For decades, Hollywood has celebrated its biggest nights under the bright lights and popularity of the Academy Awards. Year after year, studios compete fiercely for the honor of having their films crowned Best Picture. Winning the category has often reshaped careers and reputations. Since the first Academy Award on the night of May 16, 1929, studios have received multiple nominations and wins at the 97th Academy Awards.
Yet, Walt Disney Pictures, despite its influence, has never won the industry’s most coveted award. However, its failure to win hasn’t been for a lack of trying, as several of its films have been nominated for Best Picture. Walt Disney Pictures is one of the “Big Five,” having acquired 20th Century Fox in 2019. While it’s still too soon to call it, the 98th Academy Awards isn’t looking like the year the studio might break the curse.
Walt Disney’s Long Relationship With the Oscars
Disney has been tied to the Oscars since the Academy’s early years. Walt Disney himself won more competitive Oscars than any individual in history. Over the years, his studio has collected dozens of awards for short films, animated features, visual effects, and music. These award victories helped establish Disney as a force within Hollywood.
Surprisingly, despite all these, Walt Disney Pictures’ wins have never included Best Picture. Even when Disney dominated animation, the Academy favored live-action dramas for its most prestigious award. Best Picture contenders usually came from studios focused on adult-themed, serious performances, and grounded narratives. Unfortunately, Disney rarely centered on those genres during its early decades.
Why Animation Never Earned Best Picture Win for Disney
Since its first feature-length film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), Disney’s strongest identity has always been animation. The decades that followed saw the release of classics such as The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, and Frozen. These were not only commercial successes but also became cultural landmarks. Their music, characters, and artistry shaped entire generations of filmmakers.
However, the Academy treated animation differently for most of its history. Animated films struggled to gain recognition in major categories. It wasn’t until 1992 that Walt Disney Pictures’ first animated film, Beauty and the Beast, was nominated for Best Picture. Unsurprisingly, the nomination was a milestone as the first animated film in the category, but it didn’t lead to victory, as it lost to The Silence of the Lambs.
Almost a decade later, the Academy introduced a new category, Best Animated Feature, in 2001, which ultimately shifted animation away from consideration for Best Picture. While the new category gave animated films their own space, it reduced Walt Disney Pictures’ chances in the main race. Unsurprisingly, Disney won numerous Animated Feature Awards, but those wins rarely translated into broader support. As such, voters viewed animation as separate from the adult-focused films that usually claim Best Picture.
Disney’s Live-action Films and Their Oscar Challenges
Walt Disney Pictures expanded strongly into live-action filmmaking over the years. The studio explored fantasy, adventure, musicals, sports dramas, and family-centered stories. Films like Mary Poppins, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Saving Mr. Banks earned major critical and Box Office attention. Disney came so close to clinching a Best Picture win after Mary Poppins was nominated for Best Picture at the 37th Academy Awards in 1965, but ultimately lost to My Fair Lady.
For decades, many Disney live-action films performed well financially but did not match the dramatic tone favored by Oscar voters. The Academy tends to reward grounded stories, intense performances, and themes rooted in real-world struggles. Disney films often focus on hope, magic, and lighter storytelling. That difference in tone created a divide that limited Disney’s chances in the top race. The few Disney films that moved into more serious territory also faced strong competition.
The Impact of Disney’s Acquisitions on the Best Picture Landscape
Over the years, Disney has made major acquisitions that expanded its reach. The company purchased Pixar in 2006, Marvel Studios in 2008, Lucasfilm in 2012, and 21st Century Fox in 2019. These moves reshaped Hollywood and created one of the most powerful entertainment groups in history. Yet these acquired companies had their own award histories separate from Walt Disney Pictures.
Pixar, too, has won many Awards in animation, but never Best Picture. Marvel produced cultural hits like Black Panther, which earned a Best Picture nomination in 2019 but failed to win. Lucasfilm built major franchises like Star Wars, yet none of the films have yet won Best Picture. Fox, however, had Best Picture winners like Titanic and The Shape of Water, but those films weren’t directly under Walt Disney Pictures.
Since the Academy tracks awards by the producing studio at release, these victories do not count as Disney wins. Walt Disney Pictures, as a label, still holds a spotless record in the Best Picture column. While the acquisition expanded Disney’s empire, it has yet to yield a Best Picture win for Walt Disney Pictures. Irrespective of the fact, Walt Disney Pictures’ legacy continues to grow, with or without the golden statue.
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