'Fantastic Beasts' Is The First 'Harry Potter' Movie To Ever Win An Oscar & It's About Time
By Jack O'Keeffe
Michael Loccisano/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images
Harry Potter is one of the most important, popular film franchises of all time. It has made an impact on nearly every form of media, and yet it wasn't until 2017 that the franchise won its first Oscar. As Vulture pointed out, Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them is the first-ever Harry Potter film to win an Oscar.
This begs the question, "How?" It also begs the questions, "Why?" and "huh?" The Harry Potter films had some of cinema's most fascinating and complex imagery, with outstanding visual effects, intricate costuming, and all around fantastic production design. And, yet, despite 12 nominations across eight films, the original Harry Potter films never once brought home Oscar gold. It seems that the Oscars finally righted a wrong by awarding the spinoff Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them.
This doesn't explain how the Academy managed to ignore giving Alan Rickman the Supporting Actor award for eight films in a row, or how Alfonso Cuarón's first Oscar win for Best Director was for Gravity and not the exception that was Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Emma Watson deserved a nom for the iconic punch in that film alone, let alone her other astounding performances. Whatever kept the Oscars from rewarding the magical film franchise, it seems that the curse has finally lifted.