For months now, Guillermo Del Toro’s The Shape Of Water has been facing a number of plagiarism accusations, with the outcry gaining a bit of steam thanks to the film’s many Academy Award nominations. Digg has put together a breakdown of the things that The Shape Of Water seems suspiciously similar to, specifically Paul Zindel’s 1969 play Let Me Hear You Whisper and a 2015 short by a Dutch student filmmaker called The Space Between Us. The latter has mostly been dismissed as a coincidence, with the short’s producers talking to Del Toro and determining that there was no way he could’ve lifted any ideas from The Space Between Us.
The similarities to Let Me Hear You Whisper seem a bit harder to ignore, though. For starters, Del Toro’s movie is about a mute woman working as a custodian at a laboratory where the government is conducting mysterious experiments. Zindel’s play is about the same thing, though the woman is simply very introverted instead of mute. Del Toro’s movie has the woman develop a relationship with a fish man who is being experimented on, and Zindel’s play has the woman develop a relationship with a dolphin that is being experimented on. Eventually, both women attempt to free the captured aquatic creature.
Zindel’s son told The Guardian he was “shocked” at how similar the movie was to his father’s play, but Fox Searchlight—the studio behind The Shape Of Water—maintains that Del Toro didn’t know anything about Let Me Hear You Whisper, telling Vanity Fair that he “has never read nor seen Mr. Zindel’s play in any form.” Also, as io9 notes, part of the idea for The Shape Of Water was supposedly invented by Daniel Kraus—co-author of the Shape Of Water novel alongside Del Toro—when he was a teenager.
Barring one side giving in, it seems like this controversy isn’t going to go away any time soon. No matter what happens, though, at least there’s a lot of content available these days about silent women falling in love with sea life. Surely that’s a genre that someone out there is super into.
Guillermo Del Toro, the director of the critically acclaimed film, The Shape of Water, is in some hot water, as his film is facing a number of plagiarism accusations. Given the film’s multiple Academy Award nominations, the idea that the film is in any way unoriginal has emboldened the outcry against it.
One of the works the film has been accused of plagiarizing is a short by a Dutch student filmmaker, called The Space Between Us. A synopsis from the film’s YouTube account reads: “In a post-nuclear future, mankind tries to survive with the help of oxygen masks. High up in the mountains they have built a research centre in search of gills suited for mankind, so they can breathe freely once again and start a new life under water. Humble cleaner Juliette has her loyalties tested when she falls for Adam, a captive merman whose gills are mankind's last hope for survival.” So while, there are some definite thematic overlaps, they’ve been largely dismissed as coincidental. The short’s producers have even spoken to Del Toro about the matter and determined that any similarities were accidental in nature.
However, the similarities to Paul Zindel’s 1969 play Let Me Hear You Whisper are a lot more suspect to some. The play and Shape of Water are basically about the same thing. In the former, the female protagonist falls in love with a dolphin that is being experimented on. In Del Toro’s movie she falls in love with a fish-man who’s being experimented on. In the play, the woman is deeply introverted, whereas in Del Toro’s film, she’s mute. Both female characters develop relationships with their respective creatures, and both try to free them.
The playwright’s family is up in arms about the glaring similarities. Zindel’s son said he was “shocked” by them. Meanwhile, the studio behind the film, Fox Searchlight, remains firm on their claim that director Del Toro had zero knowledge about the play. Further, as io9 reports, the idea behind the film was allegedly invented by Daniel Kraus, Del Toro’s friend and author of the The Shape of Water novel, from which the film was adapted.
Whatever, y’all. My favorite aquatic creature movie is still Splash.
The 2018 Gold Derby Film Awards nominations were announced on Thursday, February 1, and “The Shape of Water” leads the way with 14 bids. That’s probably not a surprise since the Cold War-era fairy tale was also the most nominated film at the Golden Globes, Critics’ Choice Awards, BAFTAs and Oscars. These nominations were determined by more than 2,000 awards-savvy Gold Derby users who entered their choices for the best films of the year. Watch our video announcement of all the nominees above, and scroll down for the complete list.
“The Shape of Water” contends for Best Picture, Best Director (Guillermo Del Toro), Best Actress (Sally Hawkins), Best Supporting Actress (Octavia Spencer), Best Original Screenplay and Best Ensemble Cast. It also competes for its cinematography, costume design, film editing, makeup and hairstyling, production design, sound, score and visual effects. Missing from our list is Oscar nominated supporting actor Richard Jenkins, but only two out of the five academy choices matched our users’ picks in that race.
“Call Me by Your Name” comes in second overall with an impressive 11 nominations, which is perhaps surprising given the smaller-scale intimacy of its love story between a teenager and a grad student. It’s up for Best Picture and Best Actor (Timothee Chalamet) just like at the Oscars, but our voters avenged its Oscar-snubbed director Luca Guadagnino, supporting actors Armie Hammer and Michael Stuhlbarg, the SAG Awards-snubbed ensemble cast and both Sufjan Stevens songs, “The Mystery of Love” and “Visions of Gideon.” It was a great result for Chalamet all over our ballot as he’s also nominated for Best Breakthrough Performer and is a member of two nominated ensemble casts (“Call Me” and “Lady Bird”).
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Also performing well beyond its Oscars haul is the acclaimed sci-fi sequel “Blade Runner 2049” with nine nominations. It contends for Best Picture, and though its director Denis Villeneuve missed the cut the film did grab a nom for its adapted screenplay and a slew of craft categories below the line.
“Dunkirk” received eight nominations, followed by “Lady Bird” and “Get Out” with six apiece, including Best Picture and Best Director for all three. Rounding out our 10 nominees in the top category are “Baby Driver,” “The Florida Project,” “I, Tonya” and “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.”
Our users also went their own way by nominating the supporting performances of Tiffany Haddish (“Girls Trip”) and Patrick Stewart (“Logan”), and a few other films that the academy dissed, like the animated film “The Lego Batman Movie,” the documentary “Jane” and the foreign film “BPM (Beats Per Minute).” So who else did our users invite to the party?
Find the complete list below, and you can vote right now to decide the winners. To vote, visit our predictions center. Then scroll down to “Gold Derby Film Awards 2018” and click the green box to the right that says “VOTE” to enter your picks in as many or as few categories as you wish. This is a plurality vote, so select your top choice ONLY in each category. The top vote-getters in each category will be the final winners. Voting ends on Sunday, February 25, at 11:59 p.m. PT.
BEST PICTURE
“Baby Driver” — Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Nira Park
“Blade Runner 2049” — Broderick Johnson, Andrew A. Kosove, Cynthia Sikes, Bud Yorrkin
“Call Me by Your Name” –b Peter Spears, Luca Guadagnino, Emilie Georges, Marco Morabito
“Dunkirk” — Emma Thomas, Christopher Nolan
“The Florida Project” — Sean Baker, Chris Bergoch, Kevin Chinoy, Andrew Duncan, Alex Saks, Francesca Silvestri, Shih-Ching Tsou
“Get Out” — Sean McKittrick, Jason Blum, Edward H. Hamm Jr., Jordan Peele
“I, Tonya” — Steven Rogers, Bryan Unkeless, Margot Robbie, Tom Ackerley
“Lady Bird” — Scott Rudin, Eli Bush, Evelyn O’Neill
“The Shape of Water” — Guillermo del Toro, J. Miles Dale
“Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” — Graham Broadbent, Peter Czernin, Martin McDonagh
BEST DIRECTOR
Guillermo Del Toro, “The Shape of Water”
Greta Gerwig, “Lady Bird”
Luca Guadagnino, “Call Me by Your Name”
Christopher Nolan, “Dunkirk”
Jordan Peele, “Get Out”
BEST ACTRESS
Sally Hawkins, “The Shape of Water”
Frances McDormand, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”
Margot Robbie, “I, Tonya”
Saoirse Ronan, “Lady Bird”
Meryl Streep, “The Post”
BEST ACTOR
Timothee Chalamet, “Call Me by Your Name”
Daniel Day-Lewis, “Phantom Thread”
James Franco, “The Disaster Artist”
Daniel Kaluuya, “Get Out”
Gary Oldman, “Darkest Hour”
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Tiffany Haddish, “Girls Trip”
Holly Hunter, “The Big Sick”
Allison Janney, “I, Tonya”
Laurie Metcalf, “Lady Bird”
Octavia Spencer, “The Shape of Water”
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Willem Dafoe, “The Florida Project”
Armie Hammer, “Call Me by Your Name”
Sam Rockwell, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”
Patrick Stewart, “Logan”
Michael Stuhlbarg, “Call Me by Your Name”
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
“The Big Sick” — Emily V. Gordon, Kumail Nanjiani
“Get Out” — Jordan Peele
“Lady Bird” — Greta Gerwig
“The Shape of Water” — Guillermo Del Toro, Vanessa Taylor
“Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” — Martin McDonagh
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
“Blade Runner 2049” — Hampton Fancher, Michael Green
“Call Me by Your Name” — James Ivory
“The Disaster Artist” — Scott Neustadter, Michael H. Weber
“Molly’s Game” — Aaron Sorkin
“Mudbound” — Dee Rees, Virgil Williams
BEST ENSEMBLE CAST
“Call Me by Your Name” — Vanda Capriolo, Amira Casar, Timothee Chalamet, Victoire Du Bois, Esther Garrel, Armie Hammer, Michael Stuhlbarg
“Get Out” — Betty Gabriel, Marcus Henderson, Lil Rel Howery, Caleb Landry Jones, Daniel Kaluuya, Catherine Keener, Stephen Root, Lakeith Stanfield, Bradley Whitford, Allison Williams
“Lady Bird” — Timothee Chalamet, Beanie Feldstein, Lucas Hedges, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Tracy Letts, Laurie Metcalf, Jordan Rodrigues, Saoirse Ronan, Odeya Rush, Marielle Scott, Lois Smith
“The Shape of Water” — Sally Hawkins, David Hewlett, Richard Jenkins, Doug Jones, Morgan Kelly, Martin Roach, Nick Searcy, Michael Shannon, Lauren Lee Smith, Octavia Spencer, Michael Stuhlbarg
“Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” — Darrell Britt-Gibson, Kerry Condon, Abbie Cornish, Peter Dinklage, Woody Harrelson, john Hawkes, Lucas Hedges, Zeljko Ivanek, Caleb Landry Jones, Frances McDormand, Clarke Peters, Sam Rockwell, Samara Weaving
BEST BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMER
Timothee Chalamet
Gal Gadot
Tiffany Haddish
Daniel Kaluuya
Brooklynn Prince
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
“Blade Runner 2049” — Roger Deakins
“Call Me by Your Name” — Sayombhu Mukdeeprom
“Dunkirk” — Hoyte Van Hoytema
“Mudbound” — Rachel Morrison
“The Shape of Water” — Dan Laustsen
BEST COSTUME DESIGN
“Beauty and the Beast” — Jacqueline Durran
“Blade Runner 2049” — Renée April
“I, Tonya” — Jennifer Johnson
“Phantom Thread” — Mark Bridges
“The Shape of Water” — Luis Sequeira
BEST FILM EDITING
“Baby Driver” — Paul Machliss, Jonathan Amos
“Blade Runner 2049” — Joe Walker
“Dunkirk” — Lee Smith
“Get Out” — Gregory Plotkin
“The Shape of Water” — Sidney Wolinsky
BEST MAKEUP/HAIR
“Beauty and the Beast” — Dave Elsey, Lou Elsey, Jenny Shircore
“Darkest Hour” — Kazuhiro Tsuji, David Malinowski, Lucy Sibbick
“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” — Louisa V. Anthony, Alexei Dmitiew, Tina Fabulic, Jules Holdren
“I, Tonya” — Deborah La Mia Denaver, Adruitha Lee
“The Shape of Water” — Mike Hill, Shane Mahan, Jordan Samuel, Paula Fleet
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
“Beauty and the Beast” — Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer
“Blade Runner 2049” — Dennis Gassner, Alessandra Querzola
“Call Me by Your Name” — Samuel Deshors, Sandro Piccarozzi, Violante Visconti di Modrone
“Dunkirk” — Nathan Crowley, Gary Fettis
“The Shape of Water” — Paul D. Austerberry, Shane Vieau, Jeffrey A. Melvin
BEST SCORE
“Blade Runner 2049” — Benjamin Wallfisch, Hans Zimmer
“Coco” — Michael Giacchino
“Dunkirk” — Hans Zimmer
“Phantom Thread” — Jonny Greenwood
“The Shape of Water” — Alexandre Desplat
BEST SONG
“Evermore” from “Beauty and the Beast” — Alan Menken, Tim Rice
“The Mystery of Love” from “Call Me by Your Name” — Sufjan Stevens
“Remember Me” from “Coco” — Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Robert Lopez
“This is Me” from “The Greatest Showman” — Benj Pasek, Justin Paul
“Visions of Gideon” from “Call Me by Your Name” — Sufjan Stevens
BEST SOUND
“Baby Driver” — Tim Cavagin, Mary H. Ellis, Julian Slater
“Blade Runner 2049” — Ron Bartlett, Doug Hemphill, Mac Ruth, Mark A. Mangini, Theo Green
“Dunkirk” — Gregg Landaker, Gary Rizzo, Mark Weingarten, Richard King, Alex Gibson
“The Shape of Water” — Nathan Robitaille, Nelson Ferreira, Christian T. Cooke, Glen Gauthier, Brad Zoern
“Star Wars: The Last Jedi” — Michael Semanick, David Parker, Stuart Wilson, Ren Klyce, Matthew Wood
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
“Blade Runner 2049” — John Nelson, Gerd Nefzer, Paul Lambert, Richard R. Hoover
“Dunkirk” — Scott R. Fisher, Andrew Jackson, Andrew Lockley, Tim McGovern, Paul Corbould
“The Shape of Water” — Dennis Berardi, Trey Harrell, Kevin Scott, Luke Groves
“Star Wars: The Last Jedi” — Ben Morris, Michael Mulholland, Neal Scanlan, Chris Corbould
“War for the Planet of the Apes” — Joe Letteri, Daniel Barrett, Dan Lemmon, Joel Whist
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
“The Breadwinner” — Nora Twomey
“Coco” — Lee Unkrich
“Ferdinand” — Carlos Saldanha
“The Lego Batman Movie” — Chris McKay
“Loving Vincent” — Dorota Kobiela, Hugh Welchman
BEST DOCUMENTARY
“City of Ghosts” — Matthew Heineman
“Faces Places” — JR, Agnès Varda
“Icarus” — Bryan Fogel
“An Inconvenient Sequel” — Bonni Cohen, Jon Shenk
“Jane” — Brett Morgen
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
“BPM (Beats Per Minute)” — Robin Campillo (France)
“A Fantastic Woman” — Sebastián Lelio (Chile)
“First They Killed My Father” — Angelina Jolie (Cambodia)
“In the Fade” — Fatih Akin (Germany)
“The Square” — Ruben Östlund (Sweden)
14 NOMINATIONS
“The Shape of Water”
11 NOMINATIONS
“Call Me by Your Name”
9 NOMINATIONS
“Blade Runner 2049”
8 NOMINATIONS
“Dunkirk”
6 NOMINATIONS
“Get Out”
“Lady Bird”
5 NOMINATIONS
“I, Tonya”
“Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”
4 NOMINATIONS
“Beauty and the Beast”
3 NOMINATIONS
“Baby Driver”
“Coco”
“Phantom Thread”
2 NOMINATIONS
“The Big Sick”
“Darkest Hour”
“The Disaster Artist”
“The Florida Project”
“Mudbound”
“Star Wars: The Last Jedi”
1 NOMINATION
“BPM (Beats Per Minute)”
“The Breadwinner”
“City of Ghosts”
“Faces Places”
“A Fantastic Woman”
“Ferdinand”
“First They Killed My Father”
“Girls Trip”
“The Greatest Showman”
“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2”
“Icarus”
“In the Fade”
“An Inconvenient Sequel”
“Jane”
“The Lego Batman Movie”
“Logan”
“Loving Vincent”
“Molly’s Game”
“The Post”
“The Square”
“War for the Planet of the Apes”
