With this handy Oscar guide, you won't have to own a pair of black-framed hipster glasses to fake your way through the Academy's many not-so-exciting technical categories on the big night.
Why is Cinematography not the same thing as Directing? What's the difference between the Sound Mixing and Sound Editing categories? What鈥檚 the secret to predicting the Best Costume category?
We've got your answers in this convenient Oscar breakdown.
Cinematography
Most people are generally aware of what a director does. He or she is the boss, telling everyone what to do and how to do it to make the movie happen.
The cinematographer is the camera-only version of a director. Cinematographers are in charge of capturing the visuals in a film, meaning everything from camera angles and lighting to colour, movement and makeup. A good cinematographer can make a film really pop off the screen by painting a visual portrait for the audience.
This year鈥檚 nominees include some visually stunning films, including the breathtaking 鈥淏lade Runner 2049,鈥 by Canadian director Denis Villeneuve.
In the following scene from the film, Ryan Gosling鈥檚 character confronts Harrison Ford鈥檚 Rick Deckard in an abandoned Las Vegas casino lounge, where malfunctioning celebrity holograms blink in and out of existence. The flashes of colour and light make it hard to determine what鈥檚 real and what鈥檚 not 鈥 a central theme in the film.
鈥淒arkest Hour,鈥 鈥淒unkirk,鈥 鈥淭he Shape of Water鈥 and 鈥淢udbound鈥 are also nominated in this category.
Visual Effects
Space, apes and superheroes. The visual effects category typically includes a rundown of blockbuster films from the year that was, and this year's nominees are no exception.
鈥淏lade Runner 2049,鈥 鈥淪tar Wars: The Last Jedi鈥 and 鈥淕uardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2鈥 brought sci-fi space fantasies to life, while 鈥淜ong: Skull Island鈥 and 鈥淲ar for the Planet of the Apes鈥 used computer-generated images (CGI) and motion-capture technology to turn humans into life-like apes that audiences could connect with and feel sympathy for.
There are plenty of scenes from these movies that demonstrate this year鈥檚 stellar visual effects, but perhaps the most enjoyable one is the opening credit sequence from 鈥淕uardians.鈥
Watch as Baby Groot 鈥 brought to life by director James Gunn in a motion-capture suit 鈥 dances around a space platform while his friends fight a gigantic tentacle monster in the background.
Film Editing
On a basic level, film editing refers to how a movie stitches together individual camera shots to make it look like something is happening in sequence.
In an action movie, for example, a film editor is in charge of making it look like one character has shot another. The editor will take footage of one character pointing a gun, then cut it with a close-up of the gun, then quickly show the shooting victim stumbling back. Maybe the editor shows a close-up of the victim's surprised face, or of the bullet wound in his stomach.
One actor didn't really shoot the other to create the scene, but it appears that way based on how the sequence unfolds.
This strategy is clearly on display during the aerial dogfights in Christopher Nolan鈥檚 鈥淒unkirk.鈥 The film uses quick cuts between the aircraft, the pilots in the cockpit and the aircraft鈥檚 mirrors to convey the white-knuckle tension of aerial combat.
Other nominees for this category include 鈥淏aby Driver,鈥 鈥淚, Tonya,鈥 鈥淭he Shape of Water鈥 and 鈥淭hree Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.鈥
Costume Design
This one's pretty straightforward. The Oscar for Best Costume Design typically goes to period films with extravagant outfits. If it includes princesses or petticoats, it's likely to get a nomination.
Past winners include visually spectacular throwbacks such as 鈥淭he Great Gatsby,鈥 鈥淭he Young Victoria,鈥 鈥淢emoirs of a Geisha鈥 and 鈥淭he Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.鈥
Among this year鈥檚 nominees is 鈥淧hantom Thread,鈥 a 1950s piece focused on a renowned dressmaker who worked for celebrities and royalty in Britain. The film is essentially all about costume design, so it鈥檚 no wonder it earned a nomination.
Also nominated in this category are 鈥淏eauty and the Beast,鈥 鈥淒arkest Hour,鈥 鈥淭he Shape of Water鈥 and 鈥淰ictoria & Abdul.鈥
Makeup and Hairstyling
Another self-explanatory category, Best Makeup and Hairstyling only has three nominees this year.
The makeup crew behind 鈥淒arkest Hour鈥 transformed Gary Oldman into heavy-set Second World War icon Winston Churchill, while 鈥淲onder鈥 brought young Augie鈥檚 facial differences to life and 鈥淰ictoria & Abdul鈥 resurrected the elaborate looks and hairstyles of the British court under Queen Victoria.
Production Design
Production Design is the physical or digitally-created environment of the film, both big and small. It鈥檚 everything from the look of a building, to the style of chairs in a room, to the posters on the wall that a person might walk past. Every little piece helps build the illusion of a world that doesn鈥檛 actually exist.
Production design plays a particularly central role in 鈥淏eauty and the Beast,鈥 as many of the characters in the film are inanimate objects come to life. The musical number 鈥淏e Our Guest,鈥 for instance, showcases many of the inanimate-turned-animate objects in the house. Production designers would have planned out everything in the scene, from the intricate edges of Lumiere the candelabra鈥檚 body, to the text on the menu Belle holds for a brief second during the musical number.
Other nominees include 鈥淏lade Runner 2049,鈥 鈥淒arkest Hour,鈥 鈥淒unkirk鈥 and 鈥淭he Shape of Water.鈥
Sound Mixing
Here's a spoiler: most of the sounds you hear in a movie don't actually happen while the actors are performing their lines. Whether it be an explosion, a spaceship engine, a passing car or background conversation at a café, those sounds are added in post-production and then layered together at just the right volume to make them all sound natural.
Take a city street, for example. What individual sounds come together to make that street sound busy? A sound mixer is in charge of putting in all the tiny sounds you might take for granted while standing on a city street. That means everything from car engines and truck horns to footsteps and conversations on the other side of the road.
Watch this clip from 鈥淏aby Driver鈥 and listen to the sounds of the city that punctuate Baby鈥檚 stroll to the coffee shop. He鈥檚 listening to music on his iPod and that鈥檚 definitely the dominant sound in the scene, but there are plenty of little noises that add breadth and depth to the world around him. You can hear people shouting, car wheels screeching and a jackhammer just before he enters a construction site. However, those sounds abruptly fade away as the camera follows Baby into the quiet atmosphere of the coffee shop, to be replaced by the whoosh of espresso machines. The sounds of the city then return after he steps out the door.
鈥淏lade Runner 2049,鈥 鈥淒unkirk,鈥 鈥淭he Shape of Water鈥 and 鈥淪tar Wars: The Last Jedi鈥 are also nominated.
Sound Editing
A sound editor is in charge of accumulating all the sounds used in a movie. That may sound like a simple task, but it's far more complicated than sticking microphones all over the film set.
For instance, what does a laser rifle sound like? Or a sea monster?
For fantasy films such as 鈥淭he Shape of Water,鈥 sound editors need to invent effects for creatures and places that don't exist 鈥 and they have to do it using objects from the real world.
Watch the following clip from 鈥淭he Shape of Water鈥 and listen to all the sounds used to create the secret government lab where scientists are preparing to examine the sea creature. The scene never offers a good look at the creature, but viewers know it鈥檚 in the tank from all the sounds they hear. Those sounds include:
- bubbling water;
- some sort of air respirator;
- whale-like noises coming from the creature; and
- the thudding sound of an underwater hand hitting the glass of the tank.
Other nominees in this category include 鈥淏aby Driver,鈥 鈥淏lade Runner 2049,鈥 鈥淒unkirk鈥 and 鈥淪tar Wars: The Last Jedi.鈥
