Just listened to a podcast about examples where it could be argued that the wrong movie won best picture in whatever year. For example, Saving Private Ryan losing to Shakespeare in Love in1999. I understand that it is all subjective and whichever film wins, someone will be upset. But in your opinion, what are some other, even more glaring examples?
by tron329
21 Comments
Most of the Star Wars movies.
None. Art is subjective. There’s no best
It’s a much, much shorter list to list the times the Oscars got it right.
Pulp Fiction losing to Forrest Gump. Just tragic.
LEGO Movie not getting nominated for Best Animated because of arbitrary rules about including live action scenes
That was an animated movie
so I love Shakespeare in Love and it was the nineties and I wasn’t surprised it won bc war wasn’t a popular subject back then plus SPR didn’t lobby has hard as SiL did
if Annie Hall can beat Star Wars then SiL can beat SPR and idec
The 90s were really bad for this, so pick basically anything from that decade. A lot of winners haven’t stood the test of time nearly as well as their competitors, imo.
Goodfellas losing to Dances with Wolves, Pulp Fiction losing to Gump, Fargo losing to English Patient, Green Mile and Sixth Sense both losing to American Beauty, literally anything else losing to Shakespeare in Love…
I dont get what the Academy was thinking in the 90s.
But my personal pick is Lion in Winter losing to Oliver! In 68.
I genuinely think most people who complain about Shakespeare in Love winning haven’t seen it.
That year Oscar voters were asked to pick between four very depressing movies and one fun movie. A plurality chose the fun movie.
Obligatory Oscars suck to preface but Crash is not only one of the worst films to win Best Picture but also possibly the worst to ever be nominated. 13 year old me clocked how pretentious it was.
For best actor/actress: Both Michael Fassbender (Shame) and Kristin Dunst (Melancholia) in 2011-2012 gave two of the best performances I’ve seen in film and didn’t even get noms.
2012 was the year everyone was obsessed with The Artist, a film thats rarely discussed more than a decade later…
IMHO *only*, Johnny Depp should have gotten the Oscar for the creation of Captain Jack Sparrow, even though Sean Penn did a fine job in Mystic River.
I would argue Depp’s performance showed incredible imagination, took bold risks, and was hugely influential for at least the next decade.
I think Darren Aronofsky’s insistence on stomping on our tender hearts over and over (his personal soul emptying nihilistic depression sub genre) I think that might have cost Mickey Rourke the Oscar recognition he deserved in Wrestler. As for all the Best Director nominations that Chris Nolan never even received, or Hans Zimmer’s priceless Interstellar score… I just have no idea
Sheryl Lee should have gotten a best actress nomination for Fire Walk with Me
Highlander (1986)
I don’t think any Academy voter can truly understand how challenging the role of Yu Shu Lien was. Michellle Yeoh’s acomplished a near-flawless martial arts choreography, AND had to act convincingly in a language she was not fluent in.
Fellowship of the Ring losing Best Picture to A Beautiful Mind and Two Towers losing to fucking Chicago
Citizen Kane lost to John Ford’s How Green Was My Valley. You ever watch How Green Was My Valley? Me neither…
Mad Max: Fury Road/George Miller losing Best Director to the Revenant/Alejando Inarritu.
If acting Oscars count, I’m still pissed off that Gyllenhaal was never nominated for “Nightcrawler”.
I think you meant to say The Thin Red Line
Fury Road was way better than Spotlight (2015).
Beasts of the Southern Wild was way better than Argo (2012).
One of the biggest misses in my book was 1997 – Best Actor in a Leading Role. Jack Nicholson won (As Good as It Gets), snubbing both Matt Damon (Good Will Hunting) and Dustin Hoffman (Wag the Dog).
I was really surprised when I found out Shakespeare in Love got best picture. I watched it and thought “that was pretty good, solid 7.5/10,” then I heard “it was best picture that year” and I’m like “how? It’s a DECENT movie, but not ‘best picture.'”
I can’t think of specific examples, but I know a lot of animated movies get snubbed for best animated film “because they aren’t Disney/Dreamworks.” It’s not so much that the Disney/Dreamworks movie that year was bad, but the movie that won wasn’t better than the indie movies or movies from a “lesser studio.”
I remember how Leonardo DiCaprio was snubbed best actor 3 years in a row. The Wolf of Wallstreet was great, Django Unchained was phenomenal, and The Revenant was the best acting I had seen in a long while, but he kept losing.
Ask one of my good friends, it’s the original (real) Beauty and the Beast.
Slightly off topic, but the 2014 best picture line up was REALLY close if you ask me. I do agree that Birdman was the best of the nominees, but Boyhood, The Grand Budapest Hotel, and The Imitation Game were also amazing.