‘Jaws' turns 50: Steven Spielberg's caught-on-camera Oscar snub still smarts — and shows need for Best Director reform
Steven Spielberg, one could say, was less than pleased when he found out he was not nominated for the Best Director Oscar for his game-changing shark thriller Jaws. On Oscar nominations morning in 1976, the then 29-year-old was so confident that the blockbuster was "about to be nominated in 11 categories" that he turned the camera on himself to document his live reaction.
"You're about to see a sweep of the nominations," Spielberg boasted in the footage (watch above), which has since become legend thanks to the Media Burn Archive collection.
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Along with friends Joe Spinell and Frank Pesce—both of whom were filming Rocky, which would go on to win Best Picture at the subsequent Oscars—Spielberg watched as Best Director was announced on TV. The nominees were Federico Fellini for Amarcord, Stanley Kubrick for Barry Lyndon, Sidney Lumet for Dog Day Afternoon, Robert Altman for Nashville, and Miloš Forman for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
While that's legendary lineup of directors, Spielberg was aghast: "Oh, I didn't get it! I didn't get it! I wasn't nominated. I got beaten out by Fellini!" (Amarcord was the only film without a corresponding Best Picture nomination and had also won Best Foreign Language Film the year prior, giving it international distribution for 1975 eligibility.)
By the time Jaws was announced as a Best Picture nominee moments later, it seemed like a consolation prize to the young director. "Well, it's about time," Spielberg stated, the sting still fresh. Spinell and Pesce also expressed frustration, comparing it to 1972 when The Godfather and Cabaret split the top two categories.
"You cannot have the Best Picture unless the director is also nominated. Who made the picture?" Spinell declared. "The greatest picture of all time was made and they haven't recognized the director," Pesce added.
Universal Pictures/Everett Collection
After being informed by his assistant that Jaws was only up in four categories instead of the 11 he expected, Spielberg attributed the snubs to commercial backlash, meaning: "When a film makes a lot of money, people resent it. Everybody loves a winner, but nobody loves a WINNER."
Although much has evolved with the Academy Awards in the 50 years since, Spielberg's theory still rings true. Jaws became the catalyst for the movie business model that exists today and also redefined what we think of as box office success. Still, high grosses don't necessarily translate to certain Academy Award recognition.
At the time, many were overwhelmed by Jaws' commercial success and perhaps thought that was enough for the movie. Even today, the Oscars remain more of a launching pad for independent and purposely "artistic" films, only occasionally recognizing blockbusters for the top category—and even less so for Best Director.
Back when there were only five slots in Best Picture, the stars would have to align for the kind of golden sweep experienced by box office juggernauts like Titanic and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, each of which won 11 Oscars and tied for the most all-time wins. The reason the Best Picture field expanded to 10 nominees can be credited to the outrage over Christopher Nolan's 2008 smash The Dark Knight being shut out of major categories. Since then, more blockbusters have been nominated—including Black Panther, Wicked: Part One, Top Gun: Maverick, Barbie, and both Dune films—but none of those corresponded to the directing category.
As Spinell said incredulously in that 1976 clip, "Who made the picture?"
READ: 'Jaws' at 50: Jeffrey 'Deputy Hendricks' Kramer recalls 'horrific' first scene and an epic Roy Scheider flub
Jaws ended up winning three of its four Oscar nominations, taking home Best Original Score for John Williams, as well as Best Sound, and Best Editing. Spielberg went on to amass 23 nominations, including nine Best Director mentions and two wins. So while he may have been disappointed 50 years ago, Jaws kickstarted the career of Hollywood's most commercially successful director.
At the same time, the Academy got it wrong then and continues to get it wrong too often now. Don't hold your breath for the organization to revamp the Best Director category to include more nominees; there is a lingering snobbery when it comes to the perception of art versus commerce, with the two rarely intersecting for voters. In the case of Jaws, history has proven the film's immense value.
No offense to, say, Fellini or Kubrick—both undisputed titans of cinema—but a half-century later, neither of their 1975 offerings has the cultural cachet of Jaws. "Amarcord at 50" headlines just aren't a thing.
Jaws, meanwhile, is still enjoyable as an intense, suspenseful thriller about an unlikely trio trying to thwart a great white shark before it kills any more innocent civilians. However, Spielberg also makes it a story about the complicity of local governments and the value of corporate greed over human lives—something that still resonates.
And what Spielberg does with his camera, establishing the horror through underwater shots, split diopters, dolly zooms, and the alternating iconic two-note score by Williams has influenced filmmaking for five decades. Jaws is universal and unforgettable... and its Oscar omissions are truly unforgivable.
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