‘Godzilla Minus Zero’ Sets Sights on Best Picture Oscar Nomination: ‘If the Possibility Is Not Zero, It’s Hard Not to Have a Little Bit of Hope’

“Godzilla Minus One” made franchise history in 2024 when it won Best Visual Effects at the 96th Academy Awards, becoming the first Godzilla film to win an Oscar. Now, after Takashi Yamazaki’s highly anticipated sequel, “Godzilla Minus Zero,” premiered to rave reviews at the New York Film Festival, some fans are already calling for a Best Picture nomination.

Asked at the film’s NYFF premiere Saturday about the prospect of “Godzilla Minus Zero” being recognized in the Academy’s top category, a visibly thrilled Yamazaki told Variety: “I mean, I try not to think about that. And this was true of ‘Godzilla Minus One’ as well. We had no idea we were going to get Best VFX, or even be nominated. Even a nomination was already a win for us with ‘Godzilla Minus One.’ So I try not to think about it, but at the same time, if the possibility is not zero, it’s hard not to have a little bit of hope.”

The VFX Oscar win for 2023’s “Godzilla Minus One” was an unlikely feat in itself. On a budget of just $15 million, Yamazaki assembled a visual effects team of just 35 artists to create 610 effects shots. The underdog film clinched the win against a lineup of Hollywood goliaths, including Disney’s “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” Paramount’s “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One” and Apple’s “Napoleon.” The historic nomination also made Yamazaki (who began his career in visual effects) the first feature director recognized in the visual effects category since Stanley Kubrick for “2001: A Space Odyssey.”

“It’s going to take me a few years to process what has happened and what it all means,” Yamazaki told Variety on the awards circuit in 2023. “But I have to thank Godzilla for opening the door and paving the way and making it to the Oscars.”

Fast forward a few years and Yamazaki finds himself competing in the VFX race once again. Variety chief awards editor Clayton Davis currently has “Godzilla Minus Zero” listed as one of the five films he predicts will be nominated for Best Visual Effects in January, alongside “Dune: Part Three,” “Project Hail Mary,” “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” and “Wildwood.”

As for Best Picture, the Academy has increasingly made room for effects-heavy genre films. The question is whether “Minus Zero” can establish itself with voters as more than just another installment in the “Godzilla” franchise, much like “Joker” and “Dune” were perceived as IP genre films elevated by prestige auteur filmmaking.