Yesterday's Oscar nominations were a big day for the superhero genre. While Marvel's Black Panther was the bigger winner of the day bringing in multiple nominations including one for Best Picture, it wasn't the only Marvel movie to receive a nomination. Avengers: Infinity War also got nominated in the Visual Effects category and the directors, Joe and Anthony Russo, took to social media to congratulate the team that earned the slot.
The Russo Brothers take a moment to shine the spotlight on the team that handled the visual effects for last year's big superhero blowout. However, they also heap praise on Ryan Coogler and the team behind Black Panther who earned an impressive seven nominations.
Luckily, the two Marvel films won't be going up against each other in the visual effects category, although, Disney is largely competing with itself. In addition to Infinity War, Christopher Robin and Solo: A Star Wars Story were also nominated. The three of them will also compete against Ready Player One and First Man.
First Man is the only really traditional "Oscar movie" on the list, and it didn't do too well when it came to the nominations yesterday, which might mean that the award will go to one of the genre films or it could mean that First Man might take an award in one of the few places where it's nominated.
While Avengers: Infinity War might not be the first film you think of when you think "Oscar" the visual effects of the film are clearly impressive and considering they take up so much of the film, there's rarely a shot in the movie that doesn't have some sort of digital manipulation, that clearly they're at least worth considering for the award.
It used to be that genre films like Infinity War would only ever get nominated in fields like visual effects. It was a place where the blockbusters could shine in ways that the traditional Oscar nominees often could not. That has been changing over the last few years. In 2009 Heath Ledger won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role in The Dark Knight. Logan received a nomination at last year's ceremony for Best Adapted Screenplay. This year, Black Panther secured a coveted position among the Best Picture nominees.
The superhero genre has been coming into its own. With eight total nominations, Marvel Studios nearly matched the total number of nominations the studio has ever received in this one year, which certainly shows a growing willingness to recognize not only Marvel but superhero movies in general. Of course, Marvel Studios has thus far lost ever Oscar its been nominated for, but with eight total nominations, the odds of at least one win this year are pretty good.
