Oscars 2018 Rundown

If you're trying to catch up on Oscar nominated films before the ceremony on March 4th, you're in the right place! Over the last year, Kino Club 313 bloggers have written several reviews and articles featuring Oscar nominated films, conveniently collected for you here.

Back in March, Lisa Jane reviewed Jordan Peele's horror insta-classic Get Out. Matt Linton included the film in his listicle, "American Nightmare: 5 Films that Expose the Dark Underbelly of Americana" alongside classics like Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt and Lynch's Blue Velvet. Get Out has been nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Actor (Daniel Kaluuya). If you still haven't seen Get Out, Kino Club 313 will be hosting a FREE and PUBLIC screening of the film on Friday, February 16th in the Wayne State Student Center!

Later in March, I wrote a review for the gritty superhero drama, Logan (dir. James Mangold), which has been nominated alongside Get Out for Best Adapted Screenplay. Matt also featured Logan in his "Comics to Film Recap" for 2017. That article also mentions Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (dir. James Gunn), which was nominated for Best Visual Effects.

The live action remake of Beauty and the Beast (dir. Bill Condon), reviewed by Lacey Skorepa in April, has been nominated for both Best Costume Design and Best Production Design.

Edgar Wright's newest film, Baby Driver, received both a glowing review from myself and a nod from Matt in his "Five Best Film Soundtracks Ever" article. Unsurprisingly, the film has been nominated for Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Film Editing.

Also nominated in Sound Editing/Mixing, as well as Visual Effects and Original Score, is Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which Matt wrote a favorable review for back in December. Fun fact: this is John Williams' 51st Oscar nomination!

Emma Greanleaf's review of The Big Sick (dir. Michael Showalter) mentions the excellent script-writing - pretty prescient, seeing that it has been nominated for Best Original Screenplay.

Also nominated in a writing category is The Disaster Artist (dir. James Franco), for Best Adapted Screenplay. Tristan Shaw's review from December encapsulates the feeling of pleasant surprise lots of viewers felt when an unlikely film - based on a book based on the making of a film that was already an adaptation of another book (yeah, I know, right?) - actually managed to be not just coherent, but really, really good.

I recently reviewed both Guillermo del Toro's lovely fairy tale, The Shape of Water, and Greta Gerwig's fantastic coming-of-age story, Lady Bird. The Shape of Water has been nominated for 13 awards, leading the pack this year. Along with Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Cinematography, lead actress Sally Hawkins and supporting actors Richard Jenkins and Octavia Spencer received well-deserved nominations. Lady Bird was nominated in five categories this year - Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Supporting Actress (Laurie Metcalf), and Best Actress (Saoirse Ronan).

All in all, this is going to be a really tough year to figure out who to root for, especially in the Best Picture category, which is brimming with original, beautiful, magical films. We hope that you'll consider joining Kino Club 313 for an informal Oscar viewing party at Brigg's Detroit on Sunday, March 4th at 8 PM.

If you still want to catch Oscar nominated films in theaters before the awards ceremony, Cinema Detroit will be featuring both The Shape of Water and Call Me By Your Name through February 15th, and both AMC Forum 30 (Sterling Heights) and AMC Livonia 20 will be holding a Best Picture Showcase the first weekend in March.