were same amazing films that got entirely overlooked (aside from Willem Dafoe).

They both should've had a Best Picture nom without a doubt. The Florida Project deserved more love in other categories as well - I felt like Brooklynn (despite being a child) deserved a nomination. That performance was one of the best I have seen in years, and that final scene with her is almost as impactful as Timothee's final scene in CMBYN.

Robert Pattinson for Good Time def deserved a best actor nom - his performance was so raw. Good Time also got robbed of a best soundtrack nom - that soundtrack was so exhilarating and it really made ya unsettled. Synth soundtracks for the win! <3

It also deserved a nom for best Cinematography too, and the Florida Project for Original Screenplay.

But unfortunately they both got overlooked which makes me sad. :(

Also; the academy continuing to give sci-fi a cold shoulder by basically ignoring BR2049 in all the categories that matter. :-(

Yeah Boc, Call Me By Your Name and Phantom Thread are the best ones imo, don't miss out on those!!

Best Picture nominees ranked:
1. Call Me By Your Name
2. Phantom Thread
3. Get Out
4. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (the academy will probably give this film the award, if not this, it'll be the SoW)
5. Lady Bird
6. Dunkirk
7. The Shape of Water
8. The Post
9. Darkest Hour
snubs: The Florida Project, Good Time, Wind River, Blade Runner 2049

Best Director ranking:
1. Paul Thomas Anderson; Phantom Thread
2. Jordan Peele; Get Out
3. Greta Gerwig; Lady Bird
4. Christopher Nolan; Dunkirk
5. Guillermo Del Toro (the academy will probably give him the award); The Shape of Water
Snubs: Luca Guadagnino (Call Me By Your Name), Sean Baker (The Florida Project), Denis Villeneuve (Blade Runner 2049).

Best Actor ranking:
1. Timothee Chalamet; Call Me By Your Name
2. Gary Oldman (the academy will probably give him the award); Darkest Hour
3. Daniel Day Lewis; Phantom Thread
4. Daniel Kaluuya; Get Out
5. Denzel Washington; Roman, J. Israel Esq
Snubs: Robert Pattinson (Good Time), Barry Keoghan (The Killing of a Sacred Deer), Hugh Jackman (Logan), Ryan Gosling (Blade Runner 2049), James Franco (The Disaster Artist.

Best Actress ranking:
1. Sally Hawkins (the academy will probably give her the award); The Shape of Water
2. Frances Mcdormand; Three Billboards
3. Margot Robbie; I, Tonya
4. Saoirse Ronan; Lady Bird
5. Meryl Streep; The Post
Snubs: Brooklynn Prince (The Florida Project), Nicole Kidman (The Beguiled), Elizabeth Olsen (Wind River), Jennifer Lawrence (Mother!), Daniela Vega (A Fantastic Woman).

Best Supporting Actor ranking:
1. Willem Dafoe; The Florida Project
2. Sam Rockwell; Three Billboards (the academy will probably give him the award)
3. Richard Jenkins; The Shape of Water
4. Woody Harrelson; Three Billboards
5. Christopher Plummer; All the Money in the World
Snubs: Armie Hammer (Call Me By Your Name), Michael Stuhlbarg (Call Me By Your Name & The Shape of Water), Ben Safdie (Good Time).

Best Supporting Actress ranking:
1. Allison Janney; I, Tonya (the academy will probably give her the award)
2. Laurie Metcalf; Lady Bird
3. Leslie Manville; Phantom Thread
4. Octavia Spencer; The Shape of Water
5. Mary J. Blige; Mudbound
Snubs: Bria Vinaite (The Florida Project), Holly Hunter (The Big Sick), Allison Williams (Get Out), Vicky Krieps (Phantom Thread).

Best Original Screenplay ranking:
1. The Big Sick
2. Get Out
3. The Shape of Water (the academy will give this the award)
4. Three Billboard
5. Lady Bird
Snubs: Blade Runner 2049, Phantom Thread, The Florida Project.

Best Adapted Screenplay ranking:
1. Call Me By Your Name (the academy will probably give this the award)
2. Logan
3. The Disaster Artist
4. Mudbound
5. Molly's Game

Best Animated Feature ranking:
1. Coco (the academy will probably give this the award)
2. The Breadwinner
3. Loving Vincent
4. Ferdinand
5. The Boss Baby (such a fucking joke)
Snubs: Your Name, Lego Batman

Best Foreign Language Film ranking:
1. Loveless (Russia)
2. On Body and Soul (Hungary)
3. A Fantastic Woman (the academy will probably give this the award) (Chile)
4. The Square (Sweden)
5. The Insult (Lebanon)
Snubs: BPM (France), Okja (South Korea), On the Beach at Night Alone (South Korea).

Haven't seen all the documentaries, but from the ones I have seen I feel Faces Places should win.

Best Original Score ranking:
1. Dunkirk (the academy will probably give this the award)
2. Phantom Thread
3. The Shape of Water
4. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
5. Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Snubs: Blade Runner 2049, Good Time, Baby Driver, Wind River, Call Me By Your Name.

Mystery of Love should win best original song - the other ones I can't get myself to listen to again, lol.

Best Sound Editing/Mixing ranking:
1. Blade Runner 2049
2. Baby Driver (the academy will probably give this the award)
3. Dunkirk
4. The Shape of Water
5. Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Snubs: Good Time, Wind River

Best Cinematography ranking:
1. Blade Runner 2049
2. Dunkirk (the academy will probably give this the award)
3. The Shape of Water
4. Darkest Hour
5. Mudbound
Snubs: Wind River, Good Time, The Florida Project.

It's starting now, so the rest of the categories are out of luck. :p

Glad that Phantom Thread won for Best Costume Design.. was wishing for other outcomes with the other one. BR2049 already getting robbed twice - atleast it was against Dunkirk for winning both of those awards.

Yeah, a little upset by that as well.

But hey, Roger Deakins finally won his oscar after being nominated 14 times, finally winning it with Blade Runner 2049, that was fucking amazing and surreal to see him on stage!

Also - James Ivory also finally getting his much deserved oscar at the age of 89 for Call Me By Your Name gets me incredibly giddy!

Was worried both Deakins and Ivory were going to get screwed by the academy again - but luckily they didn't! <3

Hmm, Belgium getting some academy love would be nice! That director seems to have a pretty good track record, some of his stuff seems like cult-film material just based off of the look and feel just based on the trailers I saw (wonder if they are).

Either way, it'd be pretty cool if such a director with little to no recognition can get some oscar love. May be this years Luca Guadagnino! <3 Timothee and Carell already being on board is a good sign and the synopsis sounds promising! It may even be a Cannes film?

HYPE