Despite a run of critically acclaimed movies, Wes Anderson is on an Oscars cold streak, but his latest Netflix movies are his best chance of ending this trend. The celebrated director is known for his alluring detailed symmetrical shots, oddball characters hilariously juxtaposed with other monotonous characters, and all-star casts. Wes Anderson’s movies have been critically acclaimed for the most part, and his work often plays in the most prestigious festivals. Anderson is consistent in terms of quality, as his only “rotten” movie on Rotten Tomatoes is The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, released almost two decades ago. Even then, the 2004 movie has a huge cult following.
However, despite all this acclaim and his dedicated following, that success hasn’t translated over to Academy Awards nominations in the past eight years. Nevertheless, while Anderson has arguably been snubbed, he has a better chance of getting recognition from the Academy than ever at the 96th Academy Awards in 2024, thanks to an extremely strong 2023. The star-studded Asteroid City was released earlier in 2023 and has a chance of earning a few nominations. However, Wes Anderson’s four short Roald Dahl movies have great reviews and could be the true game-changing for his career.
Wes Anderson’s Netflix Shorts Could Win Him His First Oscar Since 2015
There’s no doubt that Anderson is an award darling, as the filmmaker has personally been nominated seven times, including three times for Best Original Screenplay, but that makes it all the more jarring that his movies haven’t won anything since 2015. The last movie directed by Anderson that won any Academy Awards was 2014’s The Grand Budapest Hotel, but none of the awards even went to the director. The 2014 film won Best Costume Design, Best Makeup & Hairstyling, Best Original Score, and Best Production Design. Since then, 2018’s animated Isle of Dogs was nominated for Best Animated Picture and Best Original Score, but it didn’t win either.
Following that, despite being the first live-action Wes Anderson movie in seven years, 2021’s The French Dispatch didn’t earn him a single nomination. However, Anderson’s four new Netflix shorts; The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, The Swan, The Rat Catcher, and Poison, all could be strong contenders for the Best Short Film category at the Oscars. Given that the four shorts are all separate, there’s even a chance that Anderson could be nominated more than once. This is known to happen, as Steven Soderbergh was famously nominated for Best Director for both Traffic and Erin Brockovich in the same year, and he ended up winning for Traffic.
No other short films from the year are as high-profile as these four shorts. The films are based on well-known stories from Roald Dahl, they are spearheaded by a beloved visionary director, and they’re led by some big-name actors, including Benedict Cumberbatch and Ralph Fiennes. The only short of the four that might not be eligible is The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, which is 41 minutes in length, as the academy defines a short film as being “not more than 40 minutes, including all credits.” However, that still leaves three possible nominations, and given that all three can be nominated, that drastically increases his chances of winning.
The Oscars’ Recent Short Film Snubs Make A Wes Anderson Nomination Less Likely
While a variety of very acclaimed short movies give Anderson a greater chance of one of his films winning an Oscar for the first time in eight years, simply getting them nominated is a major hurdle in itself. The academy has surprisingly snubbed short films from big-name actors and artists in recent years. Taylor Swift’s All Too Well short movie deserved recognition for how well-crafted the short was, and the stunning The Human Voice by Pedro Almodóvar and Tilda Swinton was surprisingly overlooked by the academy too.
Given how the academy is seemingly more interested in lesser-name projects when it comes to short films, Anderson making four short films could act as a double-edged sword. Nevertheless, the academy can often be unpredictable, especially in recent years with underdogs like Moonlight and CODA winning Best Picture in their respective years. if any one (or more) of the Anderson-directed short films get nominated, then it’s likely that he’ll win too.
Why Wes Anderson Has Never Won His Own Oscar In 27-Year Career
Despite a number of classics in his filmography, and while The Grand Budapest Hotel won several production Oscars, Wes Anderson himself has never actually won an Academy Award in his 27-year career. The filmmaker has been nominated seven times, be hasn’t one once. However, this can be chalked up to his movies being released in extremely competitive years. Anderson was first nominated for Best Original Screenplay for The Royal Tenenbaums, but it was up against Gosford Park, Amelie, and Memento. One of those is a jaw-dropping mystery movie, one is often regarded as the best French movie of the 21st Century, and another is Christopher Nolan’s mind-bending breakthrough thriller.
Similarly, Fantastic Mr. Fox was never going to win Best Animated Picture over Up, and Anderson had an uphill battle to win Best Original Screenplay for Moonrise Kingdom against Django Unchained. Anderson was up against Birdman and Boyhood for Best Original Screenplay for The Grand Budapest Hotel, but this is the one clear contentious loss of Anderson’s. While Birdman and Boyhood are two wildly ambitious movies in terms of filmmaking, their screenplays weren’t their biggest talking points. Wes Anderson was arguably snubbed in 2015, but the 96th Academy Awards could finally make up for that.
