The history of kaiju films is a long and complicated one. Giant monsters have existed in films since the silent film era, but many of these early ones were Lost World type films featuring dinosaurs. The idea of kaiju, giant monsters, as we know them today, as these massive city destroying monsters, really began to arise in the 1950's.

Usually leaning towards big special effect blowouts, these films rarely tend to get nominated for Oscars except in technical categories. These are the kaiju films that were nominated for Oscars.