French filmmaker Coralie Fargeat’s body horror masterpiece The Substance was one of the best horror movies of last year, and it’s one of the rare horror films to come along in recent years that had actually been generating Academy Awards buzz. Well, the nominations for this year’s Oscars were announced today, and The Substance received […]
French filmmaker Coralie Fargeat’s body horror masterpiece The Substance was one of the best horror movies of last year, and it’s one of the rare horror films to come along in recent years that had actually been generating Academy Awards buzz. Well, the nominations for this year’s Oscars were announced today, and The Substance received some major recognition.
For starters, Demi Moore has been nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role for her performance as Elisabeth Sparkle in The Substance, a fading celebrity who injects herself with a cell-replicating substance that literally makes her give birth to a younger version of herself (Margaret Qualley). It’s a performance that already resulted in Moore taking home the Golden Globes trophy for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, which sets the stage for a potential Academy Awards win.
Coralie Fargeat (Revenge) has also been nominated for an Oscar for Best Director, while The Substance has become one of the rare horror films to be nominated for Best Picture.
In the entire history of the Oscars, only a handful of horror movies have ever received a nomination for Best Picture, with standout exceptions including The Exorcist, Jaws, The Silence of the Lambs, The Sixth Sense, Black Swan and Get Out. The only film on that list to actually win Best Picture was The Silence of the Lambs, which took home the statue 33 years ago.
The Best Picture nomination alone for The Substance is needless to say a massive win for the horror genre, an honor that has quite frankly never been bestowed upon a horror movie as wonderfully bonkers as the body horror insanity Fargeat unleashed upon us last year.
Elsewhere on the list of this year’s Academy Awards nominations, The Substance was nominated for Best Original Screenplay and Best Makeup & Hairstyling, giving the film five Oscars nominations in total. You can browse the full list of nominees right here.
