Precursor: 58th Cinema Editors Awards (2018)

There was some concern early in the season that The Favourite wouldn’t be able to turn its critical acclaim into an Oscar campaign. It wasn’t exactly the kind of period piece the Academy goes for. While it’s not out of the woods yet, the surprise win here over supposedly stronger Best Picture contenders Green Book and Vice certainly suggests it could have a better shot than expected. Then in the biggest shock of the night, Best Picture also-ran Bohemian Rhapsody managed to stun by topping other bigger Best Picture contenders BlacKkKlansman and Roma. This probably doesn’t mean much, though it could point to the Best Film Editing winner, though that seldom goes to the eventual Best Picture winner, so don’t read to much into this. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse winning was pretty much expected as it’s following similar trajectories to prior years’ frontrunners by scooping up everything in sight. We’ll see at Saturday night’s Annie Awards if that trend continues when it’s not the most nominated film of the night. Free Solo got a bit of an Oscar bump with this win, but being well edited doesn’t mean it’s emotionally fulfilling, which is more important to Academy voters as past wins have indicated.