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TV Media Weekly | March 3 - 9, 2018 By Sarah Jamieson TV Media M illions of movie lovers and entertainment professionals tune in to the Oscars each year, cheering on the year's achievements in filmmaking. The 90th Annual Academy Awards, hosted once more by Jimmy Kim- mel ("Jimmy Kimmel Live!"), airs live on ABC on Sunday, March 4. Though the 89th Academy Awards ceremony is a whole year gone, no one has forgotten the Best Picture incident, when "La La Land" was mistakenly an- nounced as the winner of the coveted award. The error was quickly corrected and "Moon- light" received the Oscar as due, but the blunder is now infamous. The snafu haunts Kimmel to this day — a promo video shows his nightmares and sudden phobia of envelopes. Nevertheless, ABC Entertain- ment president Channing Dungey has great faith in bringing back Kimmel to host the event for a second time. "After just one year, we can't imagine anyone else hosting the Oscars," he said in a statement. "Jimmy's skillful com- mand of the stage is invaluable on a night when anything can happen — and does." This year, "The Shape of Wa- ter" leads the pack with 13 nomi- nations: Best Director (Guillermo del Toro), Best Cinematography (Dan Laustsen), Best Lead Actress (Sally Hawkins), Best Supporting Actress (Olivia Spencer) and Best Supporting Actor (Richard Jen- kins). It's also competing with "Dunkirk," "Lady Bird," "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Mis- souri," "Call Me by Your Name," "Darkest Hour," "Phantom Thread," "The Post" and "Get Out" for Best Picture. The second out of the gate is "Dunkirk." It's up for awards in directing (Christopher Nolan), production design and sound ed- iting, among others. Nolan is competing with Paul Thomas An- derson's "Phantom Thread," Gre- ta Gerwig's "Lady Bird" and Jor- dan Peele's "Get Out" for Best Di- rector. Peele is the fifth black di- rector nominated for the award, and Gerwig is the fifth woman. "Dunkirk" is also going up against "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" and "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" for Best Origi- nal Score. It won't be an easy win against John Williams, who scored "The Last Jedi" — the composer could fill an orchestra pit with the awards he's won. Netflix has already made Acad- emy Award history as the first streaming service to land eight nominations, including four for its feature film "Mudbound." Mary J. Blige has gotten a nod for her performance as an actress in a supporting role. She's up against Laurie Metcalf in "Lady Bird," Leslie Manville in "Phantom Thread" and Allison Janney in "I, Tonya." "Mudbound" also shares an- other milestone: the first nomina- tion of a woman for achievement in cinematography for Rachel Morrison, who's up against "Darkest Hour," "Dunkirk," "The Shape of Water" and "Blade Run- ner 2049." Though Netflix has yet to completely win over the Acad- emy with the Best Picture nomi- nation (like Amazon's nomination for "Manchester By the Sea" last year), the platform is gaining mo- mentum. It was nominated twice for Best Documentary Feature ("Icarus" and "Strong Island") this year. "Three Billboards Outside Ebb- ing, Missouri" got seven nods, in- cluding one for leading actress Frances McDormand. Her biggest competition is Saoirse Ronan for "Lady Bird." "Three Billboards" also garnered a double nomina- tion for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Woody Harrelson and Sam Rockwell. Willem Dafoe joins them for the supporting actor nomination for his role in "The Florida Project." "Three Bill- boards" is also competing with "Lady Bird" for Best Original Screenplay, along with "The Big Sick," "Get Out" and "The Shape of Water." Denzel Washington has anoth- er nomination this year for his leading role in "Roman J. Israel, Esq." He's going head to head with Gary Oldman for "Darkest Hour," Daniel Kaluuya in "Get Out," Timothée Chalamet in "Call Me by Your Name" and Daniel Day-Lewis in "Phantom Thread." The host joked that there were some snubs he didn't agree with, citing "Wonder Woman" as a prime example while venting on his show, "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" He also thought Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks should have been nominated for "The Post," but the two nods the film did receive are certainly nothing to sneeze at. In reality, Kimmel seems sur- prisingly calm about his hosting gig, despite what the promo im- plies about his lingering fear of envelopes. With the fallout from the recent Harvey Weinstein scan- dal, we can expect the air to be rife with tension, and for there to be a few speeches on the subject. Of course, audiences should expect the long-standing gag be- tween Kimmel and Matt Damon ("The Martian," 2015) to contin- ue. Though it might be getting a little old at this point, Kimmel will (hopefully) trim the bit this year and give poor Damon a break from his chirping. It will also be interesting to see if Kimmel delivers food to the au- dience this year, which is quickly becoming a tradition. The first time, the emcee fed the crowd peanut butter and jelly sandwich- es; the second round included parachutes of candy, cookies and doughnuts floating from the ceil- ing. What culinary display he comes up with this year remains to be seen, or he may drop the nibbles all together. Don't miss the glamour and ex- citement of the red carpet when the 90th Annual Academy Awards airs Sunday, March 4, on ABC. "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" host Jimmy Kimmel hosts the 90th Annual Academy Awards Cream of the crop: Oscars roll out the red carpet for star quality 2 | Cover story A/Grindstone Charley's B/Norris Insurance 1 x 4" GVC Mortgage 5 x 2"