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What If Only Comic Book Movies Were Eligible For The Academy Awards?

As people go crazy over whether The Dark Knight will be excluded from the Academy Awards just because it’s a comic book movie, I decided to look at things from another perspective. What if all the members of the Academy nominated this year were comic book movies? With only comic book movies to choose from, which films would win in which categories? Here are my predictions.

Best Picture: The Dark Knight – While Iron Man might deserve some serious consideration, The Dark Knight would take Best Picture in a knockout. The Dark Knight appealed to both comic book fans and regular people alike. Show of hands from everyone who has heard one of their non-comic book friends announce, “I’m not a fan of comic book movies, but I really liked The Dark Knight.”

Best Director: Christopher Nolan for The Dark Knight – This guy took a franchise that was last known for the dreadful Batman & Robin and gave us Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. Let me say it again, Christopher Nolan took Batman & Robin and turned it into The Dark Knight. He not only deserves Best Director this year, but the Academy should retire the category after his win.

Best Original Screenplay: Hancock – Ok, this was a really tough one, because every comic book movie isn’t original because it’s adapted from a comic book. Hancock isn’t really a comic book movie. It was an original superhero movie. However, since most people think it was a comic book movie, and we have to give the award to somebody, Hancock is the winner.

Best Adapted Screenplay: The Dark Knight – There have been a lot of people that have adapted Batman both for the small screen and the large screen. Some of them have done a decent job at it, others haven’t, but no one has done it better than The Dark Knight.

Best Actor: Robert Downey, Jr. for Iron Man – With all due respect to Christian Bale, who is the best Batman ever, Robert Downey, Jr. is Iron Man. Robert Downey, Jr. took a second tier comic book character and turned him into a huge movie franchise.

Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger for The Dark Knight – Alright, we know this is who would win if all comic book movies were nominated for the Academy Awards, but this is the one award that the Academy definitely needs to step up to the plate and give to an actor from a comic book movie. If Heath Ledger doesn’t win Best Supporting Actor for The Dark Knight, then there are going to be a lot of Academy members in need of a serious ass-whooping.

Best Actress: Angelina Jolie for Wanted – Angelina Jolie had this Oscar wrapped up the second that she flashed her bare backside. In fact, we doubt if anyone else would receive any votes in this category.

Best Supporting Actress: Gwyneth Paltrow for Iron Man – Because Robert Downey, Jr. was just so awesome as Iron Man, many moviegoers may not have noticed how beautifully Gwyneth played the role of Pepper Potts. She was the perfect straight girl to Robert Downey, Jr.’s wild and crazy Tony Stark. She didn’t even have to get partially nude to be a shoe-in for this award.

Best Art Direction: Hellboy II: The Golden Army – This is a tough one, because The Dark Knight and Hellboy II both deserve it. But there are just so many weird and quirky characters in Hellboy II, it would be a crime not to give it to their art directors.

Best Cinematography: Wanted – Again, a very touch choice, because both The Dark Knight and Hellboy are also very deserving. But there were vehicles flying all over the place, people jumping around on trains, and bullets curving in Wanted. Plus, there is also the matter of Angelina Jolie’s bare behind, which was some beautiful cinematography.

Best Film Editing: The Dark Knight – There could be a case made for Iron Man in this category. It would have been a much better case though if The Dark Knight hadn’t been released this year as well. The Dark Knight was edited perfectly from beginning to end.

Best Visual Effects: Hellboy II: The Golden Army – Hellboy was visual treat from the opening scene to the closing scene. It’s not a contest, Hellboy wins.

Best Sound Mixing: Iron Man – Even though The Dark Knight is a tough competitor, Iron Man has the edge. There’s nothing like the sound of clanking metal and fighter jets done right.

Best Sound Editing: Iron Man – Again, The Dark Knight would be in the mix, but Iron Man would get the nod. Machines and war make for good sound editing.

Best Original Song: The Little Things from Wanted – Really, there wouldn’t be much competition in this category. This original song by Danny Elfman from Wanted would win hands down.

Best Original Score: The Dark Knight – It is only fitting that The Dark Knight would win for Best Original Score since The Academy originally tried to disqualify the film in this category, before changing their minds.

Best Costume Design: Hellboy II: The Golden Army – Hellboy has some of the most outlandish characters of any comic book, and they all look fantastic in the Hellboy movie.

Best Makeup: Hellboy II: The Golden Army – While Heath Ledger’s makeup in The Dark Knight made for the perfect Joker, the overall movie needs to be considered. Based on the number of outlandish characters, Hellboy has to lay claim to this award as well.

Best Animated Feature: Next Avengers: Heroes Of Tomorrow – It’s a shame that in the comic book medium, I can’t think of a single comic book based animated feature that was released in theaters in 2008 that deserves this award. I bent the rules a little bit and gave it to the Next Avengers direct to DVD release.

Best Documentary Feature: Comic Books Unbound – Again, I had to cheat a little bit in this category, because I couldn’t think of a comic book documentary released in theaters, so this TV documentary will have to do.

Best Foreign Language Film: The Incredible Hulk – Didn’t think that The Incredible Hulk was a foreign language film? Well, it wasn’t, but remember the opening scene with Bruce Banner hiding out in Rocinha, Brazil. It’s as close as a comic book movie got to being a foreign language film. Plus, The Incredible Hulk was a big improvement over the 2003 Hulk movie, and it deserved some type of recognition.

Not even going to try to tackle the short film categories, but if you know of some good comic book related ones that were released in 2008, then post them to the comment section below.