20 Best & Worst Movies From 2018 Oscar Nominees

19. Sally Hawkins

Best: The Shape Of Water (2017)

Though she cannot speak (for 98% of the film at least), Sally Hawkins' performance in The Shape Of Water is a beautiful, captivating thing. She segues between confident serenity, willing alienation and fiercely affecting frustration at her condition and every expression is measured and important. It's almost like a silent movie performance, with slightly exaggerated mannerisms, but in a way that remains wholly restrained and from a position of weakness.

Even without her words, you feel every emotion of the movie through her, and it's a huge shame she has to compete this year with such an obvious alternative winner.

Worst: It's a Wonderful Afterlife (2010)

Not a high point for British cinema, It's A Wonderful Afterlife has a deliciously dark concept - of a mother killing her daughter's potential suitors who keep mocking her for being overweight - but the execution is poor, to say the least. It has its moments, but it's mostly deeply unfunny and this is a step well below Hawkins' usual projects and it shows.