Oscar Nominations 2018 - The Shocks, snubs and the facts!

When Andy Serkis and Tiffany Haddish read out the Oscar nominations last week there were largely very little in the way of surprises in what most critics were already predicting would be the nominees.
But similar to every Academy Award season there is undoubted shocks and omissions that like every thing movie related spark great debate among us. So what were this years surprise additions and shocking snubs and does 2018 hold it's won quality wise alongside previous years nominees? For the real film nerd what are the unusual facts about this years nominees. What records have been broken? What firsts have occurred?

The following are a list of shocks, snubs and interesting facts about this years Oscar nominations:

• The Shape of Water leads the way on nominations with 13, 5 more than it's nearest rival and just one away from equalling the record of 14!
• Netflix Original Mudbound is a record breaker on three fronts. Mary J.Blige is the first person to be nominated for Best Original Song and Best Supporting Actress. She is also the actor to be nominated for a film directed by a woman of colour. Rachel Morrison is also the first woman to be nominated for cinematography.
• Great Gerwig is only the fifth woman to be nominated for Best Director.
• Logan is the first film based on a comic book to get nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay.
• Call Me By Your Name has both the oldest Academy Award nominee ever in 89 year old screenwriter James Ivory and youngest ever Actor in Timothee Chamalet at age 22.
• Meryl Streep is again the most nominated actress come Oscar time with 21 nominations - beating her own record of 20.
• Notable shocks from the nominations would be the inclusion of the average Boss Baby in the Best Animated feature and The Greatest Showman not being involved in the Best Costume Design discussion. The inclusion of horror film Get Out as well as it's director Jordan Peele will surprise a lot of people but it is without doubt worth it's place on the podium and is  a refreshing change from some rather dour features that have been nominated in years gone by.
• There were a number of noticeable snubs also with films like The Big Sick, The Florida Project and The Phantom Thread failing to earn as many nominations as these great films deserved. Martin McDonagh lost out on the Best Director nomination despite the success of Three Billboards Outside Epping Missouri and James Franco will not get the chance to repeat his Golden Globe success with an Oscar as he was not involved in the nominations this time around. Tom Hanks, Armie Hammer and Michael Stuhlbarg can all count themselves unlucky for not being nominated and the excellent Holly Hunter in the Big Sick must be wondering what she has to do to earn another nomination!

Overall though there is a lot to celebrate among this years nominations and hopefully coming March 3rd the Oscars will end up in the right hands!

For a full list of nominees visit http://oscar.go.com/nominees