Godzilla Minus One Wins Best Visual Effects at the 2024 Academy Awards

Director Takashi Yamazaki and the VFX crew behind Godzilla Minus One have taken home an Oscar after the Kaiju movie was recognized for best visual effects at the 2024 Academy Awards.

The movie competed against Guardians of the Galaxy 3, Napoleon, Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning Part 1 and The Creator for the award. Danny Devito and Arnold Schwarzenegger presented the Oscar to the group as they celebrated holding Godzilla figures.

Taking to the mic, Yamazaki started by saying he wanted to become a film maker after seeing Star Wars and Close Encounters as a child.

“So far from Hollywood, even the possibility of standing on this stage seemed out of reach. The moment we were nominated, we felt like Rocky Balboa welcomed into the ring as equals by our biggest rivals, which was already a miracle. But, here we stand!”

This is a first time Oscar win for Japan and the Godzilla franchise in the in the VFX category. Brought to the big screen by the hard work of the team at Shirogumi, Yamazaki worked closely as a VFX supervisor to bring it to life. Yamazaki began his career with the VFX company in 1986 and had worked with the team on a number of prior projects like Stand by Me Doraemon and Dragon Quest: Your Story.

Speaking to the press backstage, Yamazaki looked towards the future of the Japanese film industry following the win.

“I believe that perhaps the success of Godzilla Minus One will open up new opportunity for a lot of Japanese filmmakers. I think that’s important because Japan is such a small country that we need international box office and revenue to sustain the industry. This should be the start of something bigger, I hope, for the industry as a whole.”

Last month, TOHO released a short VFX breakdown video on the production of the movie to Youtube. This dived into the production teams structure at Shirogumi and the difficulty of certain shots with such a small team.

Godzilla Minus One does not currently have a UK release date but is set to hit the Japanese Blu-Ray and DVD market in May.