Look out, here comes the Spider-Man. The fourth film in the Tom Holland Spidey cycle, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, is already a hit among critics and tracking to be one of the year’s biggest films at the box office. But will Marvel’s amazing web-slinger be super at the 99th Academy Awards? Let us spin a few scenarios about Brand New Day‘s Oscar chances.
Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, Brand New Day picks up after the events of No Way Home, which saw Holland’s hero cross paths with the previous two Spideys, Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield. The film ended with a Doctor Strange-assisted multiversal reset, leaving the world unaware of Peter Parker. While Brand New Day finds the wall-crawler still tangling with villains and Marvel Cinematic Universe mainstays like Frank “The Punisher” Castle (Jon Bernthal, in a scene-stealing supporting role) and Bruce “The Hulk” Banner (Mark Ruffalo), Peter longs to reconnect with former girlfriend MJ (Zendaya) and bestie Ned (Jacob Batalon), who don’t know he exits. Meanwhile, a potent new threat arises requiring the assistance of the shadowy agency Damage Control.
Although critics have bestowed the film with mostly solid reviews (resulting in a 91% score on Rotten Tomatoes and a 69 Metacritic rating), Brand New Day is far from home Best Picture material, and doesn’t have a shot at joining Black Panther as the only MCU entry so far to warrant a bid in the top category. And while the cast is a charisma machine, they aren’t serious contenders.
That said, Spidey’s cinematic adventures do have a track record of ensnaring down-ballot Oscar nominations, along with the occasional win.
Best bets
First, a quick aside: we can’t talk about Spidey and the Oscars without mentioning Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s phenomenal Spider-Verse animated saga. The spectacular first entry, 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, won Best Animated Feature, and its follow-up, 2023’s Across the Spider-Verse, was nominated in that category.
But for this exercise we’re only focusing on the live-action films. Brand New Day is the ninth of these since 2002. Three of the previous live-action Spidey flicks have accounted for six nominations: three for Best Visual Effects, and three for various sound categories. Spider-Man 2 is the only Oscar-winning entry, taking home the statuette for its VFX work.
| Film | Nomination | Result |
| Spider-Man (2002) | Best Visual Effects | Lost to The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers |
| Best Sound | Lost to Chicago | |
| Spider-Man 2 (2004) | Best Visual Effects | Won |
| Best Sound Mixing | Lost to Ray | |
| Best Sound Editing | Lost to The Incredibles | |
| Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) | Best Visual Effects | Lost to Dune |
Based on that history, Brand New Day would have its best shots at nominations for Best Visual Effects — this is one of the best-looking Marvel movies in years with several spectacular action set pieces largely executed practically — and Best Sound. With The Odyssey, Project Hail Mary, Dune: Part Three, and fellow MCU installment Avengers: Doomsday in the hunt, Spidey will have to run a gantlet to secure those bids, but we certainly see it making the two shortlists.
Too bad the Academy won’t start giving out the stunt Oscar until the 2027 film cycle, because Brand New Day would be a shoo-in for a nod.
Longer shots
Best Production Design: Brand New Day‘s colorful look was overseen by Marvel veteran Charles Wood, who opted for a comic-accurate bright color scheme while recreating New York’s cityscape for the largely street-level action. If the film expands beyond the visual effects and sound races, we could see some support for its production design. While Wood has yet to score an Oscar nod, he did pick up BAFTA bid and Art Directors Guild bids for the mystical stylings of Doctor Strange, and won ADG awards for his work on Avengers: Endgame and Guardians of the Galaxy.
Best Score: The Brand New Day score, with callbacks to previous films and even a cheeky nod to the classic 1960s cartoon theme, was composed by two-time nominee and one-time winner Michael Giacchino (Up, Ratatouille). Based on name recognition alone, Giacchino could be a fringe contender, but he’ll be up against heavyweights Ludwig Göransson (The Odyssey), John Williams (Disclosure Day), Daniel Pemberton (Project Hail Mary), Hans Zimmer (Dune: Part Three), and even his own work in the animated feature Ray Gunn and as part of the all-star combo behind Behemoth!, which also includes Alan Silvestri and James Newton Howard, among many other A-list composers.
