007 : Only Two Oscar Kills

This morning's awesome Casino Royale showing at the British Academy's --known asBAFTA-- nominations, where it did nearly as well as the Oscar buzzing The Queen got me thinking: does Oscar like James Bond? It was a question that had literally never occurred to me. Perhaps that was for the best. But Daniel Craig being Daniel Craig sigh and constantly invading my mind... I wondered: could the newly blond superspy be the Academy's favorite Bond ever? I apparently had nothing better to do this morning (?) so I set out to find the answer.

JAMES BOND + RED CARPET
To keep this awards history simple, I'm sticking to the big guns:
The Golden Globes, BAFTA (that's the British Oscars to awards virgins), and the Oscars themselves.

The Sean Connery Years
1962 Dr. No
James Bond's debut garnered only a GG nomination for "best newcomer" for Ursula Andress as "Honey Ryder" --She did have quite an entrance. It burns itself into the memory banks
1963 From Russia With Love
The series wins its first award: Cinematography from BAFTA. Song is Globe nom'ed
1964 Goldfinger
In my opinion they should have invented an Oscar for best character name because "Pussy Galore" -- come on. That's golden. With Goldfinger Bond nabs his first of two Oscars: best sound effects --that accessory packed Aston Martin (like Batman's utility belt) probably had something to do with it. There's also the first of what turns out to be a handful of Art Direction nods from BAFTA
1965 Thunderball
Connery was really kicking these films out, wasn't he? It won the last of its Oscars for visual effects. BAFTA came through with a second art direction nod
1967 You Only Live Twice
Third Art Direction nomination from BAFTA (musta been that volcano'ed headquarters) but nothing else

A One Off
1967 Casino Royale
It's not an official Bond film but it does feature Ursula Andress (the first Bond girl) having another go at Bond (played by Peter Sellers) and it was Oscar nominated: best song for "The Look of Love" and BAFTA nominated: costume design.

The George Lazenby years year
1969 On Her Majesty's Secret Service
The Golden Globes honored Mr. Lazenby with a newcomer nomination (they don't have that category anymore) but he lost to midnight cowboy Jon Voight

Back to Sean Connery
1971 Diamonds Are Forever
A sound nomination from Oscar

The Roger Moore Years
1973 Live and Let Die
The Academy saw fit to award the McCartney's title song with a nomination. But they lost to "The Way We Were" sung by Barbra Streisand who has never, you'll be shocked to read, played a Bond girl
1974 The Man With the Golden Gun
No one saw fit to bestow prizes on this one
1977 The Spy Who Loved Me
Who knew? This is the big kahuna of Bond films according to awards bodies. In the year of Annie Hall and Star Wars, James Bond also got to them. Its score was nominated at the Globes, Oscars, and BAFTA. It also won two art direction nominations (its only from Oscar and one of a handful from BAFTA) and the theme song "Nobody Does It Better" (you're already singing it aren't you?) was Globe and Oscar nom'ed
1979 Moonraker
I figured. Since it's Bond's spaciest adventure it got itself an Academy Award nomination for Best Visual Effects. No prizes though
1981 For Your Eyes Only
Do you miss Sheena Easton? Nah, neither do I. But that title song she warbled got Globe and Oscar nominations

The Really Confusing Year
1983 Never Say Never Again
Some people don't count this in the Bond series. Legal disputes and all. But since it's Connery and I'm a completist I'm throwing it in. This actually got an acting nomination! From the Golden Globes for Best Supporting Actress. But still...
1983 Octopussy
Many people thought of 1983 as the death knell of the series what with the confusion, two rapidly aging Bonds and neither film well liked. Awards bodies agreed -- zippo

Roger's Farewell
1985 A View To A Kill
The Golden Globes liked Duran Duran's theme song enough for a nomination but no win

The Timothy Dalton Years
1987 The Living Daylights
1989 License to Kill
James Bond is dead to awards bodies. Dead. Neither Dalton picture got a thumbs up

The Pierce Brosnan Years
1995 Goldeneye
After the longest Bond hiatus ever (five whole years went by without a Bond flick) the series gets a welcome back from BAFTA who honor it with two nominations: sound and visual effects
1997 Tomorrow Never Dies
Golden Globe sings the original song to a nomination. Nothing else
1999 The World Is Not Enough
and neither is film to the awards groups who all pass
2002 Die Another Day
Madonna has a go at James Bond and wins a Golden Globe nomination. Everyone else looks politely away. Oscar don't do Pierce Brosnan. Or Madonna as a song writer for the movies. They've passed her by many times: Live to Tell, Into the Groove, I'll Remember, This Used to Be My Playground...


Daniel Craig Debuts!
2006 Casino Royale
The Golden Globes pass (rightly) on the hideous theme song but BAFTA goes hog wild for the huge rebirth of the franchise: nine regular nominations plus a "newcomer" citation for Eva Green. Those honors have to be due to the sextastic Daniel Craig filling out Bond's tuxedo & speedo. They even gave him a "Best Actor" nomination.

Will Oscar bite? It's a good question. Oscar has mostly ignored the series --take the song category for instance: 20+ tunes, some of them classics, and only three nominations for songs? But given that the 007 home team (BAFTA) went crazy this year for him and they never have before, perhaps Oscar will finally cozy up to the rejuvenated super spy

Tags: Daniel Craig, movies, James Bond, film, Academy Awards, oscars, 007, cinema