‘Godzilla Minus One’ Crew Wore Incredible, Godzilla-Themed Shoes to the Oscars

The Oscar-winning visual effects team behind last winter’s surprise blockbuster Godzilla Minus One wore some very cool, themed shoes to accept their trophies on Sunday night.

If you watched the telecast, you probably noticed that director and visual effects lead Takashi Yamazaki and his team of artists—Masaki Takahashi, Kiyoko Shibuya, and Tatsuji Nojima—carried a variety of props, including Godzilla action figures, to the stage when their names were called out. Less visible was their choice of footwear, which was terrifically on-brand.

Each wore black dress shoes featuring a recreation of the iconic monster’s claw wrapping around their heel. The claws are crafted from a shiny, silver material that contrasts brilliantly with the footwear’s matte black color. The way they’re constructed, the shoes look almost as if the person wearing them is a shiny trophy being held by Godzilla himself.

The ‘GODZILLA MINUS ONE’ team are wearing Godzilla-themed shoes for today’s #Oscar red carpet. pic.twitter.com/ou4XUCAtET

— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) March 10, 2024

Though many eagle-eyed viewers caught the shoes on Sunday night’s red carpet, the team has actually trotted out the look before to some success. In January, Yamazaki and his crew wore the shoes to the Critics Choice Awards, where the film was nominated for four trophies including Best Science Fiction/Fantasy Movie.

Godzilla Minus One is the first installment to be nominated for an Oscar, let alone win one, in the franchise’s 70-year history. Minus One is the 37th Godzilla film, and one of the best-reviewed to date. It was particularly heralded for its incredibly convincing visual effects, which were produced on a shoestring budget by a team of only 35 artists.

The production was so small-scale that the crew did not even have hydraulics in place, creating complicated scenes on airplanes or boats simply by shaking the vessels to simulate movement.

The movie clearly earned a great deal of respect from its industry peers, prevailing over major blockbusters like Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3 and the latest Mission: Impossible offering to win its category. Even Steven Spielberg can’t get enough of Godzilla’s latest terror campaign.

Godzilla Minus One takes place near the end of World War II and uses the famous green meany to tell a fairly nuanced story about intergenerational trauma and nuclear holocaust. It’s currently the highest-grossing Japanese film of all time in North America; it falls just behind Oscar-favorites Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Life Is Beautiful on the all-time list of highest-grossing international releases in the States.