The 77th Annual Academy Awards are over, but some of the people walking away with Oscars are no strangers to science-fiction.

Sure, the genre is not very popular with the Oscars -- "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" was the first fantasy film to ever win ... last year -- it seems that some who have science-fiction and fantasy on their resumes did pretty good.

Hillary Swank took the Best Actress award for her role in "Million Dollar Baby." While Swank has had a storied career, including an Oscar performance in 1999's "Boys Don't Cry," Swank was still an unknown when she was in the box office bomb "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" as Kimberly Hannah in 1992.

Morgan Freeman, who won Best Supporting Actor for his role in "Million Dollar Baby," is still staying involved with genre projects. He's plays Lucius Fox in this summer's "Batman Begins." He also had a guest role in the 1985 version of "The Twilight Zone," playing Marty in the episode "Dealer's Choice."

Cate Blanchett, who won for Best Supporting Actress in "The Aviator," is very popular with genre audiences for playing Galadriel in all three "The Lord of the Rings" movies.

Alexander Payne, one of the writers (and the director) of "Sideways," took home an Oscar for his writing work. But he also is known for writing "Jurassic Park III" with Jim Taylor, who also worked on "Sideways."

Francesca LoSciavo, the Oscar-winning art director for "The Aviator," previously worked as a set decorator for 1994's "Interview With a Vampire." Sandy Powell, the award-winning costume designer for "The Aviator," also did costumes for "Interview With a Vampire."

Bill Corso, who won an Oscar for his makeup work in "Lemony Snickett's A Series of Unfortunate Events," also did makeup work for 2001's "Planet of the Apes," 2001's "A.I.: Artificial Intelligence," 1999's "Galaxy Quest," and 1997's "Batman & Robin."

John Dykstra was part of the special effects team that won an Oscar for "Spider-Man 2." He also previously did special effects work for "Spider-Man" in 2002, "Batman & Robin," 1995's "Batman Forever," the 1978 television series "Battlestar Galactica" and 1977's "Star Wars." He also was involved with special effects filmography for "Galactica 1980" and 1979's "Star Trek: The Motion Picture."

Dykstra's "Spider-Man 2" team included Scott Stodyk, Anthony LaMolinara and John Frazier.

Stodyk's work includes "Spider-Man," "Godzilla" in 1998, and "Starship Troopers," "Contact," and "The Fifth Element," all in 1997.

LaMolinara did work for "Spider-Man," and Frazier counts "Spider-Man," 2000's "Space Cowboys," 1998's "Armageddon," 1995's "Waterworld" among his credits.

Brad Bird, who wrote and directed the Best Animated Feature "The Incredibles," also did some writing for the 1987 film "Batteries Not Included" as well as the 1980s series "Amazing Stories."

Background information provided by the Internet Movie Database.