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).