Oscar snubs: 10 sci-fi movies that deserved more recognition

Jacob Sarkisian
·9 min read
14

“Everything Everywhere All at Once” continued the academy’s mini-genre revolution by becoming a sci-fi/fantasy movie to win not just Best Picture, but seven Oscars in total. It is another move by the academy that shows they are embracing genre films more and more after decades of shunning sci-fi and fantasy pictures that deserved far more recognition than they deserve. With that in mind, here are 10 sci-fi flicks of old that deserved the “Everything Everywhere All at Once” treatment.

“Edge of Tomorrow” (2014)
Doug Liman‘s film follows Tom Cruise as a soldier fighting aliens — but every time he dies, his life starts over and over again as he relives the same day and tries to work with Emily Blunt‘s war hero to stop the alien invasion. This film is one of the best examples of time-loop movies — packing in terrific alien designs with a whip-smart script (based on the Japanese novel “All You Need is Kill”), genuine intrigue, and charismatic lead performances from Cruise and Blunt. It’s a real shame this 2014 movie was snubbed completely by the Academy.

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Oscars it could/should have been up for:

  • Best Supporting Actress — Emily Blunt

  • Best Adapted Screenplay

  • Best Editing

  • Best Sound

  • Best Visual Effects

“Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back” (1980)
This sequel again follows Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher), and Han Solo (Harrison Ford) as they fight against the tyrannical Empire, which looks to reestablish its authority in the galaxy. “A New Hope” won six Oscars and was nominated for Best Picture and Best Director for George Lucas, such was its magnitude of influence and awe. But “Empire Strikes Back” came along and trumped “A New Hope,” blowing everyone’s expectations out of the water. It was a darker, broodier edition of a galaxy far, far away and it is widely known as the best “Star Wars” film of all time. So why it didn’t receive the same attention as its predecessor is a mystery. If “The Godfather Part II” was so rewarded by the Academy for stepping up its game from the first film (it won, then this sequel deserved the same recognition for doing the same thing. Yet it was only nominated for three Oscars (Sound, Art-Direction Set-Direction, and Score) and won one (Sound) plus a special achievement award for visual effects.

Oscars it could/should have been up for:

  • Best Picture

  • Best Director — Irvin Kershner

  • Best Supporting Actor — Harrison Ford

  • Best Adapted Screenplay

  • Best Editing

  • Best Costume Design

  • Best Cinematography

“Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith” (2005)
“Empire” isn’t the only under-appreciated “Star Wars” movie. The entire prequel trilogy was judged too harshly at the time of release and it’s only now that the films are being looked at in a kinder light. All three prequel movies may have their flaws, but they are still excellent additions to the “Star Wars” canon, and “Revenge of the Sith” was the epic, emotional culmination of not just that trilogy but almost 30 years of a galaxy far, far away. This one follows Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor, who gives a terrific, emotional, meme-able central performance) and Anakin Skywalker (an underrated Hayden Christensen) as two Jedi on different paths contending with the emerging dark side as the story behind Darth Vader reaches its conclusion. It’s shocking that “Sith” was only nominated for one Oscar — Make-Up.

Oscars it could/should have been up for:

  • Best Picture

  • Best Director — George Lucas

  • Best Actor — Ewan McGregor

  • Best Supporting Actor — Ian McDiarmid

  • Best Editing

  • Best Production Design

  • Best Costume Design

  • Best Original Score

  • Best Sound

  • Best Visual Effects

“A.I. Artificial Intelligence” (2001)
Steven Spielberg‘s “Pinocchio-“inspired epic is the brainchild of two of the best filmmakers of all time — Spielberg and Stanley Kubrick. The film follows Haley Joel Osment (sublime) as a highly advanced robotic boy who searches to become real so that he can earn the true love of his mother. This blends elements of horror and tragedy under the umbrella of sci-fi and has never been given the credit it deserves. It was only nominated for two Oscars — Visual Effects and Original Score.

Oscars it could/should have been up for:

  • Best Picture

  • Best Director — Steven Spielberg

  • Best Actor — Haley Joel Osment

  • Best Supporting Actor — Jude Law

  • Best Supporting Actress — Francis O’Connor

  • Best Adapted Screenplay

  • Best Editing

  • Best Production Design

  • Best Costume Design

  • Best Make-Up and Hairstyling

  • Best Cinematography

“Interstellar” (2014)
This sci-fi, timey-wimey, Matthew McConaughey movie follows a team of explorers traveling through a wormhole in space in a bid to find a new planet for humanity. Christopher Nolan movies have always been somewhat appreciated by the Academy but never quite enough. And this is no different. The film received five Oscar nominations (Original Score, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Production Design, and Visual Effects, which it won) but it should have earned so many more.

Oscars it could/should have been up for:

  • Best Picture

  • Best Director — Christopher Nolan

  • Best Actor — Matthew McConaughey

  • Best Supporting Actress — Jessica Chastain

  • Best Original Screenplay

  • Best Editing

  • Best Cinematography

“Logan” (2017)
“Logan” adapts the iconic Old Man Logan storyline from Marvel comics and turns it into one of the most singular Marvel movies out there. An aging Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) tries to leave in solitude with an ill Professor X (Patrick Stewart) in a future where mutants are almost extinct but a mutant child (Dafne Keen) interrupts that quiet life. This was a grounded, expletive-filled ride that acted as the emotional swan song for both Jackman and Stewart (little did we know they’d both later return as the characters in the MCU) and both could have been recognized for their solid performances that showed these iconic characters in different lights.

Oscars it could/should have been up for:

  • Best Actor — Hugh Jackman

  • Best Supporting Actor — Patrick Stewart

  • Best Supporting Actress — Dafne Keen

  • Best Adapted Screenplay

  • Best Cinematography

“Avengers: Infinity War” (2018)
“Infinity War” followed the Avengers teaming up to stop Josh Brolin‘s almighty Thanos from collecting the six Infinity Stones and ending half of all physical life in the galaxy. This was the epic first entry of a two-part conclusion to cinema history’s biggest-ever franchise. While “Endgame” was the actual conclusion, “Infinity War” is largely known as the better film — thanks in large parts to directors Joe and Anthony Russo wrestling this leviathan of a story into one singular narrative, a stunning Brolin performance, and the iconic, shocking final sequence of the movie that killed off half the Avengers. If Peter Jackson‘s “The Lord of the Rings” deserved such praise for its epic storytelling (and it did!) then so does “Infinity War.” Instead, it was only nominated for Visual Effects.

Oscars it could/should have been up for:

  • Best Picture

  • Best Director — Joe and Anthony Russo

  • Best Supporting Actor — Josh Brolin

  • Best Cinematography

  • Best Production Design

  • Best Make-Up and Hairstyling

  • Best Original Score

  • Best Editing

  • Best Sound

“Cloud Atlas” (2012)
It’s almost a miracle that this film ever get made, adapting what was known as one of the most un-adaptable novels into what should be recognized as a masterpiece. It’s hard to explain precisely what this is about but it’s something of a study of reincarnation and human nature itself — how minute actions can impact the past, present, and future lives of various souls. Tom Tykwer and Lana and Lily Wachowski did an excellent job wrangling this beast of a picture to yield and it’s so much fun watching the eclectic cast portray so many different characters. In this writer’s opinion, it is an egregious misstep by the Academy that this movie wasn’t nominated for a single Oscar. It could have easily become the most nominated film in Academy history, the filmmaking on display is that good.

Oscars it could/should have been up for:

  • Best Picture

  • Best Director — Tom Tykwer and Lana and Lily Wachowski

  • Best Supporting Actor — Ben Wishaw

  • Best Supporting Actor — Jim Broadbent

  • Best Supporting Actress — Bae Doona

  • Best Supporting Actress — Halle Berry

  • Best Adapted Screenplay

  • Best Cinematography

  • Best Production Design

  • Best Costume Design

  • Best Make-Up and Hairstyling

  • Best Original Score

  • Best Editing

  • Best Sound

  • Best Visual Effects

“Spider-Man” (2002)
While not the first-ever live-action superhero movie, it is certainly one of the most important. This was the original depiction of Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) getting bitten by a spider and gaining superpowers and struggling to balance his regular life and life as a superhero. We could have gone for “Spider-Man 2” but in this case, it’s best to go with the original — which helped to shape a genre of movies that has gone on to become the biggest genre in cinema today. “Spider-Man” was nominated for Sound and Visual Effects but, in hindsight, did it deserve more? Danny Elfman‘s original score and Willem Dafoe‘s delicious performance as Norman Osborn AKA the Green Goblin certainly did.

Oscars it could/should have been up for:

  • Best Supporting Actor — Willem Dafoe

  • Best Supporting Actor — Cliff Robertson

  • Best Adapted Screenplay

  • Best Editing

  • Best Costume Design

  • Best Original Score

“Rise of the Planet of the Apes” (2011)
This follows James Franco as a chemist who creates a substance designed to help the brain repair itself, but the substance gives a chimpanzee advanced intelligence, leading to an eventual ape uprising. This is a smart, thoughtful reboot of what was previously quite a campy-yet-fun adventure. The star of the show here is Andy Serkis, who has never been given the credit he deserves. He should have been nominated for Supporting Actor for “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” and he should have been nominated here for Best Actor. His lead performance as Caesar the chimpanzee is mind-bogglingly good and helped to continue the motion-capture revolution. Instead, the film was only nominated for its visual effects.

Oscars it could/should have been up for:

  • Best Actor — Andy Serkis

  • Best Adapted Screenplay

  • Best Editing

  • Best Sound

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