After seven decades of being snubbed, the Godzilla franchise finally received an Oscar nomination this week.
Joy for the Godzilla Minus One Team
On Tuesday, Godzilla Minus One became the first ever Japanese-language film to be nominated in the Best Visual Effects category at the Academy Awards. The team behind the movie celebrated widely when the news was announced. Directed and written by Takashi Yamazaki, the 37th film in the famous Kaiju series is set in the 1940s as Japan, still reeling in the aftermath of World War II, faces a new crisis in the form of a giant monster.
Godzilla Minus One and The Creator are the two movies in the Best Visual Effects category with budgets under $100 million. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One and Napoleon are the other films nominated. In the Best Animated Feature category, The Boy and Heron is expected to compete with Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse for the prize. Hayao Miyazaki‘s final movie won a Golden Globe earlier this month. His only Oscar triumph came in 2003 with Spirited Away. The three other films in contention are Elemental, Nimona and Robot Dreams.
Perfect Days: Image Courtesy of TIFF
Perfect Days Nominated for Best International Feature Film
Wim Wenders’ Japanese movie Perfect Days also received an Oscar nomination in the Best International Feature Film category. Starring Koji Yakusho, it is a heartwarming, meditative tale about a toilet cleaner who is content with his unexceptional life. The engaging story won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, while Yakusho picked up the Best Actor gong. It will be competing against The Zone of Interest, Io Capitano, Society of the Snow and The Teachers’ Lounge. The Zone of Interest, which garnered four other nominations, is the favorite.
Oppenheimer Leads the Way
Leading the way with the most Oscar nominations, is, unsurprisingly, Christoper Nolan’s epic biographical thriller, Oppenheimer, which is nominated in 13 categories, including for Best Picture. It will be competing for the top prize with Yorgos Lanthimos’s feminist masterpiece, Poor Things, which garnered 11 nominations and Martin Scorsese’s Western crime drama, Killers of the Flower Moon, which received 10 nominations. Barbie was nominated in eight categories. However, Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig were snubbed for Best Actress and Best Director. Another surprise omission was Leonardo DiCaprio (Killer of the Flower Moon), who wasn’t named in the Best Actor category.
