Oscar 2018: that's all you need to know

The 90th Academy Awards were staged at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles on Sunday and Monday.

The event, presented once again by Jimmy Kimmel, saw the triumph with 4 statuettes of the Mexican director Guillermo del Toro for the poetic "The shape of water", decreed best film of the year.

Here's everything you need to know about the ceremony.

Jimmy Kimmel’s opening monologue

Bis for Jimmy Kimmel who, after last year's edition, also presents this 90th Oscars ceremony.

Vintage opening in black and white, radio-style stentorian style voice:

"A great honor to be here. Last year about a week before the show, the producers asked me if I wanted to do comedy with the accountants, and I said ‘nah, I don’t want to do comedy with the accountants".

The presenter's reference to the resounding gaffe of last night's Oscars, with the exchange of envelopes and the prize for the best film at the wrong title (that is "La La Land"), warned the audience: "This year when you hear your name called, don’t get up right away. Just give us a minute. "

Speaking of the Oscar statuette, with a clear reference to the Weinstein case, Kimmel said:

"Oscar is the most beloved and respected man in Hollywood. And there's a very good reason why. Just look at him. Keeps his hands where you can see them. Never says a rude word. And most importantly, no penis at all"

There was no lack of gags with the stars in the hall, such as the incursion with lots of snacks in a cinema near the Dolby Theater or the prize for the shortest speech. Up for grabs a watercraft, with a commercial value of 17,999 dollars, shown by Helen Mirren, later won by Mark Bridges (Best costume design for Phantom Thread).

Frances McDormand’s acceptance speech

Jennifer Lawrence and Jodie Foster on crutches deliver the award for best actress starring Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri to the front-runner Frances McDormand who, very excited, thanks her husband-director Joel Coen and her adoptive son Pedro and then goes to all women in the room, urging them to stand up: "Meryl, if you do it everyone else will".

Streep rises, followed closely by all the others nominated for an Oscar, to the applause, while Frances continues:

"We all have stories to tell and projects we need financed. Don’t talk to us about it at the parties tonight. Invite us into your office in a couple days or you can come to ours, whichever suits you best, and we can tell you all about them. I have two words to leave with you tonight, ladies and gentleman, inclusion rider".

"Inclusion rider" is a clause, known to film professionals, that actors can choose to include in their contracts to ensure that the film crew and cast in which they play will respect a certain level of inclusiveness (ie presence of women, blacks and other people belonging to groups that are usually underrepresented).

Time's up

No striking protest during the Oscars ceremony, the first after the Weinstein scandal, but only a small moment not to forget.

Anna Sciorra, Ashley Judd and Salma Hayek were on stage, three of the actresses who accused the producer of harassment.

Wishing that the next 90 years could be of "diversity and equality" the stars have underlined "many spoke their truth and the journey ahead is long but slowly a new path has emerged that together they can finally say Time's Up".

The Winners

The Oscar for best actors went to Frances McDormand for her role as a mother in search of the truth about her daughter's death in "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" and Gary Oldman for the masterful interpretation of Winston Churchill in "Darkest Hour". And the non-protagonist actors? Once again he won a "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" statuette thanks to Sam Rockwell who dedicated the prize to his "old friend Philip Seymour Hoffman"; while the other goes to Allison Janney, mother manipulator of "Tonya", the film about the skater Tonya Harding.

Only a winner for Luca Guadagnino's work Call me by your name: the writer James Ivory, who is 89 years old, becomes the only one to receive an Oscar not for his career.

The awards for best director and best film went to Guillermo Del Toro for"The Shape of Water who thanked these words:

"I am an immigrant, like Alfonso and Alejandro, my compadres, like Gael like Salma and like many, many of you, and in the last 25 years, I've been living in a country all of our own. Part of it is here, part of it is Europe, part of it is everywhere, because I think that the greatest thing that does and our industry does is erase the line in the sand. We should continue doing that when the world tells us to make them deeper. The place I like to thank the most is Fox Searchlight, because, in 2014, they came to listen to a mad pitch, with some drawings and a story [...] and they believed that a fairytale about an amphibian god and a mute woman, […] with the music of a thriller would be a sure bet. I want to thank the people that have come with me all the way. Kimmy, Robert, Gary, Wayne and George, and my kids, and I want to say, like James Cagney said once, my mother thanks you, my father thanks you. My brothers and sisters thank you. And I thank you. Very much. Thank you'"-

Fun fact: Kobe Bryant adds to the five NBA rings an Oscar obtained thanks to "Dear basketball", the letter, later transformed into cardboard, with which he greeted his friends and fans, announcing his retirement from competitive activity and declaring his love for the basketball.

Best dressed

 

This time the stars, free to wear any color and not just black, have given vent to their imagination and have chosen strong colors.

From the fuchsia dress of Viola Davis to the vibrant blue of Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Gardner, a rainbow of fabrics appeared on the red carpet.

The most beautiful outfits?

We report the elegant white by Margot Robbie in Chanel Couture and Laura Dern in Calvin Klein by Appointment; the one-shoulder garment of Zendaya in Giambattista Valli; the very bright sequins by Dior for Jennifer Lawrence; the refined Calvin Klein by Appointment pink worn by Saorse Ronan; the yellow dress by Rodarte chosen by Greta Gerwig; Gal Gadot in Givenchy and Allison Williams in Armani Privé.