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The Original Trilogy at the Oscars

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The Original Trilogy won 10 Academy Awards in total: 7 wins for Star Wars, 2 wins for Empire and 1 win for Jedi.
 

I have a few questions about the Original Trilogy at the Oscars, if anyone can help?
 

Did anyone stay up and watch these live on TV at the time? What the buzz about the films at the Oscars? Were they expected to win as many as they did? Was it important or a “big deal” at the time?

Did the films have more respect afterwards because they won so many awards at the Oscars, or did that not really change?

What was the importance or surprise of a science fiction film winning Oscars at the time? Especially in 1978, where sci-fi was considered dead genre, maybe a even lower form of film, or a film more for children and teens?

Does George Lucas & Lucasfilm also now play down the films’ Oscars achievements too? Even more because the Special Editions cuts cannot claim to be the same Oscar winning films, and it appears they do not like talking about the unaltered theatrical cuts?

Are they also downplayed a little because the Prequel Trilogy and Sequel Trilogy did not win any Oscars?:
A History of Star Wars at the Oscars” at Vulture
 

George & Lucasfilm seemed to be proud they won so many Oscars at the time, with the poster image above and other “congratulations” posters, but not much is seen, discussed or archived about them now.

 

Some fascinating pieces and information on the Original Trilogy at the Oscars:

Star Wars:

“40 years on: Star Wars at the Oscars” at Episode Nothing (Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3)
You Show Good Taste: Star Wars at the '78 Oscars” at Star Wars At The Movies
Oscars Database for Star Wars
 

The Empire Strikes Back:

Special Visual Effects for Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back” at American Cinematographer
Thank you, Lando: Empire at the ‘81 Oscars” at Star Wars At The Movies
Oscars Database for Empire
 

Return Of The Jedi:

Return of the Jedi Oscar Consideration Ad” at The Mighty Jabba
That Time Cheech and Chong Presented an Academy Award to ‘Return of the Jedi’” at ReMezCla
Oscars Database for Jedi
 

If anyone here knows of more online articles on the OT at the Oscars please post them in here too.

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Some quality articles there, Johan - and cool idea for a thread too. I don’t have much in the way of answers for you - though hopefully some of the [cough] more ‘mature’ or knowledgeable members on here do. 👍
 

The 1990 and 1992 ‘winged’ VHS box set releases both make prominent mention of the Academy Awards each film won and was nominated for (along with the box office takings) on the ‘winged’ sections…

^ from 1990.

 

^ from 1992.
 

Yet I don’t recall them being prominently mentioned (if at all) on many releases after that.

 

You could be right on Lucasfilm somewhat downplaying the past achievements - given these are more seemingly ‘focused’ on the Special Editions than the unaltered theatrical classic cuts… though Lucasfilm does still put up their most recent film releases for Oscar nominations - and have received a fair number too - yet as you say… no actual wins since 1984.

 

Gary Kurtz’ Star Wars scrapbook - available to see at the http://theswca.com/images-misc/kurtz-album.html - is worth checking out as an additional source of information too.
 

A little patience goes a long way on this old-school Rebel base. If you are having issues finding what you are looking for, these will be of some help…

Welcome to the OriginalTrilogy.com | Introduce yourself in here | Useful info within : About : Help : Site Rules : Fan Project Rules : Announcements
How do I do this?’ on the OriginalTrilogy.com; some info & answers + FAQs - includes info on how to search for projects and threads on the OT•com

A Project Index for Star Wars Preservations (Harmy’s Despecialized & 4K77/80/83 etc) : A Project Index for Star Wars Fan Edits (adywan & Hal 9000 etc)

… and take your time to look around this site before posting - to get a feel for this place. Don’t just lazily make yet another thread asking for projects.

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The features on Episode Nothing and Star Wars at the Movies are awesome! I hope they both do a feature on Return Of The Jedi at the 1984 Oscars.