Joyce Eng
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- Film
United Artists/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock; Warner Bros/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock; Moviestore Collection/REX/Shutterstock; Warner Bros.
The “A Star Is Born” cinematic universe has never done that well when it comes to the Oscars, and that trend continued Sunday as Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga‘s version converted just one of its eight nominations — Best Original Song for “Shallow” — into a win. That ties the haul set by two of the previous three versions.
Here’s the Oscar history of all four “A Star Is Born” films:
1937 version: 7 nominations, 1 win, 1 honorary award
Best Picture
Best Director —William Wellman
Best Actor —Fredric March
Best Actress —Janet Gaynor
Best Original Story (win)
Best Adapted Screenplay
Best Assistant Director
Honorary Oscar toW. Howard Greenefor the color photography (“A Star Is Born” was the first color film to get a Best Picture nomination)
1954 version: 6 nominations, 0 wins
Best Actor —James Mason
Best Actress —Judy Garland
Best Original Song — “The Man That Got Away”
Best Scoring of a Musical Picture
Best Art Direction, Color
Best Costume Design, Color
1976 version: 4 nominations, 1 win
Best Cinematography
Best Original Song Score and Its Adaptation or Adaptation Score
Best Original Song —“Evergreen (Love Theme From A Star Is Born)” (win)
Best Sound
2018 version: 8 nominations, 1 win
Best Picture
Best Actor —Bradley Cooper
Best Actress —Lady Gaga
Best Supporting Actor —Sam Elliott
Best Adapted Screenplay
Best Cinematography
Best Original Song — “Shallow” (win)
Best Sound Mixing
SEEOscars: See the full list of winners
No need to break out your abacus: That’s just a paltry three wins from 25 nominations, not counting the honorary award since that’s not competitive. The films didn’t have that much trouble nabbing multiple nominations, but “Star,” sadly, has never shone brightly on Oscar night. Is it because it’s a female-focused sweeping romance? Is it because it paints the industry in a bad light? Is it because there are multiple remakes? Who knows, could be all three, could be none.
While the 2018 remake received the most bids, the 1937 original is arguably the most well-received of the four, having scored nominations in the Big Five categories: picture, director, actor, actress and screenplay. Cooper’s version is the first since that one to earn a Best Picture nomination, but he, of course, was left off the directing shortlist.
Barbra Streisand‘s 1976 rock musical is the only one without any above-the-line nominations, specifically acting ones for the two leads. Cooper’s remake, meanwhile, is the first to get three acting bids.
The Best Original Song win for “Shallow,” which makes Gaga just the 14th woman to win the category, means the 1954 version remains the only one to be goose-egged. Garland was notoriously upset by Grace Kelly (“The Country Girl”) in the “greatest robbery since Brinks,” to Groucho Marx at least.
“Shallow” giving “A Star Is Born” its sole Oscar win is a far cry from the high expectations we all had for the film when it opened in the fall. But its Oscar dream quickly turned into a nightmare after it only won Best Original Song at the Golden Globes, kicking off a string of losses and snubs in the top categories from which it was never able to recover.
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I’m not a fan of Streisand, but I prefer her version over the Bradley Cooper/Gaga one. To be honest, I couldn’t get past Bradley Cooper’s go gaga (no pun intended) over Lady Gaga, since I consider her to be below average in looks. Bradley Cooper has a great voice, but every time he started to sing, the camera switched to somehing else. Gaga had two really great songs, but Shallow wasn’t one of them.
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Holy crap!! Really?!! Not only was Lady Gaga lovely in the movie but her acting was excellent. The chemistry between them is stronger than any other A Star is Born couple – in my opinion. I thought the story was good, the acting was excellent. I re-watched the Barbra Streisand/Kris Kristofferson version which I originally loved and had to turn it off. I also feel that A Star is Born should have won the academy award over Bohemian Rhapsody(which frustrated me because it wasn’t factual and they put bucked teeth on an actor who already had bucked teeth – it was ridiculous!).
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Judy Garland’s loss remains the top robbery that is was. An unforgettable, unfortunate, unforgivable, travesty!!! Groucho Marx’s comment about the loss says it all…
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Re: the win by Lady Gaga… Am glad it happened! Yet, she should’ve won a few years back with the song she co-wrote with Diane Warren for the documentary about abuse. Losing to that nasty song for a Bond film by Sam Smith was a slap in the face, if one recalls her great performance on stage and his God-awful one; I bet, once the performances were over, the voters were regretful they chose his song over hers.
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I have been watching movies for over 60 years now. One rule of thumb is that when you have good performances for all or most of the actors, that’s the sign of a good director. Two weaknesses of the Oscar system is that it only allows a set number of nominees in any category, and there can be only one winner in each category. The second became apparent to me way back when “Ordinary People” and “The Elephant Man” were both up for best picture. Two truly outstanding films and only one “best”. While other years, movies which were inferior to both won that award. This must be taken into consideration when looking at the results.
I was absolutely charmed by Lady Gaga’s performance. I found her beautiful, especially before all the make up started being applied. I’ve never followed her before, but I’ll be paying more attention in the future. Her singing is different, and I liked it very much. My only disappointment was that I liked the emotive songs better than the more commercial ones (re: SNL), though all were well produced. And I was surprised and pleased by Bradley Cooper’s singing. I wasn’t sure if he was actually playing, but if so, that was quite exceptional.
Good acting, good singing, good movie. It may not have won many awards, but it was quite noteworthy and very much worth watching.Reply
Agreed. I was so amazed by Bradley Cooper not only because he produced and directed, but he learned to sing, play guitar, and changed his voice to be closer to Sam Elliott’s voice. Amazing!!
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