James Bond Academy Award History

The James Bond franchise has run for 24 films, some hits and some misses. But the franchise has seen plenty of Oscar attention.

The Eon Productions James Bond franchise is over 50 years old. The quality of the films run the gamut from gold painted women to invisible cars. And the series has had a lot of success financially and, at times, critically.

Bond has also found himself near Oscar gold on numerous occasions. Let’s go back to the very beginning and trace the history of James Bond success at the Academy Awards.

Sean Connery’s first two outings as Bond, Dr. No and From Russia With Love, although considered quality films, didn’t get any love at the Oscars. Dr. No, however, won a Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer – Female, a now defunct award category. Ursula Andress shared this award with Tippi Hedren for The Birds and Elke Sommer for The Prize. This is in spite of the fact that Andress’ voice was dubbed over by a second actress throughout the entire film.

Connery’s series of Bond films didn’t earn an Academy Award nomination until Goldfinger, which won for Best Sound Effects. His next installment, Thunderball won for Best Visual Effects.

The remainder of Connery’s tenure as Bond didn’t make contact with Oscar gold again after that, although Diamonds Are Forever was nominated for its sound work.

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Lazenby’s Bond, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, didn’t earn a nomination, but Lazenby himself won a Golden Globe for Best Promising Newcomer – Male.

Roger Moore’s seven Bond films racked up a total of six Academy Award nominations with zero wins. Live and Let Die, The Spy Who Loved You, and For Your Eyes Only were all nominated for Best Original Song.

The Spy Who Loved Me also has the most Academy Award nominations of any Bond film, with three.

The franchise did not earn another Academy Award nomination until 2012’s Skyfall, which won two, for Best Sound Editing and Best Original Song. It was nominated in three other categories, including the only instance of a Bond film being nominated for cinematography, all thanks to Roger Deakins.

In total, this is four Academy Award wins and 14 nominations for the franchise.

What does this say about the new Bond film, Spectre? It isn’t being received very warmly by critics. Most likely, it won’t break much ground in the 2016 award season. It could conceivably be nominated for its sound work, and possibly its cinematography. If nothing, it will fare much better at the BAFTAs than the Academy Awards.

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