Fans recently had Birds of Prey trending on social media as they celebrated the one-year anniversary of the DCEU’s box office bomb that went on to become an instant cult favorite, not to mention the highest-grossing comic book movie of 2020. It still might be a little too early to put the champagne back on ice, though, because Harley Quinn’s solo spinoff could be making a late and unexpected push for Academy Awards glory.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is in the midst of whittling down the various shortlists for the biggest ceremony on the calendar ahead of the nominations being announced next month, and Birds of Prey has made it to the next stage as one of the final ten contenders for Best Makeup and Hairstyling and Best Visual Effects.
And looking at the other titles under consideration, it can’t be ruled out that the pic will end up landing nominations for both. It certainly deserves a shot at Best Makeup and Hairstyling, especially when the other nine movies are all period dramas with the exception of Netflix’s festive musical fantasy Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey.
Meanwhile, the visual effects weren’t the strongest part of the film by any means, but Birds of Prey boasted vastly superior CGI to Vin Diesel’s Bloodshot, which is also on the shortlist, as is Pixar’s Soul for some reason, even though it’s fully computer-generated and the overwhelming frontrunner to scoop Best Animated Feature.
While the Academy Award winning Birds of Prey has a strange ring to it, let’s not forget that Suicide Squad won in the Makeup and Hairstyling category, and there’s every chance that the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn could do the same.