The 90th Academy Awards were held Sunday night, and unsurprisingly Pixar’s Coco was the big animated feature winner, giving director Lee Unkrich and producer Darla K. Anderson another shiny statuette to add to their shelves. The pic also took Best Original Song for “Remember Me,” marking the second win for Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez (Frozen). Pegged favorite Dear Basketball won the Animated Short race, while Blade Runner 2049 came out on top of a tight VFX race; it also won the Cinematography prize for Roger Deakins.
Another of 2017’s great visual effects feats, The Shape of Water made good on its 13-nomination lead going into the Oscars. The film took the coveted Best Picture award, as well as Best Director (Guillermo del Toro), Best Original Score (Alexandre Desplat), and Best Production Design.
Anderson and Unkrich were joined on stage by co-director/writer Adrian Molina Coco‘s young voice star, Anthony Gonzalez, to accept the award. Gonzalez adopted the voice of his character, Miguel, to declare: “Muchísimas gracias a todos y que viva México!”
“Coco is proof that art can change and connect the world and this can only be done when we have a place for everyone and anyone who feels like an ‘other’ to be heard,” said Anderson. “This is dedicated with enormous love to my gigantic, interwoven family and most especially, my wife, my rock Kori Rae.”
Molina expressed “Love and thanks to my family, my Latino community, to my husband Ryan. Each for expanding my sense of what it means to be proud of who you are and where you’re from. We hope the same thing for everyone who connected with this film.”
Unkrich expressed his thanks to the “immensely talented” cast, crew and his family before adding “the biggest thank you of all to the people of Mexico.” He stated, “Coco would not exist without your endlessly beautiful culture and traditions. With Coco we tried to take a step forward toward a world where all children can grow up seeing characters in movies that look and talk and live like they do. Marginalized people deserve to feel like they belong. Representation matters.”
Best Animated Feature
WINNER: Coco (Darla K. Anderson, Lee Unkrich)
The Boss Baby (Tom McGrath, Ramsey Ann Naito)
The Breadwinner (Angelina Jolie, Anthony Leo, Tomm Moore, Andrew Rosen, Nora Twomey)
Ferdinand (Bruce Anderson, Lori Forte, Carlos Saldanha) Loving Vincent (Sean Bobbitt, Dorota Kobiela, Ivan Mactaggart, Hugh Welchman)
Best Animated Short
WINNER: Dear Basketball (Kobe Bryant, Glen Keane)
Garden Party (Florian Babikian, Vincent Bayoux, Victor Caire, Theophile Dufresne, Gabriel Grapperon, Lucas Navarro)
Lou (Dave Mullins, Dana Murray)
Negative Space (Max Porter, Ru Kuwahata)
Revolting Rhymes (Jan Lachauer, Jakob Schuh)
Best Visual Effects
WINNER: Blade Runner 2049 (Richard R. Hoover, Paul Lambert, Gerd Nefzer, John Nelson)
Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 (Jonathan Fawkner, Dan Sudick, Christopher Townsend, Guy Williams)
Kong: Skull Island (Scott Benza, Mike Meinardus, Stephen Rosenbaum, Jeff White)
Star Wars: The Last Jedi (Chris Corbould, Ben Morris, Mike Mulholland, Neal Scanlon)
War for the Planet of the Apes (Daniel Barrett, Dan Lemmon, Joe Letteri, Joel Whist)
Best Original Song
“Remember Me” (Coco) Written by Robert Lopez & Kristen Anderson Lopez Performed by Miguel & Natalia Lafourcade
“Mighty River” (Mudbound)
“The Mystery of Love” (Call Me By Your Name)
“Stand Up for Something” (Marshall)
“This Is Me” (The Greatest Showman)
Acceptance speech quotes courtesy of the AMPAS communications department transcript services.
