The only Oscar Stanley Kubrick ever won
Winning an Oscar isn’t the be-all and end-all of a director’s career, but let’s be honest, it’s a nice cherry on top of the cake. Indeed, some of the finest filmmakers of all time have never won an Academy Award, including Richard Linklater, Wim Wenders, David Fincher and Paul Thomas Anderson, but maybe the most surprising mastermind never to have won an Oscar for his directing is Stanley Kubrick.
Known as one of the most influential filmmakers ever to grace the silver screen, Kubrick made such celebrated movies as 1964’s Dr. Strangelove, 1968’s 2001: A Space Odyssey and 1980’s The Shining. A meticulous perfectionist, it’s remarkable that the director and screenwriter never picked up an Oscar for his efforts, only ever winning an Academy Award for ‘Best Visual Effects’ following the release of 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Yet, even this win was shrouded in controversy, with the special effects artist Douglas Trumbull stating that Kubrick didn’t deserve the award.
“Kubrick did not create the visual effects. He directed them,” Trumbull once stated, “There was a certain level of inappropriateness to taking that Oscar”. One of many special photographic effects supervisors working on the movie, Trumbull was frustrated that Kubrick was given sole credit for the technical work on the film, especially as he was far more deserving of so many other Oscars instead.
He continued: “The tragic aspect of it for me is it’s the only Oscar Stanley Kubrick ever won. He was an incredibly gifted director and should have gotten something for directing and writing and what his real strength was — not special effects”.
Instead, Kubrick received a total of 13 Oscar nominations for five movies and never won anything for his directorial or screenwriting efforts.
His first nominations came after the release of Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb in 1944, with the film receiving a trio of nods. Nominated for ‘Best Adapted Screenplay’, ‘Best Director’ and the coveted ‘Best Picture’, the film lost out to a range of other lucky winners, with My Fair Lady taking home the night’s greatest prize in 1965.
Four years later, Kubrick’s classic sci-fi 2001: A Space Odyssey would earn him his only Oscar whilst losing out on ‘Best Director’ and ‘Best Original Screenplay’. A Clockwork Orange came shortly after, along with Oscar nominations for ‘Best Picture’, ‘Best Director’ and ‘Best Adapted Screenplay’, yet fell short just like Barry Lyndon would four years later, losing in the very same categories.
The final movie to try and fail to earn an Oscar was his Vietnam War flick Full Metal Jacket in 1988, losing for ‘Best Adapted Screenplay’ to Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor.
