Three films from the original Star Wars trilogy have won Academy Awards: Star Wars (1977), The Empire Strikes Back (1980), and Return of the Jedi (1983). Their combined total is ten wins. A later franchise film, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), also won an Oscar, which makes four Star Wars films with at least one win.
The winning films and their totals
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences records the following wins for the original trilogy. The totals include Special Achievement Awards, so they are not all standard competitive-category wins.
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| Film | Release year | Academy ceremony | Wins | What it won |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Star Wars | 1977 | 50th ceremony, 1978 | 7 | Art Direction, Costume Design, Film Editing, Original Score, Sound, Visual Effects, and a Special Achievement Award for sound effects editing (Ben Burtt) |
| The Empire Strikes Back | 1980 | 53rd ceremony, 1981 | 2 | Sound, and a Special Achievement Award for Visual Effects |
| Return of the Jedi | 1983 | 56th ceremony, 1984 | 1 | A Special Achievement Award for Visual Effects |
| Rogue One: A Star Wars Story | 2016 | 89th ceremony, 2017 | 1 | Visual Effects |
Why the release year and the ceremony year differ
The Academy’s ceremony pages describe the films they honor by release year. The page for the first film reads “Honoring movies released in 1977.” The ceremony that handed out the award took place in 1978, so the same film appears under two different years depending on whether you use release or ceremony. When you cite a win, give both years so readers can find the record quickly.
Competitive categories and Special Achievement Awards
Most of the wins above are straightforward category awards, but some are not. Read the win column with these distinctions in mind:
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- The Skywalker saga’s center trilogy introduces Luke Skywalker, who is drawn into the rebellion against the evil Galactic Empire when he is recruited by Obi-Wan Kenobi. Strong in the Force, Luke is confronted with a shocking truth — while Sith Lord Darth Vader faces a supreme decision.
- Competitive category wins: Art Direction, Costume Design, Film Editing, Original Score, and Sound for Star Wars; Sound for The Empire Strikes Back; Visual Effects for Rogue One.
- Special Achievement Awards: the sound effects award to Ben Burtt for Star Wars, and the Visual Effects special awards for The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.
Return of the Jedi’s only win is a Special Achievement Award, which means its record is one special award rather than a competitive category win.
Nominations are not wins
A nomination in the Academy’s records does not count as a win. Star Wars: The Force Awakens is a useful example: the Academy’s 2016 ceremony record lists it among nominees, including Original Score and Visual Effects, but no win for the film. If you are writing about nominations, list them separately from the win totals.
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What the list covers
This list covers the Academy’s records for the films named above, and it describes wins for those films only. For the other feature films in the franchise, check the Academy’s official awards database for each title and each ceremony year before saying that a film has no win. Academy records can also be corrected, so treat the official database as the final reference when a count is disputed.
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