‘Shape of Water’ triumphs at an Oscars awash in change
LOS ANGELES — Against all odds, love won out at the 90th Academy Awards.
Guillermo del Toro’s lavish, full-hearted monster romance “The Shape of Water” swam away with best picture at an Oscar ceremony flooded by a sense of a change for a movie business confronting the post-Harvey Weinstein era. The ceremony, held Sunday at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, exorcised some demons — like last year’s envelope fiasco — and wrestled with other, deeper problems in Hollywood, like gender equality and diversity.
“The Shape of Water,” which came in with 13 nods, took a leading four awards, including best production design, best score and best director for del Toro. The Cold War-set movie, about a mute woman and a captive fish-man, is del Toro’s Technicolor ode to outsiders of all kinds — and species.
“The greatest thing that art does, and that our industry does, is erase the lines in the sand,” said del Toro, accepting the best director award.