We paranormal people* have TWO contenders for Best Picture in 2018.

*By “paranormal people”, I mean people who are:

Para- / par-ə / Prefix. ”Alongside, near, beyond, altered, contrary to.”

Normal / nawr-muhl / Adjective. “Conforming to the standard; usual; regular; natural.”

Also, people who love horror and speculative fiction.

I remember the first time I saw one of *my* movies win an Academy Award for Best Picture. It was a wintry evening on March 31st, 1992, and The Silence of the Lambs (1991) swept the big five awards: Best Adapted Screenplay, Best  Actress, Best Actor, Best Director, and Best Picture.

As I watched a movie I LOVED win award after award that night, I grew increasingly giddy. Finally, I thought, my genre was getting some respect after years of being completely ignored.

You see, in the weeks leading up to the broadcast, I had been listening to the “buzz” about how Silence of the Lambs might win. And it was always accompanied by a lot of talk about how it couldn’t REALLY win, because the Academy ALWAYS snubbed genre movies — suspense, speculative fiction, sci-fi, and horror in particular.

(Rather like the buzz we are hearing right now, as the news of nominations for Get Out and The Shape of Water spread across the internet.)

That night, I didn’t yet know that in 1941, Hitchcock’s Rebecca had not only won Best Picture, it had received enough nominations that it could have (should have, in my opinion) performed as well  The Silence of the Lambs did in 1992. I didn’t yet know that the Academy had actually nominated many horror, sci-fi, and speculative fiction films — right from the beginning of its existence — and that it had handed out several prestigious awards to the best of them.

In 1992, I just didn’t know enough about the history of the Academy Awards.

As a kid in the late 70s and early 80s I watched the Oscars on TV every year with Mother, even though we never went to a movie theater.  I saw a lot of beautiful, elegant, people win that little gold statuette, but I’d never seen a movie that hadn’t been edited for television and interrupted by commercials, let alone any movie that was contemporary enough to be up for an annual award. (This was before videos were available, Children.)

I didn’t start seeing real movies until I began dating in the mid-80s, and those early dates certainly weren’t taking me to see Oscar contenders. That’s not to say I didn’t see some great flicks. I saw The Terminator. Beverly Hills Cop. The Karate Kid.  Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.  All of them on the big screen. Hell, I saw Return of the Jedi in its first run at least three times. 

The blockbusters were fun, but I didn’t become truly infatuated with films until we could afford a VCR in the late 80s. That’s when I started spending all of my “spare” money renting all the film adaptions of my favorite books, and all the classic movies that my favorite authors talked about in their afterwords. (And everything Stephen King recommends in Danse Macabre.)

One thing led to another, and my affection for horror and speculative fiction films, from all eras, became consuming. My friends and I rented everything from Psycho, to Carrie, to Last House On the Left, to Faces of Death. (I regret that last one to this day.) I had found my niche.

By the time 1991 came around, I hadn’t bothered to watch the Academy Awards for years. I wasn’t interested in “that kind” of movie. It was a busy year for me and I wasn’t going out as much. I was still renting movies like crazy, but the only two times I remember going to the theater, I saw The People Under the Stairs and The Silence of the Lambs. I loved both movies, for different reasons, but it didn’t occur to me that the Academy would consider either one for an Oscar.

Then the buzz about Silence of the Lambs began. I gave the Academy another chance, expecting to have my hopes dashed. Instead I was rewarded.

I’ve watched the Oscars every year since. And I’ve been doing my due diligence in researching the history of the Academy Awards.

The truth of the matter is — with a few notable exceptions — the Academy is generally happy to reward a genre movie … IF it really is the best in a category in any given year.

This week I’m sharing the Oscar highlights of my favorite genre’s movies, prior to 1992. (See list below.) Next week, I’ll share some thoughts about films that followed The Silence of the Lambs. (Hint: It gets even better.)

Right now, I want to encourage you to catch the two films that are in contention for next month’s 90th Annual Academy Awards, while you still can.  Go ahead. Get excited. These movies have a great shot at winning. (But be warned — the field, as usual, is really competitive.)

Get Out

• Nominated for Best Picture
• Nominated for Best Director
• Nominated for Best Original Screenplay
• Nominated for Best Lead Actor

Get Out is available through Redbox, and will likely go into re-release now that it has nominations.

The Shape Of Water

• Nominated for Best Picture
• Nominated for Best Director
• Nominated for Best Original Screenplay
• Nominated for Best Lead Actress
• Nominated for Best Supporting Actor
• Nominated for Best Cinematography
• Nominated for Best Film Editing
• Nominated for Best Sound Editing
• Nominated for Best Sound Mixing
• Nominated for Best Production Design
• Nominated for Best Original Score
• Nominated for Best Costume Design

Movies The Academy Acknowledged

Even Before The Silence of the Lambs

1932 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

• Winner for Best Actor in a Leading Role: Frederic March (Tied with Wallace Beery for The Champ)
• Nominated for Best Writing, Adaptation
• Nominated for Best Cinematography

1936 Bride of Frankenstein

• Nominated for Best Sound, Recording

1941 Rebecca

• Winner of Best Picture
• Winner of Best Cinematography
• Nominated for Best Director: Alfred Hitchcock
• Nominated for Best Writing, Screenplay
• Nominated for Best Actor in a Leading role: Laurence Olivier
• Nominated for Best Actress in a Leading role: Joan Fontaine
• Nominated for Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Judith Anderson (And it’s a crime she didn’t win for her portrayal of Mrs. Danvers.)
• Nominated for Best Art Direction, Black and White
• Nominated for Best Film Editing
• Nominated for Best Effects, Special Effects
• Nominated for Best Musical Score

1944 The Phantom of the Opera

• Winner of Best Cinematography – Color
• Winner of Best Art Direction – Interior, Color
• Nominated for Best Sound, Recording
• Nominated for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture

1946 The Picture of Dorian Gray

• Winner of Best Cinematography – Black and White
• Nominated for Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Angela Lansbury (She won this category at the Golden Globes.)
• Nominated for Best Art Direction – Interior Decoration, Black and White

1957 The Bad Seed

• Nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role: Nancy Kelly
• Nominated for Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Eileen Heckart
• Nominated for Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Patty McCormack
• Nominated for Best Cinematography, Black and White

1961 Psycho

• Nominated for Best Director
• Nominated for Best Actress in a Supporting role: Janet Leigh (Leigh won this category at the Golden Globes.)
• Nominated for Best Art Direction – Interior Decoration, Black and White
• Nominated for Best Cinematography, Black and White

1963 What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

• Winner of Best Costume Design, Black and White
• Nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role: Bette Davis (An ouch for Joan Crawford.)
• Nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Victor Buono
• Nominated for Best Cinematography, Black and White
• Nominated for Best Sound

1964 The Birds

• Nominated for Best Effects, Special Visual Effects

1968 Wait Until Dark

Nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role – Audrey Hepburn

1969 Rosemary’s Baby

• Winner of Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Ruth Gordon (Gordon also won a Golden Globe for this role, and Mia Farrow won a Globe for Best Actress – Drama.)
• Nominated for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material From Another Medium: Roman Polanski (Polanski won the Golden Globe for Best Screenplay.)

1973 Ben

• Nominated for Best Music, Original Song: Ben

1974 The Exorcist

• Winner of Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material From Another Medium: William Peter Blatty
• Winner of Best Sound
• Nominated for Best Picture: William Peter Blatty
• Nominated for Best Director: William Friedkin
• Nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role: Ellen Bustyn
• Nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Jason Miller
• Nominated for Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Linda Blair
• Nominated for Best Cinematography
• Nominated for Best Art Direction – Set Decoration
• Nominated for Film Editing

1975 Young Frankenstein

• Nominated for Best Writing, Screenplay Adapted From Other Material
• Nominated for Best Sound

1976 Jaws

• Winner of Best Sound
• Winner of Best Film Editing
• Winner of Best Music, Original Dramatic Score
• Nominated for Best Picture: Stephen Spielburg
• NOTE: I do think there were some performances here that should have been nominated, but weren’t.

1977 The Omen

• Winner of Best Music, Original Score
• Nominated for Best Music, Original Song: Ave Santini

1977 Carrie

• Nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role: Sissy Spacek
• Nominated for Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Piper Laurie

1980 The Amityville Horror

• Nominated for Best Original Score

1980 Alien

• Winner of Best Effects, Visual Effects
• Winner of Best Art Direction-Set Decoration

1982 An American Werewolf in London

• Winner of Best Makeup (Rick Baker)

1983 Poltergeist

• Nominated for Best Effects, Visual Effects
• Nominated for Best Effects, Sound Effects Editing
• Nominated for Best Music, Original Score

1987 The Fly

• Winner of Best Makeup

1987 Aliens

• Winner of Best Effects, Sound Effects Editing
• Winner of Best Effects, Visual Effects
• Nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role: Sigourney Weaver
• Nominated for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration
• Nominated for Best Sound
• Nominated for Best Film Editing
• Nominated for Best Music, Original Score

1991 Misery

Winner of Best Actress in a Leading Role

 

 

---