And The Award Goes To…

The first Bond film, Dr. No, won ‘New Star Of The Year’ award at the Golden Globes for Ursula Andress’ portrayal of Honey Ryder.

The first 007 film to win an Academy Award was Goldfinger. Norman Wanstall won the Best Sound Effects Oscar the first time the series was nominated. “When Angie Dickinson announced I’d won I just couldn’t believe it,” recalled Wanstall. “After the presentation, you have to go outside where you’re interviewed. When I returned to my seat, I remember my wife saying to me, ‘Do you realise you’ve missed Judy Garland live?’ She always remembers that as the highlight of the whole affair, the fact that she saw Judy Garland sing live.”

Thunderball won the following year in the Best Special Visual Effects category for John Stears. The award came as a complete shock to its winner, who didn’t even attend the ceremony. “I had a call from a friend in Wisconsin who said, ‘I’ve just seen Jordan Klein receive an Oscar from Bob Hope for you in your absence. You’ve won the Special Effects Oscar for Thunderball,’” remembered Stears. “I thought he was kidding but he wasn’t. Later I had a call from the customs people at Heathrow Airport to go over and collect a package, which I did on a wet and windy day and I had to pay import duty too.”

The first 007 BAFTA went to Ted Moore for From Russia With Love. The award was for Best Cinematography — Colour.

The Bond film with the most Oscar nominations? That would be Skyfall with five, for Best Cinematography, Original Score, Original Song, Sound Mixing and Sound Editing. It won for Sound Editing (Per Hallberg, Karen Baker Landers) and Original Song (Adele, Paul Epworth).

The Bond film with the most BAFTA nominations is Casino Royale, nominated for Outstanding British Film, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing, Original Music, Production Design, Sound, Visual Effects and Best Actor In A Leading Role for Daniel Craig, the first actor to be BAFTA nominated for playing James Bond.

Skyfall became the first 007 film to win in the BAFTA Outstanding British Film category, also winning Best Original Music for Thomas Newman.

At the Saturn Awards, created to recognise the science fiction, fantasy and horror genres, Casino Royale and Skyfall have won for Best Action Or Adventure Film. Pierce Brosnan has won for Best Actor in Tomorrow Never Dies.

Production designer Ken Adam has been nominated for four BAFTAs, for Best British Art Direction — Colour (Goldfinger, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice) and Production Design (The Spy Who Loved Me). He also was Oscar nominated for the Best Art Direction Academy Award for The Spy Who Loved Me.

Speaking of The Spy Who Loved Me, composer Marvin Hamlisch was nominated for Best Original Score at the Oscars, BAFTAs and Grammys but was pipped at the post by John Williams for Star Wars at the Oscars and Grammys, and by John Addison for A Bridge Too Far at the BAFTAs.

The first James Bond song to be Oscar-nominated was ‘Live And Let Die’. The category went on to become the series’ most fruitful hunting ground, gaining six nominations and three wins (‘Skyfall’, ‘The Writing’s On The Wall’ and ‘No Time To Die’). The year the song ‘For Your Eyes Only’ was nominated, Sheena Easton performed the song in an elaborate staging featuring Richard Kiel as Jaws and Harold Sakata as Oddjob.

The only James Bond actor to ever win an Academy Award (to date) for acting is Sean Connery, who won Best Supporting Actor for The Untouchables. He began his speech: “Good evening, ladies and gentlemen…friends… a few enemies.”

Another Bond actor, Roger Moore, played a significant role in Oscar history. Presenting the Best Actor award alongside Liv Ullmann in 1973, the third actor to play 007 was supposed to give the statuette to Marlon Brando for The Godfather. Refusing the award, Brando sent Sacheen Littlefeather to deliver a speech, criticising Hollywood’s representation of Native Americans on-screen.

In his autobiography, Moore recounted that the rejected award wasn’t retrieved from him, so he took it home, crowds outside the Dorothy Chandler pavilion shouting congratulations as he carried the little gold man home. The Academy later sent a representative to pick up the prize.

To mark 50 years of the franchise, the 85th Academy Awards paid special tribute to the franchise, the year after the golden anniversary in 2013 (the year Skyfall was eligible for awards). Bond actor and Oscar winner Halle Berry introduced a montage of clips, while Shirley Bassey performed ‘Goldfinger’ and Adele sang ‘Skyfall’. BAFTA also commemorated the 60th anniversary of the series.

In 1982, EON co-founder and series originator Albert R. Broccoli was presented with the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, which honours creativity in producing, at the 54th Academy Awards. The same honour was bestowed on Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli at the 2025 ceremony, receiving an Oscar statuette rather than the traditional bust of Thalberg. The series was also celebrated with a medley of songs sung by Lisa (‘Live And Let Die’), Doja Cat (‘Diamonds Are Forever’), and Raye (‘Skyfall’). The sequence started with actor Margaret Qualley dancing to the James Bond Theme.