#33: Darkest Hour, 90th Academy Awards, 2018
Categories: Winner of 2 Academy Awards, including Best Actor and Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Best Actor nominees who lost at the 90th Academy Awards:
- Timothee Chalamet, Call Me by Your Name
- Daniel Day-Lewis, The Phantom Thread
- Daniel Kaluuya, Get Out
- Denzel Washington, Roman J. Israel, Esq.
Gary Oldman, renowned for his larger-than-life performances, delivered a tour de force as Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour, yet some argue it wasn’t the standout of its year. Critics contend Oldman simply regurgitated his trademark style of over-the-top acting, overshadowing the film’s merits.
Adding fuel to the fire, Darkest Hour felt like another cookie-cutter World War II epic engineered to seduce the Academy’s favor. The Academy’s preference for Oldman over Daniel Kaluuya’s electrifying breakthrough and potentially Daniel Day-Lewis’ farewell to cinema only intensified the debate surrounding the film’s authenticity.