90th Academy Awards
The Oscar ceremony honoring 2017's films, held March 4, 2018, at the Dolby Theatre: The Shape of Water's Best Picture night, an envelope-redemption show, and a record-low 26.5 million television viewers.
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- Location
- Los Angeles
- Country
- United States
- Held
- March 4, 2018, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles
- Host
- Jimmy Kimmel, hosting for the second consecutive year
- Producers
- Michael De Luca and Jennifer Todd
- Presented by
- The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, in 24 categories
- Best Picture
- The Shape of Water, which led all films with four awards from 13 nominations
- Telecast
- ABC; a record-low 26.5 million U.S. viewers per Nielsen data
- Foreign-language entries
- A record 92 countries submitted films for Best Foreign Language Film
- Turkey's entry
- Ayla: The Daughter of War — selected as Turkey's entry but not nominated
The 90th Academy Awards — the Oscar ceremony honoring 2017’s films — took place on March 4, 2018, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, with comedian Jimmy Kimmel hosting for the second consecutive year (SHOOTonline). Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water won Best Picture and led all films with four Oscars from a field-high 13 nominations (RogerEbert.com). ABC’s telecast drew a record-low 26.5 million U.S. viewers, down about 20% from the previous year (Business Standard).
This profile covers the 90th ceremony as a single event — not the Academy Awards as an institution, which is the subject of a separate profile. The ceremony was presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 24 categories (SHOOTonline), with 341 feature films eligible as the 2017 releases (Post Magazine). The nominees were announced on January 23, 2018, by Tiffany Haddish and Andy Serkis — joined by Academy president John Bailey — live from the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater via a global live stream, and final voting ran February 20–27 (SHOOTonline). Producers Michael De Luca and Jennifer Todd returned alongside Kimmel, their reappointment announced May 16, 2017 — roughly six months earlier than usual (InsideHook). The ceremony moved from its usual late-February slot to the first Sunday in March to avoid clashing with the PyeongChang Winter Olympics closing ceremony, a shift the Academy makes every four years (TheWrap).
A night of firsts onstage
The night’s lasting story was not the winners list alone but how many firsts it carried. The Shape of Water collected four Oscars — Best Picture, Best Director for del Toro, Original Score, and Production Design — making del Toro the fourth Mexican filmmaker in five years to take Best Director, after Alfonso Cuarón and Alejandro G. Iñárritu (RogerEbert.com). Gary Oldman won Best Actor for Darkest Hour and Frances McDormand her second Best Actress Oscar for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri; her speech, ending with every female nominee in the room on their feet, was the ceremony’s signature moment (RogerEbert.com). Sam Rockwell and Allison Janney took the supporting acting honors (The Montclarion). The win was no shoo-in: no film since 1995’s Braveheart had taken Best Picture without a Screen Actors Guild ensemble nomination (RogerEbert.com).
| Record set | Who | Category / film |
|---|---|---|
| First African American winner of Best Original Screenplay | Jordan Peele | Get Out |
| Oldest competitive Oscar winner ever, at 89 | James Ivory | Best Adapted Screenplay, Call Me by Your Name |
| First woman nominated for Best Cinematography | Rachel Morrison | Mudbound |
| Fifth woman nominated for Best Director | Greta Gerwig | Lady Bird |
| First Foreign Language Film win for its country | Chile | A Fantastic Woman |
| First openly transgender presenter | Daniela Vega | A Fantastic Woman |
| First win after 13 nominations | Roger Deakins | Best Cinematography, Blade Runner 2049 |
| Most-awarded sound editor, with four wins | Richard King | Best Sound Editing, Dunkirk |
| Nominations for acting and songwriting for the same film | Mary J. Blige | Mudbound — Supporting Actress and “Mighty River” |
Records via the Academy’s nominations release and the ceremony reporting (SHOOTonline; RogerEbert.com; The Montclarion).
The envelope’s long shadow
The 90th ceremony was an exercise in atonement. Kimmel, De Luca, and Todd were rehired despite the 89th Oscars’ finale, in which Beatty and Dunaway got the wrong envelope and announced La La Land instead of Moonlight (InsideHook; PopCulture.com). The Academy replaced those partners, printed category names in giant letters on the winner envelopes, and barred the accountants from phones and social media (PopCulture.com). Kimmel’s opener was the wound itself — “This year when you hear your name called, don’t get up right away” — and Beatty and Dunaway returned to present Best Picture correctly, with del Toro checking the envelope himself (PopCulture.com; The Montclarion).
Just 26.5 million people watched — the lowest-rated Oscars telecast since 1974 (AdWeek). The drop came despite ABC marketing the show on the promise of another envelope disaster, implying spectacle-driven promotion could not pull viewers back to films most had never seen: only two of the nine Best Picture nominees had grossed more than $100 million (AdWeek; TheWrap).
Beyond the telecast: 92 countries and the off-air Oscars
The 90th awards cycle reached beyond what aired on ABC. A record 92 countries submitted films for Best Foreign Language Film, including six first-time entrants, and a committee process with three “saves” narrowed the field to nine shortlisted films and then five nominees (The Playlist). Turkey submitted Ayla: The Daughter of War, Can Ülkay’s film about a Turkish sergeant and a Korean War orphan (Hürriyet Daily News); it was not among the five nominees, and Sebastián Lelio’s A Fantastic Woman went on to win (SHOOTonline; RogerEbert.com).
The cycle’s other honors were handed out earlier. At the 9th Governors Awards on November 11, 2017, honorary Oscars went to Charles Burnett, Agnès Varda, Owen Roizman, and Donald Sutherland — plus a special Oscar for Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s VR installation Carne y Arena, “in recognition of a visionary and powerful experience in storytelling,” the first special award in 22 years (The Indian Express). None appear in the standard 90th winners lists.
Frequently asked questions
When and where were the 90th Academy Awards held? The ceremony took place on Sunday, March 4, 2018, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, and aired live on ABC at 8:00 p.m. ET (SHOOTonline). The date was pushed a week later than the usual late-February slot to avoid clashing with the PyeongChang Winter Olympics closing ceremony (TheWrap).
Which film won Best Picture at the 90th Oscars? The Shape of Water, Guillermo del Toro’s fantasy romance, won Best Picture after leading all films with 13 nominations. It collected four Oscars total — Picture, Director, Original Score, and Production Design — beating eight other nominees including Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and Get Out (RogerEbert.com).
What was the envelope mix-up the 90th ceremony was atoning for? At the 89th Oscars, presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway were handed the wrong envelope by a PricewaterhouseCoopers partner and wrongly announced La La Land as Best Picture instead of the actual winner, Moonlight. For the 90th, the Academy replaced the accountants, enlarged the category lettering on envelopes, and brought Beatty and Dunaway back to present correctly (PopCulture.com).
Why were the 90th Oscars’ ratings a record low? Only 26.5 million Americans watched — the smallest audience since Nielsen began tracking in 1974. Analysts blamed a slate of Best Picture nominees few viewers had seen (only Get Out and Dunkirk topped $100M), the general decline of live TV, a 3-hour-50-minute runtime, and predictable results (AdWeek; TheWrap).
Was Ayla: The Daughter of War nominated for an Oscar? No. Turkey selected Can Ülkay’s Ayla as its official entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the 90th Academy Awards (Hürriyet Daily News), but it was not among the five nominees announced by the Academy; Chile’s A Fantastic Woman won the category (SHOOTonline).
What this profile does not claim
- It does not describe the Academy Awards as an institution — that is a separate profile; this one covers the 90th ceremony as an event.
- It does not give a more precise Nielsen viewer figure than 26.5 million; a 26.54-million figure circulates in secondary references but was not re-verified from a full read.
- It does not name the venue of the 9th Governors Awards; the venue was reported only at snippet level and is held for a future update.
- It does not assert that Mary J. Blige was the first person ever nominated for acting and songwriting in the same year; the dual nominations are verified, the “first ever” superlative is not.
- It does not report voting totals, ballot counts, or margins — the Academy does not publish them.
- It does not claim Turkey’s Ayla submission was shortlisted; the sources establish it was submitted and not nominated, with the nine-film shortlist stage unconfirmed for this entry.
Timeline
- 2017
- The Academy sets the 90th Oscars for Sunday, March 4, 2018, moving the ceremony off its usual late-February slot to avoid the PyeongChang Winter Olympics closing ceremony.
- 2017
- Jimmy Kimmel is announced as returning host with producers Michael De Luca and Jennifer Todd, roughly six months earlier than such announcements are usually made.
- 2017
- A record 92 countries submit entries for Best Foreign Language Film, including Turkey's "Ayla: The Daughter of War"; Haiti, Honduras, Laos, Mozambique, Senegal, and Syria submit for the first time.
- 2017
- At the 9th Governors Awards on November 11, honorary Oscars go to Charles Burnett, Agnès Varda, Owen Roizman, and Donald Sutherland, and a special Oscar goes to Alejandro G. Iñárritu for the VR installation "Carne y Arena" — the first special award in 22 years.
- 2018
- Nominations are announced on January 23 by Tiffany Haddish and Andy Serkis with Academy president John Bailey; The Shape of Water leads with 13, ahead of Dunkirk with eight.
- 2018
- On March 4, The Shape of Water wins Best Picture; the ABC telecast draws 26.5 million viewers, the lowest-rated Oscars since Nielsen began tracking the show in 1974.
What we could not verify
These claims came up in research and could not be confirmed. They are recorded here rather than published as fact or quietly dropped. If you hold a source that settles one, please tell us.
- Nielsen viewership is given as 26.5 million from four full-read sources; a more precise 26.54 million figure circulates in secondary references but was not re-verified from a full read and is not used here.
- Mary J. Blige was nominated for both Supporting Actress and Original Song ('Mighty River') for Mudbound — verified via the Academy's nominations release — but whether she was the first person ever so nominated was not re-verified from a full-read source and is stated here only as the nominations, without the superlative.
- The 9th Governors Awards venue (reported as the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland) appeared only at snippet level and is not claimed in this profile.
- The Oscars.org recap page for the 9th Governors Awards was rate-limited during research; its facts are covered here by the Indian Express full read instead.
Sources
13 sources (3 tier 1, 7 tier 2, 3 tier 3), each opened and read against the claim it supports. Every source is independent of the subject; no first-party material is cited. See the source policy.
This profile is built from thirteen sources read in full: three major newspapers (Business Standard, The Indian Express, Hürriyet Daily News), seven established industry outlets (SHOOTonline's reprint of the Academy press release, RogerEbert.com, TheWrap x2, AdWeek, InsideHook, Post Magazine), and three specialist or niche sources (The Playlist, The Montclarion, PopCulture.com) used only to corroborate claims independently carried by tier1/tier2 sources. Wikipedia was used only as a lead index; nothing in it is cited. The Ayla profile on this site was never used as a source — the Ayla relationship was verified independently via Hürriyet Daily News and the Academy's own nominations release.
- Supports: The 26.5M record-low viewer count per Nielsen; ~20% drop from 2017; prior record low of 32M in 2008; 43.7M four years earlier; stars avoiding Trump politics but emphasizing MeToo/Time's Up; The Shape of Water's four honours including Best Picture (IANS wire citing NYT/Nielsen) Open original source
- Supports: 'Ayla' selected as Turkey's Oscar entry in the Best Foreign Language Film category for the 90th Academy Awards; directed by Can Ülkay; the Sgt. Süleyman story; Oct 17 press screening and Oct 27 Turkish release (the nomination outcome is established by the Academy's nominee list, not this article) Open original source
- Supports: Special Oscar for Iñárritu's VR installation 'Carne y Arena' at the 9th Governors Awards (Nov 11, 2017), 'in recognition of a visionary and powerful experience in storytelling'; first special award since 1996 (Toy Story); honorary Oscars to Charles Burnett, Agnès Varda, Owen Roizman, and Donald Sutherland; Emmanuel Lubezki; LACMA display; Academy president John Bailey's statement Open original source
- Supports: The Academy's own nominations press release via SPW — the Jan 23, 2018 announcement by Tiffany Haddish and Andy Serkis with John Bailey; the complete 24-category nominee lists (incl. the five Foreign Language Film nominees, which establishes Ayla was not nominated); final voting Feb 20–27; ceremony March 4, 2018 at the Dolby Theatre, ABC 6:30 p.m. ET/3:30 p.m. PT, 225+ countries/territories; Mary J. Blige's dual Supporting Actress + Original Song nominations for Mudbound Open original source
- Supports: Full ceremony recap — winners in all categories; Kimmel's monologue and the Weinstein expulsion; the MeToo/Time's Up presence (Eva Marie Saint, Rita Moreno, 'four men and Greta Gerwig', Judd/Hayek/Sciorra); McDormand's speech and the all-women-nominees stand; Beatty and Dunaway's redemption presenting Best Picture; del Toro as the fourth Mexican director in five years; the jet-ski shortest-speech prize; the records table (Peele, Ivory, Deakins, King, Chile's first Foreign Language Film win, Daniela Vega) Open original source
- Supports: Ratings autopsy — 26.5M viewers, ~20% drop, new all-time low; only two of nine Best Picture nominees grossed over $100M; general live-TV decline as a partial cause; the 3:50 runtime; predictable 'chalk' results; Kimmel's political profile as a possible alienating factor Open original source
- Supports: The March date shift (late February to the first Sunday in March) to avoid the Winter Olympics closing ceremony, a move made every four years; the full 90th season timetable (Governors Awards Nov 11, nominations voting Jan 5–12, announcement Jan 23, finals voting Feb 20–27, ceremony March 4) Open original source
- Supports: ABC marketed the 90th with a campaign leaning heavily on the previous year's envelope snafu; 26.5M = lowest-rated telecast since Nielsen began tracking in 1974; prior year drew 32.9M Open original source
- Supports: Kimmel and producers Michael De Luca & Jennifer Todd announced as returning May 16, 2017 — roughly six months earlier than usual; ceremony set for March 4, 2018; Cheryl Boone Isaacs's 'Oscar Dream Team' comment; Kimmel's 'assuming I opened the right envelope' tweet and his 'wait until you see what we have planned' quote Open original source
- Supports: 341 feature films eligible for the 2017 Academy Awards — establishes the 90th honored 2017's films; nominations Jan 23, ceremony March 4 Open original source
- Supports: The record 92-country submission count; Turkey's entry 'Ayla: The Daughter of War' by Can Ülkay; first-time participants Haiti, Honduras, Laos, Mozambique, Senegal, Syria; the voting-process description (assigned viewing, three committee 'saves' to nine shortlisted, five nominees) — supporting corroboration only Open original source
- Supports: Corroborating the diversity records — Rachel Morrison first woman nominated for cinematography, Greta Gerwig fifth woman nominated for directing, James Ivory oldest competitive winner at 89, Jordan Peele first Black Original Screenplay winner; Beatty and Dunaway's Best Picture presentation; del Toro's dedication to trailblazing youth — corroboration only for claims independently carried by tier2 sources Open original source
- Supports: Corroborating the envelope reforms — category names in giant letters on envelopes; the previous year's PwC partners replaced (per THR); partners barred from cell phones and social media during the show; Kimmel's 'don't get up right away' monologue joke — corroboration only Open original source
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