Avengers: Endgame Wins Movie Of The Year At People’s Choice Awards

Marvel Studios

Whatever it takes: we’re on the road to the Oscars now, and Avengers: Endgame is already winning awards.

The closing chapter of the Infinity Saga was an unprecedented hit, knocking Avatar off its throne with a mighty $2.79 billion at the worldwide box office.

Disney recently launched its ‘For Your Consideration’ campaign for the titanic superhero film, putting forward its cast and crew for Academy Award consideration. It’s off to a good start, having won Movie of the Year at the People’s Choice Awards.

Marvel Studios

The ceremony took place on Sunday, November 10, at Santa Monica’s Barker Hangar. As the show came to a close, Endgame swooped the gong for the year’s best movie – the second prize of the night following Robert Downey Jr’s award for Movie Actor of the Year.

The Marvel Studios movie was nominated for seven awards, including Movie Actress of the Year (Scarlett Johansson) and Action Star of the Year (Downey Jr and also Chris Evans).

As well as Best Picture, Disney has listed Downey Jr (Tony Stark/Iron Man), Evans (Steve Rogers/Captain America), Mark Ruffalo (Bruce Banner/Hulk), Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye), Josh Brolin (Thanos), Paul Rudd (Scott Lang/Ant-Man) and Don Cheadle (James Rhodes/War Machine) for Best Supporting Actor consideration.

For Best Supporting Actress, Disney have pushed Scarlett Johansson (Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow), Gwyneth Paltrow (Pepper Potts), Zoe Saldana (Gamora), Karen Gillan (Nebula) and Brie Larson (Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel).

Marvel Studios

Robert Downey Jr’s final performance as the genius, billionaire, playboy and philanthropist drew praise from fans and critics alike, with some suggesting early on an Oscar nomination could be on the way.

However, the Iron Man actor excused himself from Oscar campaigning while appearing on the The Howard Stern Show earlier in October. Luckily, Disney is taking initiative and doing it for him.

Marvel Studios

In an interview with The Daily Beast, the film’s directors Joe and Anthony Russo (who have also been put forward for Best Director consideration) said if Downey Jr’s performance doesn’t deserve an Oscar, they don’t know whose does.

Joe Russo said: 

I don’t know if I have ever seen – in movie history – a global audience react to a performance the way they did to Robert Downey Jr in that movie.

There were people bawling in movie theaters, hyperventilating. I mean, that is a profound performance, when you can touch audiences all over the world to that degree. We’ve never seen anything like that, and if that doesn’t deserve an Oscar, I don’t know what does.

The nominations for the 92nd Academy Awards will be announced on January 13 next year, with the 2020 Oscars set to air on February 9.

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Cameron Frew

After graduating from Glasgow Caledonian University with an NCTJ and BCTJ-accredited Multimedia Journalism degree, Cameron ventured into the world of print journalism at The National, while also working as a freelance film journalist on the side, becoming an accredited Rotten Tomatoes critic in the process. He’s now left his Scottish homelands and took up residence at UNILAD as a journalist.