Can Venom Be an Oscar Nominated Movie? – A Historical Review of Comic Book Movies Relationships with Awards

Forget Superhero fatigue and welcome quality or unique superhero movies that have their eyes on the prize. The golden most coveted prize of all, the Oscars. No, not the special effects categories, they have those covered, I am talking about main categories.

The closest they ever got was when Heath Ledger won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for the The Dark Knight. That was a rare exception that was more meant to honor a great actor who passed away before his time. Otherwise that movie would have received the cold shoulder as well. Oh yes, the Academy holds a grudge against superhero movies, and Marvel in particular, for basically making people stop going to the cinema in order to watch small or medium movies. Movies that make money hardly win awards in recent years. So, Superhero movies will have a hard time just getting nominated.

But who even thought about superhero movies being nominated for the Oscars?

Well, like most beginnings, it started by accident. In 2016 Deadpool got nominated in Directors Guild of America Award, Producers Guild of America Award, Writers Guild of America Award and eventually it even landed two Golden Globe nominations for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy and For Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy . Fox was surprised. At first glance Deadpool doesn’t strike anyone as an awards friendly movie. However, it did have any extremely innovative marketing campaign and it was pretty unique considering the superhero genre. Now, Fox knows that superheroes and awards can go together, and they have their eyes on the prize.

Unfortunately, they have been beaten to the punch by DC. Twice.

First, DC was never even considered competition with a movie every critic deemed a disaster. But it managed to win an Oscar for Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling for Suicide Squad (2016). Deservedly so. It should be noted that this is not a minor category like special effects. But still, it’s not a main category.

This year Fox released Logan. Logan isn’t meant just to please the fans with an accurate depiction of Wolverine. Logan opened at the 67th Berlin International Film Festival placing it as an awards contender from the start. Despite the risk that spoilers will leak from the movie. Hugh Jackman was nominated for an Oscar in 2013 for Les Misérables, so this will help him get a nominated this year. It doesn’t hurt that the male category looks very weak this year. The movie will be released in theaters again in a black and white limited edition. However, it seems that the movie is losing momentum and buzz to another Oscar worthy superhero. I mean superheroine.

Wonder Woman. Again, DC had no intention of having an Oscar movie on their hands, but they do. Gal Gadot has zero chances of a nomination in the Best Actress category, it is super competitive this year. It is more likely that Patty Jenkins will be nominated for Best Director. As the director of Monster she gave Charlize Theron her Oscar for Best Actress, now it’s time for her own Oscar or at least a nomination. There is a good chance that the Academy will see it that way.

Only one movie will manage to make it to the Best Picture category, or Logan or Wonder Woman or none of them, which is what I believe will happen despite all the buzz. One of them will make it to the Golden Globes and it will stop there.

However, while DC is still struggling with their future lineup of movies, Fox is already planning their next Oscar worthy movie. Venom. Make no mistake they are doing everything possible to nail it this time. Just look at that amazing cast. Tom Hardy as Venom – nominated for an Oscar just last year for his role in the The Revenant. Michelle Williams who was nominated for an Oscar four times . Riz Ahmed just won an Emmy for Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie. Fox even brought in Kelly Marcel to help write the script, the helped write Saving Mr. Banks, an awards friendly movie. Although she did write the script for Fifty Shades of Grey, not that it was possible to make anything worthy out of that book. I think that this caliber of actors alone will get Fox award attention. They didn’t have a fancy director or writers on Deadpool and it got them close enough.

Marvel is not even playing this game, as it will hurt their commercial potential. Plus, I think they know, since they are the once who started the superhero mania and universe building, that the Academy hates them in particular.

Now it’s simply as question, or which superhero movie will get a Best Picture or Best Actor nomination first.

Pictures taken from:
Tom Hardy as Venom
Heath Ledger
Oscar Deadpool
Suicide Squad
Logan
Wonder Woman
Tom Hardy as Venom

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