Godzilla Minus One Oscar win draws reactions from John Carpenter and Guillermo del Toro

Last night’s Academy Awards was a big night for a lot of people. Most notably, Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer would make a surprising sweep after award shows from earlier in the year presented a closer head-to-head competition. The epic biopic brought in a lot of firsts. Robert Downey Jr. would get his first Oscar win after past nominations including the likes of Chaplin and Tropic Thunder. Cillian Murphy took home the Best Actor trophy while Nolan would get his first for Best Directing and finally, Al Pacino would hilariously announce Oppenheimer in a premature manner as Best Picture.

Oppenheimer would not be the only World War II/atomic bomb-themed film to hit it big last night. The most famous Kaiju in the world, Godzilla, made history as Godzilla Minus One would be the first in the famous Japanese series that would be recognized by the Academy Awards. Godzilla Minus One made a smaller theatrical run in America, where audiences got to see some of the stunning visual effects that the famous “man-in-a-suit” movies have evolved into. ScreenRant reveals that the Oscar win would illicit reactions from filmmakers like John Carpenter and Guillermo del Toro as they took to their social media after the announcement.

Cult horror icon John Carpenter would post, “Incredible! GODZILLA MINUS ONE wins an Academy Award for special effects. In my lifetime. Fantastic!”

And monster maestro, Guillermo del Toro, would keep his reaction short and simple, saying, “Oscar Winner Godzilla. I feel so moved.”

In the 70-year history of the Godzilla series, no film from the Toho franchise had been previously honored by the Academy. Granted, in the years since the 1954 original classic, the majority of the films have leaned on the B-movie, monster mash-type of schlock cinema. However, the last two entries that were standalone reboots, 2016’s Shin Godzilla and Godzilla Minus One, have been recognized by fans and general audiences as two of the most poignant and prestigious installments in a long time. Ironically, both were big winners at the Japanese Academy Awards as they themselves went on to Oppenheimer-esque success.