51st Saturn Awards

The 51st Saturn Awards were presented by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films to honor the best in science fiction, fantasy, horror, and other genres belonging to genre fiction in film, television, and home entertainment.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

The change in the number of the awards name was introduced at the previous ceremony, which was renamed from "47th Saturn Awards" to "50th Saturn Awards" to celebrate 50 years of the Saturn Awards (founded in 1972); this change was also implemented for this edition of the awards.^[6] The ceremony was held on February 4, 2024, at Los Angeles Marriott Burbank Airport Hotel in Burbank, California, and was live-streamed for the second consecutive year on Electric Entertainment's OTT app and FAST channel ElectricNow.^[7] Joel McHale hosted the event for the second year in a row.^[7] This year's show was dedicated to the memory of actor and former Saturn Awards host Lance Reddick (1962–2023), and filmmaker and George Pal Memorial Award past recipient William Friedkin (1935–2023).^[7]

The nominations announcement and awards process was postponed in solidarity with the 2023 Hollywood labor disputes, which took place from May 2 to November 9.^[8] Ultimately, the nominees were revealed on December 6, 2023.^{[9][10][11][12][13]} The epic science fiction film Avatar: The Way of Water led the film nominations with twelve — two more than what the original received in 2010 — including Best Science Fiction Film and four acting nominations, followed by Oppenheimer with eleven.^[9][13][14]

The aforementioned second installment of the Avatar franchise won the most awards with four, including Best Science Fiction Film and Best Film Direction (James Cameron).^[1] For the television categories, Star Trek: Picard led the nominations with seven, for its third and final season, followed by Star Trek: Strange New Worlds with six.^[9] Overall for television, the Star Trek Universe series, all from Paramount+, received a total of 14 nominations across 3 different shows — Picard (7), Strange New Worlds (6), and Lower Decks (1) — a franchise record for the Saturn Awards for the television categories in a single year.^{[9][15][16][17][18]} The franchise went on to dominate at the ceremony, winning five awards (4 for Picard and 1 for Strange New Worlds), including Best Science Fiction Television Series for Picard.^{[1][2][3][19][20]}

This year's Saturn Awards eligibility period for television was from July 2022 through July 2023 while film was extended to September 2023.^[21]