BY MARK KENNEDY
Associated Press
Godzilla finally made it to the Oscars this year—and slayed.
The movie “Godzilla Minus One,” set in the waning days of World War II, won the Oscar for best visual effects, pushing aside such big-budget behemoths as “Guardians of the Galaxy 3,” “Napoleon” and “Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One.”
“Godzilla Minus One,” from writer-director Takashi Yamazaki, marked the first time the prehistoric reptilian monster was nominated for an Oscar in the franchise’s 70-year history. It is the 37th film in the film series, which usually uses Godzilla as a sober symbol of nuclear holocaust and atomic trauma.
Masaki Takahashi, from left, Takashi Yamazaki, Kiyoko Shibuya, and Tatsuji Nojima accept the award for best visual effects for “Godzilla Minus One” during the Oscars on March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
“Godzilla Minus One” became the highest-grossing Japanese live-action film ever in the U.S. and Canada. Only two international live-action movies—“Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” and “Life Is Beautiful”—collected more than the $56.4 million grossed by “Godzilla Minus One.”
Some 610 effects shots were created by Yamazaki, who also served as effects supervisor, and his small team of artists. Lacking the budget for hydraulics, the crew would shake a boat set to mimic ocean bobbing or rotate a cockpit to simulate flying.
Yamazaki told the AP he believes it’s telling that both he and Christopher Nolan with the epic “Oppenheimer” were separately drawn back to the dawn of the nuclear era in their moviemaking.
“The world, in some sense, has forgotten the implications, the impact, the ramifications of what a nuclear war could entail,” Yamazaki said.
Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki also took home the Academy Award for best animated feature for “The Boy and the Heron,” maintaining his spot as the only Asian director to ever triumph in the category.
The film, partly based on Miyazaki’s childhood, follows a 12-year-old boy who lost his mother during World War II. An encounter with a talking heron who tells him his mother is still alive leads him to a world where he can interact with the dead.