Awards season is upon us and as always we can expect to see Star Wars at least garner a few nominations over the new few months. Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker, which is still inching closer to the one billion box office mark since its release last month, has been able to pick a collection of award nominations recently.
The 91st Academy Awards will be happening this Sunday in Hollywood! With Solo: A Star Wars Story nominated in the category of Best Visual Effects, Star Wars fans and creators alike are hopeful that another Oscar could be headed to a Galaxy far, far away.
Pilot. Smuggler. General. Doer of the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs (if you round down). Academy Award nominee. These are just some of the titles that could now, at least tenuously, be applied to Han Solo. The last on that list is the latest accolade to bestowed upon the character after today's announcement that Solo: A Star Wars Story was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. Also nominated in that category were Avengers: Infinity War, Christopher Robin, First Man, and Ready Player One.
Kathleen Kennedy has one of the most amazing resumes of any producer in Hollywood, having her hands in the creation of such classic films as Raiders Of The Lost Ark, Jurassic Park, E.T., Back To The Future, The Goonies and many, many others. And that was all before she became President of Lucasfilm and produced the four newest Star Wars films(and countless others to come).
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the nominees for this year's Academy Award this morning and Star Wars: The Last Jedi picked up four nominations. The Last Jedi was nominated for Best Original Score, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Visual Effects. The Oscars will be held on March 4th with Jimmy Kimmel hosting.
Dennis Murren, Phil Tippett, Richard Edlund and Ken Ralston received a Special Achievement Academy Award for Best Visual Effects for their work on Star Wars: Return of the Jedi at the 56th Academy Awards.
The film had been nominated for five Oscars: Best Sound Editing, Best Original Music Score, Best Sound Mixing and Best Production Design.
George Lucas received the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award at the 64th Academy Awards.
The Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award is awarded to "Creative producers, whose bodies of work reflect a consistently high quality of motion picture production."
By: Benjamin Hart
Just ahead of the 89th Academy Awards, which are coming up this weekend, Industrial Light and Magic has released several visual effects reels for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which garnered two Oscar nominations for visual effects and sound mixing. Now ILM has revealed a brand new behind the scenes video, this time focused on the creation of Grand Moff Tarkin.
Earlier this week, Industrial Light and Magic released a VFX reel breaking down the creation of some of the more dramatic effects in the ground battles in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Today, they released another VFX Breakdown reel focusing on the space battle above Scarif during the third act of the film. The reel shows the many layers that go into creating the amazing CGI (including practical models) as well as director Gareth Edwards using ILM's virtual camera system. Check it out for yourself below,
There is no denying, Industrial Light and Magic's work on the visual effects on Rogue One: A Star Wars Story was fantastic. In celebration of the ILM crew's Academy Award nomination for their work on Rogue One, the official ILM Facebook page released a video breaking down how some of the incredible action scenes were created (specifically the Death Star attack on Jedha and the battle on Scarif), often incorporating live action footage with CGI environments. Check it out below,
Yesterday we celebrated the 33rd anniversary of the release of Star Wars: Episode - Return Of The Jedi on May 25th, 1983. To coincide with the milestone, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has unveiled an incredible rare piece of Star Wars history in the form of a teaser trailer. The 30 second long trailer announces the then upcoming arrival of "Star Wars: Revenge Of The Jedi" in theaters at Christmas of 1983 with flashes of several still images from the film on the screen.
Now, obviously, Revenge Of The Jedi was an initial title that was rejected late in production due to the filmmakers coming to the conclusion that Jedi do not take revenge. But that wasn't before Revenge made it into much of the marketing material for the film, such as this trailer.
The trailer itself was attached to a double feature of A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back that was screened in U.K. theaters from May through December in 1982. The teaser was the result of negotiations between Lucasfilm and 20th Century Fox about a possible Christmas 1983 release for Jedi. It was thought to be a way to get families out of the house during Winter and would provide a wealth of merchandising and promotional opportunities. Additionally, it was considered that props and costumes from the film were to be free by then to use in department store window displays in the U.K. The plan was ultimately scrapped in favor of releasing Return Of The Jedi in the Summer on June 2nd, 1983, one week after the U.S release.
This is all especially interested considering that its sequel, The Force Awakens, would go on to be released during the Holidays more than 30 years later. Fans in the U.K. almost had a Star Wars Christmas back in 1983.
Be sure to visit the Academy's website to read more and see other rare promotional artifacts.
Last night all eyes were on Hollywood as the 88th annual Academy Awards took place! Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens was honored with five Oscar nominations, and while it ended up not taking home the gold, there was plenty of Star Wars mixed into the event. Below we have recapped all of the Star Wars filled moments from the Oscars!
First off, the "year in film" video that opened the event Featured several scenes from The Force Awakens, including BB-8 pulling the tarp of R2-D2(who was replaced with an Oscar), the now infamous "That's not how the Force works" scene, and Finn & Rey's simultaneous "I can do this" lines inside the Millennium Falcon, among others. You can watch it below:
Additionally, The Force Awakens' own Rey, Daisy Ridley, made a huge impression with her appearance on the red carpet. Later she presented the award for Best Documentary Feature alongside Dev Patel:
The Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams was on hand to present the award for Best Director:
And Supreme Leader Snoke himself, Andy Serkis, also took the stage to present the award for Best Visual Effects:
It's also worth noting that famed Italian composer Ennio Morricone won the Oscar best original score for his work on The Hateful Eight. In his acceptance speech he payed tribute to fellow composer and nominee John Williams:
Also appearing on stage were the most famous trio of Droids in the Galaxy. C-3PO, R2-D2 and BB-8 walked and rolled their way out on stage while they apparently searched for their seats. Before exiting the stage they managed to give a shout out to John Williams who had just earned his 50th Oscar nomination. You can watch the full skit below:
In the video you may have noticed the a young boy who jumped out of his seat when the Droids came on stage. That was nine year old Jacob Tremblay, who starred in the Oscar nominated film Room alongside Brie Larson, who took home the award for Best Actress later that night. Tremblay is a massive Star Wars fan and showed up on the red carpet wearing Millennium Falcon cuff links and Darth Vader socks:
Later he got to meet Daisy Ridley and the Droids, much to his delight:
Beyond numerous nominations and several Oscars Star Wars has picked up over the years, the saga has rich history with the event dating back to when A New Hope won 6 Oscars in 1978. Check out our recent spotlight article on Oscar acceptance speeches for a trip down memory lane.
The Force Awakens star Daisy Ridley (Rey) was on hand at The Oscars last night (even though Star Wars went 0 for 5 in terms of awards) to present the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature with Dev Patel (Slumdog Millionaire, The Newsroom). Before the show, she spoke with MTV's Josh Horowitz about Star Wars Episode VIII, seemingly confirming that Episode VIII begins immediately after Episode VII (a first for Star Wars). She also spoke briefly about working with Mark Hamill and teased Luke Skywalker's role in Episode VIII. Check out the video below,
Daisy Ridley spills everything she knows about the next Star Wars Movies.
Posted by MTV on Monday, February 29, 2016
Ridley said,
“Me and Mark have been rehearsing a lot, and it’s really amazing. When we went back to Skellig to do the opening of [Episode] VIII, it was so crazy doing the same scene with a different crew of people. He’s amazing to rehearse with, and I’m very excited to be doing the rest of the stuff.
It’s such a good story. Seriously. Luke is so cool in this one. Really.”
It will be very interesting to see a Star Wars film pick up immediately after the previous one. But what's really exciting is what Ridley is saying about Luke's role in Episode VIII. It's no real surprise, given how The Force Awakens ended, but it's still intriguing to see what part he will play in the new film and how he will respond to Rey.
Star Wars Episode VIII hits theatres on December 15th, 2017. The film is directed by Rian Johnson and stars Daisy Ridley, Mark Hamill, Adam Driver, John Boyega, Carrie Fisher, and Oscar Isaac.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens is up for five Oscars at tonight's Academy Awards. Before the ceremony kicks off tonight, let's look back at the times Star Wars films won Oscars, beginning with the most successful Oscar night the galaxy far, far away ever had. Back at the 1978 ceremony Star Wars was up for ten golden statues and won six of them: Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, Best Sound and Best Visual Effects. Check out the acceptance speeches below,
In addition, Mark Hamill (along with C-3PO and R2-D2) appeared to present a special achievement Oscar to Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind for Sound. Check it out below,
Looks like the droids will be on hand once again at tonight's ceremony. The Academy tweeted out this picture yesterday,
Star Wars' only other big award win at the Oscars came three years later when The Empire Strikes Back won for Sound Mixing. Check out Lando himself, Billy Dee Williams, and Bernadette Peters present the award below,
Both The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi also picked up special achievement awards for Visual effects at the 1981 and 1984 Oscars respectively,
None of the Star Wars Prequels won any Academy Awards, however they did pick up several nominations. The Phantom Menace was nominated for Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, and Visual Effects, Attack of The Clones picked up a nod for Visual effects, and Revenge of the Sith was nominated for Best Makeup.
Hopefully we'll have several more acceptance speeches to add to list after tonight's ceremony. The Force Awakens is nominated for Film Editing, Original Score, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, and Visual Effects. In addition, both director JJ Abrams and star Daisy Ridley will be on hand as presenters at the Chris Rock hosted ceremony.
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