All-Time Worst Oscar Snubs

With the Oscars coming up soon, this thread is for people to discuss Oscar snubs spanning all the Academy Awards show, just say what your worst snubs are.

I'll start with this, Shakespeare in Love did not deserve to win, it didn't even deserve a nomination in my opinion. I think it's sappy, preachy, and all around overrated, I hated this film even before I knew it won best picture. And not to mention it beat out other far superior films, one being Saving Private Ryan.

I thought George Clooney got snubbed for The Descendants.

I don't think I've seen the Descendants, what year was that?

I still feel as though Annette Bening was robbed for American Beauty

Sam Rockwell for Moon.

OK, I'm not sure if you're talking about nominees who lost or people who weren't even nominated, but I'm going to go ahead and go with people who weren't nominated at all:

Doris Day was snubbed for Love Me or Leave Me

Elizabeth Taylor snubbed for Giant

Burl Ives was snubbed for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (though he did win an Oscar the same year for a different film)

Gene Kelly was snubbed for Singin in the Rain

Eleanor Parker was snubbed for The Man with the Golden Arm

Gene Hackman was snubbed for The Conversation

Roberet Duvall was snubbed for Network

Diane Keaton was snubbed for Looking for Mr. Goodbar (again, she won the Oscar that year for a different film)

Diane Keaton was snubbed for Shoot the Moon

Steve Martin was snubbed for Roxanne

Gene Hackman was snubbed for The Firm

Tom Cruise was snubbed for Rain Man

Dustin Hoffman was snubbed for Straight Time

Leonardo DiCaprio was snubbed for Catch Me If You Can and The Departed

Meryl Streep was snubbed for Death Becomes Her

Heath Ledger was snubbed for Monster's Ball

Steve Carell was snubbed for Little Miss Sunshine

Toni Collette for Little Miss Sunshine

Richard Gere was snubbed for Unfaithful

Ben Affleck was snubbed for Hollywoodland

Matt Damon was snubbed The Talented Mr. Ripley


I'm going to stop there...this is a subject I can talk about all day long.

When I say mine, know that everyone has opinions and mine probably differ from everyone else's:

1933: If there was ever a year to have a VFX Oscar before it existed, even a special award, it was this year for King Kong.

1977: Star Wars lost to Annie Hall? What a joke.

1980: While I don't recall seeing any of the BP nominees, The Empire Strikes Back most likely deserved a nomination at least. Also should've won Original Score.

1989: While I don't it should've won, Glory deserved a BP nomination. As for winner, I'd say Dead Poets Society.

1993: While I'm sure Schindler's List deserved its win for Original Score, I'm shocked that The Nightmare Before Christmas and Jurassic Park weren't nominated!

1995: Only Babe and Apollo 13 nominated for VFX, with Babe winning...what about Jumanji?

1997: Any film for BP over Titanic, please.

1998: How did Saving Private Ryan not win BP?!?

1999: Supporting Actor should have gone to Michael Clarke Duncan for The Green Mile.

2001 and 2002: The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers for BP, please and thank you. The entire trilogy should've won BP in their respective years, yet only The Return of the King managed it.

2005: So far, I'd say Good Night, and Good Luck. should have won BP, but then again, I've not seen Brokeback Mountain.

2008: The Dark Knight and WALL-E should've been nominated for BP, with TDK winning.

2011: Rise of the Planet of the Apes should've won VFX.

2014: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes should've won VFX.

And (probably) 2015: The Force Awakens should win VFX, but no doubt they'll give it to Mad Max: Fury Road.

Sounds like Saving Private Ryan to me.

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2011, watch it, it is a great one.

I agree that Annie Hall did not deserve Best Picture, but I would reserve your judgment regarding Brokeback Mountain until you've seen it. I also think Shakespeare in Love winning Best Picture was a joke, but I don't know if Saving Private Ryan should have won either.

Tom Cruise for Magnolia that year IMO.

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I'm probably going to catch hell for this, but I don't see why Gladiator took down Best Picture and Best Actor (Russell Crowe) in 2000. It's a fun movie, to be sure. But I thought the more zeitgeist-y Erin Brokovich and Traffic were both better films. And I still think Russell Crowe got away with highway robbery, given that Geoffrey Rush was also nominated for his stellar performance in Quills.

I'm still surprised that The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring didn't win Best Picture the following year. No disrespect to A Beautiful Mind, which is a fine film (and one that Russell Crowe actually deserved to win a Best Actor statue for).

But Fellowship is a much more significant film and an unlikely triumph given how "unfilmable" it was thought to be and how much Peter Jackson had to shop it around just to get it made. It was a giant leap forward in terms of visual effects, but those effects were seamlessly blended with conventional filmmaking, editing, cinematography, sound design—and all of it supported the rich source material and storytelling. Fellowship just felt pure, never commercial. New Line simply didn't know what they had, so they had no reason to meddle. That's why it's a little disappointing that Return of the King, which is dripping with commercial stink (although it's still a great film) ultimately got the award.

I'm not sure what you mean by this. Are you referring to direct script/story decisions, or marketing and promoting? All three films were shot at the same time, so wouldn't that suggest that RotK along with the other two weren't meddled with?

Sylvester Stallone got snubbed for Best Original Screenplay for Rocky in 1976.

Samuel L. Jackson was snubbed for Best Supporting Actor for Pulp Fiction in 1994.

Jim Carrey was snubbed out of a Best Actor nomination 2 years in a row for The Truman Show and Man On The Moon in 1998 and 1999 respectively.

Leonardo DiCaprio was snubbed out of a Best Supporting Actor nomination and win for Django Unchained in 2012.

I agree that Traffic was better than Gladiator and I thought Russell Crowe was way more Oscar worthy in The Insider. I also agree with you regarding A Beautiful Mind...that movie bored the crap out of me.

They were shot sequentially, not at the same time. Production on Fellowship started as early as 1999, whereas pickup shoots for The Two Towers and Return of the King took place after 2001 and as late as 2004. By that time, New Line knew they had a hit franchise on their hands, and had plenty of opportunity to influence the remaining films.

And yes, I think that influence manifested in a few different ways. Legolas and Gimli clearly move progressively toward "comic relief" after Fellowship, and by Return of the King there seems to be fewer lines from the book and more punchy one-liners. Things like that. There was also the rumor that Arwen was going to appear at Helm's Deep and Aragorn would actually battle Sauron at the Black Gates (which they shot). Both of those stink of Hollywood intervention.

I also think it's pretty clear that New Line had a lot of creative control over The Hobbit films. They remembered the LOTR cash cow and wanted a bigger, bolder franchise. It's really sad. Those films could have been great, but they're just a mess. They're almost like pastiches of the LOTR films—super glossy and turned up to 11. They're fan films with multimillion-dollar budgets.

Yeah, I knew I made a grammar mistake when I decided not to use "sequence". If they knew they had a hit franchise, why would they bother making any changes to it? Why risk doing a little too much and damaging things when you already know the outcome will be a massive success?

I also find it quite interesting that Jackson went back and shot some more after the film won an Oscar.

I agree with you for the most part when it comes to The Hobbit trilogy.