Why Frankenstein Should Win the Academy Award for Best Picture | Oscars

gOilermo del Toro has spent his career humanizing monsters, once calling them “the patron saints of our happy imperfection,” so his adaptation of Frankenstein was always going to be a match made in heaven. The Mexican director’s passion project transforms Mary Shelley’s famous novel about the dangers of arrogance and playing God into a poignant story about generational trauma, parental abandonment, and the healing power of forgiveness. It’s a meticulously crafted, visually lavish and powerfully told story, worthy of an Oscar for Best Picture.

But it won’t be easy. Gothic fiction seamlessly blends horror, science fiction, and melodrama into its lavish narrative; Here Oscar Isaac plays an eccentric scientist, Victor, who brings to life a massive creature (Jacob Elordi) made up of dead parts. However, fantasy, horror and science fiction are genres that do not do well at the Oscars, except in the technical categories. Yes, del Toro is one of the few directors to take home the Academy Award for Best Picture for a Sci-Fi/Fantasy Picture in 2018 for his amphibious romance, The Shape of Water, but that win was the exception, not the rule.

He clearly has his work cut out for him. But there’s a lot to love about del Toro’s adaptation. As with his other films, Frankenstein is a macabre marvel; Mysterious rooms in large, dingy buildings, either lit by candles or a seemingly never-ending golden sunset, are filled with gruesomely dismembered corpses, skin partially peeled off. Elordi, who spent up to 10 hours a day in the makeup chair, is transformed into a creature that looks more like a depressed corpse than a hideous ghoul. While Mia Goth – who plays Elizabeth, Victor’s brother’s good-natured fiancée – is the film’s only bright spark of hope, quite literally – her sparkling insect-inspired dresses (which hopefully will win costume designer Kate Hawley an Oscar) appear as the only pops of color in the drab, rain-soaked landscape.

Del Toro uses the story to consider how harmful toxic masculinity is. We see abused boys turn into wounded men who continue to perpetuate the same suffering, as Victor’s rampant ego brings about the doom of everyone around him. The Creature, a morally ambiguous character in the book, is more sympathetic here. Elordi is the tender, beating heart of the film – his creature is sensitive, compassionate and desperate to be loved by his maker. It’s not the real monster, it’s generational abuse that destroys families and ruins relationships. Frankenstein’s message—that we need to connect with our fractured families rather than turn away from them—seems more timely than ever.

Elordi is nominated for Best Supporting Actor, and he earns this award more than for the skillful way he captures the conflicting emotions of a rejected child. Torn between the innocent longing for connection and the intense anger of rejection. There’s good work, too, from Isaacs as Victor, who plays the cocky scientist with sweaty intensity and the luminous goth, whose gentle nature Elizabeth finds herself fascinated with – tragically – by the creature’s gentle nature.

But despite its many strengths, when it comes to the Oscar for Best Picture, I’m afraid Frankenstein is still an oddity, like a creature having to fend for itself. Del Toro, of course, has a solid track record when it comes to Oscar success — along with winning Best Picture and Best Director for The Shape of Water, he took home the Best Animated Feature nod for Pinocchio in 2023. He’s a certified Oscar winner, though their relationship seems somewhat chilly — while Frankenstein received nine nominations this year, a Best Director nod was not among them in a truly egregious snub.

It’s a clear sign that the film’s path to Oscar glory may be as fraught as the relationship between the creature and Victor. Only six films in the history of the Academy Awards have won Best Picture without a Best Director nomination: Wings, Grand Hotel, Driving Miss Daisy, Argo, Green Book, and Coda. Although the odds are stacked against it, I wouldn’t rule out Frankenstein becoming the seventh film on that esteemed list. Like Pinocchio, Frankenstein shows how del Toro can take a much-loved tale and reinterpret it with his distinctive flair and deeply sympathetic storytelling.

No one embodies the magic of cinema the way del Toro does – the passionate works of his monumental imagination often leave you gasping in admiration. Frankenstein is the director at his best – a handsome and exciting adaptation that injects new life and meaning into a classic story while tugging at your heartstrings. Del Toro may already have an impressive collection of golden statues at home but there’s another Frankenstein statue right next door.