--- title: The Shape of Water Win Deserves More Credit for Its Oscar Win description: The morning after the Oscars, many are regarding the Best Picture winner as an unexciting choice. Here's why it should be celebrated. canonical: https://time.com/5185843/oscars-2018-the-shape-of-water-best-picture/ author: Eliza Berman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-03-05T17:37:07.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T19:31:45.463Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: The Shape of Water’s Best Picture Win Deserves More Credit Than It’s Getting og:description: It's not as safe a choice as many are saying og:url: https://time.com/5185843/oscars-2018-the-shape-of-water-best-picture/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcb2b265b7bfa43ad/6989299d86f68ec5316e87bb/guillermo-del-toro-oscars.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Guillermo del Toro, winner of the Best Director and Best Picture awards for 'The Shape of Water,' poses in the press room during the 90th Annual Academy Awards on March 4, 2018 in Hollywood, California. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Shape of Water’s Best Picture Win Deserves More Credit Than It’s Getting twitter:description: It's not as safe a choice as many are saying twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcb2b265b7bfa43ad/6989299d86f68ec5316e87bb/guillermo-del-toro-oscars.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # _The Shape of Water_’s Best Picture Win Deserves More Credit Than It’s Getting > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account.  by [Eliza Berman](https://time.com/author/eliza-berman/)  ## Eliza Berman Berman is a senior editor at TIME. Mar 5, 2018 5:37 PM UTC  Guillermo del Toro, winner of the Best Director and Best Picture awards for 'The Shape of Water,' poses in the press room during the 90th Annual Academy Awards on March 4, 2018 in Hollywood, California. Guillermo del Toro, winner of the Best Director and Best Picture awards for 'The Shape of Water,' poses in the press room during the 90th Annual Academy Awards on March 4, 2018 in Hollywood, California.Frazer Harrison—Getty Images  by [Eliza Berman](https://time.com/author/eliza-berman/)  ## Eliza Berman Berman is a senior editor at TIME. Mar 5, 2018 5:37 PM UTC In the 12 hours since Guillermo del Toro’s _The Shape of Water_ was [named Best Picture](http://time.com/5182674/oscars-2018-winners/) at the [90th Academy Awards](http://time.com/5183817/oscars-2018-best-worst-moments/), many have been addressing its victory in relative terms: A less exciting choice than _Get Out_. A more agreeable pick than _Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri_. Not as [bad as _Crash_](https://twitter.com/NateSilver538/status/970544152118165504) or as great a robbery as [_Shakespeare in Love_](http://variety.com/2013/film/awards/the-upset-that-wasnt-an-upset-shakespeare-in-love-817869/). This has led to a rapidly solidifying narrative acknowledging that while _The Shape of Water_ is a gorgeous, accomplished film by a well-respected filmmaker, it’s ultimately a forgettable win. But the moviedeserves more credit than it’s getting. There was little chance of any win, save _Get Out_, repeating the excitement of [_Moonlight_](http://time.com/4683998/oscars-2017-moonlight-la-la-land-mix-up/)[’s underdog triumph at the 2017 Oscars](http://time.com/4683998/oscars-2017-moonlight-la-la-land-mix-up/). That the Best Picture race was so wide open heading into Sunday night’s ceremony was somehow less exciting than it ought to have been. Sure, _The Shape of Water_ probably won’t go down in history as one of Oscar’s most memorable winners. But its victory was still fresh, unconventional and more timely than it appeared. For one thing, the film had the odds stacked against it. Its lack of a nomination for a SAG Best Ensemble Award had some prognosticators thinking its chances were slim, given that, as [_Collider_](http://collider.com/oscars-2018-highlights-surprises) points out, a movie hasn’t won Best Picture without that nomination since _Braveheart_ in 1996 (and never before that). It’s also a genre film, which voters have historically taken less seriously than classic dramas. Though it’s debatable what genre, exactly, _The Shape of Water_ can be classified as, those who see it as science fiction point out that it’s the [first sci-fi film ever](http://time.com/5183839/oscars-2018-records-broken/) to take home top honors. What’s more, it’s weird. A human lady (spoiler alert) has sex with a fishlike river god whose scaly skin glows like a circuit board — and who snacks on cats. Despite that, weird seems to be what the people wanted this year: though it certainly wasn’t a blockbuster on the scale of _Dunkirk_, it’s the most watched winner in five years, its [$126.4 million](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/oscars-shape-water-top-grossing-best-picture-winner-five-years-1091593) in global box office receipts the highest since _Argo_. It’s also more quietly subversive than many have argued. It’s the story of a disabled woman, a gay man and a black woman teaming up to take down the most establishment of establishment men, a Don Draper type but dialed up from antihero to villain, with every lost drop of humanity drained out. Its opening montage features a woman masturbating as a regular part of her morning routine, which hasn’t been seen in a Best Picture winner since, well, _ever_. And more than a few critics have discussed it as a new entry in [queer cinema](https://www.advocate.com/film/2017/12/01/shape-water-fairytale-queers-and-other-outsiders) and a “[love letter to the LGBT community](https://www.pride.com/movies/2017/12/01/shape-water-love-letter-lgbt-community),” a narrative in which love in many forms is celebrated. Is it as acutely subversive as _Get Out_? Far from it. Does it require more mental gymnastics to apply its themes to contemporary America? Most definitely. _T_ _he Shape of Water_ will always have its detractors. There are those who say that if you make the fish man a human man, its weirdness melts away and it’s merely a rehash of a classic Hollywood romance. That it is, like _La La Land_, a [Hollywood love letter to itself](https://twitter.com/jerrysaltz/status/970527885156024320), with its classic movie theater set pieces and its black-and-white Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers tribute. There is also still an open [lawsuit](http://time.com/5170613/shape-of-water-plagiarism-controversy/) claiming that its premise and many of its details were plagiarized from Paul Zindel’s 1969 play _Let Me Hear You Whisper_. It remains to be seen how that fight will play out in court — and whether it will put an asterisk next to its win in the annals of Oscar history. Ultimately, the night ended with the Oscar (well, two of them, including one for Best Director) in the hands of a Mexican immigrant who used his platform to deliver a message about the power of art to demolish the walls between us. It certainly seemed to strike a chord among the crowd at the Dolby Theatre, where nary a face wasn’t melting into a gush of admiration for an artist whose celebration, many felt, was long overdue. “This is a door,” del Toro said in a message to aspiring filmmakers. “Kick it open and come in.” They could do worse than to follow his lead. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5185843/oscars-2018-the-shape-of-water-best-picture/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5185843/oscars-2018-the-shape-of-water-best-picture/"},"headline":"The Shape of Water’s Best Picture Win Deserves More Credit Than It’s Getting","datePublished":"2018-03-05T17:37:07.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T19:31:45.463Z","description":"It's not as safe a choice as many are saying","url":"https://time.com/5185843/oscars-2018-the-shape-of-water-best-picture/","keywords":["awards"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcb2b265b7bfa43ad/6989299d86f68ec5316e87bb/guillermo-del-toro-oscars.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eliza Berman","jobTitle":"Berman is a senior editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/eliza-berman/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcb2b265b7bfa43ad/6989299d86f68ec5316e87bb/guillermo-del-toro-oscars.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Guillermo del Toro, winner of the Best Director and Best Picture awards for 'The Shape of Water,' poses in the press room during the 90th Annual Academy Awards on March 4, 2018 in Hollywood, California.","caption":"Guillermo del Toro, winner of the Best Director and Best Picture awards for 'The Shape of Water,' poses in the press room during the 90th Annual Academy Awards on March 4, 2018 in Hollywood, California.","creditText":"Frazer Harrison—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/awards/","name":"awards"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5185843/oscars-2018-the-shape-of-water-best-picture/","name":"The Shape of Water’s Best Picture Win Deserves More Credit Than It’s Getting"}}]}] ```