Rise of Skywalker nominated for 3 Academy Awards

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is up for three Oscars at this year's Academy Awards.

The event, which is the highlight of the movie world is the 92nd Academy Awards ceremony, and will be held at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on 9 February 2020.

Which awards is The Rise of Skywalker nominated for?

Best Original Score

John Williams
Other nominees: Joker (Hildur Guðnadóttir), Little Women (Alexandre Desplat), Marriage Story (Randy Newman), 1917 (Thomas Newman).

Best Sound Editing

Matthew Wood and David Acord
Other nominees: Ford v Ferrari, Joker, 1917, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

Best Visual Effects

Roger Guyett, Neal Scanlan, Patrick Tubach , and Dominic Tuohy
Other nominees: Avengers: Endgame, The Irishman, The Lion King, 1917.

What are the chances of The Rise of Skywalker winning an Oscar?

Well, put it this way: To say Star Wars has a chequered history with the Oscars would be an understatement. Rise of Skywalker received a middling reception from critics, but the audience reaction has been generally positive. This clearly doesn't always translate into awards, however.

Classic Trilogy, 1977-1983

In 1977, the original Star Wars movie was a sensation, and swept the 50th Academy Awards with seven wins. The Empire Strikes Back, despite being widely regarded as the best of the Star Wars saga and one of the greatest sequels of all time, only managed one competitive win for Best Sound along with a special award for Visual Effects. 1983's Return of the Jedi again picked up a special award for visual effects, but failed to garner any of the competitive awards it was nominated for.

Prequel Trilogy, 1999-2005

Although the prequel trilogy was nominated for several awards, none of them were ever won. The Phantom Menace was up against stiff competition from The Matrix, which scooped up every award Star Wars was nominated for that year. Attack of the Clones was only nominated for Best Visual Effects, an award which went to The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers; and Revenge of the Sith also only managed one nomination, this time for Best Makeup.

Sequel Trilogy and Spin-offs, 2015-present

The Force Awakens, Disney's first foray into the Star Wars Saga was nominated five times but sadly didn't take anything home, while a year later the first spin-off movie, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, also went home empty handed after two nominations. Another year later, and The Last Jedi also failed to pick up any awards, despite being nominated for four Oscars. Solo: A Star Wars Story was only nominated for, and failed to secure, the award for Best Visual Effects, which brings us back to where we are in 2020.

There is also an interesting sidenote for this era of Star Wars: Alexandre Desplat scored Rogue One in 2016, which was big news at the time as it was the first feature length live-action Star Wars movie not scored by John Williams. Desplat wasn't nominated for at the Academy Awards for Rogue One, but the following year he won the Oscar for Best Score (for The Shape of Water) when he was up against Williams's score for The Last Jedi. This year, Desplat and Williams are facing off once more; very likely for the last time, as Williams head back into a well-earned retirement.

Could the final episode of the Skywalker Saga break the cycle?