Steven Spielberg thinks The Dark Knight should have been nominated for Best Picture

The Dark Knight was an ambitious attempt at a comic book movie. It was heavier in themes than previous releases and sported a performance by Heath Ledger that would redefine the characterization of The Joker. After the movie had been released, it not only smashed box office records, but it transcended the summer blockbuster. Most people feel it could have been the first comic book movie to be nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars. And according to IndieWire, Steven Spielberg is one of those people.

Spielberg is encouraged after the Academy recognized big audience-pleasing films for Best Picture as Avatar: The Way of Water and Top Gun: Maverick receive nominations. However, The Fabelmans director feels The Dark Knight should have gotten its due. When asked about the recent nominations for big blockbusters, Spielberg responded, “I’m really encouraged by that. It came late for the film that should have been nominated a number of years ago, Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight. That movie would have definitely garnered a Best Picture Nomination today, so having these two blockbusters solidly presented on the top 10 list is something we should all be celebrating.”

The Dark Knight was a movie that the Academy decided to accommodate after the fact when, in the next year, they extended the Best Picture nominations to ten movies in order to give films of similar nature a chance at being nominated. In the end, the movie would take home a number of technical awards and a posthumous Best Actor Oscar for Heath Ledger. Ten years later, a comic book film would get nominated for Best Picture as Marvel’s Black Panther would receive the nod.

When Christopher Nolan’s sequel to Batman Begins was released, it became a different type of monster. 2008’s The Dark Knight came at a time when comic book movies didn’t have the shared universe aspect. In fact, the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s very first outing, Iron Man, was released earlier that summer. However, Christopher Nolan had built a lot of hype around The Dark Knight as more than a comic book movie thanks to his vision for a Heat-type crime epic mixed with Heath Ledger’s anticipated portrayal of The Joker.