WhenThe Dark Knight, starring Christian Bale and Heath Ledger, was first released in theaters July 23, 2025, it received massive commercial and critical acclaim for its acting (mostly towards Ledger), complexity, and for being more than just a comic book film. The film is often consideredthegreatest superhero film ever made, and even to this day shapes the way superhero films are made. At the box office, it became the fourth highest-grossing film of its time and the highest grossing superhero film at the time.
Now, if you had traveled back in time a couple of years before its release, likely no one would’ve believed you when you said this Batman film would become one of the greatest films of all time and that would be because of the casting of Ledger as the clown prince of crime, The Joker. But he silenced the doubters with his forever memorable performance as The Joker, becoming just as iconic as the film itself that his portrayal of the super-villain is not only most fans favorite, but also influences the way actors who dared to take on the role after him played the character with Barry Keoghan, the latest actor play The Joker,calling it intimidating.
So, with all the praise and big bucksThe Dark Knightachieved, you’d imagine that it would’ve swept the Oscars easily. Heck, even people in the industry were prepared for the film to receive at least one of the Big Five nominations at the Academy Awards (Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Director, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay). And the film did come in strong at the Oscars with nominations for Best Sound Editing, Best Supporting Actor (which Ledger would become the second performer to ever win the award posthumously), Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Makeup, (wait there’s more) Best Sound Mixing, and Best Visual Effects. But people were left scratching their heads when the film failed to receive a nomination for any of the Big Five, but especially the Best Picture nomination, and became one of the biggest Oscar snubs ever.
Superhero Films & The Oscars
The Academy Awards is known for its prestige, but with that level of prestige also comes pretentiousness. The award show is known for excluding films in the comic book, action, and horror genres, just to list a few, no matter how much cultural significance or critical acclaim they receive. And if they do achieve even a nomination, it’s usually in special effects and makeup categories and almost never in the Big Five categories. The only superhero films to ever win an Oscar wereThe Suicide Squad(Best Makeup and Hairstyling), 1978Superman(Best Visual Effects),Spider-Man 2(Best Visual Effects), 1989Batman(Art Direction),Black Panther(Best Original Score, Costume Design, and Costume Design),Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse(Best Animated Film), and, of course,The Dark Knight.
The question, of course, is: why? Why does it seem like the Oscars hate comic book films? AsHollywood Insidersaid, “There is a stigma surrounding Marvel and DC films as they are criticized as ‘cookie-cutter’ stories that have no originality, some may even say they are repetitive.” One of the most famous directors of our time, Martin Scorsese, even had something to say about comic book films, comparing them to theme park rides that can’t be cinema because they don’t try to convey emotional and psychological experiences to people. And while it’s entirely debatable if he has a point or not, it shows clearly the way big players in the industry view Marvel and DC films. While superhero films are rapidly changing, becoming more than just movies about superheroes saving the world, there are still some issues with the genre, such as its depiction of women characters or, more clearly, the way its audience reacts to women characters.
Related:Movies That Won the ‘Big Five’ Oscars (& Others That Came Close)
The Best Picture Nomination
Considering the numbers and praiseThe Dark Knightearned, many fans and people inside the industry believed the film was a key contender for the Best Picture Oscar nomination. So, what were the films that were nominated for Best Picture that year?Slumdog Millionaire,The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,Frost/Nixon,Milk, andThe Reader. The last of which is a holocaust film about a concentration camp guard who couldn’t be morally responsible for her actions because she couldn’t read which gained. According toThe Escapist, it received lukewarm reviews and a lot of controversies, but had the backing of Harvey Weinstein.
With all of that considered, many believed it stoleThe Dark Knight’s Best Picture slot. So much so that Hugh Jackman — who recently confessedThe Dark Knightishis favorite superhero movie— in his opening number at the award show sang, “I haven’t seenThe Reader. I was going to see it later, but I fell behind. My Batmobile took longer than I thought to design. I even went down to the theater, but there was a line — all the people watchingIron Mana second time.” That year, the ratings for the Oscars were devastating due to a lack of nominated films that viewers have actually seen. Which was odd, especially for the Best Picture nomination, that they failed to nominate films that made a major impact. Following the ceremony, the Academy Awards moved swiftly to make some changes following the backlash and low ratings.
Related:Best Superhero Movies of 2022, Ranked
How The Dark Knight Changed The Academy Awards
For the first time since 1943, the Academy Awards extended Best Picture nominees to ten instead of five. AMPAS President Sid Ganis, on the move to extend the number of nominees, said, “I would not be telling you the truth if I said the wordsDark Knightdid not come up.” The decision to extend the number of nominees was nothing more than that and failed to get to the root of the problem that those who have the power to decide nominees and winners for the Academy don’t acknowledge the significance of certain films and ignore certain genres entirely. Despite this,The Dark Knight’s Best Picture snub and the backlash from that made it possible for our other favorite, more recent, comic book films to be nominated for, and even win, an Oscar in the Big Five categories. Films such asBlack Pantherand, more notably,Joker. So, yes,The Dark Knightdidn’t get its much-deserved nomination, and even if it did, who’s to say it would’ve won, but its legacy remained intact and even grew past just being an outstanding blockbuster film that created the path for future comic book films. Because of its snub, it was able to change the Academy Awards and how it sees those comic book films.
