29 Geeky Movies That Won Oscars
02/21/2019 12:58 pm EST
Suicide Squad
With its one Academy Award for Best Makeup and Hairstyling, this critically reviled 2016 DC Extended Universe film goes down in the history books as having won more Oscars, combined, than Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times, Stanley Kubrick's Paths of Glory and Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life.
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
This 2001 film -- the first installment in Peter Jackson's Middle-earth trilogy -- scored four wins (for cinematography, visual effects, makeup and score) off a whopping 13 nominations.
Spider-Man 2
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, a favorite for Best Animated Feature on this coming Oscar night, may yet make history. But as of now, this Sam Raimi-directed sequel is the only Spidey-centric film to claim an Academy Award: The 2004 film won for visual effects.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
What the Harry Potter films failed to do through eight Oscar cycles, the wizarding universe's Newt Scamander wing did its first time out: This 2016 J.K. Rowling-penned film won the Oscar for costume design.
Blade Runner 2049
This long-awaited 2017 sequel to Ridley Scott's iconic 1982 Blade Runner didn't capture critics the way the earlier film did, but the Ryan Gosling vehicle did capture Academy voters: Blade Runner 2049 took home two awards, for cinematography and visual effects.
The Dark Knight
Christopher Nolan's game-changing 2008 Caped Crusader film earned two Oscars, for sound editing and supporting actor. The latter was a bittersweet, posthumous victory for Heath Ledger, who died months before his incendiary Joker hit screens. For all its success, and eight nominations, it was The Dark Knight's exclusion from the Best Picture race that helped spur the Academy to open up the category to more films.
The Incredibles
Before there was Black Panther, this 2004 Brad Bird film represented for superheroes at the Oscars, winning two awards off four nominations, for Best Animated Feature and Best Sound Editing.
Star Trek
To date, there have been 13 big-screen Trek movies. J.J. Abrams' timeline-resetting 2009 reboot is the only one among them to claim an Oscar: It won for Best Makeup.
The Wolfman
The scariest thing about this 2010 horror remake, starring Benecio Del Toro, may be its woeful Metacritic score. But the film still ranks among Hollywood's Oscar-winners, thanks to its win for Best Makeup.
Her
Spike Jonze's near-future tale of a man (Joaquin Phoenix) who falls in love with his AI assistant (voiced by Scarlett Johansson) earned five nominations, including one for Best Picture. The 2013 film won one statuette, for Jonze's original screenplay.
Arrival
This 2016 sci-fi film starring Amy Adams competed for eight Oscars, including Best Picture. It captured one category, Best Sound Editing.
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
The second leg in Peter Jackson's LOTR trilogy is the least-decorated of the three movies. But the 2002 film still claimed a pair of Oscars (for sound editing and visual effects) off of six nominations.
King Kong
Fun factoid: 1933's original, ground-breaking King Kong did not win a single competitive Academy Award. That left it to Peter Jackson's 2005 monster-epic redo to bring home the gold. And so it did, winning in three categories: sound editing, sound mixing and visual effects.
Alice in Wonderland
Tim Burton's 2010 kaleidoscopic take on the Lewis Carroll fantasy classic, starring Johnny Depp, won two Oscars, for art direction and costume design.
Get Out
This hot-button hit represented for horror at the 2018 Oscars, winning a Best Original Screenplay Academy Award for its writer-director-producer, Jordan Peele.
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
The Narnia movies fizzled after the franchise's blockbuster start, but the fantasy series still goes down in the books as an Oscar-winner thanks to the initial 2005 film's victory for makeup.
The Muppets
Co-writer and star Jason Segel's 2011 love letter to Jim Henson's fuzzy creations is just about the geekiest thing ever. The only thing more gloriously geeky? The film's Oscar-winning song, "Man or Muppet."
Avatar
James Cameron's big, blue, box-office-commanding fantasy epic lost out to The Hurt Locker for the Best Picture prize that many pundits had predicted it would win. The 2009 film, which represented turning points for motion capture and 3D, made do with three wins: for art direction, cinematography and visual effects.
Inception
The first Christopher Nolan film to contend for Best Picture (sorry, Dark Knight), this 2010 time-bending, Leonardo DiCarprio sci-fi/crime adventure made off with four Oscars: for cinematography, sound editing, sound mixing and visual effects.
The Shape of Water
The Creature from the Black Lagoon? A monster-horror classic that didn't get a fin anywhere near an Oscar. The Shape of Water? Guillermo del Toro's tale of a woman and the water monster she loves swept up Best Picture, Best Director and two other statuettes (for production design and score). The 2017 movie is only the second fantasy film to win Best Picture.
Big Hero 6
Based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name, Big Hero 6, released in 2014, won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.
Pan's Labyrinth
This 2006 Guillermo del Toro fantasy, featuring Doug Jones, who would handle monster duties for the director's Shape of Water, too, contended for six Oscars and won three (for cinematography, production design and makeup).
Interstellar
Another Christopher Nolan entry, this 2014 sci-fi saga starring Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway, won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects.
Ex Machina
This dark look at an increasingly powerful and resourceful AI robot (played by Alicia Vikander) scored an Original Screenplay nomination, and won for Visual Effects.
The Golden Compass
Though this 2007 fantasy-adventure failed to spark a Harry Potter-esque franchise, it won an Academy Award for visual effects -- and, yes, that's more Oscar gold than the Hogwarts crew ever saw.
Mad Max: Fury Road
George Miller's relentless fourth Mad Max movie lost out to Spotlight for Best Picture, but the 2015 film topped all other nominated movies with a field-best six wins (for film editing, costume design, makeup and hair, sound editing and production design).
The Social Network
This David Fincher-directed look at Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, the ultimate geek success story (and cautionary tale), scored eight nominations, including one for Best Picture. The 2010 film was liked enough to win three awards, including one for Aaron Sorkin's adapted screenplay.
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
While a superhero movie has yet to win Best Picture, Alejandro G. Iñárritu's 2014 comedy-drama about an actor who struggles with having played a superhero took home the top prize and three other Oscars (for original screenplay, cinematography and directing). Birdman gets extra-geek-credit for putting Michael Keaton back in the spotlight, and revitalizing the Batman alum's big-screen career.
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Peter Jackson's 2003 film, the final chapter in the filmmaker's take on the J.R.R. Tolkien trilogy, didn't just win Oscars. It won a record-tying 11 Oscars, including Best Picture. In claiming the top prize, Return of the King became the first fantasy film to scale that mountain.
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