Best films/performances not to win Oscar...

23-07-2016 10:00PM #1

...over the years there have been some head scratchers at the Oscars.

Watching The Straight Story and Richard Farnsworth missed out to Kevin Spacey in American Beauty. Spacey was good, but think they got it wrong.

Any others that make you go hmmmm?

Al Pacino should have won best supporting for Glengarry Glen Ross, but Gene Hackman took it for Unforgiven. Pacino picked up Best Actor that year for the dirge that was Scent of a Woman afair so not like he went empty handed.

Bruce Dern missed out for Nebraska, Matthew McConaughey won for the far more Oscar friendly Dallas Buyers Club.

How Driving Miss Daisy won best film is still a mystery. Do The Right Thing was not, however, even nominated, and Born on the Fourth of July was possibly best of the nominations in a bad year.

The_Valeyard · 23-07-2016 10:04PM

Steven Spielberg for ET

Liam Neeson Schindler's List

Glenn Close in fatal attraction

Sigourney Weaver in Aliens

osarusan · 23-07-2016 10:07PM

Goodfellas losing to Dances with Wolves.

Forrest Gump winning anything.

Peter O'Toole never winning one.

23-07-2016 10:08PM

The_Valeyard wrote: »

Steven Spielberg for ET

Liam Neeson Schindler's List

ET was in the year of Gandhi so probably never really stood a chance.

But googled the year Neeson was nominated and Hanks won for Philadelphia. And you have a point. Philadelphia was awful...but again Oscar friendly...

23-07-2016 10:15PM

osarusan wrote: »

Goodfellas losing to Dances with Wolves.

Never thought of that.

Head in hands stuff alright.

The_Valeyard · 23-07-2016 10:16PM

[Deleted User] wrote: »

ET was in the year of Gandhi so probably never really stood a chance.

But googled the year Neeson was nominated and Hanks won for Philadelphia. And you have a point. Philadelphia was awful...but again Oscar friendly...

Ghandi.........all credit to the Man, but the film just didn't end. Remember watching it in school. Think it took up half of one year.

IvyTheTerrible · 23-07-2016 10:18PM

Ennio Morricone only winning an Oscar this year baffles me.

Liam McPoyle · 23-07-2016 10:27PM

The_Valeyard wrote: »

Ghandi.........all credit to the Man, but the film just didn't end. Remember watching it in school. Think it took up half of one year.

He made one great film and then you never saw him again.

seenitall · 23-07-2016 10:28PM

Russell Crowe should have won for Romper Stomper, or LA Confidential, or The Insider, not the Gladiator.

Heath Ledger should have won for Brokeback Mountain or Candy, not The Dark Knight.

Billy Crudup should have won one for Waking the Dead. One of the best performances I have ever seen, and I don't think he was even nominated.

Nicole Kidman should have won for The Portrait of a Lady, not The Hours.

Naomi Watts should have won it for Mulholland Drive, although she did deserve the one she got for 21 grams.

Sean Penn should have won his first one way way back, for either At Close Range, or The Falcon and The Snowman, or Carlito's Way, instead of Mystic River. Milk was a good second one.

There are so many of these cases, the mind boggles.

ChunkyLover54 · 23-07-2016 10:29PM

Deleted User wrote: »

But googled the year Neeson was nominated and Hanks won for Philadelphia. And you have a point. Philadelphia was awful...but again Oscar friendly...

Schindler's List was also quite Oscar friendly if memory serves . I actually thought Ralph Fiennes deserved an Oscar for his role - one of the most heinous characters in any film.

ChunkyLover54 · 23-07-2016 10:31PM

seenitall wrote: »

Russell Crowe should have won for Romper Stomper, or LA Confidential, or The Insider, not the Gladiator.

True. His performance as Wigand in The Insider was astonishing. Gladiator on the other hand was pure ham.

Outlaw Pete · 23-07-2016 10:33PM

Stone, De Palma and Pacino should have all got Oscars for Scarface as far as I'm concerned.

A good measure of just how good Pacino's performance was in Sacrface is to take a look at the him in Author Author which he made just the year before and the contrast of the performances in those films. Really bugs me when people say he does not have a good range because he apparently 'overacts', or 'shouts' his way through films. I feel that's baloney and is really based on three or four infamous scenes than anything else.

Adele Exarchopoulos in Blue is The Warmest Colour was Oscar worthy also I thought.

23-07-2016 10:36PM

Gladiator was like Braveheart in terms of winning Oscars. Entertaining...but hardly outstanding.

Harry Palmr · 23-07-2016 10:37PM

This is cheating as it did win an Oscar but Chinatown winning one gong is one of the great robberies in cinema. Faye Dunaway, Jack Nicholson and John Huston should all have won that year. Not too mention John A Alonzo for his cinematography.

23-07-2016 10:44PM

Harry Palmr wrote: »

This is cheating as it did win an Oscar but Chinatown winning one gong is one of the great robberies in cinema. Faye Dunaway, Jack Nicholson and John Huston should all have won that year. Not too mention John A Alonzo for his cinematography.

Beaten by the Godfather II for best film, so hardly robbery.

On the other hand Nicholson lost out to...Art Carney in "Harry and Tonto". Chalk that down as a wrong one alright!

Harry Palmr · 23-07-2016 10:51PM

Deleted User wrote: »

Beaten by the Godfather II for best film, so hardly robbery.

On the other hand Nicholson lost out to...Art Carney in "Harry and Tonto". Chalk that down as a wrong one alright!

ha! Harry and Tonto is a great road film (The Straight Story without a mower and with a cat) so oddly I don't mind an old pro winning unexpectedly for that - but someone at Paramount should have said lets leave Chinatown until 1975 rather than end up going up against Godfather Part II which was likely to heavily nominated. Then again that mightn't have worked with One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest in competition. The mid 70s really was Nicholsons era one way or another.

fryup · 23-07-2016 10:53PM

for me it has to be....

Nick Nolte - Thin Red Line

his performance was amazing I honestly think he gave the best screen performance ever in movie history, its incredible esp the scene where he lambasts Captain Staros over the phone with his face contorted with rage with veins popping out of his forehead you'd swear he was right there in the middle of a battle > completely convincing.

and whats disgraceful is that he wasn't even nominated for an oscar for it:cool:

Dirty Dingus McGee · 23-07-2016 10:54PM

Clint Eastwood should have won best Actor for either Million Dollar Baby or Gran Torino.

Jaws should have won best picture for 1975,, ahead of One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest.

Hitchcock should have won a bucket load of best Director Oscars.

storker · 23-07-2016 10:54PM

Outlaw Pete wrote: »

A good measure of just how good Pacino's performance was in Sacrface is to take a look at the him in Author Author which he made just the year before and the contrast of the performances in those films.

...or even look at the difference between Tony Montana and Michael Corleone. It's possible to watch Scarface without being reminded of The Godfather.

I get the impression that a lot of people are a bit sniffy about Scarface, but it's an excellent movie.

ricero · 23-07-2016 10:54PM

Micky rourke not winning best actor for the wrestler

Dirty Dingus McGee · 23-07-2016 10:54PM

LA Confidential should have won Best Picture in 1997 ahead of Titanic.

Harry Palmr · 23-07-2016 10:55PM

Dr. Strangelove or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

23-07-2016 10:56PM

Harry Palmr wrote: »

The mid 70s really was Nicholsons era one way or another.

Which reminds me...the Shining...not one nomination.

I appreciate that the Oscars studiously ignore horror, except the Exorcist and Silence of the Lambs...but still... Shelley Duvall did win a Razzie though!

23-07-2016 10:59PM

fryup wrote: »

for me it has to be....

Nick Nolte - Thin Red Line

his performance was amazing I honestly think he gave the best screen performance ever in movie history, its incredible esp the scene where he lambasts Captain Staros over the phone with his face contorted with rage with veins popping out of his forehead you'd swear he was right there in the middle of a battle > completely convincing.

and whats disgraceful is that he wasn't nominated for an oscar for it:cool:

Didn't the Thin Red Line clash with Saving Private Ryan? Any other year it would have swept them, it was probably the opening sequence in the latter that saw it criminally overlooked.

Harry Palmr · 23-07-2016 11:04PM

Blade Runner. This is tricky one as the 1982 release and the later "approved" cut are different in feel. That said how it didn't win for things like photography, art direction-set decoration, costume design, special effects and original music score beats me.

Dirty Dingus McGee · 23-07-2016 11:05PM

Badlands should have won for 1973 but wasn't even nominated.

It's a really great film.I'd love to see it on a big screen.

MonkieSocks · 23-07-2016 11:06PM

Maximilian Schell

The Man in the Glass Booth 1975.

One of the best performances of his career.

fryup · 23-07-2016 11:07PM

Deleted User wrote: »

Didn't the Thin Red Line clash with Saving Private Ryan? Any other year it would have swept them, it was probably the opening sequence in the latter that saw it criminally overlooked.

i don't know if it was the same year, maybe a year apart...it does drag on a bit in parts but the battle scenes are ace

timthumbni · 23-07-2016 11:09PM

The_Valeyard wrote: »

Steven Spielberg for ET

Liam Neeson Schindler's List

Glenn Close in fatal attraction

Sigourney Weaver in Aliens

Personally I thought Ralph fiennes owned that film. I think his character was if nothing the main character and could easily have won the best actor role. He was sublime. A genuinely scary and loathsome character but what an actor.

Liam was good too and that movie was a masterpiece in general. However Liam is a bit of a Sean Connery in that his native accent always shines through and can be a bit off putting at times.

Dirty Dingus McGee · 23-07-2016 11:09PM

fryup wrote: »

i don't know if it was the same year, maybe a year apart...it does drag on a bit in parts but the battle scenes are ace

I'll have to watch it again I was only 14 or 15 when I watched it first and didn't like it but I suspect I may have been to young to fully appreciate it.

Dirty Dingus McGee · 23-07-2016 11:11PM

Rocky shouldn't have won in 1976.

Network was pure genius and should have won the Oscar.

Taxi Driver was nominated that year (which most people would probably favour) but I prefer Network myself.

Best films/performances not to win Oscar...

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