The Force Awakens received Academy Award nominations in the Film Editing, Original Score, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, and Visual Effects categories. I know a lot of us, in our bias as fangirls and boys, were hoping for a Best Picture nomination, not to mention Production Design and Cinematography. Five nominations seems like a paltry number of awards for one of the top grossing feature films of all time. As of today, after just under a month in theaters, its box office is at $822M domestically, and $1.7B worldwide. It broke the domestic box office record earlier this month, and is currently sitting at #3 worldwide (behind Titanic--which will never let go, Jack--and Avatar).
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| "Thanks Princess. It's an honor just to be nominated." |
Still, 5 nominations makes The Force Awakens the second most Oscar-nominated film of the Star Wars franchise. Episode IV received the most nominations, 10 total, including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Alec Guiness), Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay. It wound up winning 6 awards: Original Score (John Williams), Costume Design, Sound Mixing, Art Direction, Film Editing, and Visual Effects, plus a Special Achievement Award for Sound Effects Editing.
Episode V trails The Force Awakens with only 3 nominations, and won only for Best Sound with a Special Achievement Award for Visual Effects. Episode VI won a Special Achievement Award for Visual Effects, but did not win any of its other 3 Oscar races.
Let's not get into the prequels, which among them managed only 5 nominations, and 0 wins.
I really hope John Williams gets the award for the score--he's been nominated for numerous Star Wars films but won only once, in 1978. He's up against Thomas Newman and Ennio Morricone, who have both been nominated numerous times but (I was surprised to see) have never actually won an Oscar.
The nominations were pretty sci-fi and geek-culture focused this year, with huge recognition going to films like Mad Max: Fury Road and The Martian, plus several technical nods to the excellent Ex Machina (I will obviously be rooting for TFA for Visual Effects, but would be completely happy if Ex Machina takes it). I love to see these kinds of films in theaters, so I'm always pleased to have a few horses in the race come February.
Now if you'll excuse me, I need to start lobbying the Academy to create a Best Come-Hither Look category.
