Star Trek Nominated For Hugo Award

JJ Abrams 2009 Star Trek movie has picked up another award nomination, this time for a Hugo Award from the World Science Fiction Society. In addition Star Trek vet Brannon Braga picked up a nomination for his work on FlashForward. More details below.

 

Star Trek nominated for Hugo

Star Trek was nominated for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form. The for that category are:

  • Avatar Screenplay and Directed by James Cameron (Twentieth Century Fox)
  • District 9 Screenplay by Neill Blomkamp & Terri Tatchell; Directed by Neill Blomkamp (TriStar Pictures)
  • Moon Screenplay by Nathan Parker; Story by Duncan Jones; Directed by Duncan Jones (Liberty Films)
  • Star Trek Screenplay by Robert Orci & Alex Kurtzman; Directed by J.J. Abrams (Paramount)
  • Up Screenplay by Bob Peterson & Pete Docter; Story by Bob Peterson, Pete Docter, & Thomas McCarthy; Directed by Bob Peterson & Pete Docter (Disney/Pixar)

In addition, Star Trek veteran Brannon Braga is nominated in the Short Form category for the pilot episode of FlashForward.

A complete list of nominees for all the Hugos is available at thehugoawards.org

The winners will be announced at the World Science Fiction Convention in Melbourne, Australia in September.

Ninth time the charm?

It is no surprise that Star Trek was nominated for a Hugo. In fact all but two previous Trek feature films were nominated, with Star Trek V: The Final Frontier and Star Trek Nemesis being the exceptions. However, no previous Trek film has won a Hugo. Things have been better on the TV side as four previous Star Trek episodes won Hugos (TOS: "The Menagerie, Parts 1 & 2" and"City on the Edgoe of forever"; TNG: "The Inner Light" and "All Good Things"). Also, the original Star Trek won a special award in 1968.

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First! Congrats Team!

Congratulations Bob and Alex! That’s probably the best nomination yet, and much deserved!

Yay!Awesome-hope roberto n alex have a chance to win it-they did manage to revive the most beloved scifi franchise in america! best of luck mr orci prime

They nominated Avatar’s screenplay? what the…?

Oh, well. Congrats to all the nominees, especially the Trek team!

By the way, my money’s on District 9 winning.

Well done – and very well deserved! I haven’t seen District 9 or Moon yet (they’re in my Netflix queue), but Up wasn’t science fiction …

… come to think of it, Avatar wasn’t either …

Happy First Contact Day to all!!

Good luck Bob & Alex. That’s a tough group, especially ‘District 9’ and ‘Up.’ I mean it as a compliment when I say you should feel proud to be nominated in that company.

good job guys! well done

#4: No, the Hugo awards doesn’t have a screenplay category.

#6

“…but Up wasn’t science fiction…”

Yes it was. The movie featured two characters travelling to “lost world” to find a mythical creature. There were “universal translators” on dogs. There was discovery. The overall theme of the movie touched upon sci-fi.
Science fiction isn’t just about futurism, space battles or fancy costumes.

On the surface, “Up” is an animated movie. At it’s heart, its science fiction.

And it is a deserving nominee.

But I think the award will go to “Avatar”. Best Dramatic Presentation? I liked the film, but “Up”, “District 9” and “Star Trek” were better.
Long Form? Sure. “Avatar” was a much longer film than the others. So it should win that race. :-)

I have to agree with Charles.

I got a big kick out of Avatar, but the screenplay was utterly derivative of (anti-corporate, anti-white man westward expansion films/Insurrection), and left me feeling guilty for enjoying it. My kids, 9 & 7, loved it, but it could have been far, far more effective on an adult level as well. I think even an expanded back-story would add needed depth to the film.

I hope Star Trek wins the Hugo.

I think Moon is a good outside bet here…really well written. But then again, it was very 2001 so might be a downside there…

Good luck to Star Trek, but with the way the rest of the awards have been going I can see either Avatar winning (though I think it’s just a rip off of Ferngully) or Up.

I haven’t seen Moon yet, it’s coming this week from Netflix, but I’ve seen all the other nominees and I’d vote for District 9 over Star Trek or Avatar, both of which had weak stories. I like James Cameron’s films, but he often struggles with story, so Avatar was more or less what I expected from him. Star Trek was a big disappointment, however. I had hoped that Abrams really understood Trek and would respect the audience, but all we really got was a superficial summer action flick. It’s certainly not Hugo material.

I’d like to see Star Trek win, but, as I’ve expressed before, I think the film’s accomplishment of being a big hit, a critical and box office success, and a franchise resurrector are the best wins.
And I will be betting that the Supreme Court is gonna knock our socks off with the next film.

In my opinion I think Star Trek had a more original story than Avatar. To me Avatar screamed Pocahontas in space or Daces With Wolves on some alien planet instead of the American prairie. Sure JJ, Bob , and Alex used previously used plot devices and characters but used them in a way that had not been seen before on the big screen to create a new story. Star Trek was a good movie that most people seemed to really enjoy. It captured the excitement and spirit of the original series. The only people that seem to have a problem with it are star trek fans because it does not strictly follow canon or because of lens flares!

#15, My problem with Star Trek had little to do with it not following canon. I just don’t think it made any sense. There were too many random coincidences, too many arbitrary plot contrivances, too many characters behaving in random, unmotivated ways. Yes, I know the writers have “explained” the coincidences, but I don’t buy it. And yes, I hate the lens flares.

“City on the Edgoe of forever” — I must have missed that one. Did it have an Ed A. Poe treatment??

ST09 deserves a nomination (it’s kinda scifi-ish), but has no chance of winning.

District 9 clearly deserves this one.

#18: “it’s kinda scifi-ish”

Well put :)

“District 9 clearly deserves this one.”

It does. I think Up _also_ deserves this one … and I think Avatar and Moon at least have a respectable also-ran claim to it, but I’d be very happy if District 9 took it home.

Congrats to Brannon Braga
Its a nice feeling when the production is nominated for a HUGO isnt it?

Please MOON must win it!
It was the best sci-fi film of the year.

I just watched “Star Trek” again, last night.
No matter how many times I try to put myself in the shoes of someone who didn’t like this movie, or someone who has all sorts of criticisms of it… I come away from it feeling fulfilled, and satisfied every time. Shrug….

As for the city on the edge of forever its trek TOS season 1 must see and you will know why it won. The inner light yes! Both in a way are scifi tearjerkers great ones! With depth. I would give ST 11 for for a good story. The beginning is enough for a nomination. And trek is about time winning another hugo nemesis nominated final frontier? Nooooooo!

#23: “The beginning is enough for a nomination. ”

If there were a category for “Best Pre-Title Sequence,” absolutely, yes.

Worth noting that the wins for individual episodes – both of TOS and TNG – were particularly remarkable. As in those days, there was a single “Best Dramatic Presentation” Hugo, which traditionally went to a movie rather than a single TV episode. It wasn’t until 2003 that the category was split into Short Form (i.e. TV) and Long Form (i.e. Movie).

#4: The Hugo Award is for “Best Dramatic Presentation,” not screenplay. One should evaluate it the way you would the Best Picture Academy Award, not based solely on the screenplay.

#6: Note that the Hugo Award is explicitly defined as being for works of science fiction _and fantasy_, so even if _Up_ isn’t SF, it certainly is fantasy. It’s not possible to draw a bright-line distinction between SF and fantasy anyway.