Which Tolkien film became the first fantasy movie to win the Academy Award for Best Picture?

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King became the first fantasy movie to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.

Directed by Peter Jackson, The Return of the King was released in 2003 as the third film in his adaptation of Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. At the 76th Academy Awards in 2004, it won Best Picture along with all ten other categories in which it was nominated.

Its eleven Oscars included awards for directing, adapted screenplay, original score, original song, film editing, and visual effects. The result tied the record for most Oscars won by a single film, alongside Ben-Hur and Titanic at the time.

The film’s Best Picture win is sometimes described as the first for a fantasy film, although genre labels can be debated. Its sweep was nevertheless a landmark for large-scale fantasy cinema and for film adaptations of literary works.