Comedies Nominated For Oscars

Jan 25

Over the years, it has been rare for comedies to be nominated for the best picture in the Academy awards. This comes about because of the obvious biases that have been witnessed over time in the selection of Best Picture winners by the Academy. Films that are considered not to have attained the stature of Best Picture are often not nominated.

It can also be noted that foreign films or foreign-language films have always been relegated to the Best Foreign Language category and therefore miss out on the Best Picture nomination. Up to date, only 3 foreign films have been able to bag a Best Picture nomination. They include;

Life is Beautiful (1997)

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)

Amour (2012)

The Only Comedy Films That Have Won Oscars For Best Picture

As mentioned before, it has been rare to have comedy films nominated for the Oscar Best Picture award. The following list has the only comedies that have scooped the academy awards and nominations for best picture.

It Happened One Night (1934)

You Can’t Take It With You (1938)

Going My Way (1944)-A musical Comedy

Tom Jones (1963)

The Sting (1973)

Annie Hall (1977)

Other Hybrid, Borderline And Dark Comedies

Some comedies that have been nominated in the past were not purely comedy but were a hybrid of sorts, and some even dark comedies. The movies were:

The Apartment (1960)

Terms of Endearment (1983)

Driving Miss Daisy (1989)

Forrest Gump (1994)

Shakespeare in Love (1998)

American Beauty (1999) – Dark comedy

Birdman (2014) – Dark comedy

What Makes It More Likely For A Film To Receive A Nomination?

The release date of a film is one of the determinants of whether a film will get a nomination. Those released late in the year stand a better chance. Other factors likely to influence a film’s nomination include; the distributing studio (whether it is a major or small studio), and whether actors, directors or writers of the film have previously had Oscar nominations. The theme of a film and its content also contribute greatly to its chances of getting a nomination.

Films Most Likely To Be Nominated For The Best Picture Award

Serious dramas, inspirational-themed films, films inspired by real life stories, individuals or occurrences, and large-scale epic historical films with huge budgets have been known to often take the Best Picture award. Also, studio productions with big stars have a better chance of nomination than independent productions.

What Films Are Less-Likely To Be Nominated For The Award?

Comedies, including teen comedies, are among the films that are less likely to receive nomination from the Academy. They are greatly overlooked mostly because they are independent productions although a few exemptions are there. Other films not likely to be nominated include; family animation, action-adventures, suspense-thrillers, horror, superhero films, spy thrillers westerns, science-fiction, popcorn movies and children films among others.

Nominations from the academy are not without outrage as various sections of the film industry cry of bias in the nominations.