Wes Anderson Won an Oscar But Not For the Movie You’d Think

The Academy Awards gave Wes Anderson his Oscar! It just isn’t for one of the best movies of 2023. Anderson, who has an impressive catalog of films, has never won an Oscar for his directing. Now, he technically has won. It wasn’t for Asteroid City and instead his short film.

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar was a live-action short film by Anderson that featured Benedict Cumberbatch where he plays a very rich man trying to successfully master a skill to win at a game of gambling. While it is very cute and part of a larger series that Anderson did with Netflix, it was not the movie I wanted him to be recognized for out of his work last year.

Asteroid City was completely snubbed by the Academy Awards this year and was easily one of the best movies of the year as a whole. Seeing Anderson finally win and Oscar for another movie, especially a short, was still great. It just wasn’t what many of us who love Anderson’s work expected.

It is a testament to directors like Anderson and Christopher Nolan, who won for directing for Oppenheimer, that they continued to show the world how their style and talent works despite not getting the accolades that their colleagues do.

I don’t necessarily love that Wes Anderson is an Oscar winner for The Wonderful Life of Henry Sugar when Asteroid City came out the same year but to know that his work was at least recognized is extremely exciting too. To be clear, his short films were breathtaking and I love them very dearly. But with a filmography like Anderson’s, winning an Oscar then and not for any of his style defining films does make me long for Anderson to get his time.

(featured image: Roberto Serra – Iguana Press/Getty Images)