Godzilla Minus One sweeps the (Japanese) Oscars

Last night, Hollywood assembled to give and receive little golden statues at the 96th annual Academy Awards. It was a fun night, with lots of worthy people being awarded for their work. Robert Downey Jr. won his first-ever Oscar for his work in Oppenheimer. Christopher Nolan also won his first-ever Oscar...also for Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer won a lot of stuff.

A lot of movies come out every year, and the Oscars can't award them all. One of the biggest snubs this year was Godzilla Minus One, an entry in the long-running Godzilla franchise from filmmaker Takashi Yamazaki. The movie had something of a Cinderella story, since not only was it an all-around great film, but it was made for only $15 million — a drop in the bucket compared to what most Hollywood studio tentpole movies cost these days — but still managed to look better than a lot of the competition. In fact, it won the Best Visual Effects Oscar over mega-budget fare like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One, an impressive feat indeed.

But beyond that Oscar, Godzilla Minus One was mostly shut out of the Academy Awards. However, the film swept the Japan Academy Film Prize ceremony, essentially the Japanese equivalent to the Oscars. There, it won eight of the 12 categories in which it was nominated: Best Film, Best Screenplay, Best Supporting Actress (for Sakura Ando), Best Cinematography, Best Lightning Direction, Best Art Direction, Best Sound Recording and Best Film Editing.

With this kind of success — Godzilla Minus One is the most successful Japanese film ever in the U.S. and Canada — hopefully we'll see a sequel in the future, and maybe greater reception to Japanese films in general. “I would certainly like to see what the sequel would look like,” Yamazaki told Empire. “I know that Shikishima’s war seems over, and we’ve reached this state of peace and calm – but perhaps [it’s the] calm before the storm, and the characters have not yet been forgiven for what has been imposed upon them.”

Robert Downey Jr. and Christopher Nolan win their first Oscars

Meanwhile, here are the results of the normal Oscars:

BEST PICTURE

WINNER: Oppenheimer
American Fiction
Anatomy of a Fall
Barbie
The Holdovers
Killers of the Flower Moon
Maestro
Past Lives
Poor Things
The Zone of Interest

BEST DIRECTOR

WINNER: Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer
Jonathan Glazer, The Zone of Interest
Yorgos Lanthimos, Poor Things
Martin Scorsese, Killers of the Flower Moon
Justine Triet, Anatomy of a Fall

BEST ACTRESS

WINNER: Emma Stone, Poor Things
Annette Bening, Nyad
Lily Gladstone, Killers of the Flower Moon
Sandra Hüller, Anatomy of a Fall
Carey Mulligan, Maestro

BEST ACTOR 

WINNER: Cillian Murphy, Oppenheimer
Bradley Cooper, Maestro
Colman Domingo, Rustin
Paul Giamatti, The Holdovers
Jeffrey Wright, American Fiction

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

WINNER: “What Was I Made For?,” Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell, Barbie
“I’m Just Ken,” Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt, Barbie
“The Fire Inside,” Diane Warren, Flamin’ Hot
“It Never Went Away,” Jon Batiste and Dan Wilson, American Symphony
“Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People),” Scott George, Killers of the Flower Moon

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

WINNER: Oppenheimer
American Fiction
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
Killers of the Flower Moon
Poor Things

BEST SOUND

WINNER: The Zone of Interest
The Creator
Maestro
Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One
Oppenheimer

BEST LIVE-ACTION SHORT

WINNER: The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
The After
Invincible
Knight of Fortune
Red, White and Blue

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

WINNER: Oppenheimer
El Conde
Killers of the Flower Moon
Maestro
Poor Things

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

WINNER: 20 Days in Mariupol
Bobi Wine: The People’s President
The Eternal Memory
Four Daughters
To Kill a Tiger

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT

WINNER: The Last Repair Shop
The ABCs of Book Banning
The Barber of Little Rock
Island in Between
Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó

BEST EDITING

WINNER: Oppenheimer
Anatomy of a Fall
The Holdovers
Killers of the Flower Moon
Poor Things

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

WINNER: Godzilla Minus One
The Creator
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One
Napoleon

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

WINNER: Robert Downey Jr., Oppenheimer
Sterling K. Brown, American Fiction
Robert De Niro, Killers of the Flower Moon
Ryan Gosling, Barbie
Mark Ruffalo, Poor Things

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

WINNER: Da’Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers
Emily Blunt, Oppenheimer
Danielle Brooks, The Color Purple
America Ferrera, Barbie
Jodie Foster, Nyad

BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE

WINNER: The Zone of Interest, United Kingdom
Io Capitano, Italy
Perfect Days, Japan
Society of the Snow, Spain
The Teachers’ Lounge, Germany

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

WINNER: Poor Things
Barbie
Killers of the Flower Moon
Napoleon
Oppenheimer

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

WINNER: Poor Things
Barbie
Killers of the Flower Moon
Napoleon
Oppenheimer

BEST MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING 

WINNER: Poor Things
Golda
Maestro
Oppenheimer
Society of the Snow

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

WINNER: Cord Jefferson, American Fiction
Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach, Barbie
Tony McNamara, Poor Things
Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer
Jonathan Glazer, The Zone of Interest

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

WINNER: Justine Triet and Arthur Harari, Anatomy of a Fall
David Hemingson, The Holdovers
Bradley Cooper and Josh Singer, Maestro
Samy Burch and Alex Mechanik, May December
Celine Song, Past Lives

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

WINNER: The Boy and the Heron
Elemental
Nimona
Robot Dreams
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

BEST ANIMATED SHORT

WINNER: War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko
Letter to a Pig
Ninety-Five Senses
Our Uniform
Pachyderme

Congratulations to all the winners!

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h/t The A.V. Club, Vanity Fair