Star Wars at the Oscars

In the 21^st century it is hard for big budget blockbusters to compete at the Academy Awards, so one wouldn’t normally peg the Star Wars franchise as something that would win a lot of Oscars. However, the franchise has been nominated over 30 times and many of the individuals involved with the franchise have won Oscars or have had Oscar nominations.

The first Star Wars film was nominated for a total of 11 awards and won 7 of them, including Costume Design, Original Score, and Visual Effects. Most Star Wars fans know that it was the Woody Allen film “Annie Hall” that beat out “Star Wars” for Best Picture in the 1978 awards. Some fans have sworn never to watch “Annie Hall” because of this fact.

In 1978 Alec Guinness was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his role a Obi-Wan Kenobi and he is the only actor to ever be nominated for a role in a Star Wars film. Guinness was no stranger to Oscar nominations in his life, having won Best Actor in 1957 for the film “The Bridge on the River Kwai”. Curiously, Guinness was also nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay for his film “The Horse’s Mouth” in 1959, a film that he also stared in. A late-life nomination for the actor was a Best Supporting Role in the 1989 film “Little Dorrit”. With a total of 5 nominations Guinness puts himself in a club with Tom Hanks, Morgan Freeman, and Jimmy Stewart.

Though Alec Guinness was the only actor in Star Wars to be nominated for a Star Wars role, it is worth noting that both James Earl Jones and Harrison Ford have Oscar nominations. Jones had been nominated for “The Great White Hope” years before appearing in “A New Hope” and Ford was nominated for “Witness” a few years after “Return of the Jedi”.

 After the huge success of the first Star Wars film, the money kept rolling in for the Star Wars franchise. However, the Golden Statues started to decline. “Empire” won for Sound Mixing and Visual Effects and three years later, “Jedi” won only for just Visual Effects, and it did so by default since no other films were nominated.

The prequels had even worse luck with The Academy. “The Phantom Menace” was nominated for three awards, while “Clones” and “Sith” only had one nomination each. In fact, “Revenge of the Sith” exists as the only Star Wars film not to be nominated for “Visual Effects”.

Though “The Phantom Menace” did not have much Oscar luck, many of the “Phantom” actors did. Terrence Stamp, Liam Neeson, and Samuel L. Jackson all had an Oscar Nomination before appearing in the film. However it may be the case that their careers were cursed by “Phantom” because none of them have been nominated since.

However, there is a group of actors who has had a lot of Oscar fortune since the prequel trilogy. Curiously, Padme Amidala and many of her handmaidens have all done very well since “Phantom”.  Natalie Portman, the Queen of Naboo herself, has been nominated three times and won once in the past 15 years. Kiera Knightly, who played Sabé has been nominated twice in that time.

But the handmaiden-love-train doesn’t stop there. Sofia Coppolla (daughter of Francis Ford Coppolla) had a brief cameo in “Phantom” as the handmaiden Saché. A few years later, Sophia was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director & Best Original Screenplay for her film, “Lost in Translation”. She won for Best Original Screenplay.

There is also Rose Byrne (of “Bridesmaids” fame) who played the handmaiden Dormé in “Attack of the Clones”. She was never nominated for an Oscar but did win an Australian Film Institute award in 2007. So all-in-all, it pays to be a handmaiden.

 As we move into Dinsey’s new Star Wars films we notice that they are hiring a ton of Oscar talent. First Lupita Nyong’o was hired for “The Force Awakens” around the same time that she won Best Supporting Actress for “12 Years A Slave”. Then Felicity Jones was hired for “Rogue One” around that same time that she was nominated for Best Actress in “The Theory of Everything”. Forest Whitaker was hired to play Saw Gererra in “Rogue One” having previously won an Oscar for Best Actor in “The Last King of Scotland”.

Disney doubled down on Oscar talent going into “The Last Jedi”. Laura Dern, was a twice nominated actress when she was hired for her role as “Admiral Holdo” and Benico del Toro had been nominated twice (winning once) when he was hired for his role as the mysterious slicer “DJ”.

If “The Last Jedi” does manage to win an Oscar this Sunday it will be the first Star Wars film since “Return of the Jedi” to do so. It has been nominated for Best Score, Visual Effects, Sound Mixing, and Sound Editing.

I can’t finish an article about Star Wars at the Academy Awards without acknowledging the great John Williams. Williams has been nominated 51 times at the Oscars and is second only to Walt Disney for most nominated individual. Williams has been nominated for 5 Star Wars films, which includes “Star Wars” and its 4 sequels (but not any of its prequels). Williams is often nominated for two Oscars per year and has won the Golden Statue five times (Fiddler on the Roof, Jaws, Star Wars, E.T., & Schindler’s List).

There are plenty of more people behind the scenes of Star Wars that have been nominated for (or won) Oscars. Most notable are directors, George Lucas & Ron Howard have two Oscar noms each and Howard won for "A Beautiful Mind". Lawrence Kasdan (writer of “The Empire Strikes Back”, “Raiders of the Lost Ark”, “Return of the Jedi”, “The Force Awakens” and “Solo: A Star Wars Story”) also has three nominations.

Instead of going into more detail, I think I will keep this blog under one thousand words. Cross your fingers that “The Last Jedi” can win something this Sunday.

Until next week Star Wars fans!