The rare Oscars distinction only achieved by Stanley Kubrick and Godzilla
Up until now, it would have been impossible to draw a direct line between Stanley Kubrick and Godzilla beyond the fact they’re both icons of cinema renowned for their monstrous reputations.
On the one hand, there’s one of the greatest directors in the history of the moving image, one who built a career on doing things that nobody had ever done before, leaving behind such a monumental legacy that even the titans to follow in his wake speak of his influence in almost reverential tones.
On the other, there’s a gigantic atomic fire-breathing lizard that placed a man in a rubber suit in 1954 before going on to become one of the most recognisable creatures on the planet through a slew of sequels, crossovers, reboots, reinventions, spinoffs, and basically any other way a marketable asset can be monetised.
Despite his towering status in the art form, though, Kubrick only ever won a single Academy Award. He was nominated 13 times in total across Dr. Strangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, Barry Lyndon, and Full Metal Jacket in the ‘Best Picture’, ‘Best Director’, ‘Best Original Screenplay’, and ‘Best Adapted Screenplay’ categories, but his solitary victory came from none of them.
Instead, his seminal sci-fi epic was awarded an Oscar for ‘Best Special Visual Effects’, which made him the first director to ever be recognised for their effects work on one of their own films. It was a distinction he held alone for over 50 years until Godzilla Minus One came along.
The jaw-dropping kaiju film wowed audiences with its engaging story, richly-drawn characters, and impressive visual effects, made all the more remarkable by the fact director Takashi Yamazaki has disputed that his monster mash even cost as much as the widely-reported $15million budget.
By comparison, the second-cheapest nominee for 2024’s ‘Best Visual Effects’ gong is Gareth Edwards’ The Creator, which came in at a thrifty – by Hollywood’s standards, at least – $80m. Kiyoko Shibuya, Masaki Takahashi, and Tatsuji Nojima shared in the recognition, but it nonetheless puts Yamazaki on a pedestal occupied only by Kubrick.
When asked by Deadline how it felt being linked with such a prominent filmmaker, the director was understandably taken aback. “It’s very, very humbling and I couldn’t believe it,” he said. “I had to go home and look it up. It is just very, very surreal.”
Thanks to Godzilla Minus One, Yamazaki has become only the second director to be shortlisted for a visual effects statue for the same project, meaning the hulking kaiju that can reduce entire cities to nothing but smouldering rubble can now be spoken of in the exact same breath as Kubrick when discussing Oscars history.
