[WATCH] The Shape of Water dominates the Oscars

The Shape of Water, a romantic fable about a janitor who falls in love with a sea creature, has swept top honours at the Oscars last night, winning four Oscars.

During the 90th annual Academy Awards, the movie won Best Picture, while Guillermo del Toro won Best Director.

Del Toro’s victory was the fourth time a Mexican director has taken Oscar honours in the last five years, following Alfonso Cuarón in 2014 and Alejandro González Iñárritu in 2015 and 2016.

“I am an immigrant,” said Del Toro in a veiled rebuke to President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. “The greatest thing art does and our industry does is erase the lands in the sand. We should continue doing that when the world tells us to make them deeper.”

In an unusual twist, only six  films won multiple trophies tonight, led by Shape of Water, followed by Dunkirk with three and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Blade Runner 2049, Coco and Darkest Hour with two apiece.

Gary Oldman won best actor for depicting Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour. “Put the kettle on,” he told his 99-year-old mother, watching on the sofa at home. “I’m bringing Oscar home.”

Sam Rockwell won best supporting actor for playing a racist cop in Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri, and Allison Janney won best supporting actress for playing an unforgiving mother in I, Tonya.

Jordan Peele won Best Original Screenplay for Get Out, and James Ivory took Adapted Screenplay for Call Me by Your Name.

All of the Best Picture nominees won at least one award tonight, except Lady Bird and The Post.

James Ivory, 89, became the oldest winner of an Oscar for the gay coming of age drama Call Me by Your Name, in the best adapted screenplay category.

Blade Runner 2049 won two Oscars, with veteran cinematographer Roger Deakins collecting his first statue after 13 previous nominations.

Jimmy Kimmel hosted the show from the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood for a second consecutive year, with the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements getting plenty of screen time.

The ceremony turned into a battle cry for inclusion and female empowerment, after a year marked by seismic cultural change in Hollywood that rippled across the world.

Frances McDormand, who won the best actress award for playing a grieving, furious mother in Three Billboards, created one of the night’s most memorable tableaux by asking all the female nominees in the Dolby theatre to stand up. “Look around,” she said. “We all have stories to tell and projects we need financing.”

She finished her speech saying: “I have two words to say: inclusion rider”, a reference to a little known contract clause that lets actors demand diversity on both sides of the camera. Backstage, she stressed this is a new era. “We’re not going back. It changes now ... power in rules.”

Ashley Judd, Annabella Sciorra and Salma Hayek

Salma Hayek, Ashley Judd and Annabella Sciorra, who went public with allegations of sexual misconduct against the disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein, jointly presented an emotional montage that channelled the anger and hope of the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements.

Here is the complete list of winners at the 90th annual Academy Awards:

BEST PICTURE

THE SHAPE OF WATER

Guillermo del Toro and J. Miles Dale, Producers

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

FRANCES MCDORMAND

Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

GARY OLDMAN

Darkest Hour

DIRECTING

THE SHAPE OF WATER

Guillermo del Toro

MUSIC (ORIGINAL SONG)

REMEMBER ME

from Coco; Music and Lyric by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez

MUSIC (ORIGINAL SCORE)

THE SHAPE OF WATER

Alexandre Desplat

CINEMATOGRAPHY

BLADE RUNNER 2049

Roger A. Deakins

WRITING (ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY)

GET OUT

Written by Jordan Peele

WRITING (ADAPTED SCREENPLAY)

CALL ME BY YOUR NAME

Screenplay by James Ivory

SHORT FILM (LIVE ACTION)

THE SILENT CHILD

Chris Overton and Rachel Shenton

DOCUMENTARY (SHORT SUBJECT)

HEAVEN IS A TRAFFIC JAM ON THE 405

Frank Stiefel

FILM EDITING

DUNKIRK

Lee Smith

VISUAL EFFECTS

BLADE RUNNER 2049

John Nelson, Gerd Nefzer, Paul Lambert and Richard R. Hoover

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

COCO

Lee Unkrich and Darla K. Anderson

SHORT FILM (ANIMATED)

DEAR BASKETBALL

Glen Keane and Kobe Bryant

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

ALLISON JANNEY

I, Tonya

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

A FANTASTIC WOMAN

Chile

PRODUCTION DESIGN

THE SHAPE OF WATER

Production Design: Paul Denham Austerberry; Set Decoration: Shane Vieau and Jeff Melvin

SOUND MIXING

DUNKIRK

Mark Weingarten, Gregg Landaker and Gary A. Rizzo

SOUND EDITING

DUNKIRK

Richard King and Alex Gibson

DOCUMENTARY (FEATURE)

ICARUS

Bryan Fogel and Dan Cogan

COSTUME DESIGN

PHANTOM THREAD

Mark Bridges

MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING

DARKEST HOUR

Kazuhiro Tsuji, David Malinowski and Lucy Sibbick

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

SAM ROCKWELL

Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri