The Shape of Water has won Best Picture at the 2018 Oscars, with the romantic fantasy film's director, Guillermo Del Toro, also winning Best Director.
The film, a Cold War-set story of love between a mute cleaning woman and a mystery merman-like creature, received 13 nominations going into the awards night and won four awards, though it did not win in any of the major acting categories.
Guillermo del Toro and the cast and crew of "The Shape of Water" accept the award for best picture at the Oscars. Source: AAP
Instead, Frances McDormand won her second Oscar for Best Actress for her role in the black comedy Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri.
The 60-year-old McDormand hailed all of the female winners and nominees in a rousing speech at Hollywood's Dolby Theatre.
"We all have stories to tell and projects we need financed," she said, pointing at the women she asked to stand throughout the audience.
"Don't talk to us about it at the parties. Invite us into your office in a couple days or you can come to ours, whichever suits you best, and we'll tell you all about them."
Presenter Jimmy Kimmel praised McDormand's speech as "Oscar win worthy".
"I wish I was a woman, I really do...," he said of the speech.
Veteran thespian Gary Oldman won Best Actor for his portrayal of Winston Churchill in the film Darkest Hour.
"I would just like to salute Sir Winston Churchill, who has been marvelous company on what can be described as an incredible journey," Oldman told the Oscars audience on Sunday.
Gary Oldman attends the 90th Annual Academy Awards at Hollywood & Highland Center on March 4, 2018. Source: Getty
Earlier, Australian Lee Smith has won Best Film Editing for his work on World War II drama Dunkirk.
Allison Janney took home the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role in I, Tonya, for which her Australian co-star - Margot Robbie - was also nominated for in the Best Actress category.
The statuesque 58-year-old Janney, the overwhelming favorite in the category, bested another actress playing a stern mother, Laurie Metcalf in Lady Bird, as well as Octavia Spencer for The Shape of Water.
"My fellow nominees, you represent everything that is good and right and human about this profession," she said.
Sam Rockwell won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, after already scooping a Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award for the performance.
He bested Richard Jenkins (The Shape of Water), Christopher Plummer (All the Money in the World), Willem Dafoe (The Florida Project) and his co-star Woody Harrelson to take home the Oscar.
"You guys rock. You have inspired me, you always have," Rockwell said to his fellow nominees Sunday as he accepted the award.
Jordan Peele became the first black screenwriter to win the Best Original Screenplay award for Get Out.
Coco, which won viewers' hearts with the story of a little boy chasing his dreams against the backdrop of Mexico's colorful Day of the Dead festival, took the Oscar for Best Animated Film Sunday.
The movie, which director Lee Unkrich has called a "love letter to Mexico," is the first that Disney-owned animation studio Pixar has devoted entirely to a foreign culture.
Meanwhile, Best Documentary feature went to Icarus - which focuses on Russia's Olympics doping scandal.
Hollywood was sprinkled with stardust on Sunday as the movie industry's A-listers came out for the awards which was hosted by late night funnyman Jimmy Kimmel.
Jimmy Kimmel is the host of the 90th Academy Awards, also known as the Oscars. Source: Getty Images
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Kimmel targeted disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein following dozens of allegations of sexual misconduct "was long overdue", along with the demise of numerous other Tinseltown figures caught up in the scandal.
"We can't let bad behaviour slide anymore. The world is watching us. We need to set an example," he said.
"And the truth is, if we are successful here if we can work together to stop sexual harassment in the workplace, if we can do that, women will only have to deal with harassment all the time at every other place they go."
Kimmel highlighted a number of milestones, including the oldest acting nominee, 88-year-old Christopher Plummer (All the Money in the World) and the debut film of Jordan Peele, who was nominated for best directing, producing and writing for his hit racial satire Get Out.
Actor Sam Rockwell accepts Best Suppoorting Actor for 'Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri' onstage at the 90th Annual Academy Awards. Source: Getty Images
"If you are a nominee tonight who isn't making history, shame on you," he joked.
But the host highlighted the work of the #MeToo and Time's Up campaigns against sexual misconduct and gender inequality, pointing out that only 11 per cent of movies are made by women.
"We will always remember this year as the year men screwed up so badly, women started dating fish," he joked, in a reference to the plot of The Shape of Water.
Armie Hammer, left, and Gal Gadot present the award for best makeup and hairstyling at the Oscars on Sunday, 4 March, 2018. Source: Invision
The 90th Academy Awards was hosted by Hollywood's Dolby Theatre.
The show caps a difficult few months during which the industry has declared war on the pervasive culture of sexual impropriety unearthed by the downfall of movie mogul and alleged serial sex attacker Mr Weinstein.
With the #MeToo and Time's Up campaigns against sexual misconduct and gender inequality dominating the 2018 awards circuit, this year's Oscars gala is seen as an opportunity for Tinseltown to support female filmmaking.
The Winners
- Best picture: The Shape Of Water
- Best actress: Frances McDormand, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri
- Best actor: Gary Oldman, Darkest Hour
- Best supporting actor: Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
- Makeup and hairstyling: Kazuhiro Tsuji, David Malinowski and Lucy Sibbick, Darkest Hour
- Costume design: Mark Bridges, Phantom Bridges
- Documentary feature: Icarus
- Sound editing: Richard King and Alex Gibson, Dunkirk
- Sound mixing: Gregg Landaker, Gary A. Rizzo and Mark Weingarten, Dunkirk
- Production design: Paul Denham Austerberry (production design), Shane Vieau and Jeffrey A. Melvin (set decoration), The Shape of Water
- Foreign Language Film: A Fantastic Woman
- Supporting Actress: Allison Janney, I, Tonya
- Animated Short: Dear Basketball
- Animated Feature: Coco
- Visual Effects: John Nelson, Gerd Nefzer, Paul Lambert and Richard R. Hoover, Blade Runner 2049
- Film Editing: Lee Smith, Dunkirk
- Documentary Short: Heaven is a Traffic Jam on the 405
- Live Action Short: Chris Overton and Rachel Shenton, The Silent Child
- Adapted Screenplay: James Ivory, Call Me By Your Name
- Original Screenplay: Jordan Peele, Get Out
- Original Score: Alexandre Desplat, The Shape Of Water
- Cinematography: Roger A. Deakins, Blade Runner 2049
- Original Song: Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, Remeber Me (Coco)
- Directing: Guillermo Del Toro, The Shape Of Water
Greta Gerwig is only the fifth woman in Oscars history to be nominated for best director, but faces tough competition from Guillermo Del Toro, the runaway favourite for The Shape of Water.
There was also the first nod in history for a female cinematographer, Rachel Morrison, who shot Dee Rees's racial drama Mudbound.
Avoiding another flub
The Time's Up initiative is not planning a coordinated protest on Sunday - like the striking red carpet "blackout" at the Golden Globes.
But leaders of the movement told journalists there would be "a moment that's been carved out" during the ceremony.
"It's really important that you know that Time's Up is not about the red carpet," powerhouse Hollywood producer Shonda Rhimes said.
Australian Margot Robbie is nominated in the Best Actress category for "I, Tonya". Source: Getty Images
"And those women you saw on the red carpet representing Time's Up are now off the red carpet working their butts off being activists."
In another nod to the women's movements, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has tapped past winners, Jennifer Lawrence and Jodie Foster, to present the best actress Oscar.
Traditionally, the previous year's best actor winner would present that statuette, but Casey Affleck, who triumphed in 2017 for Manchester by the Sea, withdrew under a cloud of sexual harassment accusations he denies.
One political statement on the red carpet may come in bright orange - some A-listers will reportedly wear orange US flag pins in a call for tougher gun control.
Organisers are looking to rebound after last year's flubbed announcement by Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway of the best picture winner - the trophy was initially given to La La Land when the actual winner was Moonlight.
"In a surprise turn of events, Beatty and Dunaway were tapped to present the same prize this time around.
"Lady Bird"'s Greta Gerwig is only the fifth woman in history to be nominated for Best Director. Source: Getty Images
McDormand, Oldman in pole position
The Shape of Water tops the nominations with 13 Oscar nods this year.
Dunkirk arrived in second place with eight nods, while Three Billboards picked up seven.
Frances McDormand (Three Billboards) and British veteran Gary Oldman (Darkest Hour), who have dominated the awards season, were expected to bag the lead acting statuettes - they did.
