Godzilla Minus One shut out of Best Picture race

Godzilla Minus One received an Academy Award nomination today, but it wasn’t for Best Picture, as fans of the creature feature had been hoping.

Godzilla Minus One surprised the film industry when it smashed into cinemas in 2023, becoming a critical darling, while making a fortune in the process.

The movie has a score of 98% amongst critics on Rotten Tomatoes – from 168 reviews. While the general public concur, with the audience number also sitting at 98%.

From an estimated budget of $10 million, the monster movie has already grossed more than $100 million. And the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences honored the Toho production at today’s Oscar nominations. But only in a single category.

Godzilla Minus One shut out of Oscar Best Picture race

Godzilla Minus One missed out on a Best Picture nomination today, and didn’t even manage a nod in the Best International Feature category. Instead, the movie received one nom, for Best Visual Effects.

That’s no mean feat however, as Godzilla beat out the much more expensive likes of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, The Marvels, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, The Little Mermaid, and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.

The movies Godzilla Minus One will be competing against in the Visual Effects category are The Creator, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, and Napoleon.

What we said in the Dexerto review

You can read our 4-star review of Godzilla Minus One review here, where we wrote: “The usual ‘horrors of the atomic age’ subtext are present and accounted for in Godzilla Minus One, but Yamazaki’s take on the mythos weaves in criticism of both Imperial Japan and Cold War America. Both are tainted by an original sin – waging a war that cost countless lives and unleashed nuclear atrocities on the world – that Godzilla both represents and demands they pay for.

“But it’s not the postwar Japanese government who ultimately have to reckon with Godzilla’s retribution, nor is it those in the White House. It’s the little people of Tokyo who have to foot the bill, just as they did when they marched to the frontline or hunkered down in their bombed-out homes. “Why do we always draw the short straw?” a frustrated ex-soldier demands to know at one point, and no one can answer.

“And yet as depressing as this seems, Godzilla Minus One has faith in everyday people to save themselves when those in power inevitably fail them. That’s the real takeaway here: we’ll be okay if we just stick together. It’s hardly a subtle message, conceptually or in its execution, but it is a nice one. Besides, this is a movie starring a giant lizard with atomic breath; subtlety was never on the menu.”

Godzilla Minus One is still in cinemas, while the Academy Awards are handed out on Sunday, March 10, 2023. Check out all the nominations and predictions here.