We had two films releasing this weekend with the potential for Oscar nominations.

Men in Black 3

When Men in Black opened 15 years ago, it was a box office hit. Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones played an odd couple battling aliens in the modern world as part of a secret, global organization designed specifically for that task. Not only did it capture the imaginations of millions of cinemagoers, it also earned attention from the Academy in the form of three Oscar nominations for Original Comedy/Musical Score, Art Direction and Makeup, winning the latter.

After the disastrous sequel in 2002, the franchise was put on indefinite hold. Not only did audiences seem unimpressed with the ill-advised attempt to recapture the magic of the original, the Academy utterly ignored the film. After ten more years, in an era of franchise rebirth, the third film in the franchise has finally seen the light of day. While critics and audiences haven’t supported Men in Black 3 nearly to the level of the 1997 original, its sharp incline from the second film has put it in a position to earn respect again from the Academy. Maybe.

The Academy’s music branch isn’t likely to recognize a derivative score. Although they gave the third Lord of the Rings film a nod for the score, they declared the second film’s music ineligible because it was too similar to the original (despite having plenty of notable differences). While they won’t necessarily declare Danny Elfman ineligible, I think the film will be lucky to pull out a nod in a year filled with potential box office successes competing for perhaps one spot frequently reserved for such. Art Direction and Costume Design might just be on the table this year. Not only do previews suggest the film recaptures the feel of the original, it does so in the Mad Men era, which could give a touch of originality to the film making the designers take notice. Makeup could also be in the offing again as could new considerations in Sound Mixing, Sound Editing and Visual Effects. I think the film could be an Art Direction nominee and possibly also receive either a Sound Mixing or Sound Editing nomination or, with the expansion to five nominees, a Visual Effects nominee. It’s too soon to tell, though, considering all of the potential blockbusters on deck through the Summer.

Moonrise Kingdom

So far, Wes Anderson has the biggest hit of his career on hand with Moonrise Kingdom (93%), a film which is currently scoring solid notices from critics slightly outperforming Fantastic Mr. Fox (92%) and Rushmore (80%) on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. On MetaCritics, however, which looks predominantly at print and major Internet voices, has the film performing slightly under Mr. Fox (83) and well behind Rushmore (86) with a score of 82. That’s a fairly significant statistic when you consider Anderson has done very poorly with the Oscars, having only seen two of his films nominated (The Royal Tenenbaums and Fantastic Mr. Fox).

With the Academy’s recent penchant for recognizing auteurs, Anderson could benefit greatly from the extra exposure, but even with it, I think the film is only likely to compete in Original Screenplay. Anderson’s style isn’t exactly friendly to mass appeal from Oscar voters, leading his movies to perform poorly there. Mr. Fox‘s two Oscar nominations Animated Feature and Original Score, may be a sign the Academy is warming to him, though being an animated film certainly helped (considering it was probably Anderson’s most accessible feature to date). His quirky style may be too much for the academy to give him an Oscar for Moonrise, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it held on long enough to score a screenwriting nomination.