10 Horror Movies That Actually Won Academy Awards
John Squires
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In 1976, Jaws also scored itself a Best Picture nomination but lost out to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. The film made up for the loss by winning all three of the other categories it was nominated in, which included Best Editing, Best Original Score and Best Sound. Steven Spielberg was famously upset about not being nominated for Best Director, calling Jaws a “director’s movie” and saying that he was hurt by the snub. There’s even video footage of Spielberg watching the nominations announcement with friends, including Maniac’s Joe Spinell, which is definitely worth a watch!
The following year, The Omen was celebrated at the ceremony, thanks to the film’s memorable score. Composed by legendary composer Jerry Goldsmith, the score won an Oscar for Best Original Score, and the iconic theme song “Ave Satani” (aka “Hail Satan”) was also nominated for Best Original Song. It’s interesting to note that the 1976 Oscar win for The Omen’s score was the only Academy Award win in the late Goldsmith’s entire career, despite the fact that he was nominated for his work on 16 other films.
Speaking of Goldsmith, he also composed the score for Alien, which nabbed him a Golden Globe nomination in 1980. At the Academy Awards that year, however, Alien was only nominated for Best Visual Effects and Best Art Direction, and it took home the visual effects statue. Seven years later, in 1987, the sequel Aliens also won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects as well as Best Sound Effects Editing. It was nominated in another five categories, proving that sequels aren’t always inferior.
A few horror films immediately come to mind when I think of practical effects, and one of those movies is without a doubt An American Werewolf in London. In 1982, Rick Baker was honored with the Best Makeup award for his incredible work on the film, which was actually the inaugural year for that specific category. Baker has since received a subsequent six Oscar wins in the makeup category, and his latest win was for The Wolfman in 2011, where he once again brought a memorable werewolf to the screen.
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