The list of Jewish nominees, all with realistic chances to strike gold, included two for lead actors: Daniel Day-Lewis (in \u201cPhantom Thread\u201d) and Timothee Chalamet (\u201cCall Me by Your Name\u201d), both with Jewish mothers. Gary Oldman nabbed the prize for his portrayal of Winston Churchill in \u201cDarkest Hour.\u201d<\/p>\n
Also nominated was repeat winner Hans Zimmer, who composed the score for \u201cDunkirk,\u201d but who lost out to Alexandre Desplat for \u201cThe Shape of Water,\u201d the eventual Best Picture winner.<\/p>\n
Benj Pasek, who won the Oscar last year for best Original Song for \u201cLa La Land,\u201d failed to follow up in the same category for \u201cThis Is Me\u201d from \u201cThe Greatest Showman,\u201d although his song became the unofficial anthem of the 2018 Winter Olympics. The winner in the song category was \u201cRemember Me\u201d from the animated film \u201cCoco.\u201d<\/p>\n
The consolations for tribal rooters were few and far between. \u201cCall Me by Your Name,\u201d based on a novel by the Egypt-born Jewish novelist Andre Aciman, won for best-adapted screenplay by James Ivory.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Director Barry Fogel won for best documentary for his feature \u201cIcarus,\u201d which helped expose Russia\u2019s widespread athletic doping conspiracy. Fogel, a Denver native, previously developed, co-wrote and co-starred in \u201cJewtopia,\u201d a successful play and later movie based on his book \u201cJewtopia: The Chosen Guide for the Chosen People.\u201d<\/p>\n And director Lee Unkrich accepted the Oscar for Best Animated Feature for \u201cCoco,\u201d and acknowledged the Mexican culture and traditions that inspired the film. \u201cMarginalized people deserve to feel like they belong,\u201d he said. \u201cRepresentation matters.\u201d<\/p>\n Two Jewish talents were notable for their absence from the list of nominees.<\/p>\n Foremost was Steven Spielberg, arguably Hollywood\u2019s most respected personality. The director of \u201cThe Post,\u201d about journalists facing down the U.S. government in the Vietnam era, was omitted from the list of five director nominees, although the film itself was nominated for Best Picture.<\/p>\n James Franco was expected as late as January to be a best actor nominee for his work in \u201cThe Disaster Artist.\u201d Franco won the Golden Globe for the role, but between that triumph and the deadline for Oscar nominations, he was accused by five women of inappropriate or sexually exploitative behavior. Although he denied the accusations, enough Oscar voters apparently decided to ignore his name.<\/p>\n Israel\u2019s Gal Gadot, a box office sensation in this year\u2019s \u201cWonder Woman,\u201d presented the award for Best Makeup and Hairstyling to \u201cDarkest Hour,\u201d and herself became the buzz of social media for the Art Deco-style necklace from Tiffany\u2019s that she wore. She also joined a gaggle of stars who handed out free snacks to unsuspecting moviegoers at the theater next door to the Oscars venue on Hollywood Boulevard.<\/p>\n In the Best Foreign Language Film category, Israel\u2019s entry \u201cFoxtrot\u201d had made the initial long list of nine nominees, but was eliminated when the list was whittled to five.<\/p>\n The elimination of \u201cFoxtrot\u201d so annoyed Kenneth Turan, chief film critic for the Los Angeles Times, that he wrote a column saying the judges \u201cshould be ashamed of themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n It is somewhat risky to deduce a national trend from an evening of Hollywood awards, but the conclusions from watching more than three hours of the Academy Awards seem fairly clear.<\/p>\n Coming in the wake of the sexual harassment scandals that engulfed mega-producer Harvey Weinstein and other industry names, the presentations put the #MeToo and Time\u2019s Up movements front and center.<\/p>\n Host Jimmy Kimmel noted in his opening monologue that Weinstein, who was accused by more than 50 women of crimes ranging from rape to sexual harassment, was the first person to be kicked out the the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences since actor Carmine Caridi.<\/p>\n Caridi got in trouble in in 2004 for unauthorized sharing of videos available only to academy members.<\/p>\n \u201cCarmine Caridi got the same punishment as Harvey Weinstein for giving his neighbor a copy of \u2018Seabiscuit\u2019 on VHS,\u201d Kimmel said.<\/p>\n Throughout the night, the loudest voices \u2013 and applause \u2013 were for women\u2019s job and pay equity, the achievements of immigrants, the box office might of the black superhero film \u201cBlack Panther\u201d and the growing presence of Asian-Americans in film.<\/p>\n One Latino actor actor gave a brief nod to the historically outsize presence of Jews in the film industry. Oscar Isaac, who starred in the Star Wars sequel \u201cThe Last Jedi,\u201d was asked on stage why he seemed to understand the bleeps and bloops of one of the film\u2019s robot characters, known as BB-8.<\/p>\n \u201cI speak Yiddish,\u201d joked Isaac, who was born in Guatemala.<\/p>\n The annual \u201cIn Memoriam\u201d Oscars montage ended with a quote from Jerry Lewis, who died last August: \u201cYou might as well like yourself. Just think about all the time you\u2019re going to have to spend with you.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Share](\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\")