'STAR WARS' AT 40: 'FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION...'

A selection of FOX trade ads promoting STAR WARS for Oscar consideration in 1978.

It's a more than well know fact that the Academy Awards organisation and its many diverse member voters in Hollywood aren't all that fond of the realms of science fiction and fantasy, but in 1977 even they couldn't ignore the immediate stratospheric box office success and overall impact with the general worldwide public that STAR WARS had made. When the time came for the Variety film news trade paper and other titles of similar ilk to begin putting out their showbiz advertising campaigns paid for by film companies for the 1978 Oscar ceremony, a proud 20th Century Fox was eager to push for STAR WARS to get award consideration in all the departments it could. At the end of the day, though, and as expected, STAR WARS ultimate wins saw the vital human element of the film ignored, though it pretty much won all the technical awards everyone expected, as well as a Special Achievement Award in sound effects editing.