Science fiction movies as a whole have had an unpleasant affair with stuffy voters at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with a few notable exceptions over the years.
For some reason, those with the picking power don’t often consider the genre to be particularly honorable or socially conscious and view films about time travel, spaceships, alien creatures, outer space odysseys and interdimensional adventures as unworthy of their tastes and time. But the amazing wins this week by “Everything Everywhere All At Once” has shown a clear change.
Since the Academy Awards ceremony first started handing out the golden trophies back in 1929, there has only been a handful of sci-fi features recognized as Oscar nominees, let alone those fortunate to actually win any one of the top tier prizes. You can see our list of the most successful sci-fi movies at the Oscars for the history.
Related: The best sci-fi movies of all time
On Sunday (March 12), at the 95th Annual Academy Awards in Hollywood, “Everything Everywhere All At Once” leapfrogged both “Star Wars” and “Gravity” (each nominated in ten categories and scoring Oscars for seven) by being chosen for a remarkable eleven slots and taking home seven gleaming statues.
In addition, directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s reality-shifting feature became the first science fiction film to win for Best Picture! There have been serious contenders along the way nominated for the highest award like “Star Wars,” “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,” “Avatar” and “Avatar: The Way of Water,” “Inception,” “Her,” “Gravity,” “The Martian,’ “Arrival,” and last year’s “Dune,” but all have come up short.
Many can argue the point that Guillermo del Toro’s “The Shape of Water” was the first science fiction flick to earn a Best Picture accolade in 2018, but technically it’s better placed on the fantasy/horror shelf.
Furthermore, there have only been three sci-fi movies even nominated for ten or more Oscars: 2015’s “Mad Max: Fury Road”, 2013’s “Gravity,” and 1977’s “Star Wars.”
“Everything’s” accomplishments are even more impressive when one considers that classic sci-fi fare such as “2001: A Space Odyssey,” “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” “Alien,” “Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back,” “Blade Runner,” “Aliens,” “Interstellar,” and “Ex Machina” never even made the grade for Best Picture honors.
So take a bow, “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” for your record-breaking night and exposing Academy voters to compelling mind-expanding material and all its wild imaginative insanity.
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