All 5 DC Movies That Have Won Oscars

Superhero movies have never had a lot of success at the Oscars for anything but technical awards, but the DC movies have actually broken through with some big wins over the years. This includes two different actors winning major awards for their performances, something the Marvel Cinematic Universe has never achieved. These Oscar-winning DC movies even go back to the 1970s and 1980s, where two of the groundbreaking movies that started the craze earned Oscar notice.

After some smaller releases in the golden era of Hollywood, when names like Kirk Alyn and George Reeves played Superman, the first big-budget comic book release arrived in 1978 with Superman. That created a franchise which led to some smaller releases in the 1980s before Tim Burton's Batman hit theaters in 1989, and Hollywood knew it had a moneymaker on its hands. After Batman & Robin was a box office and critical failure, it was Marvel who delivered next with the Blade and X-Men franchises.

However, in the 2000s, DC rebounded, first with Christopher Nolan's Batman reboot and then with Zack Snyder's DCEU. While James Gunn is now in charge of the DCU, there is no denying the success of DC Comics-related movies at the Oscars. Five different films based on DC properties have won Oscars, and their seven wins are three more Oscars than the MCU has won since it launched the same year that The Dark Knight arrived in theaters.

5 Superman (1978)

Superman was the first big-budget DC Comics movie ever to hit theaters. This film starred Christopher Reeve as Clark Kent/Superman, and he remains the actor whom many critics consider the best Superman actor in history. The movie was also written by The Godfather author Mario Puzo, directed by The Goonies director Richard Donner, and even had Oscar-winner Marlon Brando in a small role as Superman's father, Jor-El.

However, the only three competitive Oscar nominations Superman received were for Best Film Editing, Best Original Score (John Williams), and Best Sound. It won none of those awards. However, the Oscars did honor it with a Special Achievement Award for Visual Effects, an award that didn't have its own category at that time.

4 Batman (1989)

Tim Burton brought Batman to the big screen in 1989 and made some controversial decisions along the way. He cast an actor normally known for comedy, bringing in Michael Keaton after his big role in Mr. Mom. Burton also decided to ignore all the campy fun that the previous Batman live-action series with Adam West was known for and replaced it with a dark, gothic atmosphere, similar to what he did in movies like Beetlejuice.

Batman was a hit at the box office, and it has made $411.3 million since its release. However, it only received one Oscar nomination, a drop-off from Superman a decade prior. That said, it did win the one competitive Oscar it was up for, taking home the award for Best Art Direction. It was high praise for the work Burton put in to create a gothic world that has stuck with Batman ever since.

3 The Dark Knight (2008)

Christopher Nolan enjoyed his breakout with the mystery noir Memento, and he got the chance to take over the Batman franchise in 2005 with Batman Begins. That movie was so successful that Nolan got the chance to turn it into a trilogy. Of those movies, The Dark Knight was his masterpiece, and the film that helped prove that superhero movies could also be high-quality films, comparable to any crime thriller.

Nolan has enjoyed considerable success at the Oscars over his career, and The Dark Knight was no different. The Batman movie earned eight Oscar nominations, although it only won two of them. One was for Best Sound Editing, but the second was the most notable. Heath Ledger was the first actor to ever win an Oscar for a performance in a superhero film. Ledger, who had died six months before The Dark Knight's release, won Best Supporting Actor.

2 Suicide Squad (2016)

Suicide Squad received mostly negative reviews when released in theaters in the DCEU, although Margot Robbie earned praise for her performance as Harley Quinn. While the movie was a critical failure, it was still a box office success, making $749.2 million at the box office. It even got a more highly praised sequel a few years later when James Gunn began working with the studio.

What might come as a surprise is that the first Suicide Squad movie not only earned an Oscar nomination, but it won it. However, it makes sense considering the actual award. The film won the Oscar for Best Makeup and Hairstyling. When looking at Harley Quinn and characters like Joker, El Diablo, and Enchantress, it makes sense.

1 Joker (2019)

The last DC movie to win an Oscar was Joker (2019). The film was not associated with the DCEU or the current DCU, and it is a story that takes place in its own world. The first film didn't even have the real Joker from the comics, as it instead followed a man named Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) and his downward spiral. It was a huge success, breaking $1 billion at the box office and earning 11 Oscar nominations.

Joker was the second-ever superhero movie to get a Best Picture nomination, following Black Panther. Todd Phillips also received a Best Director nomination. However, Joker only won two Oscars. It won Best Original Score (Hildur Guðnadóttir), and Phoenix became the second actor to win an Oscar for a superhero role, following Ledger, winning Best Actor for this DC movie release.