OK, the title of this blog post is somewhat misleading because there are only nine science fiction films from the 1950s and 1960s that won an Academy Award for Special Effects. Here they are listed by year. Each of these is a worthy winner of the award.

1. Destination Moon (1950) – Arguably, the first realistic movie about space travel. Wealthy industrialists construct a rocket capable of reaching the moon. The four-man crew, with color-coded space suits, reach the moon but use up too much fuel during landing. It looks like one of the crew will be forced to sacrifice himself to save weight, but a clever idea saves the day. Boring to some but thrilling to me. Produced by George Pal, who also produced numbers 2, 3, and 5 on this list. My grade = A-.

2. When Worlds Collide (1951) – A planet-killer rogue star is on a collision course with Earth. The only solution: build a space ark for 45 people to travel to a hopefully-inhabitable planet Zyra that is being dragged along by the star, so that the human race can survive. The plan succeeds. My grade = A-.

3. The War of the Worlds (1953) – Martians invade Earth and it looks like nothing can stop them as they systematically exterminate humanity. In the end, the Martians are susceptible to bacteria and Earth is saved. I prefer this version to the rather depressing 2005 remake. My grade = A-.

4. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954) – In the late 1860s, brilliant but deranged Captain Nemo has built an atomic submarine Nautilus. He wants to end war by destroying the ability of countries to wage war. A volcanic eruption on Nemo’s secret island base destroys the submarine and kills Nemo. The submarine was the true star of this movie. My grade = A-.

5. The Time Machine (1960) – In the late 1890s, inventor George Wells creates a time machine. He accidentally goes 800,000 years into the future where he finds humans have evolved into two species: the attractive, docile, clueless Eloi, and the brutish Morlocks who breed the Eloi for food. Yuck. George finds love with Weena and saves the day. My grade = B+.

6. Thunderball (1965) – This James Bond film, the fourth in the series, is only borderline science fiction, but close enough for this list. The evil SPECTRE organization steals two atomic bombs from a hijacked British Vulcan bomber (one of the most beautiful large planes to ever fly). Bond discovers the Vulcan and its bombs are being hidden underwater in the Caribbean. My grade = A-.

7. Fantastic Voyage (1966) – A cranial blot clot incapacitates a scientist who has learned how to miniaturize people and things. A team of four men and a woman, along with the jet-pump powered submarine Proteus, use his technology and are shrunk and injected into the scientist. They only have one hour to zap the clot with a laser before they will return to normal size, and one of the crew is an enemy agent. A very exciting, happy ending. My grade = A-.

8. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) – I’ve never really understood the plot of this film. There are mysterious monoliths, HAL the crazy computer, psychedelic lights, and a giant fetus floating in space. I suspect most movie critics who praise this film only do so because they don’t want to be accused of not understanding it. My grade = C-.

9. Marooned (1969) – Three astronauts on a space station try to return to Earth but their spacecraft malfunctions and they’re trapped and are running out of oxygen. A hurricane complicates a rescue attempt. One of the three crew sacrifices himself to save oxygen. The two remaining astronauts are rescued, with the help of a Soviet capsule. I just didn’t like the negative tone of this move, which sort of reflected the pessimism and cynicism of the country during the Vietnam War. My grade = C.

Honorable Mention

The 1956 film The Ten Commandments deservedly won the Academy Award for Special Effects. However, that same year, Forbidden Planet was released and would have won the award in any other year in the 1950s and most of the 1960s. The crew of the C-57D travel to planet Altair IV to determine what happened to an expedition that landed there 20 years before. The crew find only two survivors — Dr. Morbius and his daughter Altaira. The former inhabitants of the planet, the alien Krell race, created a machine that could create matter from thought but it caused their extermination. My grade = solid A.