The 90th Academy Awards ceremony is taking place on March 4 and this year nine films have been selected for the much coveted Best Picture category. Among them is The Shape of Water, a high concept fantasy romance between Elisa Esposito, a mute who works as a cleaner at a high-tech military facility, and the amphibian creature known only as The Asset that is being held there for experimentation by the American government. Set in 1962, the film also touches on Cold War paranoia and the social realities of the time, as well as riffing on the monster movies produced during that period.

The film is directed by Guillermo del Toro and brings his first Academy Award nominations since 2007’s Pan’s Labyrinth, only this time, The Shape of Water is up for Best Picture and Best Director rather than being (somewhat) relegated to the Best Foreign Language category. However, both films received Best Original Screenplay nominations.

Both of del Toro's last films, Pacific Rim and Crimson Peak, were well reviewed but the response to The Shape of Water has been above and beyond. With the exception of Rex Reed who wrote in his one star review for the Observer that the film is a “loopy, lunkheaded load of drivel” – a correction from the bottom of the review which says Reed originally credited the film to Benicio del Toro suggests he may not have been paying much attention – the film has received a staggering amount of critical praise, with the film appearing on and often headlining over thirty Best Of lists from outlets ranging from Variety and The Hollywood Reporter to the Wall Street Journal and The Atlantic.

In a New York Times review which describes the film as “altogether wonderful” in the headline, A.O. Scott says The Shape of Water “fuses a fan’s ardor with a romantic sensibility,” but is more than a piece of fanservice due to the film’s focus on “the loose rebel coalition, a band of misfits who come to The Asset’s defense.” 

This cast of characters - which includes a gay artist, an African-American co-worker and a well-meaning communist spy - is important, he stresses, as “in Mr. del Toro’s world […] reality is the domain of rules and responsibilities, and reality is a crabbed, literal-minded view of things that can only be opposed by the forces of imagination. This will never be a fair or symmetrical fight, and the most important reason to make movies like this one – or, for that matter, to watch them – is to even the odds.” A statement which avoids directly mentioning, but is very clearly about, life in the era of Donald Trump.

Peter Travers in Rolling Stone focused more on the love story aspect of the movie, describing it as “transporting, swoon-worthy” and that the combination of Sally Hawkins and Doug Jones, Elisa and The Asset respectively – both of whom are mute in the movie – is “an acting duet that will haunt your dreams and break your heart.” But it isn’t the kind of chaste romance seen in most Hollywood movies. Stephanie Zacharek wrote in Time that the film works as “an adult fairytale with overt erotic elements” that doesn’t “shy away from imagining Elisa’s desire", an idea reiterated by Dana Stevens in Slate who describes the sex in the film as “nongraphic but frankly erotic.”

Hawkins is nominated for Best Actress and has received the lion’s share of the praise. Guy Lodge made her “heart-clutching silent star turn” the focus of his review for Variety: “Credit the marvelous Hawkins, her fine-featured but robustly expressive face in constant emotional motion, for making us believe as swiftly and as easily as we do that Elisa and the creature are made for each other. […] It’s an empathetic leap without which the breathless plotting that ensues simply wouldn’t fly…”

According to Oddschecker, The Shape of Water is the odds-on favorite to take the Best Picture award with an average of 8/11 chance of winning, a number which is bolstered by the film’s continued success throughout awards season. Guillermo del Toro is also favorite to be the Academy’s Best Director with the same odds, although Sally Hawkins’ odds are long at 10/1.