‘Black Panther’ Oscar Chances Increase As Disney Limits ‘Infinity War’ To Only One Possible Nomination
Marvel and Disney are very serious about the King of Wakanda claiming his Oscar crown. In an effort to limit any sort of category split, the House of Mouse is only campaigningAvengers: Infinity Warfor one Academy Award, while pushingBlack Pantherfor every nomination under the sun. This greatly increasesBlack Panther’s Oscar chances.
When Oscar season rolls around, studios usually attempt to push a whole slew of their films. Even movies that probably don’t stand a chance at certain nominations get a little bump. Last year, Disney pushed bothThor: RagnarokandGuardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2for aplethora of Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor and more. Neither films likely stood a chance of netting those top tier nominations, but it didn’t hurt Disney to try. But they’re not taking any chances in 2018: they really wantBlack Pantherto take it all.
Disney’sFor Your Considerationsite has two Marvel movies listed –Black PantherandAvengers: Infinity War(sorry,Ant-Man and the Wasp). Rather than push both of these movies for multiple awards, the studio is only campaigningInfinity Warfor one award: Best Visual Effects. Meanwhile,Black Pantheris up for everything. See for yourself.
Black Panther
Avengers: Infinity War
None of this guaranteesBlack Pantherwill land a ton of Oscar nominations, but Disney’s intent here is clear: they don’t wantInfinity Wargetting in the way of their potential Academy Award chances. They’re putting all their awards season weight behindBlack Panther. They’re even planning a series ofBlack Pantherscreenings for Academy voters.
When speaking to theLos Angeles TimesaboutBlack Panther’s Oscar chances, Marvel Studios PresidentKevin Feigesaid:
“I would like to see the hard work and the effort and the vision and the belief of the talented filmmaker Ryan Coogler, who sat across the table from us a few years ago and said, ‘I have been wrestling with questions about my past and my heritage and I think I really want to tell a story within this movie’…And that he did it so unbelievably well and with so much impact … seeing that potentially being recognized is what excites me the most.”
Feige added: “I think [an Oscar forBlack Panther] would be wonderful…The people behind the camera, the people on screen that acted in the movie, any of them being recognized would bring us great joy because they did tremendous work. And it’s always nice when tremendous work is recognized.”
While technical award nominations for the film seem like a given, there’s a real sense thatBlack Panthercould land a Best Picture nod as well. If that happens, it would the first superhero movie to earn such a nomination.
