We’ve known for a while now that Disney was set to position Avengers: Endgame as a serious awards contender, which is hardly surprising given that the culmination of Marvel Studios’ Infinity Saga dominated the cultural conversation for months, as well as becoming the highest-grossing movie of all time.
The Mouse House have put Endgame forward for virtually every major category at the Academy Awards, and while the general consensus is that the Russo brothers’ superhero epic doesn’t have much chance of landing any of the marquee prizes, the sense of scale and technical prowess on display throughout the lengthy running time make it a shoo-in for many of the so-called ‘minor’ prizes like Best Visual Effects, Production Design, Costume Design, Sound Mixing and others.
That being said, Disney and Marvel have put some of Endgame’s massive ensemble forward to be considered for acting gongs, most notably Robert Downey Jr., with the actor’s initial omission from the ‘For Your Consideration’ ballot generating some backlash from fans. No offense to Don Cheadle, Brie Larson, Gwyneth Paltrow or Paul Rudd, but there’s no chance that they’ve got a shot at the Supporting Actor/Actress categories, despite being named on Disney’s shortlist.
Of course, superhero movies generally don’t get much love from the Oscars, with Black Panther becoming the first entry in the genre to ever be nominated for Best Picture, and based on how Disney are marketing the screeners for Endgame, the studio are trying their best to hide the fact that it’s even part of the genre, which you can see below.
Avengers: Endgame is many things, but a serious awards movie it is not. Pretty much everyone on the planet is aware of the movie, and sending out screeners labeled with a generic font and somber black-and-white picture of Robert Downey Jr. isn’t exactly going to convince people that it fits the mold of the usual Oscar-bait fare that hits theaters around this time every year.
You have to give Marvel some credit for trying to hide the genre as best they can, but a movie about a group of costumed superheroes using time travel to save the universe from a CGI purple alien warlord surely won’t be troubling the Oscar frontrunners like The Irishman and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood when the nominations are officially announced.
