May the 4th Celebration: Exploring the Galaxy 2025

George Lucas returned to the director’s chair for the first time in 22 years to helm this epic adventure that restarted the globally popular series he began in 1977 with Star Wars. Star Wars: Episode I tells the tale of how Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) and young Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) first met the child who would grow up to become the fearsome Darth Vader. Lucas took full advantage of the groundbreaking filmmaking techniques his companies helped pioneer, and the film received Oscar nominations for its visual effects, sound, and sound effects editing. Its impressive creative contributions include Trisha Biggar’s imaginative costumes and John Williams’s score, which builds on the composer’s classic Star Wars themes with new material such as the thrilling “Duel Of The Fates.”

Luke Skywalker’s destruction of the Death Star at the end of the original Star Wars managed only to slow down Darth Vader’s plans for galactic domination. The young Jedi trainee and his new friends in the Rebellion face greater challenges in The Empire Strikes Back, and Luke learns a shocking secret about his lineage. One of the darkest of all the Star Wars films, as well as one of the most beloved, it won Oscars for its sound and visual effects. It was nominated for its art direction and John Williams’s score, which introduced Darth Vader’s classic theme “The Imperial March.”

The concluding chapter in the third Star Wars trilogy has Rey (Daisy Ridley) coping with the loss of her Jedi mentor as she faces an unexpected nemesis from the Empire’s past. J.J. Abrams (The Force Awakens) directed and cowrote this nonstop intergalactic thrill ride, which received nominations for its original score (John Williams), sound editing (Matthew Wood, David Acord), and visual effects (Roger Guyett, Neal Scanlan, Patrick Tubach, Dominic Tuohy).