Godzilla Minus One wins Oscar for Best Visual Effects in March 2024

On 10 March 2024, Godzilla Minus One became the first Japanese film to win the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.

10 Nov 2026, 17:451 min read

This summary was written by AI to complete the context; it is not based on a current source.

At the 96th Academy Awards, held in Los Angeles on 10 March 2024, Godzilla Minus One won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects. It was the first Japanese film to win in that category and the first time a Godzilla film had received the honour.

The award went to writer-director Takashi Yamazaki and his visual effects team, Kiyoko Shibuya, Masaki Takahashi and Tatsuji Nojima. The film, set in postwar Japan, had been released in Japan in November 2023 and reached North America the following month. It was widely praised for its frightening, emotionally weighty monster and for its sea sequences.

The win drew particular attention because of the film's scale. It was made on a budget reported at around 15 million dollars, far below the typical cost of Hollywood effects blockbusters, and relied on a relatively small in-house effects team at Yamazaki's studio, Shirogumi. It beat higher-budget nominees, including Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One and The Creator.

The Oscar boosted the franchise's international profile and helped set the stage for later Godzilla releases and their box office results.