All deserving of recognition.
The Oscars are taking place this Sunday and while a win at the Academy Awards is never a definitive indicator of what ‘the best’ actually is, Hollywood usually fawns over an Oscar statue.
It’s worth noting that films like Pulp Fiction, Goodfellas and The Shawshank Redemption have all failed to win the coveted Best Picture award, so it’s clear that the members of the Academy do frequently get it wrong.
Hell, Alfred Hitchcock and Stanley Kubrick never won an Oscar.
With this in mind, we’ve decided to look at some films, actors, directors etc from the last decade that really deserved a nomination, never mind an actual Oscar statue.
Truth be told, there are so many others that we could add.
Let us know if there are any that we might have left out. Ironic, eh?
Animation in general
Should have been nominated for: Best Picture.
Snubbed because: Films like The Lego Movie and WALL-E are superb but the fact remains, only three animated films have ever been nominated for the biggest prize (Beauty and the Beast, Up and Toy Story 3)
It has been argued that the award for Best Animated Feature is almost detrimental to the genre itself because it’s like every animated film is being ‘boxed in’ to competing in that category alone.
Ben Affleck
Should have been nominated for: Best Director for Argo
Snubbed because: Argo was nominated for seven Oscars – it won Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Film Editing – with Affleck producing, starring in and directing the film.
The Good Will Hunting scribe also did a brilliant job behind the camera on Gone Baby Gone and The Town.
This snub felt personal, especially since Argo was universally beloved.
Nightcrawler
Should have been nominated for: Best Picture and Actor.
Snubbed because: Dan Gilroy did get a nod for Best Original Screenplay, but it’s scant consolation considering the fact that American Sniper and The Imitation Game both got nods in the aforementioned categories.
Nightcrawler will age much better than both of those efforts. Jake Gyllenhaal’s creepy performance also should have been acknowledged. Christ, it felt like a steel brillo pad wouldn’t even wash him off your skin.
The Dark Knight
Should have been nominated for: Best Picture
Snubbed because: While you could make a case for every film that year, Christopher Nolan’s epic is still utterly mesmeric and it’s definitely more fondly remembered than some of the other titles that were in contention at the Oscars – The Reader, Milk, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Frost/Nixon. Slumdog Millionaire was the winner.
While comic-book films aren’t the Academy’s personal preference, Nolan’s epic deserved to be acknowledged.
Sacha Baron Cohen
Should have been nominated for: Best Actor in Borat.
Snubbed because: Drama is the darling of the Academy Awards but it’s even harder to make people laugh. Borat was a tour de force from the comedian as he fully immersed himself in the character.
Any man that happily engages in a naked wrestling match is clearly committed to his craft and deserves an Oscar nod.
Brendan Gleeson/Colin Farrell
Should have been nominated for: Best Supporting Actor for In Bruges.
Snubbed because: Yes, it’s violent, dark and brimming with cursing aka the stuff that the Academy might hate, but Martin McDonagh’s script was rightfully Oscar nominated also because it has more pathos and character development than most others.
Farrell actually won a Golden Globe for his Father Dougal-esque performance as Ray, but both actors are happy to share the spotlight in a rare gem of a film.
Heath Ledger’s iconic take on The Joker rightfully won Best Supporting Actor that year, but Robert Downey Jr (Tropic Thunder), Josh Brolin (Milk), Phillip Seymour Hoffman (Doubt) and the brilliant Michael Shannon (Revolutionary Road) were also nominated.
It could easily have been one of the Irish actors.
Straight Outta Compton
Should have been nominated for: Best Picture.
Snubbed because: #OscarSoWhite , eh? While Spotlight was a deserved winner, this NWA biopic was far more enjoyable than Bridge of Spies or The Martian.
Gone Baby Gone
Should have been nominated for: Best Picture.
Snubbed because: 2007 was a strange year. Films like Zodiac, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly didn’t get nominated for Best Picture. Juno, Atonement and Michael Clayton did.
While you could make a case for any of those films in the Best Picture category, Ben Affleck’s directorial debut was one of those features that stayed with you long after the credits stopped rolling.
One Oscar nomination wasn’t enough.
The Social Network
Should have won: Best Picture.
Snubbed because: You’ll notice that Fincher’s superb look at the creation of Facebook is the only film on this list that we’re stating SHOULD have won the Oscar.
Yes, it was nominated but the fact it’s a far superior film to The King’s Speech.
Boyhood also should have triumphed over Birdman, but The Social Network’s defeat will be remembered as a travesty. It’s Shakespeare for the smartphone generation.
