There's Only One Star Trek Movie With An Oscar Win

To date, there have been 13 "Star Trek" feature films, with a 14th movie, "Section 31," scheduled to debut on Paramount+ on January 24, 2025. The films are, many Trekkies would agree, various degrees of good and bad. Some of the "Star Trek" films are among the best sci-fi movies ever made, while others are handily the worst. Many agree that Nicholas Meyer's 1982 film "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" is the best one, although J.J. Abrams' 2009 "Star Trek" is the highest-grossing. The four films based on "Star Trek: The Next Generation" — that is: "Generations," "First Contact," "Insurrection," and "Nemesis" — are all pretty middling, although many like the Borg action from "First Contact." My personal favorites are Robert Wise's 1979 epic "Star Trek: The Motion Picture," for its cerebral grandiosity, and Meyer's "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country" for its political bent. 

The films also fluctuate wildly in mere production quality. "Motion Picture" feels outsized and grand, while William Shatner's "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier" looks and feels cheap, with low-rent VFX and shoddy sets. Some of the "Star Trek" movies boast Oscar-caliber craftsmanship. Others have won Razzies.

But, perhaps surprisingly, the high-profile film franchise only has one installment that has been nominated for any Academy Awards. Not that the "Star Trek" movies were ever expected to be honored in the Best Picture category, but surely at least one film was recognized for its sound, music, or VFX, right? Between the 13 extant movies, only one Oscar has ever been given, and it was to Barney Burman, Mindy Hall, and Joel Harlow for their makeup effects in Abrams' "Star Trek" (2009).

Abrams' "Star Trek" was nominated for four Academy Awards in 2010. It won for its makeup effects, but was also nominated for its Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, and Special Effects. All of this is deserved, as the alien makeup seen in "Star Trek" was first-rate, and the film's many starship battles, not to mention the bizarro colossal negative space wedgies, looked and sounded amazing. "Star Trek" won its makeup Oscar over Paolo Sorrentino's "Il Divo," a biopic of Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti, and Jean-Marc Vallée's "The Young Victoria," a biopic of Queen Victoria. I can say from experience that genre fans and sci-fi nuts always hope that the monster makeup and creature effects will win Oscars over the biopics and old-age faces, and in 2010, they got their wish. 

"Star Trek" lost both of its sound Oscars to the eventual Best Picture winner "The Hurt Locker," a film full of war and combat effects. One can see — or perhaps hear — why "The Hurt Locker" won its five Oscars.

"Star Trek" was nominated for Best Visual Effects alongside Neill Blomkamp's sci-fi film "District 9," but both were doomed to lose to James Cameron's "Avatar," the biggest movie of all time. "Avatar" was noted mostly for its cutting-edge, ultra-dazzling visual effects, which included making nine-foot tall blue alien creatures look wholly believable. Anything that was nominated next to "Avatar" was going to lose, so the nominated effects-makers – Roger Guyett, Russell Earl, Paul Kavanagh and Burt Dalton — were likely just happy to be in the room. 

And that's been it for "Star Trek." The 2013 follow-up "Star Trek Into Darkness," and the final feature "Star Trek Beyond" weren't recognized by the Academy. "Star Trek" has stayed away from theaters ever since. Time will tell if another "Star Trek" film is ever made.