9 Comic Book Movies That Won Academy Awards

The 89th Academy Awards produced many a talking point, but the one we're interested in right now is the furore surrounding the fact that Suicide Squad won the Oscar for Best Makeup and Hairstyling. The fact that this widely critically-derided movie was actually picked as one of the best films of year really rankled a lot of people, and understandably so. Many of those complaining about Suicide Squad's win are so annoyed because comic book movies have been traditionally snubbed by the Academy Awards. So, while more generally popular films like Deadpool and Captain America: Civil War got nothing, it was perhaps the least liked superhero movie of the year that walked away with one of the coveted gongs. While we're not here to debate whether Suicide Squad deserved the win or not - we will say, though, that the character designs were one of the best aspects of the film - Task Force X's first big screen outing is now part of a very exclusive club. Since the dawn of the comic book movies, precisely nine of them have been deemed worthy enough to land an Oscar, and here, we'll take a look at who the lucky winners are. Honorable Mention - The Incredibles Won for: Best Animated Feature, Best Sound Editing. Also nominated for: Best Original Screenplay, Best Sound Mixing. While Pixar's The Incredibles is an original concept from writer/director Brad Bird, it's clearly heavily drawn from the grand tradition of comic book heroes (in particular, the titular team are heavily reminiscent of the Fantastic Four), so it deserves an honorable mention here. Regardless of its origins, The Incredibles stands as one of the most successful superhero movies, in terms of Oscar nominations, and is also one of very few to win more than one Academy Award. First of all, the movie took home the coveted Best Animated Feature gong, beating out two DreamWorks films - Shrek 2 and Shark Tale. It was the second time that Pixar had won the award, something they would do again another six times and counting. Its second Oscar was for Best Sound Editing, where it beat fellow superhero movie Spider-Man 2. Brad Bird's excellent script also picked up a nomination for Best Original Screenplay, but it lost to Charlie Kaufman's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. 9) Superman Won for: Best Visual Effects. Also Nominated for: Best Original Score, Best Film Editing, Best Sound Mixing. Superhero fans of a certain age will remember how astounding the original Superman movie was when it was first released in 1978. The film's iconic tagline promised that "You'll believe a man can fly," and thanks to the then pioneering special effects - at the time, Superman's $55 million budget made it the most expensive movie ever made - audiences sure did. As expected, the visual effects team of Les Bowie, Colin Chilvers, Denys Coop, Roy Field, Derek Meddings and Zoran Perisic took home the Oscar gong at the 51st Academy Awards for their efforts. Unfortunately, though, the film didn't win the other three Oscars it was nominated for. Most notably, not even John Williams' spellbinding work on the soundtrack was enough to take the Best Original Score award (which was nabbed by Midnight Express's Giorgio Moroder, instead). 8) Batman Won for: Best Art Direction. 11 years after Superman, Tim Burton's Batman came along to revitalize the superhero movie genre. Whereas the Man of Steel's movie had been all about old-fashioned heroics, 1989's Batman was a dark gothic neo-noir. Its striking visual style - inspired by Burton's love for German Expressionism - has not lost its power over the years and it remains one of the best looking comic book films to this day. Fittingly, then, the movie won the gong for Best Art Direction at the 62nd Oscars, with art director Anton Furst and set decorator Peter Young earning the award. Tragically, Furst took his own life just two years later, prematurely curtailing what would no doubt have been an illustrious career. Batman's sequel, Batman Returns, was also up for two Oscars: Best Visual Effects and Best Makeup. However, it failed to win either, losing to Death Becomes Her and Bram Stoker's Dracula, respectively. 7) Dick Tracy Won for: Best Original Song, Best Makeup and Best Art Direction. Also nominated for: Best Supporting Actor, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Sound Design. It's typical, isn't it? The comic book movie that is by far the most Oscar-adorned of the whole genre is one that's hardly remembered by modern audiences. Based on the classic 1930s newspaper comic strip character, 1990's Dick Tracy was a action-comedy noir that aimed to capture a comic book sensibility, including putting several members of the cast in grotesque prosthetics. It also had an incredibly star-studded cast and crew, which probably goes someway to explaining its Oscar dominance. Directed, produced and starring Warren Beatty (yes, he of envelopegate fame), Dick Tracy also featured the likes of Al Pacino, Madonna, Dustin Hoffman and James Caan in supporting roles. Musical maestro Stephen Sondheim also provided the movie's original songs and celebrated cinematographer Vittorio Storaro was on board, too. Sondheim won Best Original Song for "Sooner or Later (I Always Get My Man)" sung by Madonna, Best Makeup was won by Doug Drexler and production designer Richard Sylbert and set decorator Rick Simpson emerged victorious for Best Art Direction. 6) Men In Black Won for: Best Makeup. Also nominated for: Best Original Score, Best Art Direction. That's right, Men in Black is based off a comic book. Namely, a little-known series from Malibu Comics (later owned by Marvel) that ran throughout the nineties. The films are heavily removed from the darker source material, but the movie still deserves a mention here. Apart from the iconic pairing of Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones as Agents J and K, 1997's Men in Black is most known for its memorable alien designs. Naturally, it won the Oscar for Best Makeup at the 70th Academy Awards. Rick Baker and David LeRoy Anderson picked up the award, after winning for The Nutty Professor the previous year. Baker had also won the inaugural Makeup award for An American Werewolf in London back in 1981. Danny Elfman's brilliant soundtrack was also nominated for Best Original Score, as was Bo Welch and Cheryl Carasik's Art Direction. 5) Road To Perdition Won for: Best Cinematography. Also nominated for: Best Supporting Actor, Best Art Direction, Best Original Score, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing. Here's another movie you might not have known was based on a comic book. 1998's Road to Perdition from Paradox Press (an imprint of DC Comics) was initially snapped by Steven Spielberg and his DreamWorks studio before Sam Mendes was chosen to direct. Starring Tom Hanks, the sombre gangster movie was very well received, resulting in it knocking up six Oscar nominations, with one win to boot. Its nominations included Best Supporting Actor for Hollywood legend Paul Newman, Best Art Direction for Dennis Gassner and Nancy Haigh, Best Original Score for Thomas Newman and Best Sound Mixing for Scott Millan, Bob Beemer and John Pritchett. Finally, Scott Hecker was nominated for Best Sound Editing. The sole win was a sadly posthumous award for cinematographer Conrad L. Hall. A big name in the business for decades, Hall had previously won the award for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in 1969 and American Beauty in 1999 (also from director Sam Mendes). 4) Spider-Man 2 Won for: Best Visual Effects. Also nominated for: Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing. Spider-Man 2 is by far the best Spider-Man movie - the ball's in your court, Spider-Man: Homecoming - so it makes sense that the 2004 modern classic would be the only film starring the webhead to receive an Oscar. As Spider-fans will know, the movie features some of the best set pieces of the whole franchise, most notably the thrilling fight scene between Spidey and Doc Ock on a speeding train, so it thoroughly deserved its Best Visual Effects win. The SFX team of John Dykstra, Scott Stokdyk, Anthony LaMolinara and John Frazier collected the gong at the 77th Academy Awards. The movie was also nominated for two further Oscars, both in the field of sound editing. For Sound Mixing, the movie lost to Ray and for Sound Editing, you'll remember that it was beaten by our old friend The Incredibles. 3) The Dark Knight Won for: Best Supporting Actor, Best Sound Editing. Also nominated for: Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Sound Mixing, Best Visual Effects, Best Makeup, Best Film Editing. The Dark Knight isn't widely seen as the greatest ever superhero movie ever for no reason - it's also the comic book film with the most Oscar nominations. With its eight nods, it just beats out Dick Tracy's seven (though that movie won three awards compared to Dark Knight's two). Famously, Heath Ledger posthumously won the award for Best Supporting Actor for his acclaimed performance as the Joker, just over a year after he died at the age of 28. It remains the only time that a comic book movie has won one of the "major" Oscars. The movie's second award was for Best Sound Editing, which makes it the second superhero film to win the award after The Incredibles. It was also nominated for a further six categories. Most notably, for Best Film Editing. Traditionally, whoever won this highly-coveted award would go on to nab the Best Picture prize as well. 2) Big Hero 6 Won for: Best Animated Feature. After Disney acquired Marvel in 2009, they not only inherited the Marvel Cinematic Universe of live-action films, but they also bought the rights to make their own movies based on Marvel's back catalogue. The first child of this deal was Big Hero 6, loosely based off a little-known Japanese Marvel comic. The result was a movie that combined superhero action and adventure with Disney's trademark mix of heart and humour. It proved to be a colossal success, and has since spawned a TV spinoff and a sequel (Big Hero 7?), which is in the works. Like a lot of Disney instant classics, Big Hero 6 won the coveted Best Animated Feature gong at the 88th Academy Awards, beating the likes of The Box Trolls and How to Train Your Dragon 2 in the process, and following in the footsteps of fellow animated superhero movie The Incredibles. Someone really needs to wise up to the fact that cartoon comic book movies are Oscar-bait. 1) Suicide Squad Won for: Best Makeup and Hairstyling. And this brings us right back to the beginning. Despite being met with a critical panning and an outcry from a lot of fans, Suicide Squad made a very impressive $750 million at the box office. And, more surprisingly, it managed to do something that only two other mainstream comic book movies of the 21st century have done: win an Oscar. As we said at the beginning of this article, we have to give Suicide Squad its due, as it was a movie full of vibrant costumes and character looks. The appearances of the likes of the Joker and Enchantress might have been controversial, but Harley Quinn, for instance, was an instant superhero movie icon. So, hats off to Alessandro Bertolazzi, Giorgio Gregorini and Christopher Nelson for their win. Still, it is interesting that the DCEU has managed to win an Oscar in its first nomination and the MCU has received eight nominations across seven movies and yet has never won. DC fans will definitely be pleased that this is something that the newbie franchise has over its juggernaut rival, but it has to be said that Marvel deserved at least one of those awards. For instance, Doctor Strange probably should have won for Visual Effects. Who knows, maybe the franchise will produce the next rare superhero movie to win an Academy Award?