The overwhelming variety of sequels, reboots, and remakes in Hollywood has been the subject of a lot discourse these previous few years. Viewers and critics complain about what’s a perceived enhance in continuations of pre-existing mental properties and a concurrent lower in originality. Sequels have turn into culturally synonymous with a decrease caliber of flicks. The second installment of a franchise is a positive strategy to make popcorn cash, however not a strategy to appeal to status. Thus, in relation to the Academy Awards, the establishment primarily related to recognizing the very best echelon of movie, there usually are not many sequels that may say they’ve competed for the present’s prime prize.
Whereas technically 10 sequels have been nominated
for Greatest Image on the Oscars, solely two have ever received: The Godfather Half II in 1974 and The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King in 2003. What precisely is it about sequels that makes them anti-Oscar bait, regardless of movies like Dune: Half 2 being objectively high-quality sufficient to be nominated? Maybe it is a form of chicken-egg dilemma: is the general public perspective towards sequels knowledgeable by the Academy’s resistance to nominating them, or is the Academy merely responding to a public perspective? Both manner, there have definitely been extra sequels nominated lately than ever earlier than. Is the Academy instantly seeing worth in seeing double? May we begin to see much more sequels on the Oscars in years to return? Learn on for musings on the sequel of all of it, particularly within the context of Hollywood’s largest evening.
A Breakdown of Sequels on the Oscars
The primary sequel ever nominated for an Oscar was The Bells of St. Mary’s on the 18th Academy Awards in 1945. In it, Bing Crosby revived his beforehand Oscar-nominated function as priest Father O’Malley from Going My Method (1944). The Bells of St. Mary’s in the end misplaced out to Billy Wilder’s habit drama The Misplaced Weekend. There wasn’t one other sequel nominated till 1974, when The Godfather Half II made historical past as the primary sequel to win. The subsequent nominee was the third installment of The Godfather sequence in 1990. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King was the following nominee and the final winner, over 20 years in the past.
Nonetheless, the 2010-2020s have seen an inflow of sequels nominated for Greatest Image. Toy Story 3 was nominated in 2010, and was additionally certainly one of solely three animated movies to be nominated for Greatest Image (and is the one sequel to win Greatest Animated Characteristic to this point). Then, Mad Max: Fury Street tied The Godfather Half II for whole variety of Oscar wins (six) however ended up dropping the massive prize to Highlight, which famously received just one different Oscar.
2022 noticed the file nomination of two blockbuster sequels in the identical yr, Avatar: Method of the Water and Prime Gun: Maverick. Lastly, Dune: Half Two was nominated on the 2025 awards, the 97th ceremony, however misplaced the highest honor to Sean Baker’s impartial movie Anora. Dune: Half Two received two awards, in comparison with the unique movie, which received six.
There are a number of Oscar-winning movies that technically represent remakes. As an example, Martin Scorsese’s Greatest Image-winning The Departed is an English remake of Hong Kong’s Infernal Affairs. Ben-Hur (1959) was a remake of a silent movie. The remake of Mutiny on the Bounty was nominated in 1962, regardless of the unique successful Greatest Image in 1935. In fact, there are additionally the myriad diversifications of stage musicals (and performs) which were nominated for Greatest Image. There are even remakes of Greatest Image-winning musicals, like Steven Spielberg’s West Aspect Story. They are saying there are solely seven fundamental plots, and there’s no faster strategy to make that obvious than wanting on the record of Oscar-nominated movies.
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By this level, theater chains ought to implement mini-screens within the restroom stalls so you do not miss something.
The Sequels Cycle
There are various, many tropes related
with what makes a movie “Oscar-worthy”.
For one, trendy Oscar-winners are sometimes small, artsy movies (with a number of exceptions, like maybe the current Oppenheimer in 2023). It isn’t “cool” for the Academy to acknowledge big-budget, mainstream stuff (but). Originality and innovation, moreover, appear to be unstated standards. Sequels usually are not inherently seen as possessing these qualities.
If we check out the sequels which were nominated lately, some are usually follow-ups to movies that have been initially main trailblazers, like Avatar, which is considered probably the most technologically vital movies ever made. Versus the sequels in isolation incomes a nomination, they typically appear powered by the distinctions established by their predecessors. There are extra complicated examples, like Prime Gun: Maverick, for which the sequel was nominated however not the unique movie. Nonetheless, when a sequel is nominated, it appears to be no less than partially in regards to the lingering pleasure across the first movie and, in fact, politics (which might be the #1 pitfall that the Oscars are critiqued of).
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These motion sequels have been soulless money grabs that missed the mark and failed to acknowledge what made the originals so gratifying.
It’s no secret that Oscar viewership has lessened through the years. In-person cinemas have additionally been in peril for the reason that introduction of streaming providers and the pandemic. The one saving grace of film theaters lately has been
big blockbuster moments like Barbenheimer
, Depraved, and varied superhero flicks. When the Oscars nominate a slew of movies the general public has not seen, it solely decreases their viewership. Nevertheless, when the Oscars resolve to throw a number of movies that belong to standard franchises into the combination, the typical individual could instantly have much more stake within the ceremony. Blockbusters most precisely mirror the American cinema panorama, and thus they needs to be within the operating for the “Greatest Image of the yr,” so to talk. If Hollywood goes to make increasingly more sequels, ought to the Academy not nominate extra?
Is It All as Dire as It Appears?
Students argue that sequel tradition isn’t as pervasive or distinctive to our occasions as we predict. Movie Research professor Dr. Matthew Jones informed Cosmopolitan, “There’s really a wealthy custom of remakes in Western movie tradition that runs again to the earliest days of cinema.” Jones factors out that studios have acknowledged the sound monetary logic of sequels and reboots for many years, and there are merely durations of time when sequels turn into a heavier fad than others,
like after eras of “main financial upheaval”
(such because the pandemic).
Because of audiences having much less disposable revenue, studios discover it safer to financial institution on tales which have already confirmed profitable. This can be a utterly comprehensible enterprise tactic, however one can’t assist however surprise how a lot this tactic (and the eventual nomination of those movies for Oscars) is enabling a sterile movie tradition. Each time the Academy nominates a sequel over an unique script, it’s fueling a machine that daunts new concepts. Creativeness, sadly, requires time and cash to flourish, so we are able to solely hope that the sequel cycle resets quickly.