96th Oscars | Godzilla Minus One: Why the Academy took 70 years to award a Godzilla movie?

Godzilla has won an Oscar at long last!

It took 70 years, since the King of the Monsters first appeared in the cinemas, for the franchise to bag the Academy’s golden statuette on Sunday night at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood for Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. But why has the Academy Award eluded the still-active-and-thriving franchise that began in Japan in 1954 with Ishirō Honda’s Gojira?

Godzilla Minus One is the first ever nomination and first ever win at the Academy Awards ever. This is Japan’s Toho Studios’ first Japanese-language live-action Godzilla release since 2016. The film follows civilians in postwar Japan as the monster re-emerges amid their grief, in particular, a haunted young man Koichi Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki) who fled from his fate as a Kamikaze pilot in the wake of World War II, and the horrors of an emergent Godzilla, only for the kaiju (Japanese for strange beast) and past to catch up with him.

A still from 96th Academy Award Best Visual Effects winner Godzilla Minus One, written-directed by Takashi Yamazaki. (Image via X)

Writer, director and VFX supervisor Takashi Yamazaki’s all-Japanese Godzilla Minus One, the 37th film in the franchise, had a record-shattering run at the box office, becoming the highest-grossing live-action Japanese film ever released in the US and the third-highest grossing foreign language release in the US history. It broke many other records, and is Japanese production house Toho Studios’ highest-grossing film in Godzilla franchise history. Both a critical and commercial success, the film collected $56.4 million in the US and Canada while it was made on a mere budget of $15 million (less than 10% of the budget for the American company Legendary Pictures’s last Monsterverse film Godzilla vs Kong), beat the other four Hollywood big-budget tentpoles for the award: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3; Napoleon; The Creator; and the Tom Cruise-starrer Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One.

The film won Best Picture at the Japan’s Oscar-equivalent Japanese Academy Film Prize. Its VFX team, including Kiyoko Shibuya, Masaki Takahashi and Tatsuji Nojima, is now Japan’s first-ever winner of the best visual effects Oscar. What is also rare is a director winning the VFX category has only occurred only once before: with Stanley Kubrick’s win in 1969 for 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Takashi Yamazaki said in his Oscar-winning speech that he was propelled onto this path of filmmaking by the “shock” of seeing the first Star Wars film more than 40 years ago.

Godzilla's reign as a pop culture king is because of its enduring legacy as the longest-running movie franchise (70 years) ever, with something for every generation; and its social commentary, Gojira was a powerful allegory for the devastation of nuclear weapons. Godzilla has taken on other social themes later to keep the franchise relevant.

Not all Godzilla movies are about good versus evil. There are times when he gets into brief fights with other monsters, who later become allies. Godzilla has fought 15 villains (King Ghidorah, Kamacuras, Ebirah, Hedorah, Gigan, Megalon, Megagurius, Orga, Biollante, etc.) over the years, and the look of the King of the Monsters and the series itself has continued to evolve.

Godzilla eras broken down

A still from Godzilla Minus One, 2023. (Image via X)

1)     Showa Period: 1954-1975

This era, running during the reign of Emperor Shōwa of Japan, is by far the largest, covering a great span of time, has most entries, and the biggest kaiju supporting cast. It also has the most dramatic evolution of the character, starting off as the monstrous villain (a dark allegory for nuclear war) to becoming the hero, fighting on the side of humanity. This period is known for its campy fun and special effects achieved through suitmation.

2)     Heisei Period: 1984-1995

It has 8 movies in it. This era had tons of advancement and special effects. This era marks a return to Godzilla’s destructive nature, with a focus on environmental themes. The era started with a reboot, The Return of Godzilla (1984), featuring some of the most iconic Godzilla foes: Biollante, King Ghidorah.

3)     Millennium Period: 1999-2004

This era is like an anthology within the franchise, with each film being mostly standalone. It brought back a more destructive Godzilla, often facing off against technological creations like Mechagodzilla. The Millennium era experimented with darker tones and special effects continued to evolve.

4)     Reiwa Period: 2016-present

This is the current era, named after the reigning emperor (Naruhito’s reign, Reiwa, is translated into English as “beautiful harmony”). This period began with a new reboot, Shin Godzilla (2016), a dark and terrifying take on the character. The era focuses on Godzilla as a force of nature, with humanity struggling to understand and coexist. Modern CGI creates a photorealistic Godzilla for a new generation.

There are also American-produced Godzilla films outside this structure. Beginning in 2014 with Godzilla, Warner Bros./Legendary Pictures' MonsterVerse has grown into a fully-fledged world of its own.

History: The making of Godzilla

Godzilla, or gojira in Japanese, derives from a combination of two words: gorira (gorilla) and kujira (whale). The two symbolise its immense size, power and aquatic origin. Godzilla is a prehistoric reptilian monster powered by nuclear radiation.

Gojira (1954) kickstarted Japan’s now iconic kaiju genre of filmmaking. The resource-strapped makers couldn’t employ stop motion animation and birthed suitmation in Japan. In it an actor embodies the creature through a costume, often made of rubber, and this would become a kaiju; the other instance is from Universal Pitcures’ Creature from the Blue Lagoon released the same year as Gojira. The second Godzilla film, Godzilla Raids Again (1955) kickstarted the seven-decade long franchise, drew Americans into the Godzilla films race, and spawned several spinoffs.

While Godzilla (Gorjira) is the rumination on nuclear power, since Japan is the only nation on which nuclear power has been used. However, by some accounts, the more immediate inspiration came from the Daigo and Fukuryu Maru incident on March 1, 1954, in which US conducted a series of thermonuclear tests in the South Pacific (Operation Castle), to test the viability of hydrogen bomb. The blast exposed residents to radiation sickness.

Oppenheimer vs Godzilla Minus One

Nothing justifies America’s use of the atom bomb on Japan’s Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end World War II. But we are not getting into that argument here. Was it then a coincidence that both the American and Japanese films won the Oscars in the same year? Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer (Academy Award for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, etc.) and Takashi Yamazaki’s Godzilla Minus One, respectively, have a thematic resemblance: a guilt-ridden meditation on nuclear war and its devastating aftermath, as the American magazine The Hollywood Reporter notes.

When Yamazaki was asked backstage in the press room, following his Oscar win, about the significance of these two films winning in the same year, he said: “Of course, the relationship or the juxtaposition was not intentional. As we were making the film, the state of the world and the geopolitical scene has changed quite a bit. It almost feels fated that both of these films were released in the same year.” Yamazaki has said earlier that he flew from Tokyo to Taiwan to watch Oppenheimer, the release in Japan was delayed due to local backlash to Barbenheimer marketing. Oppenheimer will finally release in Japan on March 29. The Godzilla Minus One maker added, “As a person of Japanese ancestry and descent, my response to Oppenheimer [is that] I would like to dedicate a different film to that when that day comes.”

Talking about recreating the monster, Yamazaki said, “We looked at a lot of different Godzillas throughout the years and as a team we wanted to get the essence of what we thought most actually represented what Godzilla is about. Godzilla, if you trace back to its origins, is a symbol of terror, war and nuclear power. I wanted to make sure that when audiences saw Godzilla, that fear would be instilled on them.”

Key similarities between Oppenheimer and Godzilla Minus One

Oscar-winning directors Takashi Yamazaki (left) with Christopher Nolan. (Photo via X)

Both the films centre around 1) the atomic bomb, while Oppenheimer delves into its creation from the American perspective, Godzilla Minus One explores the aftermath and its lasting impact from the Japanese perspective; 2) both grapple with their respective national trauma surrounding the use of the atomic bomb; 3) both portray the deep sense of grief and guilt associated with the use nuclear weapons. Oppenheimer wrestles with the consequences of his creation, and characters in Godzilla Minus One face the devastation it caused; 4) both films have a serious tone, addressing the consequences with weight and contemplation.

Why Hollywood’s Academy award eluded the Godzilla films until 2024?

In her paper “Godzilla versus Kurosawa: Presentation and Interpretation of Japanese Cinema in Post World War II Unites States”, published in 2018 in the Journal of American-East Asian Relations, Meghan Warner Mettler writes, “The tale of two films contrasts American reception of the most famous Japanese movies of the 1950s, the golden age of Japanese cinema: Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon (1951) and Ishirō Honda’s Gojira (1954). The former played in art houses and critics lauded it; the latter ran mostly in drive-ins, and reviewers dismissed it as trash cinema.”

She further writes that “the huge gulf” – in the US, not Japan – “in their perceived value due to the decisions [in terms of venues, translation techniques] of American producers. But Godzilla winning little respect upon its US release was a fortunate circumstance in the long run. Rashomon presented Japan’s image as a “cultured and non-threatening ally” – it “reinforced US foreign policy goals at the time”. Gojira, in contrast, offered “a sharp critique of US nuclear testing”.

What this decision of “treating Rashomon as an artifact from a foreign culture” actually did, as Mettler writes, was it “removed it from the tastes and habits of most middlebrow Americans, whereas Godzilla was able to storm into US popular culture eventually to become a transnational icon.”

There are a couple reasons why Godzilla films haven’t been recognised by the Oscars until now:

1) A certain genre bias: Historically, the Academy Awards didn’t embrace genre films, like monster movies. Sci-fi and fantasy films are sometimes seen as less serious than dramas or historical pieces.

2) The special effects focus: While impressive for their time, the special effects in many Godzilla films, particularly the earlier ones relying on suitmation, might not have been considered groundbreaking enough for an Oscar nomination compared to realistic effects.

3) The lack of critical reception: Not all Godzilla films are loved by the critics. While some entries are well-received, others lean on spectacle than a strong narrative.

However, with the 2024 win, the tides are turning. With exceptional technical aspects and emotional drive, monster movies might be welcome at the Oscars in the future. Godzilla Minus One has opened a huge gate for movie-monster creators.