by Conan Simmons – November 4, 2021 – 9:02 pm
An article appeared today in a major Hollywood trade publication that piqued my interest. It was essentially to make the point that poor critical reception to a film over at Rotten Tomatoes shouldn’t be the bellwether as to a films chances of earning an Oscar nomination. The film in question is the latest release in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, ‘Eternals’, and the author of the article, Clayton Davis, is right that critical reception is, much like audience reception, not very relevant to the quality of the craft work on a film. Right too, he is, in pointing out the lack of films directed by women that have ever been nominated for an Oscar in the Visual Effects category as well as the lack of women nominated in the category overall.
There was, however, one comment made in the article published by Variety that rubbed me the wrong way. Several paragraphs in Clayton Davis brings up the 2016 film ‘Suicide Squad’ and points out, correctly, that despite critics panning the film it not only was nominated for an Oscar but was able to win the Oscar for Best Makeup. I do disagree with his assessment that said nomination was unexpected as prior to the films release production photos appeared online showing the makeup work transforming character actor Adewale Akinnouye-Agbaje into supervillain-turned-antihero, Killer Croc, which was very impressive and became an underappreciated highlight of an enjoyable messy movie. That isn’t what bothered me to write this article though. The comment that bothered me most was his statement that ‘Suicide Squad’ “became the first superhero film to win an Academy Award before any Marvel feature was able to achieve it.” (You can read the full article in question here.)
Now clearly, judging by his writing, he is a fan of the comic book superhero genre so I am surprised that his comment seems to overlook so many films within the genre to win Academy Awards over the decades. His statement is partially right providing by “any Marvel feature” refers strictly to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as presided over by producer Kevin Feige beginning with 2008’s ‘Iron Man’ up through ‘Eternals’ and the various releases going forward. Davis’ statement is wrong to imply that no superhero film had ever won an Academy Award before 2016’s ‘Suicide Squad’.
Not counting films based on characters that could be included in the superhero genre that originated in the pulps, i.e. Tarzan and Zorro, which began receiving Oscar nominations in 1940 with ‘The Mark of Zorro’ for Best Music Score. We will only focus on superhero films based on characters from the comic books.
First up, naturally, is 1978’s ‘Superman’ directed by Richard Donner and starring Christopher Reeve as the eponymous caped superhero. The film not only brought the genre a certain amount of respectability within Hollywood by showing the genre can entertain more than kids at the matinee, it also earned an Oscar for Special Achievement for Visual Effects created by Les Bowie, Colin Chilvers, Denys Coop, Roy Field, Derek Meddings and Zoran Perisic. The win was alongside nominations in three other categories, Sound, Film Editing and Music Score. It wasn’t even the first time Superman had been to the Oscars as the character starred in the Oscar nominated Animated Short Subject ‘Superman #1’ in 1941 animated by Max Fleischer and company. Given that the Special Achievement Oscar for the 1978 film was in a non-competitive category, let’s move on.
1989 was the summer of ‘Batman’ as the Tim Burton film starring Michael Keaton (who will return to the role next year in ‘The Flash’) became a phenomenal hit and officially became the first superhero film to win a competitive Oscar. The win was for Best Art Direction and was awarded to Anton Furst and Peter Young. Marvel was yet to begin making hit movies up to this time with only the colossal box office bomb ‘Howard the Duck’ having flopped in theaters in 1986 and the Dolph Lundgren starrer ‘The Punisher’ being released only overseas before finally hitting the U.S. as a direct to video release in 1991.
The following year, 1990, a comic strip hero that heavily influenced the creation of Batman made it to the big screen. ‘Dick Tracy’ directed by and starring Warren Beatty really embraced its colorful comic roots, and likewise had a colorful behind the scenes story of getting to the big screen after Martin Scorsese had considered making the film in the early 1980’s. ‘Dick Tracy’ won three out of the seven nominations it was up for, winning for Best Original Song for Steven Sondheim (as sung by Madonna), Best Art Direction by Richard Sylbert and Rick Simpson, and for Best Makeup by John Caglione Jr. and Doug Drexler. Among the nominations it didn’t win was Best Supporting Actor for Al Pacino, the first time a film in the superhero genre was ever nominated in an above the line category.
While two of the ‘Batman’ sequels would earn nominations, 1992’s ‘Batman Returns’ and 1995’s ‘Batman Forever’, it wasn’t until the Academy Awards celebrating the films of 2004 when another film in the genre would take home Oscar gold.
Marvel had finally found its footing at the box office with the 2002 box office smash ‘Spider-Man’ which was delayed from its 2001 release due to the 9/11 attacks that also resulted in one of the first trailers for the film being pulled from airwaves as it prominently featured a helicopter caught in a web high up between the World Trade Towers. That film, directed by Sam Raimi (who will return to superhero movies with next years ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’), earned nominations for Sound and Visual Effects. It didn’t win but the 2004 sequel, ‘Spider-Man 2’ did earn the Oscar for Best Visual Effects by John Dykstra, Scott Stokdyk, Anthony LaMolinara and John Frazier. The film was also nominated for Sound Mixing and Sound Editing. The villain of the film Doctor Octopus, as played by Alfred Molina, will return to menace Spider-Man next month when Molina again dons the multiple arms of Doc Ock in ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’.
At the time the Marvel Cinematic Universe as we know it today had yet to begin. An adaptation of Marvel comics’ most popular superhero the Sam Raimi ‘Spider-Man’ trilogy marks the first Marvel movie to win an Academy Award and in a retroactive way is the first Marvel Cinematic Universe film to win, providing you count it for being tied-in with ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’.
The superhero genre was really heating up by the mid-2000’s with the first of Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, ‘Batman Begins’, earning an Oscar nomination for Cinematography in 2005 and the 2006 attempted reboot, ‘Superman Returns’, earning a nomination for Visual Effects.
It was 2008 when the Academy had to reckon with fan backlash in regards to the billion dollar success that was director Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Dark Knight’. With the aforementioned box office take the film earned a total of eight Academy Award nominations and was the biggest film hit of the year but was unable to secure a nomination in the Best Picture category. The only above the line award it was nominated for was Best Supporting Actor which Heath Ledger won, posthumously, for his iconic portrayal of the caped crusader’s arch nemesis, the Joker. It was one of two Oscars the film won the other being for Best Sound Editing by Richard King.
That same year the Marvel Cinematic Universe began with its inaugural film ‘Iron Man’ starring Robert Downey, Jr. in his Hollywood comeback role. The film, produced by Kevin Feige who began his association with Marvel screen adaptations with 2000’s ‘X-Men’ as an associate producer, started the box office franchise juggernaut which consists of an ever-increasing tie-in of multiple film franchises that currently has no end in sight. ‘Iron Man’ earned two Oscar nominations but, like another film in the superhero genre ‘Hellboy 2: The Golden Army’ which only earned one nomination, went home empty handed.
For several years to follow the Marvel Cinematic Universe was practically the only source of superhero films earning Oscar nominations, from 2010’s ‘Iron Man 2’ through 2012’s ‘The Avengers’ to two films from the MCU’s best year in 2014, ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’ and ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’, the only other superhero film to earn a nomination was 2014’s ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’ which wasn’t part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, by that time owned by Disney, but was still an adaptation from Marvel comics produced by 20th Century Fox before that storied studio was bought and absorbed by the behemoth known as Disney.
Which brings us to 2016 when the DC comics adaptation from Warner Bros., ‘Suicide Squad’ won the Academy Award for Best Makeup by Alessandro Bertolazzi, Giorgio Gregorini and Christopher Allen Nelson. ‘Suicide Squad’ thus became the fifth superhero film to win a competitive Academy Award and the second to win for Best Makeup.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe was easily still in the competition that year with a nomination for ‘Doctor Strange’ and the following three years with nominations for 2017’s ‘Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2’ and, in 2018 and 2019 respectively, ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ and ‘Avengers: Endgame’. There was also the notable nomination for the non-MCU film ‘Logan’ for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2017.
It was in 2018 when the Marvel Cinematic Universe officially won at the Academy Awards winning three out of seven nominations. ‘Black Panther’ became the first film in the superhero genre to earn a nomination for Best Picture and though Kevin Feige didn’t take home the gold in that category the film did manage wins for Best Original Music Score by Ludwig Göransson, Best Costume Design by Ruth Carter, and Best Production Design by Hannah Beachler and Jay Hart.
Since then only 2019’s ‘Joker’ has managed to earn gold at the Oscars. Becoming the second film in the genre to earn a nomination for Best Picture it also became the first in the genre to earn multiple nominations in the above the line categories, including Best Adapted Screenplay and a Best Director nomination for Todd Phillips who took the helm after Martin Scorsese was attached during development. Scorsese’s producer, Emma Tillinger Koskoff who worked with the master of cinema on ‘The Irishman’ that same year, was among the Oscar nominated producers of the film alongside Phillips and Bradley Cooper. ‘Joker’ took home two Oscars winning for Best Lead Actor, Joaquin Phoenix who is the second actor to win an Oscar for playing the Clown Prince of Crime, and Best Original Music Score by Hildur Guðnadóttir.
It could be that a superhero film is destined to win an Academy Award for 2021. ‘Eternals’ may be a possibility for the craft categories just as other MCU films, ‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’, ‘Black Widow’ and ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’, may have a chance. Likewise another Marvel adaptation which recently tied-in to the MCU, ‘Venom: Let There Be Carnage’, or even the DC comics adaptation ‘The Suicide Squad’ from director James Gunn whose previous forays into the genre earned multiple nominations.
Regardless of how critics or audiences perceive any of these films the Academy of Motion Pictures, which awards the Oscars every year, will, or at least should, use the awards to recognize individual merits of the work done. The superhero genre may not consistently enjoy winning at the Oscars but it is far from being an underserved genre. To compare and prove that a films overall quality along with critic and audience perception doesn’t really affect a films chances at the Oscars, consider the zombie genre which has enjoyed phenomenal popularity in recent decades and yet only one film in the genre has ever been nominated for an Academy Award and that was for Best Music Score all the way back with the dismal 1941 horror flick, ‘King of the Zombies’.