While Marvel head Kevin Feige would like to see Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings get recognition at the Oscars, he feels it can be a challenge “because of the Marvel logo and because of a genre bias that certainly exists.”
Feige mentioned this in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
“I just loved that for a shining moment there with Black Panther that was put aside and the work was recognised for the achievement that it was,” Feige added, referring to the 2018 film’s multiple Oscar wins. The Ryan Coogler directorial that featured late actor Chadwick Boseman got seven nominations at the Oscars 2019, including a Best Picture nod. It eventually won the Academy Awards for Best Costume Design, Best Original Score, and Best Production Design.
Feige said that he would like to see Shang-Chi, which introduced Marvel’s first-ever Asian superhero (played by Chinese-Canadian actor Simu Liu), achieve a similar feat.
Shang-Chi is part of Marvel’s Phase 4 release slate that includes the upcoming films Eternals and Spider-Man: No Way Home. It was recently announced that director Destin Daniel Cretton is working on a sequel to Shang-Chi.
“There are a lot of comic fans that didn’t know who Shang-Chi was. And yet the work that Destin did and Dave [Callaham, Screenwriter] did and Sue [Chan, Production designer] did and Joel [P West, Composer] did, created something new that connected with audiences. We recognised it, the audience recognised it, and I sure would love the hard work of all of these people who are telling their story to get recognised,” Feige said.
Not a lot of superhero films have been conferred with top awards such as the Oscars, the Golden Globes, and the Screen Actors Guild awards.
Christopher Nolan‘s 2008 film The Dark Knight received Academy Award nominations in multiple categories and won a posthumous Oscar for late actor Heath Ledger for his role as Joker. The Academy was later criticised for overlooking The Dark Knight in the Best Picture category (aside from Ledger’s nomination, the film was only recognised in the technical categories).
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Meanwhile, Oscar big-wigs like veteran filmmaker Martin Scorsese have been vocal about superhero movies being undeserving of serious recognition. Scorsese, who has directed celebrated films such as Taxi Driver and Mean Street, among many others, compared Marvel films to theme parks during an interview with Empire in 2019.
“I don’t see them. I tried, you know? But that’s not cinema. Honestly, the closest I can think of them, as well-made as they are, with actors doing the best they can under the circumstances, is theme parks. It isn’t the cinema of human beings trying to convey emotional, psychological experiences to another human being,” the veteran filmmaker had said.
While superhero films frequently garner Oscar nominations in technical categories, they were left out of the Best Picture category, until Black Panther.