The Oscar Quentin Tarantino wants renamed in his honour: “I’m not competitive”
When Quentin Tarantino burst onto the scene in the 1990s, it was easy to tell that he would have a significant impact on the decade, with works like Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction completely revitalising the American cinematic landscape. However, it would have been difficult for even the most optimistic of cinephiles to gauge the amount of acclaim and commercial success that would follow in the subsequent decades.
While Reservoir Dogs definitely generated quite a buzz in the indie film circuit, it was Pulp Fiction that truly set the ball rolling for the American filmmaker. Picking up not only a ‘Best Original Screenplay’ Oscar but also the prestigious Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, Tarantino’s 1994 masterpiece demonstrated just how skilled he was at constructing non-linear, postmodern narratives that were dripping with nihilistic cool.
Over the course of his illustrious career, Tarantino added to his tally of Oscar nominations multiple times, but he managed to win just twice, with another ‘Best Original Screenplay’ prize for Django Unchained in addition to his Pulp Fiction win. However, given the nominations that he has garnered over the years, Tarantino remained hopeful of matching some of the other screenwriting greats in terms of Oscar counts.
During a conversation with GQ for the promotional campaign of The Hateful Eight, which failed to nab an ‘Original Screenplay’ nomination at the Academy Awards, Tarantino revealed his intention of surpassing Woody Allen’s Oscar wins in the category. His target was fuelled by his dream of being immortalised by the Academy and having the award named after him.
An Academy Award isn’t just about cinematic excellence but also about the awards campaign, which Tarantino knows well. He told the interviewer about his opinions on the subject: “It depends on what you call campaigning. Sitting down with every chucklehead that has a podcast because, well, why not? Can’t hurt! No, I’m not going to do that. You know, but I’ll go to an event. I’ll go to a party. I’ll go to this screening. I’m happy to do that.”
When asked about his dream, the filmmaker added: “I’m not competitive as a director. But the thing about it is, if I win a third screenwriting Oscar, I will tie with Woody [Allen]. I can’t beat Woody until I tie with him… I want to have more original-screenplay Oscars than anybody who’s ever lived! So much, I want to have so many that—four is enough. And do it within ten films, all right, so that when I die, they rename the ‘Original Screenplay’ Oscar ‘the Quentin’. And everybody’s down with that.”
Tarantino had the chance to equal Allen’s score with Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, but it looks like the Reservoir Dogs director is probably not going to get to four wins, considering he’s at two now and set to direct his last movie. Still, it will be interesting to see which path Tarantino chooses to fulfil his ‘Best Original Screenplay’ ambitions after the surprise cancellation of The Movie Critic.
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