Now that the annual nonsense of the Oscars is over and the polarising Everything Everywhere has been crowned Best Picture, what are the other Best Picture nominees that lost out to something mediocre or not as good the other nominees? For me Shawshank Redemption should have beaten Forrest Gump, Scent of A Woman should have beaten Unforgiven, Goodfellas over Dances with wolves. Thoughts?
Oscar Best Picture nominees that should have won but didn't
by Anonymous | reply 44 | April 5, 2023 1:14 PM |
Tootsie should have beaten Gandhi.....
by Anonymous | reply 1 | March 15, 2023 3:57 AM |
Hello Dolly should have won over Midnight Cowboy.
by Anonymous | reply 2 | March 15, 2023 4:02 AM |
La La Land over Moonlight
by Anonymous | reply 3 | March 15, 2023 4:20 AM |
L.A. Confidential was better than Titanic
by Anonymous | reply 4 | March 15, 2023 4:21 AM |
High Noon, 12 Angry Men, E.T., Star Wars, To Kill a Mockingbird, Mary Poppins, The Last Picture Show, The Grapes of Wrath, The Wizard of Oz... all nominated but didn't win Best Picture. Psycho (1960) was not even nominated for Best Picture but could have won if nominated.
by Anonymous | reply 5 | March 15, 2023 4:56 AM |
Saving Private Ryan should have won over Shakespeare in Love.
by Anonymous | reply 6 | March 15, 2023 4:58 AM |
Brokeback Mountain seems like most obvious choice.
by Anonymous | reply 7 | March 15, 2023 4:59 AM |
EEAAO should have won and did.
by Anonymous | reply 8 | March 15, 2023 5:10 AM |
Citizen Kane
by Anonymous | reply 9 | March 15, 2023 5:23 AM |
The Color Purple
by Anonymous | reply 10 | March 15, 2023 5:52 AM |
Anything should have won over that shitty asian laundromat movie.
by Anonymous | reply 11 | March 15, 2023 6:02 AM |
Do the Right Thing should've been nominated and should've won, especially over Driving F**king Miss Daisy. R3, Moonlight deserved to win over La La Land. The inconvenient truth that people don't want to admit to is that La La Land is a LOUSY musical: forgettable songs, mediocre singing and dancing and wrongheaded direction. Don't get me wrong, Damien Chazelle is a talented young filmmaker and I like him but he made the mistake modern young filmmakers make which is that he choreographed the camera too much. In a musical, the camera needs to be where it should be to capture what the dancers are doing and it should get there without drawing attention to itself. Chazelle has the camere swish panning and zipping between cars and flying over one set into another and the dancing gets overshadowed. Admit it, you can't remember a single dance step or combination in that whole movie, and when was the last time you hummed one of the songs from it. No, Moonlight is an excellent version of the sort of story it is supposed to be: a character study/coming-of-age. Whereas La La Land is a very poor version of the type of movie it is supposed to be.
by Anonymous | reply 12 | March 15, 2023 6:13 AM |
Best picture? Best nasty!
by Anonymous | reply 13 | March 15, 2023 6:16 AM |
I know it's all subjective but anyone who thinks the truly puerile Scent of a Woman was worthy of any kind of award is an idiot with awful taste in films.
by Anonymous | reply 14 | March 15, 2023 8:05 AM |
R2 You’re insane. That’s one of the few times the BP category got it right.
by Anonymous | reply 15 | March 15, 2023 8:32 AM |
If we’re limiting ourselves to picking only from officially nominees (because the list would be a mile long if it was for which movies of the year should have won). The should have beens:
1937: The Awful Truth
1938: Grand Illusion
1941: Citizen Kane
1942: The Magnificent Ambersons
1944: Double Indemnity
1945: Mildred Pierce
1948: The Red Shoes
1951: A Streetcar Named Desire
1952: The Quiet Man (or High Noon)
1956: Giant
1957: Witness for the Prosecution
1963: Cancel the show. No one.
1964: Dr. Strangelove
1966: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
1967: The Graduate (or Bonnie and Clyde)
1968: The Lion in Winter. But honestly, none.
1970: Five Easy Pieces
1971: The Last Picture Show
1973: The Exorcist (or Cries and Whispers or American Graffiti)
1975: Nashville (or Dog Day Afternoon)
1976: Taxi Driver (or Network)
1979: All That Jazz
1981: Atlantic City
1982: Tootsie
1985: Prizzi’s Honor, but honestly none.
1986: Hannah and Her Sisters
1987: Broadcast News
1988: Dangerous Liaisons
1989: Dead Poets Society, but honestly, none.
1990: Goodfellas
1993: The Piano (we would be spared of Power of the Dog today)
1994: Pulp Fiction
1995: None.
1996: Fargo
1998: The Thin Red Line
1999: The Insider
2001: In the Bedroom
2002: The Pianist
2004: None.
2005: Brokeback Mountain
2008: None.
2009: A Serious Man.
2010: The Social Network
2011: None.
2012: Amour.
2013: The Wolf of Wall Street
2014: The Grand Budapest Hotel
2015: Mad Max: Fury Road
2017: Phantom Thread
2018: The Favourite
2020: The Father
2021: Licorice Pizza
A handful of years had an equally great winner and other contenders - 1939, 1950, 1980, 1983, etc.
by Anonymous | reply 16 | March 15, 2023 8:52 AM |
I love Tootsie but The Verdict should have won Best Picture. I have nothing against Kingsley. He's a fine actor. But Ghandi was boring and nothing he was doing on screen was making it less so.
by Anonymous | reply 17 | March 15, 2023 11:09 AM |
Licorice Pizza over CODA; Whiplash over Birdman; Lincoln over Argo; Saving Private Ryan over Shakespeare in Love; Fargo over The English Patient; The Shawshank Redemption over Forrest Gump
by Anonymous | reply 18 | March 15, 2023 11:18 AM |
[quote]The Shawshank Redemption over Forrest Gump
Wrong. It should have been Pulp Fiction over the execrable Forrest Gump.
by Anonymous | reply 19 | March 16, 2023 12:26 AM |
R19, you and the OP are wrong, Quiz Show should've won over the overrated, hasn't aged well Pulp Fiction, the admittedly mawkish, execrable Forrest Gump and the soppy, stodgy Shawshank Redemption. Quiz Show contained more insight into America and people than any of the other three. It felt real and had something to say, the others felt artificial and false and ultimately empty.
by Anonymous | reply 20 | March 26, 2023 3:34 AM |
There Will Be Blood should have won over No Country for Old Men.
by Anonymous | reply 21 | March 26, 2023 3:38 AM |
[quote]Moonlight deserved to win over La La Land
Did you tune out early after they announced La La Land as best picture before they realized it was a mistake and Moonlight really won? I mean, I love your spirited defense of Moonlight, but it did actually WIN.
by Anonymous | reply 22 | March 26, 2023 4:02 AM |
R21 I love both of those movies.
by Anonymous | reply 23 | March 26, 2023 6:23 AM |
R22, r12 was specifically responding to r3's post that LaLa Land should have won (which, based on the signature, I hope was a joke post). That's why the line you quoted was preceded by "R3,". Obviously r12 knows Moonlight won, and was arguing it deserved the win it got.
by Anonymous | reply 24 | March 26, 2023 6:30 AM |
Lassie
by Anonymous | reply 25 | March 26, 2023 7:23 AM |
"Vice" should have won Best Picture over "Green Book" (and, btw, Christian Bale should have won Actor in a Leading Role over Rami Malek.)
by Anonymous | reply 26 | March 26, 2023 7:56 AM |
La La Land over Moonlight. No one remembers the latter except for the mix-up and how La La Land was the believed victor.
by Anonymous | reply 27 | March 26, 2023 8:00 AM |
1995 - Sense and Sensibility instead of Braveheart
2002 - Moulin Rouge over A Beautiful Mind
2003 - Master And Commander instead of Lord Of The Rings
2005 - Brokeback instead of Crash
2006 - Little Miss Sunshine instead of The Departed
2007 - Atonement instead of No Country For Old Men
2009 - Up instead of The Hurt Locker
2015 - Mad Max: Fury Road or Brooklyn instead of Spotlight
2016 - La La Land instead of Moonlight
2018 - Black Panther instead of Green Book
2020 - Promising Young Woman instead of Nomadland
2021 - Belfast instead of Coda
by Anonymous | reply 28 | March 26, 2023 8:12 AM |
[quote][R19], you and the OP are wrong, Quiz Show should've won over the overrated, hasn't aged well Pulp Fiction, the admittedly mawkish, execrable Forrest Gump and the soppy, stodgy Shawshank Redemption. Quiz Show contained more insight into America and people than any of the other three. It felt real and had something to say, the others felt artificial and false and ultimately empty.
I see you're one of the message kids.
Just a story won't do.
I expect you'd have voted against GONE WITH THE WIND.
by Anonymous | reply 29 | March 26, 2023 9:05 AM |
R2 is a conundrum. Go with the super-gay glitz instead of the actual love story between two men?
by Anonymous | reply 30 | March 26, 2023 12:23 PM |
HELLO, DOLLY! was nominated for Best Picture?
I thought that movie bombed like a lot of those late '60s/early '70s musicals.
by Anonymous | reply 31 | March 26, 2023 12:30 PM |
A streetcar named Desire over An American in Paris. No one remembers the latter.
by Anonymous | reply 32 | March 26, 2023 12:42 PM |
R27, Nobody remembers the former AT ALL. La La Land is not a good musical. If the singing, dancing and songs are all mediocre to forgettable, how can it be considered a good musical. I'll never forget the pain of the main character in Moonlight, a young man of color afraid to come out in his community. I'll never remember a single song or note of music from La La Land.
by Anonymous | reply 33 | March 27, 2023 6:48 AM |
The Killing Fields over Amadeus
by Anonymous | reply 34 | April 4, 2023 3:22 PM |
Instead of that Vietnam-inflected Jane Fonda/Jon Voight POS:
by Anonymous | reply 35 | April 4, 2023 3:40 PM |
Psycho would not have won over The Apartment.
by Anonymous | reply 36 | April 4, 2023 3:59 PM |
[quote]Instead of that Vietnam-inflected Jane Fonda/Jon Voight POS:
The Deer Hunter won Best Picture that year.
by Anonymous | reply 37 | April 4, 2023 4:13 PM |
Goodfellas over Dances with Wolves
by Anonymous | reply 38 | April 4, 2023 4:17 PM |
^ Goodfellas should have won not DWW.
by Anonymous | reply 39 | April 4, 2023 4:24 PM |
Bonnie and Clyde or The Graduate instead of In the Heat of the Night
by Anonymous | reply 40 | April 4, 2023 4:25 PM |
Seconding R7 and R9
by Anonymous | reply 41 | April 4, 2023 7:06 PM |
Oscar is a shit show , has been for a long time. Not based on best performance, it's a mixture of a lot of things but it is NOT based on the excellence of the work.
by Anonymous | reply 42 | April 5, 2023 10:28 AM |
"Balls of Steel: The Helen Lawson Story" should have won over "The Sound of Music"
by Anonymous | reply 43 | April 5, 2023 10:44 AM |
Tár was definitely a better film than EEAAO, and was carried by a phenomenal performance from DL fave Cate Blanchet. However clearly too intellectually demanding for the average woke academy voter.
by Anonymous | reply 44 | April 5, 2023 1:14 PM |