While King T'Challa has sadly been taken off the board (for now) following the events of Avengers: Infinity War, his preceding standalone movie, Black Panther, is still generating a lot of talk seven months after its release. The Marvel Cinematic Universe's first 2018 movie was not just critically and commercially successful, it was also a major cultural milestone, and Disney is hoping to keep Black Panther's momentum going into awards season. Alas, Black Panther won't be a candidate for that Best Popular Movie Oscar after all, but the Mouse House is still throwing the movie into consideration for most of the major Academy Awards categories, as you can see below.
Best PictureBest DirectorBest Adapted ScreenplayBest ActorBest Supporting ActorBest Supporting ActressBest CinematographyBest Film EditingBest Production DesignBest Costume DesignBest Makeup & HairstylingBest Sound MixingBest Sound EditingBest Visual EffectsBest Original ScoreBest Original Song
Wow, Disney really isn't holding back with its Black Panther Oscar campaign. Then again, we've know this was a possibility for weeks since it was revealed that Marvel was allocated a significant budget this awards season to promote Black Panther, namely by highlighting the movie's cultural impact and how personal the material was to director and co-writer Ryan Coogler. Now Disney Studios has officially unveiled the campaign, but just so it's perfectly clear, this doesn't mean that Black Panther will get nominations in all those categories. The chances of that happening are nearly impossible. This is simply Disney covering its bases, but given Black Panther's popularity, one would imagine the movie could walk away with reserved spots in several of the categories.
Many superhero movies have been shoe-ins for the Best Visual Effects category in the past, but Black Panther is aiming significantly higher, hoping to get recognition at the Academy Awards not just in the technical and song categories, but also in the acting (all of the movie's leading actors have up for consideration), directing and writing categories. Several people, including Chadwick Boseman, have said that Black Panther is specifically gunning for Best Picture, an honor that not even The Dark Knight received last decade. The Oscar nominations are usually announced four to six weeks before the ceremony, so we still have a ways to go until we find out just how successful this Black Panther campaign is, but it's admirable how far Disney is willing to go to bat for this movie.
You can judge just how awards-worthy Black Panther is by watching it on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital HD now. Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for more updates regarding both the Academy Awards and Black Panther's MCU future, and feel free to look through our Marvel movies guide to learn what else the superhero franchise has in development.
