Rob writes: Thought this might be of interest to your readers. I did the research myself so you can use it if you like.
Out of the 75 Best Picture Oscars awarded, this is how the winners were spread.
Romance/Love Story (comedic or serious) 9
Musical 12
Life Story or Parable (either true or not) 22
Historical Epic (regardless of whether it is biography, romance,
political etc) 10
Political or with main point being Political Message 17
Comedy 4
Thriller/Horror 1
Fantasy/Science Fiction 0
Out of the approximately 400 nominated best pictures only 23 could be considered fantasy and only one, Forrest Gump, actually won and some would argue it wasn’t really a fantasy but more of a life story/parable/political/comedy. Almost all of the others were the biggest movies of their year and six of them are in the top 20 domestic box office of all time. Here are the other fantasy movies that were nominated but lost. It’s an impressive list.
Wizard of Oz, It’s A Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street, King Solomon’s Mines, Mary Poppins, Dr Strangelove, Doctor Doolittle, A Clockwork Orange, The Exorcist, Star Wars, Heaven Can Wait (twice), Raiders of the Lost Ark, ET, Field Of Dreams, Ghost, Babe, The Green Mile, The Sixth Sense, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, LOTR Fellowship and LOTR Two Towers.
Also not one of these movies won for best director (except Gump gain.) It’s worth noting that Heaven Can Wait was nominated twice (also in 1943) and lost twice.
Adjusted for inflation 35 of the top 100 domestic movies were fantasy another 15 were animations (only one of which was nominated in the last 25 years – Beauty & The Beast.)
Doesn’t bode well for the movie but who knows he might buck the trend.
