Sci-fi may not fare well at the Oscars, outside of a few technical awards now and again, but at this point, do any of us really put much stock in what the Academy thinks? Almost none of my favorite films from 2014 were nominated for much of anything in any of the usual glut of self-congratulatory awards shows, but one that is always more in line with our general aesthetic are the Saturn Awards, and now the nominees for this year have been released.

As the Academy of Science Fiction Fantasy, and Horror Films chooses the nominees and winners, you can imagine they’re a wee bit different than the more mainstream celebrations, and the list for the 41st Annual Saturn Awards is no different. You’ve got big blockbuster comic book movies like Guardians of the Galaxy and Captain America: The Winter Soldier right up there along with independent horror, like The Babadook and The Guest. We’re talking about awards that honor movies like Lucy and Snowpiercer and Paddington, you know it’s a different sort of animal.

Anytime the Academy Awards rolls around, there’s usually an outcry from fans that not enough genre films are recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Luckily, this year the movie that has the most nominations is Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity, but even if the Academy doesn’t give science fiction the respect it deserves, there are several long-standing and prestigious awards focused specifically on honoring genre material. Last night we posted the Nebula Award nominations, and now the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films has announced its nominees for the 40th annual Saturn Awards.

Unsurprisingly, Gravity is a front-runner for the Saturns as well, earning eight nominations including Best Science Fiction Film, Best Actress for Sandra Bullock, Best Supporting Actor for George Clooney, and Best Director for Alfonso Cuarón. Gravity is tied with The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug for the most nominations. Some of the other nominees for Best Science Fiction Film are Ender’s Game, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Pacific Rim, Riddick, and Star Trek Into Darkness.

At the end of every awards season, there seems to be a sentiment echoed throughout all of science fiction, fantasy, and horror: “Why doesn’t the Academy of Arts & Sciences give genre movies the recognition they desereve?” Although there are some exceptions for directors such as Christopher Nolan, Peter Jackson, and Neill Blomkamp, overall genre movies fail to be awarded any prestige.

There’s a good thing the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films take the time to highlight the very best the genres have to offer. The winners of the 38th Annual Saturn Awards have been announced, with Joss Whedon and The Avengers receiving four of the awards.

Marvel’s The Avengers won the Best Science Fiction Film Award, beating out the Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer’s Cloud Atlas, Ridley Scott’s Prometheus, Chronicle, Looper, and The Hunger Games. Joss Whedon also received the Best Director award for his work on the aforementioned Avengers.

Richard Matheson had been writing and scaring the shit out of people since the early 1950s, and even though his work in his later years wasn’t nearly as memorable within the sci-fi and horror culture, his most classic works still stand heads above 90% of the claptrap out there. As well, his simplistic form of prose is accessible to just about everyone. I Am Legend and Hell House are two frightening books whose cinematic adaptations couldn’t compare to the emotions Matheson’s words provoked, though his Twilight Zone episodes are almost all classics.

So why is it that Matheson’s lengthy career has never inspired the genre-friendly Saturn Awards to present the writer with their honorary Visionary Award? That may never be known, but at least the Academy of Science Fiction, Horror & Fantasy Films is trying to recognize their past failures by awarding him with the honor at the Awards’ 39th annual celebration on June 26. Unfortunately, Matheson passed away Monday, June 24, at the age of 87, so the honor is a posthumously presented one. Dammit, Saturn Awards, why couldn’t you have done this in any of the past 39 years, seeing as how Matheson was pretty much eligible the entire time?

It’s awards season! Every year, the Academy of Arts and Sciences honors the very best in film and movie production. But every year, it seems like genre films get shut out of the conversation when it comes to naming the best movies of the year. Luckily, the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films takes the time to honor the very best in their respective genres. The 38th Annual Saturn Nominations were announced, and it looks like the Wachowskis and Marvel are at the top of the science fiction genre category with five nominations for Cloud Atlas and six for The Avengers.

Rounding out the science fiction genre category were Rian Johnson’s Looper, The Hunger Games, and the Alien prequel, Prometheus. The Saturn Awards also honored indie science fiction films including Robot & Frank, Safety Not Guaranteed, and the apocalyptic romantic comedy Seeking a Friend for the End of the World. Joseph Gordon-Levitt was nominated for Best Actor for his performance in Looper, and Jennifer Lawrence was nominated for Best Actress for her role in The Hunger Games.

Rian Johnson received a nomination for directing Looper, while Joss Whedon was nominated twice, for directing The Avengers and co-writing The Cabin in the Woods with director Drew Goddard. It’s good to see movies like Battleship and John Carter get some recognition for visual and special effects, no doubt the only reason to honor those films.

The winners of the 35th Annual Saturn Awards were announced tonight and as it should have, The Dark Knight won big with 5 awards.

The Saturns are the alternative awards for genre entertainment which is, almost reflexively, overlooked by other awards like the Oscars. They’re the place to go if you want your awards ceremonies hosted by Leonard Nimoy. Here’s the full list of this year’s Saturn Award winners:

Best Science Fiction Film: Iron Man
Best Fantasy Film: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Best Horror Film: Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Best Action/Adventure/Thriller Film: The Dark Knight
Best Actor: Robert Downey, Jr. (Iron Man)
Best Actress: Angelina Jolie (Changeling)
Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight)
Best Supporting Actress: Tilda Swinton (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button)
Best Performance by a Younger Actor: Jaden Christopher Smith (The Day the Earth Stood Still)
Best Director: Jon Favreau (Iron Man)
Best Writer: Christopher Nolan and Jonathan Nolan (The Dark Knight)
Best Music: Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard (The Dark Knight)
Best Costume: Mary Zophres (Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull)
Best Make-Up: Greg Cannom (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button)
Best Special Effects: Nick Davis, Chris Corbould, Timothy Webber, Paul J. Franklin (The Dark Knight)
Best International Film: Let the Right One In
Best Animated Film: Wall-E
Best Television Series: Lost
Best Syndicated/Cable Television Series: Battlestar Galactica
Best Presentation on Television: The Librarian: The Curse of the Judas Chalice
Best Actor on Television: Edward James Olmos (Battlestar Galactica)
Best Actress on Television: Mary McDonnell (Battlestar Galactica)
Best Supporting Actor on Television: Adrian Pasdar (Heroes)
Best Supporting Actress on Televison: Jennifer Carpenter (Dexter)
Guest Starring Role on Television: Jimmy Smits (Dexter)
Best DVD Release: Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer
Best DVD Special Edition Release: Stephen King’s The Mist (2 disc Special Edition)
Best DVD Classic Film Release: Psycho (Universal Legacy Series)
Best DVD Collection: The Godfather-The Coppola Restoration
Best Series on DVD: Moonlight
Best Retro Series on DVD: The Invaders
The Life Career Award: Lance Henriksen
The Lifetime Achievement Award: Leonard Nimoy
The Visionary Award: Jeffrey Katzenberg