"The Shape of Water" Leads Oscars Noms While Margot Robbie Scores a Nod

It's looking like Guillermo del Toro's latest release will sweep the upcoming awards night.

The 2018 Academy Awards nominations have been released and the clear frontrunner for this year is Guillermo del Toro's magical romance-drama The Shape of Water.

In a year filled to the brim with a bunch of noteworthy films (we can't deny it was a good year), the competition was always going to be tough, but latecomer The Shape of Water drew in 13 nominations, with Dunkirk and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri trailing behind with eight and seven, respectively.

Most importantly, our very own Margot Robbie scored her first nomination for her performance in I, Tonya.

Margot Robbie out celebrating her first ever Oscar nomination! Congrats! 🥂 #OscarNoms pic.twitter.com/S9cLTPZnQp

— best of margot (@bestofmargot) January 23, 2018

The nominations mark an important step towards more diversity in acknowledging artistic merit. In the category of Best Director is one female director, Greta Gerwig, for her film Lady Bird, and one African-American director, Jordan Peele, for his instant classic Get Out. The sole woman to win the award was Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker in 2010; no African-American directors have ever won the award.

The biggest award, Best Picture, will see eight films compete against each other. Those in the running are:

• The Shape of Water
• Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
• Lady Bird
• Get Out
• The Post
• Dunkirk
• Call Me By Your Name
• Phantom Thread

A writer for The Hollywood Reporter analysed the 89 previous awards nights and predicted that The Shape of Water is definitely (in case it wasn't obvious) the frontrunner for the award.

Noted snubs included Wonder Woman, which, despite its immense commercial success, failed to garner a single nomination, and James Franco for The Disaster Artist, which many are drawing up to recent allegations of sexual abuse.

Armie Hammer, who played opposite Timothée Chalamet in the coming-of-age film Call Me By Your Name, also missed out on a nomination despite his co-star receiving one.

So, there you have it. Let's see what upsets and shocks the show delivers on March 4 in Los Angeles (March 5 for us in Australia).

Photo: Fox Searchlight Pictures