Science Fiction and the Best Picture Oscar

[The Maverick]

I find it extremely odd, though it seems to be true for obviously reasons (e.g. biases and distastes), that there's never been a Sci-Fi film in Hollywood history to win Best Picture at the academy awards. Now, besides Fantasy, Sci-Fi is the most flexible genre in literature and television to work with. But the problem today is that Sci-Fi seems to be lacking an audience. Sure, there's been many new Sci-Fi shows and movies coming out, but you don't see them being watched besides the die-hards of the genre. Why is it today that all we crave for is Comedy, and maybe the occassion Action or Thriller over Sci-Fi? What hopes and prospects do you have that one day there will be a Sci-Fi film that wins the Best Picture award? I think it's possible. The United States finally has an African-American president (which most didn't think was probable, though it was very possible), so why not this? What say you?

[Chris62]

Well they don't take sci-fi seres enough maybe they will one day.
Maybe the new Star Trek will see.

[JazzX]

You think sci-fi has a bad time at the Oscars?

Spare a thought for poor old horror.

"The Exorcist" seems to be the only horror film ever to be nominated.

To their credit, they did see fit to nominate Star Wars in 1977 (but Annie Hall won).

[Daninsky]

Sci-Fi has never been exactly a A-List genre, and the few A-List movies that got made before Star Wars hit it big time had often been not received well.
Metropolis to my knowledge never really cut it at the Box-Office (and was to early for a Oscar nomination) and 2001 was considered a movie for the intellectuals on its release (which usually is a good way to win prizes but not favours) and took years to win an audience.
Also before the 50's we have practically no Sci-Fi worth speaking of in terms of quality.

The new Star Trek, while well received, is not a Oscar movie. There's just no story quality to it that would justify this.

And Sci-Fi did have it's share of Oscar nominations in it's prime field, the technical aspects.

[EthanRunt]

At least Sci-Fi, like Comic Book films, has it's place at the tech Oscars. It's a shame some great horror films never got the respect due to the genre, whereas Dramas with a little crying get the big prizes, it's completely unfair, but hey, not like the end of the World.

[Daninsky]

Yeah there's been very few nominations for Horror, we have some for the earlier Oscars when Horror was still more of a subgere of Drama with Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde for example but later on it gets mostly ignored.

I guess American Werewolf is still the most prominent among the few Horror movies that managed to snatch an Oscar, despite (story quality not withstanding) the fact that that genre did a lot for the advance of make-up effects.

[The Maverick]

You've all made good points. Maybe if we include more romance or drama into the films, then they'll actually win something other that Best Special Effects. But that's just my opinion.