Oscars 2018: the growing backlashes to this year’s major nominations

Is Three Billboards racist? Is The Shape of Water plagiarized? Is Call Me by Your Name pedophilic? And, most importantly, why have this year’s films struck such a nerve?Much in the same way that a candidate may be vetted before a big convention, so too have this year’s nominees for the best picture Oscar been subject to a battery of litmus tests.

As the awards race has ramped up in recent months, the nine films in contention for the night’s biggest prize have attracted more controversy than any slate in recent memory.

And to keep with the metaphor, much of the hubbubs swirling around these films have been political in nature; in the Academy, winners aren’t so much chosen as they are elected.Related: Despite its awards, Three Billboards is a shallow look at race in rural America

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