The sci-fi movie nominated for the most Oscars
The perception has admittedly started to shift over the course of the last decade, but for the longest time, sci-fi very rarely came into consideration when Academy Awards recognition was being doled out.
For the sake of comparison, George Lucas’ Star Wars was the first to ever be nominated for ‘Best Picture’ at the 50th edition of the ceremony, with Steven Spielberg’s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial becoming the second five years later. That was it for almost 30 years, until the floodgates well and truly opened.
Since the 2010 Oscars when Avatar made the shortlist, sci-fi has been represented in the ‘Best Picture’ race by District 9, Inception, Gravity, Her, The Martian, Arrival and Dune. That’s quite the turn of events, especially when many of them ended up earning multiple nominations and a handful of major wins.
The effects and technical categories are usually where intergalactic epics tend to find the most favour, but ‘Best Director’ nominations were also secured for George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Alfonso Cuarón, and Denis Villeneuve twice over, respectively. However, Cuarón was the only one to emerge victorious, even if Gravity missed out on ‘Best Picture’ to 12 Years a Slave.
In fact, Gravity is one of just three features to have ever accrued nominations into the double figures, and it also holds the distinction of winning the most. Star Wars was in line for ten Oscars and ultimately left with six under its arm, all in support of its game-changing and revolutionary special effects.
Shut out of the biggest categories, the first instalment in the franchise left with gongs for ‘Best Art Direction’, ‘Best Costume Design’, ‘Best Film Editing’, ‘Best Original Score’, ‘Best Sound’, and ‘Best Visual Effects’, with Ben Burtt also being rewarded with a ‘Special Achievement Academy Award’ for ‘Alien, Creature and Robot Voices’.
Cuarón’s claustrophobic outer space thriller notched ‘Best Cinematography’, ‘Best Film Editing’, ‘Best Original Score’, ‘Best Sound Editing’, ‘Best Sound Mixing’, and ‘Best Visual Effects’ to go along with its ‘Best Director’ accolade, making it the most richly-reward science-fiction movie in Oscars history.
In Dune‘s case, it may have been unsuccessful in the ‘Best Picture’ and ‘Best Director’ races, but won ‘Best Original Score’, ‘Best Cinematography’, ‘Best Film Editing’, ‘Best Sound Editing’, ‘Best Sound Mixing’, and ‘Best Visual Effects’ was a more than acceptable returning, matching six of the seven claimed by Gravity.
There are no sci-fi titles among the major contenders for this year’s batch of Oscars, though, with Villeneuve ironically standing the best chance of righting that ship. With Dune: Part Two scheduled to release in March, the second half of his sprawling saga will be hoping to replicate the feats managed by its immediate predecessor by becoming an awards season favourite.
