Nominations:
Best Picture
Best Original Score
Best Original Song
Best Costume Design
Best Production Design
Best Sound Editing
Best Sound Mixing
If you told me in March last year that Black Panther was going to be nominated for Best Picture, I probably would have politely shook my head and said something intelligent along the lines of “Nah, I don’t think so”. But here we are – January 2019, and Black Panther has not only been nominated for the top prize, but six other smaller technical awards as well.
Don’t take my disbelief as an indication that I think Black Panther is a bad movie. In fact coming from a guy whose attitude towards superhero movies can generally be described as lukewarm, it’s probably one of the most thrilling and immersive adventures we’ve seen from the Marvel Cinematic Universe in recent years. It introduced the world to the afro-futuristic utopia of Wakanda, delivered a villain who is far more memorable than the regular Marvel baddie, and proved that there is a mainstream market for movies that aren’t about hunky white guys.
But having said that, it just never seemed like an Oscar-bait kind of film. The Academy’s long-running prejudice against superhero movies sparked some backlash at the 2009 Oscars when The Dark Knight nabbed 8 nominations, without a single one being for Best Picture. Since then superhero movies have generally been found in the Best Visual Effects category, and rarely anywhere else. And then after historically low ratings from last year’s Oscars ceremony there was a sudden push to include more popular films, with Black Panther fans leading the charge. In a transparent attempt to make sure it would be nominated for something, the Best Popular Film category was created… and then quickly canned when the Academy realised this would be a terrible idea, and that if Black Panther deserved any Oscars it should earn them on its own merit without having an entire awards category being designed around it.
So here we are. Black Panther is the first ever superhero movie to be nominated for Best Picture, and this is obviously an incredible feat – but it’s hard to shake the feeling that if it was released in any other year this might not have happened. As for its odds at winning, it doesn’t look great. It’s one thing for the Academy to include it in the line-up as a token of appreciation, but it would be a long shot for them to completely shed their reputation of preferring more artsy films.
I have to admit that Black Panther’s nominations in technical categories were a surprise, but in retrospect I should have seen it coming. Most Best Picture nominees have at least a couple of other nominations, and a simple nod in the Best Visual Effects category wouldn’t have sufficed this time. Instead, Black Panther slid into four sound and two visual design categories.
My cynical side would attribute these to Marvel’s slick, polished production line that seems to have perfected its processes and created a superhero movie that ticks all the boxes. But while there may be at least some truth to that, it isn’t the whole story. Marvel has realised that the key to its success is hiring creative minds who genuinely care about the stories they tell, and the history attached to them. Black Panther is the culmination of this – it’s a labour of love by comic book fans, by afro-minorities who care about representation, and by a director whose passion shines through even the most formulaic plot points.
So even if Black Panther doesn’t deserve this Best Picture nomination in the most traditional sense, or even if it is a last-ditch attempt for the Academy to appear relevant, its impact is undeniable. Ryan Coogler has created a superhero film that defies our expectations and sparked a discussion about the value of indie vs mainstream cinema, which is a landmark in itself. And really, shouldn’t the Academy be striving to recognise films like these that leave such an imprint on our culture?
