The Academy has long resisted fully venerating any of the versions of A Star Is Born. The original 1937 film may have earned nominations for directing and acting, but it only received a win for Best Original Story. While the 1954 remake saw its stars, Judy Garland and James Mason, both nominated for acting, it failed to win even one award. The 1976 reboot, starring Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson, was snubbed in all major categories, taking home only Best Original Song, for “Evergreen.” And the most recent incarnation, starring Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper, attracted eight nominations but suffered a similar fate to the 1976 film, snatching the same single statuette, for the song “Shallow.”
In A Star Is Reborn: The Most Filmed Hollywood Story of Love Found and Lost, film journalist Robert Hofler chronicles the discomfort Hollywood has always had with A Star Is Born. “It’s an attack,” he explains, “and just one of the reasons Academy voters have never fully embraced any version of the film.” Audiences, however, have remained enraptured by its enduring story, in which one man’s public (and private) persona crumbles as one woman’s own star rises.
