Oscar nominations 2018: The Shape of Water leads the pack as fan favourites Get Out and Lady Bird get nods - as it happened

What went down at The Academy's 5am announcement in LA

Oscars 2017: Best Picture confusion

Another year, another batch of Oscars nominations, and for once the general consensus is that The Academy got it right.

At an eye-watering 5.22am PST in Los Angeles (1.22pm GMT) the 2018 nominees were announced by Tiffany Haddish and Andy Serkis live from the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

As expected, Guillermo del Toro's surreal yet touching romance The Shape of Water picked up the most nominations, landing a sizeable 13, with Christopher Nolan's war epic Dunkirk and Joe Wright's Churchill biopic Darkest Hour following, albeit quite far behind.

Luscious movies Call Me By Your Name and Phantom Thread also made the big categories, along with indie darlings Lady Bird and Get Out. Respective directors Jordan Peele and Greta Gerwig managed to earn Best Director nods for their directorial debuts, Gerwig becoming only the fifth woman to enter that category.

Blade Runner 2049 and Star Wars: The Last Jedi also snuck into the mix thanks to the Oscars involving a larger number of technical awards.

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2018's biggest Oscar nominees (Graphic News)

The 2018 Oscars will take place on Sunday 4 March presented by Jimmy Kimmel.

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Key Points

• The Shape of Water was this year's most-nominated film with 13 nods, easily surpassing Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri which cleaned up at the recent Golden Globes
• Indie darlings Get Out and Lady Bird did very well, earning directors Jordan Peele and Greta Gerwig Best Picture and Best Director noms for their directorial debuts
• Gerwig became the fifth woman ever to be nominated for direction, the first since Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker) eight years ago.
• Nominees will vie for their respective prizes at the 4 March ceremony hosted by Jimmy Kimmel 

[23 January 2018 12:27 · Kristin Hugo]

Shout out to Willem Dafoe (The Florida Project) who - about two months ago - was solid favourite to win Best Supporting Actor and has now been usurped by Sam Rockwell (Three Billboards) who took the Golden Globe AND Screen Actors Guild award

[23 January 2018 12:28 · Kristin Hugo]

Catch up on our interview with him here 

[23 January 2018 12:35 · Christopher Hooton]

Paul Thomas Anderson gets it. Will the other voters?

[23 January 2018 12:36 · Kristin Hugo]

Best Supporting Actress looks like it'll be an old-school duke out between Allison Janney and Laurie Metcalf who both give entertaining turns in I, TONYA and LADY BIRD respectively

[23 January 2018 12:36 · Kristin Hugo]

A nice surprise? Holly Hunter in 2017's best comedy, THE BIG SICK

[23 January 2018 12:37 · Kristin Hugo]

Couldn't agree more, Isadora 

[23 January 2018 12:39 · Christopher Hooton]

He's overdue.

[23 January 2018 12:42 · Kristin Hugo]

While we have you, spare a thought for 'the worst films of the year'

[23 January 2018 12:42 · Christopher Hooton]

Fun fact: While filming The Wire, Andre Royo, who played Bubbles, a drug addict, was approached by a Baltimore resident who handed him a package of heroin and said he looked like he needed a fix. Royo calls this his "street Oscar."

[23 January 2018 12:46 · Christopher Hooton]

Elijah Wood and Leonardo DiCaprio at the 1994 Academy Awards