The 25 Biggest Academy Award Fails

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In Hollywood, slapping Academy Award-Winning actor, writer, or director on your resume is a surefire way to raise your profile and fatten up your paycheck. But the movie biz is also littered with stories of talented individuals who the Academy denied much to the shock of their peers (but not to those who understand the political machinations behind the scenes). These upsets happen almost every year, and oftentimes they haunt someone for the rest of their careers.

Some of these snubs and shocking losses have become legendary over the years, and they are still the subject of great debate amongst film fans everywhere. So before you go rooting for your favorite movies when the 84th Annual Academy Awards air this Sunday, take a look at The 25 Biggest Academy Award Fails to get an idea that, no matter how deserving you think your faves are, nothing is promised.

Written by Jason Serafino (@Serafinoj1)

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Edward Norton

25. EDWARD NORTON LOSING TO ROBERTO BENIGNI FOR BEST ACTOR IN 1998

Not many performances in the history of the movie industry have been as brutal and spectacular as Edward Norton’s in American History X. In the film, Norton played a violent white supremacist who was just as unhinged as he was complex. It was a performance that made the movie a success and is so haunting that it sticks in the mind of anyone who sees the film.

As tremendous as he was, Norton lost the Best Actor award that year to Roberto Benigni, who played Guido Orefice in Life Is Beautiful. Benigni’s performance, as a father creating a light-hearted fantasy world for his child to shield them from the horrors of internment in a Nazi concentration camp, was certainly impressive but the slapstick qualities of the film underline a gripe that many have with the Oscars, that darker, more disturbing fare is frowned upon.

Gary Oldman

24. GARY OLDMAN NEVER WINNING FOR BEST ACTOR

How Gary Oldman has never won an Oscar for Best Actor is simply astonishing. Over the past three decades the man has been in more quality films than almost anyone in Hollywood, and his performances in The Professional, Dracula, Sid And Nancy, The Dark Knight, and countless others have been utterly superb.

In fact, the Academy has been so unfair to Oldman that he has only been nominated for Best Actor just once, for this year’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. We can’t see anyone else walking away with the gold, but then again we all know how much the Academy loves George Clooney.

Andy Serkis

23. ANDY SERKIS GETTING SNUBBED FOR BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

The last great barrier to be broken in Hollywood is that of the motion-capture actor. In recent years, talented actors have provided the movements, facial expressions, and voice work for some of the best CGI characters of all time, yet they never get fully recognized for their work. This is no more evident than with Andy Serkis, who did the mo-cap work for Gollum from the Lord of the Rings trilogy, King Kong, and Caesar in Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

Serkis himself is not physically on the screen, but his presence is felt in every shot. He gave these digital characters more life than most of the actors who wind up winning the awards, and even something as small as a nomination would go a long way towards validating his efforts.

Memento

22. MEMENTO NOT GETTING A BEST PICTURE NOD IN 2001

Christopher Nolan’s career is a bit young to start clamoring for him to have multiple Best Director awards at this point, but his breakthrough film—and still his finest—Memento, should have at least been nominated for Best Picture in 2001. With films like A Beautiful Mind and Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring being nominated that year, it would have been a Herculean task for it to actually win the award, but it would have made a bold statement for this indie gem to at least be invited to the dance.

Chicago Winning For Best Picture

21. CHICAGO WINNING FOR BEST PICTURE IN 2002

The Academy has a history of awarding tepid musicals with the Best Picture honor dating back to the days of My Fair Lady and Oliver!, so it shouldn’t have come as a huge shock that Chicago walked away with the award in 2002. But what did leave a bad taste in the mouths of cinephiles everywhere is that it beat out three much more deserving films: The Pianist, Gangs of New York, and Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.

Any one of these movies easily could have trumped Chicago, but for some reason the Academy can’t get enough of cheesy Hollywood musicals. It makes sense that The Two Towers didn’t get the award because the Academy gave just about everything to Return of the King the next year, but either The Pianist or Gangs of New York would have made a fine substitute.

Do The Right Thing Snub

20. DO THE RIGHT THING GETTING SNUBBED FOR BEST PICTURE AND DIRECTOR IN 1989

Whether or not Spike Lee deserved to win the Best Director or Best Picture awards for 1989’s Do the Right Thing depends on your personal taste, but the fact that he wasn’t even nominated is downright criminal. Dealing with the racial tensions at the time, Do the Right Thing is a brilliant film that blended comedy and drama into one thought-provoking package. But somehow, Driving Miss Daisy won the award for Best Picture and Oliver Stone won for directing Born on the Fourth of July.

Stone’s win is pretty understandable, but there is no way that Driving Miss Daisy comes close to being as important as Do the Right Thing. It might not have been the most commercially accessible movie of the year, but for Do the Right Thing to not even be nominated for either award just makes us scratch our heads.

Million Dollar Baby

19. MILLION DOLLAR BABY DOMINATING THE 77TH ACADEMY AWARDS

It’s no secret that Hollywood and the Academy love Clint Eastwood. Over the years it seems like whatever movie he puts out gets plenty of love from the awards show no matter if it’s actually any good or not. The latest example of this was 2004's Million Dollar Baby. The movie won for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, and Best Supporting Actor, but when you really dig deep, the film didn’t deserve quite that much praise.

It’s not that Million Dollar Baby was a bad movie, far from it, but when compared to Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator, it falls short. Eastwood’s movie was a good piece of cinema, but it wasn’t anything we haven’t seen before. Whether it was for Best Director or Best Picture, we think The Aviator should have brought home some gold.

And in the Best Actress category, we’re not buying the fact that Hillary Swank won over Kate Winslet in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Swank was certainly great in Million Dollar Baby, but Winslet’s performance in Eternal Sunshine is one of the great female roles in recent memory. You do the math.

The King's Speech Beating The Social Network

18. THE SOCIAL NETWORK LOSING TO THE KING'S SPEECH FOR BEST PICTURE IN 2010

When The King’s Speech was released in 2010, it hit all of the right notes to win for Best Picture. It was slick looking, featured someone overcoming obstacles in dramatic fashion, and had plenty of British accents—and we all know how much the Academy loves those. There was only one problem with it winning the award: The Social Network was much better.

David Fincher’s unflinching look at the journey of Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg was brilliantly shot and acted with enough real human emotion to propel it over the sometimes-sterile King’s Speech. Think of it as Wall Street for the digital age. Unfortunately, the Academy didn’t agree and went with the far safer film for Best Picture. There is a reason why movies like The King’s Speech are called “Oscar bait.”

The English Patient

17. THE ENGLISH PATIENT WINNING NINE OSCARS AT THE 69TH ACADEMY AWARDS

The English Patient swept through Hollywood like a hurricane of sentimentality and sappy love scenes in 1996. It stole the hearts of romantics across the country and made even the most jaded film critics expound lovingly about this tearjerker. So when the nominations were announced for that year’s Academy Awards it came as no surprise that the movie was up for 12 awards. What was surprising, though, was that it walked away with a staggering nine little gold men.

Most notably, the film won for Best Picture and a Best Director award for Anthony Minghella. Despite the movie’s charming ways, there is no way we can condone it winning for Best Picture over Fargo and Secrets & Lies. The same goes for Minghella going over Joel Cohen for Fargo in the Best Director category.

Pacino Over Denzel

16. DENZEL WASHINGTON LOSING TO AL PACINO FOR BEST ACTOR IN 1992

Up until the 65th Academy Awards took place, Al Pacino was seen as the man who had been robbed repeatedly by the show. His roles in The Godfather Parts I and II, Serpico, and Dog Day Afternoon were all nominated for the Best Actor award, but he was somehow always passed over. Then, when he was nominated for 1992’s Scent of a Woman, it looked like the same thing would happen again as he was going up against Denzel Washington’s stellar performance in Malcolm X.

Then a funny thing happened: Pacino actually won. But ironically enough, this was the one time when we felt that he shouldn’t have. Washington’s performance as the militant human rights activist was full of rage and real emotion; in short, it was everything that this award is meant to represent. Pacino’s performance as the blind Lt. Col. Frank Slade, on the other hand, was just a bunch of “Hoo-Ah.”

Forrest Gump beating Pulp fiction

15. PULP FICTION LOSING TO FORREST GUMP FOR BEST PICTURE IN 1994

Forrest Gump’s place in film history is secure. It was sentimental and hilarious, with great direction by Robert Zemeckis and a classic performance by Tom Hanks. That being said, we still think that Pulp Fiction should have edged it out for Best Picture in 1994.

Tarantino’s masterpiece broke all of the rules with its inventive storytelling style, shocking vulgarity, and off-beat characters. In retrospect, it might have been a little too far off the beaten path to capture the minds of the oftentimes conservative views of the Academy, but that doesn’t make us hate this decision any less.

Ordinary People Beating Out Raging Bull

14. RAGING BULL LOSING TO ORDINARY PEOPLE FOR BEST PICTURE IN 1980

This was a heavyweight fight in every sense. In one corner there was Raging Bull, a hard-hitting sports biopic about the tragic boxer Jake LaMotta. It was too violent and vulgar to some, but it has since become recognized as Martin Scorsese’s magnum opus and a classic of American cinema. In the other corner there was Ordinary People, a critically acclaimed family drama starring Mary Tyler Moore and Donald Sutherland. It was also the directorial debut of screen icon Robert Redford.

In what can be viewed as one of the bigger upsets in the show’s history, Ordinary People came away with the win, despite Raging Bull’s acclaim both domestically and abroad. To this day the choice for Ordinary People is still confusing. Sure, it is a good, borderline great, film, but Raging Bull was experimental and daring, filled with tragic performances and raw emotion. It felt like the more important movie at the time, and still does. Compared to that, Ordinary People shouldn't have stood a puncher's chance.

Sidney Lumet

13. SIDNEY LUMET NEVER WINNING FOR BEST DIRECTOR

Sidney Lumet had one of the most low-profile high-profile careers in Hollywood history. His movies were always among the best of the year, yet he was always overshadowed by more boisterous filmmakers, even though he was arguably more talented than them. His inability to secure a Best Director award only added to this image. He was nominated for his directing work on 12 Angry Men, Dog Day Afternoon, Network, and The Verdict, but never won a single time.

These are some of the best movies of all time, and somehow he always slipped through the cracks of the awards show. Of course these snubs don’t devalue the quality of the movies themselves, but they always leave a sour taste in our mouths.

Kramer vs Kramer Beating Apocalypse Now

12. APOCALYPSE NOW LOSING TO KRAMER VS. KRAMER FOR BEST PICTURE IN 1979

By all standards, Kramer vs. Kramer is a great movie, and proved to be one of the best courtroom dramas ever put on screen. In most other years it would be a clear frontrunner for Best Picture; however, it just doesn’t compare to Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now.

Kramer vs. Kramer lacked the distinctive vision and complex themes of Apocalypse Now, which is still one of the best war movies of all time. Coppola’s graphic take on Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness was no doubt difficult for some members of the Academy to swallow, but that’s no reason to deprive it of the award that it so rightfully deserved.

Clockwork Orange Not Winning A Single Award

11. A CLOCKWORK ORANGE NOT WINNING A SINGLE AWARD AT THE 44TH ACADEMY AWARDS

When Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange was released in 1971, it pounded audiences into submission with an unrelenting barrage of raw sexuality, violence, vulgarity, and torture. Kubrick’s daring directing style made it one of the most visceral films in the history of modern cinema, and Malcolm McDowell’s performance as Alex is still one of the most memorable of all time.

However, not only did Clockwork lose in all four Academy Award categories for which it was nominated (Director, Picture, Editing, and Screenplay), but furthermore, McDowell wasn’t even lucky enough to get a nod. Instead, it was beat in every category by William Friedkin’s The French Connection.

Both films are classics, but for Clockwork to lose to The French Connection in all four categories, and for McDowell to not even be nominated, is a crime. Unfortunately, The French Connection is a much safer film, and the Academy probably didn’t want to give the Best Picture award to a film with multiple rape scenes.

Alfred Hitchcock

10. ALFRED HITCHCOCK NEVER WINNING FOR BEST DIRECTOR

There is no doubting Alfred Hitchcock’s contribution to cinema. He was the master of suspense, and his visual style is still an influence to almost every director working today. Unfortunately, the Academy didn’t think Hitchcock was ever worthy of a Best Director award during his career.

Understandably, Hitchcock's work on Rebecca lost in 1940 to John Ford’s direction of The Grapes of Wrath, and then in 1954 he ran into the buzz saw that was Eliza Kazan’s On The Waterfront. But in 1960, the stars were seemingly aligned for Hitchcock to win for his work on Psycho.

But, as the Academy had done in the past, Hitchcock was looked over in favor of Billy Wilder’s direction on The Apartment. That’s right, Hitchcock's directing on Psycho, the movie that revolutionized the way horror and suspense are shot, lost to a comedy starring Jack Lemon. Worse yet, Psycho wasn’t even nominated for Best Picture that year.

Rocky Beating Taxi Driver

9. TAXI DRIVER LOSING TO ROCKY FOR BEST PICTURE IN 1976

Don’t get us wrong: Rocky is a masterpiece of the sports movie genre. It is the ultimate underdog story that has stayed relevant throughout the decades, and it’s still one of the most inspirational pieces of cinema. That being said, Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver clearly deserved to beat it out for Best Picture in 1976.

While Rocky was accessible to the masses and featured a story that everyone could relate to, Taxi Driver was a bleak journey into the darkest depths of the human psyche. It was an incredible journey that broke the rules that American filmmakers had put in place over the years, and cemented Martin Scorsese as one of the greatest cinematic minds of his generation. We’re just not sure how those accomplishments could have been overlooked. Worse yet, Scorsese didn't even receive a Best Director nod that year.

Charlie Chaplin

8. CHARLIE CHAPLIN NEVER WINNING FOR BEST DIRECTOR

City Lights, The Great Dictator, and Modern Times. All of these films were directed by Charlie Chaplin, and all of them are considered among the best movies of all time, and yet Chaplin was never recognized by the Academy for his talents as a director, and only won Oscars for Best Original Score and two Honorary awards.

There are a lot of reasons why Chaplin was mostly neglected by the award show, and none of them really had to do with the movies themselves. First, Chaplin reportedly used his 1929 Honorary award as a doorstop, which could have ruffled a few feathers. And some of his films’ anti-capitalist messages and his rumored Communist affiliations also could have led to his snubs. But despite never winning any awards for his directing, film fans everywhere should know that he was one of the best directors in Hollywood during the '30s and '40s.

Marisa Tomei

7. MARISA TOMEI WINNING FOR BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN 1992

Rumor has it that when Jack Palance opened the envelope for Best Supporting Actress while presenting the award, he said Marisa Tomei’s name by accident, which led to her winning the award. While we doubt that is true, it would explain why she ever won the award in the first place.

Even tough her performance in the comedy My Cousin Vinny was fine, there is no way anyone thought she would win over Vanessa Redgrave in Howard’s End or Judy Davis in Husbands and Wives. But somehow she managed to do it, and it stunned the industry. Unfortunately the award seemed to hurt her career in a bizarre way as she didn’t come close to an Academy Award again until her performance in The Wrestler years later.

Akira Kurosawa

6. AKIRA KUROSAWA NEVER WINNNING FOR BEST DIRECTOR

He may have won two awards for Best Foreign Language Film and later received an Honorary award from the Academy, but Akira Kurosawa was always looked over for the coveted Best Director award. Throughout his career, Kurosawa was consistently at the forefront of cinema, inspiring the likes of Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Martin Scorsese, and countless others. His tales of war, love, and life are viewed as masterpieces all around the world, but unfortunately that never quite carried over to the American mainstream.

Apparently no matter how great a film is, it will always have an uphill battle in front of it if it has subtitles and didn’t come from the Hollywood machine. Maybe the Academy felt that Kurosawa’s films wouldn’t be well-known enough to garner interest for the show itself, but there is no getting around the fact that Kurosawa has put out some of the best films the industry has ever seen.

Stanley Kubrick

5. STANLEY KUBRICK NEVER WINNING FOR BEST DIRECTOR

Stanley Kubrick is one of the greatest American directors of all time. During the span of his career, he revolutionized the genres of science fiction, horror, war, and romance as he marched towards cinematic immortality. Yet somehow the man never won an Academy Award for Best Director.

Sure, he was nominated four times (Dr. Strangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, and Barry Lyndon) but he never came away with the prize. While it’s somewhat justified that he lost to Will Friedkin (The French Connection) and Milos Foreman (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest) in 1971 and 1975, there is no way to explain his losses to George Cukor (My Fair Lady) and Carol Reed (Oliver!) in 1964 and 1968.

Is there anyone who can even attempt to argue that My Fair Lady was better directed than Dr. Strangelove? How about Oliver!? Is that a more important cinematic achievement than the superb camera work and editing that was featured in 2001? We didn’t think so.

Dances With Wolves Beating GoodFellas

4. GOODFELLAS LOSING TO DANCES WITH WOLVES FOR BEST PICTURE IN 1990

Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas was more than just a mob movie; it was a blistering 140 minutes of vulgarity, violence, and humor that featured one of the best mafia storylines of all time and stellar performances by everyone involved. It’s easy to watch this movie a dozen times and still find something new to obsess over with each additional viewing. However, the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1990 was given to Dances with Wolves, a three-hour-long western starring Kevin Costner.

Dances with Wolves isn't bad but the fact that it hasn’t sustained its popularity over the years like Goodfellas has is a good indicator of relative quality and importance. Goodfellas remains a classic that is a staple on the DVD shelf of any self-respecting film fan, and continues to be shown on television seemingly every day. Years later, it’s more evident than ever that the Academy botched this one big time.

Crash Beating Brokeback Mountain

3. BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN LOSING TO CRASH FOR BEST PICTURE IN 2005

There is no getting around the fact that Crash is a very good movie, a brilliant exploration of isolation and racial tensions in L.A., but Brokeback Mountain so far exceeds it that it’s almost criminal that it was somehow beaten by Crash for Best Picture. Most other years Crash would have been a strong contender, but Brokeback Mountain was simply the type of milestone movie that only comes along once a decade.

The movie was beautifully shot, acted, written, edited, and composed; you would need a microscope to find a flaw in it. There are plenty of conspiracy theories out there that claim Brokeback Mountain lost because of its homosexual subject matter, but that makes no sense, especially since Ang Lee won a Best Director award for it. Also, there were plenty of other movies, such as Capote, Munich, and Good Night, and Good Luck that should have won over Crash as well. Whatever the reason, it’s painfully evident that this was one of the most unjustified upsets of all time.

Shakespeare in Love

2. SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE WINNING FOR BEST PICTURE IN 1998

When considered in a vacuum, Shakespeare in Love plays out like an adequate little comedy with more than enough wit to keep audiences engrossed for its two-hour runtime. But no matter how well-received the movie was, it didn’t deserve to beat out Saving Private Ryan or The Thin Red Line for the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1998.

Both Saving Private Ryan and The Thin Red Line were staggeringly different, yet infinitely brilliant, looks at the savagery of war. Saving Private Ryan was brutal and gritty, while The Thin Red Line was like a look at war through the eyes of a poet. Either one was more important than a light-hearted comedy.

Perhaps Saving Private Ryan was too violent to win and maybe Terrence Malick’s existential Thin Red Line was too ambiguous for the Academy to handle, but neither of those explanations satisfies us. So in the end, we were left with a Best Picture that has since fallen out of the public’s collective memory, while Saving Private Ryan and The Thin Red Line gain more fans every year.

How Green was my Valley beating Citizen Kane

1. CITIZEN KANE LOSING TO HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY FOR BEST PICTURE IN 1941

God himself could have released home movies of Jesus taking his first steps in 1941 and it still shouldn’t have come close to beating out Citizen Kane as the best picture of the year. Orson Welles’ masterpiece is the best example of American cinema. Ever. It’s a fascinating look at corruption in both the media and politics, and features some of the most ground-breaking cinematic techniques ever, such as deep-focus photography, a non-linear plot, and inventive uses of lighting.

But what did the Academy believe was the real best picture of 1941? How Green was My Valley. Sure, it’s considered a classic, but it doesn’t come close to the genius of Kane, which not only changed U.S. views on film, but also the world's perception. It also took numerous controversial shots at media tycoon William Randolph Hearst, which might have been one of the reasons why it didn’t win, but no petty beef or any other explanations justify Welles and company not going home with the gold.