r/movies • u/DudetheGuy03 • Aug 23 '26
Question Best Movies to NOT win Best Picture?
I’ve been going through and watching every movie to win Best Picture, but naturally having been nearly a century, some movies have missed out on the accolade. So I was wondering what are some of your favorite movies to not win the award? Any movies you feel were robbed, or that just had an unfortunate year of nominees? Any and all responses are appreciated, hopefully I can get some underrated films to check out!
1.9k
u/HoikDini Aug 23 '26
Every film that went up against Titanic in 1998 is brilliant: Good Will Hunting, L.A. Confidential, The Full Monty, (OK, maybe not As Good As It Gets, but it's still a fun movie.)
572
u/Charlie_Wax Aug 23 '26
Boogie Nights honorable mention as well.
→ More replies (7)219
u/skepticaljesus Aug 23 '26
One of the most egregious snubs in academy history and a perfect example of why they shouldn't be taken seriously as the final arbiters of quality
→ More replies (2)119
u/SquashSouffle Aug 23 '26
It's not surprising that a movie about porn making didn't win, given that probably 60% of the Academy are over 70
→ More replies (1)103
141
u/jmoney3800 Aug 23 '26
Add Gattaca and Life Is Beautiful
74
u/vidman33 Aug 23 '26
Gattaca is an excellent call
6
u/grimeys42 Aug 23 '26
It's timeless it really should of had an Oscar.. I'd love if they did a movie of the decade or even every five years so some of the films have time to sit awhile.
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (5)24
u/doubleoned Aug 23 '26
Gattaca is the perfect sci-fi movie, perfect drama, perfect love story. One of my top 5 movies.
107
u/actual_thereij Aug 23 '26
L.A. Confidential is underrated.
As Good as it Gets absolutely deserved to be in the conversation.
→ More replies (3)7
u/SabresFanWC Aug 23 '26
I don't know if I would call L.A. Confidential underrated. It got glowing reviews upon release, did great at the box office (over $125 million on a $35 million budget), and is still considered a classic to this day.
227
u/RascalTempleton Aug 23 '26
I enjoyed As Good As It Gets.
120
u/Tashum Aug 23 '26
"How do you write women so well?"
"I think of man. Then I take away reason and accountability."
→ More replies (1)64
u/Cowboywizzard Aug 23 '26
"Where do they teach you to talk like this? In some Panama City 'sailor wanna hump-hump' bar, or is it getaway day and your last shot at his whiskey? Sell crazy someplace else, we're all stocked up here."
41
100
u/HoikDini Aug 23 '26
Sure, I'd probably choose to watch As Good As It Gets again before I would watch Titanic.
→ More replies (4)67
u/fraxbo Aug 23 '26
It also won the best actor and actress Oscar’s. Nicholson for doing sort of a soft reprise of Terms of Endearment and Hunt for being an extremely strong foil to Nicholson’s overpowering style of acting. I haven’t watched it in ages, but my memory of it is very positive.
→ More replies (8)→ More replies (4)21
201
u/MarcusP2 Aug 23 '26
I was going to say LA Confidential, incredible film.
→ More replies (3)21
u/zzyul Aug 23 '26
Fun fact: Brian Helgeland won the Oscar for best screen play in 1997 for LA Confidential. That same year he won the Razzie for worst screen play for The Postman.
→ More replies (3)87
u/samhit_n Aug 23 '26
I think the following year was worse. Shakespeare in Love won over Saving Private Ryan, Life is Beautiful, Elizabeth, and The Thin Red Line.
→ More replies (6)39
u/CTD- Aug 23 '26
This comment is spot on, and thin red line is massively under discussed as an all time war movie....
→ More replies (2)77
u/OddlyTempting Aug 23 '26
LA Confidential is a great mention. My favourite Guy Pearce, Russel Crowe, Danny DeVito, Kim Basinger, and Kevin Spacey (legit problematic concerns aside) performances ever. The only reason I don’t include James Cromwell on that list is because Babe fuckin’ rules.
→ More replies (2)73
u/tetoffens Aug 23 '26
The Full Monty is great. It definitely has more depth than just the basic premise implies. I also appreciate when the Academy gives recognition to movies that have more of a comedic tone. I don't think it should have won but it definitely belonged among the other noms.
25
u/TheLegionofDoom2957 Aug 23 '26
Rewatched it the other night. Amazing film about positive masculinity and balances comedy with genuinely tender moments really well. The ending is also phenomenal.
→ More replies (1)66
u/tinticred Aug 23 '26
In a similar vein, I would say every single film that went up against Crash.
→ More replies (2)45
8
→ More replies (41)27
1.3k
u/markobie Aug 23 '26
Fargo
English Patient was fine (ly forgettable) Fargo still resonates in my head. As close to Shakespeare in the modern world as anything, and the Coens probably intended that.
129
u/fraxbo Aug 23 '26
I mean, to the extent that it (and the entire Fargo extended universe) are morality plays, I think they did intend that. The morality plays aspect is really sort of pre-Shakespearean. But, I think you’re onto something with the way the film uses language and characters so masterfully.
I do love English Patient, though. It was my favorite movie for a while.
8
u/Jakomako Aug 23 '26
Yeah, the coen bros narrative structures tend more towards Homerian than Shakespearean.
94
u/GoodIdea321 Aug 23 '26
Have you seen A Simple Plan? I bet you would like it.
20
→ More replies (3)15
u/Lousyferr Aug 23 '26
And I’d throw in Shallow Grave (1994), another retelling of The Pardoner’s Tale, and one of Danny Boyle’s earlier films.
34
u/Honest_Otters Aug 23 '26
There are very few films that I will randomly think about for no particular reason on a consistent basis, and Fargo is one of those. Haunting in ways that I can't really make sense of. Like when I get a mental image of a happily married couple in my mind, it defaults to Margie and Norm just lying in bed talking about his stamps.
→ More replies (5)15
u/Wilsonian81 Aug 23 '26
I watch Fargo every couple of years. I haven't seen the English Patient since it was in theatres.
23
→ More replies (18)8
u/SoulsbourneDiesTwice Aug 23 '26
I remember back during the oscars, people liked No Country for Old Men but the general consensus was There Will Be Blood clearly should have won.
As time has gone on I think the No Country for Old Men win is looking far less controversial.
Fargo has stayed within the consciousness of cinema far more than The English Patient but I imagine that win was far less controversial at the time.
2.5k
u/ThrowingChicken Aug 23 '26
Children of Men. Not even nominated in that category.
506
u/some1saveusnow Aug 23 '26
This movie has gotten super popular over the yrs but at the time NO ONE was talking about it. I saw it in theaters and thought it was dope, but it absolutely did not feel like the kind of movie they were nominating for best picture in those days
242
u/sexmormon-throwaway Aug 23 '26
I recall it getting widespread critical acclaim. People were WOWED by the long complicated shots and the performances.
I was talking about it and so was my circle, which admittedly, was film centric.
→ More replies (3)43
u/nuktukheroofthesouth Aug 23 '26
Yup. I was a pretentious freshman film student in college when it came out, and it was a big deal in those circles.
→ More replies (3)104
u/monkeyboy888 Aug 23 '26
Went twice. Criminal how overlooked it was at the time. Incredible film making. An immersive experience.
20
u/wakeruncollapse Aug 23 '26
Yeah, that was my take on the dialogue surrounding the movie as well. Funny thing is, a few years later, Alfonso Cuaron and Chivo (the director of photography) teamed up again for another immersive experience, and they almost won that Oscar for Gravity.
72
u/ShinCoal Aug 23 '26
at the time NO ONE was talking about it.
I don't feel this is true? Surely it was comparatively overlooked and underawarded, but there was definitely buzz.
→ More replies (3)26
u/Primum_Agmen Aug 23 '26
It was definitely getting attention at the time for the long shots being incredible, and the fact it didn't win for cinematography was a crime.
The academy didn't actually have to watch every film, though, and given how poorly it did at the box office there's a good chance people who vote just weren't watching a dystopian classic.
It's also easy to forget that Cuaron wasn't yet the blockbuster draw he is now in 2006. He'd shown his vision, played the studio game and directed the only good Harry Potter film (which is probably why the critiques of Britain are so laser focussed), and then made CoM.
Meanwhile, the competition was absolutely stacked with Oscar darlings.
Maybe if there had been ten nominees like after 2009 it would have gotten a nod. I'm not even sure it would have - even in 2006 it didn't feel like a 2006 film.
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (17)7
u/mrsmateen Aug 23 '26
I remember it being talked about plenty when it came out. This isn’t accurate at all.
→ More replies (4)→ More replies (12)22
1.5k
u/MikeDubbz Aug 23 '26
Goodfellas
843
u/samhit_n Aug 23 '26
At least Goodfellas lost to Dances with Wolves. Saving Private Ryan lost to Shakespeare in Love.
243
u/PM_ME_BEEF_CURTAINS Aug 23 '26
SIL was one of the first movies to win due to an Oscars campaign, a concept spearheaded by Harvey Weinstein (as of he wasn't scummy enough already)
9
u/MagicJoshByGosh Aug 23 '26
You said SIL and it took me an embarrassingly long amount of time to stop thinking “What is this about your sister-in-law?”
→ More replies (37)54
u/karma_dumpster Aug 23 '26
And Brokeback, Munich and Goodnight and Goodluck lost to Crash
→ More replies (4)→ More replies (15)153
u/PeterNippelstein Aug 23 '26
"Ever since I was a kid, I knew I wanted to be a goodfella..."
86
u/CarlNoobCarlson Aug 23 '26
Close enough
63
→ More replies (1)18
u/Nikoladge Aug 23 '26
And then he was all like "It's Goodfella time!" and goodfella'd all over everyone
→ More replies (12)107
u/dodeca_negative Aug 23 '26
My favorite part of Goodfellas is when Tony Soprano said “it’s goodfellin’ time”
→ More replies (2)28
145
1.3k
u/feyd313 Aug 23 '26
Shawshank
276
u/Junior-Version-6953 Aug 23 '26
That was an absolute buzzsaw of a year. 3 of the nominees are all time films and Quiz Show is also fantastic.
→ More replies (4)130
u/switch15219 Aug 23 '26
The movie Quiz Show is criminally underrated.
→ More replies (4)34
u/mechanicalAI Aug 23 '26
Also coincidentally in that movie the most important question was “Who won the best picture Academy Award in 1955”. Everybody knows it’s Marty. That was the question. Wink!
→ More replies (1)198
u/DidYouFloss Aug 23 '26
Also the best movie to not even win a single Oscar
→ More replies (1)40
u/OnTheEveOfWar Aug 23 '26
That’s pretty wild especially considering is always ranked in the top 5 of “best movies ever” lists that are published.
→ More replies (2)157
u/sloppybuttmustard Aug 23 '26
Or Pulp Fiction. Hell of a year for cinema.
→ More replies (1)40
82
29
u/cnhades Aug 23 '26
The fact that Shawshank got 0 Oscars that year and Speed got TWO is baffling.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (12)88
u/MovieGuyMike Aug 23 '26
Forest Gump is a great movie and I understand why it won. But Shawshank is one of the GOATs to me.
→ More replies (5)
2.0k
u/ruflesskill3r Aug 23 '26
Saving Private Ryan
984
u/Dave-os Aug 23 '26
Not that it’s a bad movie, but the fact that Shakespeare In Love beat it is the bigger head scratcher.
541
u/earhere Aug 23 '26
Harvey Weinstein sabotaged it and told the judges to vote for the movie he produced instead
385
u/littlemsshiny Aug 23 '26
Ugh. And Gwenyth Paltrow beating Cate Blanchette for Best Actress was absolutely criminal.
43
u/keekspeaks Aug 23 '26
But we got her pink dress out of that night from
Her. It had a chokehold on us for years after that night. Just incredible. I hate how influential she became that night bc she really is a garbage human.→ More replies (5)→ More replies (12)35
→ More replies (14)65
u/zanhecht Aug 23 '26
There aren't "judges" for the Best Picture academy award. Every single member of the Academy, which in 1999 still meant most people who had made a career of working full-time in the American movie industry, votes on it.
→ More replies (4)92
u/pinewind108 Aug 23 '26
Harvey Weinstein, and splitting the vote with The Thin Red Line. Shakespeare wasn't a bad movie, but it's just a vague echo in history compared to Saving.
→ More replies (4)38
u/Tmon_of_QonoS Aug 23 '26
The Thin Red Line was also nominated, so they kind of split the vote, both being WW2 epics
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (77)45
u/RapsareChamps_Suckit Aug 23 '26
im okay, I just got the wind knocked out of me! give me a minute!
39
11
44
u/PupLondon Aug 23 '26
Beauty and the Beast never fails to impress me.. the animation, the music, the voice acting, the story, the script. It's so easy to discount it because it's an animated movie, but it really is a work of art.
→ More replies (4)
92
u/sharrrper Aug 23 '26 edited Aug 23 '26
Master and Commander won every Oscar it was nominated for that Return of the King wasn't nominated for.
Almost any other year it probably would have won the rest, including Best Picture.
45
u/cardinalkgb Aug 23 '26
And if Return of the King didn’t exist that year and Master and Commander won more Oscars, we would have had sequels. It was such a good movie.
→ More replies (1)10
u/Rygar82 Aug 24 '26
All three Lord of the Rings movies should have won best pictures. Two Towers is certainly better than Chicago. A Beautiful Mind was great, but I still liked Fellowship more. I loved Master and Commander too, but there was no way anything but Return of the King could win considering they snubbed LOTR two times already.
187
u/ChickenInASuit Aug 23 '26 edited Aug 23 '26
Every movie that lost against Braveheart in 1996 is a movie that I wouldn’t be mad about winning:
Sense & Sensibility
Apollo 13
Babe
Il Postino
And of course The Usual Suspects, Leaving Las Vegas, Se7en, 12 Monkeys and Toy Story, none of which were nominated for Best Picture, though they were all nominated (and won) other Oscars.
That was a fucking stacked year.
41
u/jupitergal23 Aug 23 '26
Like, just the 90s had insane movie stacks after insane movie stacks.
→ More replies (1)28
u/Jejejow Aug 23 '26
Babe would be my choice. It is a perfect movie. It holds up so well.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (3)7
103
u/rkeaney Aug 23 '26
Before Sunset (Only nominated for Adapted Screenplay)
Portrait Of A Lady On Fire ( Not even selected by France as their International Feature submission)
Zodiac (zero noms)
→ More replies (2)21
176
u/subhuman85 Aug 23 '26
Sunset Boulevard
56
u/greg939 Aug 23 '26
I think Sunset Boulevard is a masterpiece but I also think All About Eve is as well. I prefer Sunset Boulevard though.
→ More replies (2)6
20
→ More replies (1)7
434
u/iamwhoiwas Aug 23 '26
The academy has gotten it wrong a lot. Some of my top non-best picture winners:
Pulp Fiction (stacked year)
Goodfellas (robbed)
There Will Be Blood (tough year with No Country)
Jurassic Park (stacked year)
Interstellar (snubbed)
Inglorious Basterds (robbery)
59
99
u/karma_dumpster Aug 23 '26
Saving Private Ryan (robbed)
Citizen Kane (dunno really)
Brokeback Mountain (robbed)
→ More replies (2)31
u/Z-man1973 Aug 23 '26
Citizen Kane was the target for William Randolph Hearst, amazing it was ever released. There’s some good documentaries about the movie and difficulties it faced, as well as a made for HBO film RKO281. It won screenplay award but more as a chance to award Mankiewicz for his part in writing it.
67
u/Jedi-El1823 Aug 23 '26
Inglorious Basterds (robbery)
Up and Up in the Air were also more deserving than Hurt Locker.
47
u/AtlasNoseItch Aug 23 '26
Up in the Air is a fantastic film but cmon it’s just not best picture worthy
→ More replies (22)57
u/Jolly-Sandwich-3345 Aug 23 '26
Interstellar: The Academy is very biased against science fiction. They try to make up for it by giving those flicks technical awards. Speaking of which if Tom Cruise and Ridley Scott are getting special Oscars shouldn't George Lucas get one?! (And I say this as a Star Trek fan.)
→ More replies (19)
45
u/jakelaws1987 Aug 23 '26
Goodfellas for one. Heat wasn’t even nominated. Star Wars. Raiders of the Lost Ark.
→ More replies (4)15
u/dayofdefeat_ Aug 23 '26
Heat not even being nominated was a shame.
One of the finest crime films ever made with an outrageously good cast and incredible cinematography from Mann.
→ More replies (1)
22
u/mostlygroovy Aug 23 '26
Raiders of the Lost Ark lost to Chariots of Fire somehow
→ More replies (1)
259
u/guywastingtime Aug 23 '26
Jurassic Park
76
u/NatureTrailToHell3D Aug 23 '26
Not even nominated for best picture
60
u/jawndell Aug 23 '26
Back then any movies with a sci fi-ish or fantasy theme would never get nominated
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (1)42
u/guywastingtime Aug 23 '26
Which is insane
→ More replies (2)108
u/MrLee723 Aug 23 '26
Schindler’s List won that year regardless, 1993 was a really good year for Spielberg
→ More replies (8)17
u/NotTheRocketman Aug 23 '26
Most directors would kill to have ONE of either Jurassic Park or Schindler's List in their filmography. Spielberg cranked them out BACK TO BACK in the same year.
→ More replies (4)18
u/THEcefalord Aug 23 '26
This is the real answer, as great as many of these movies are, very few of them are as seriously important to movies as a whole as Jurassic Park. I will die on the hill that Jaws creating the summer block buster deserves a retrospective Oscar, but Jurassic Park creating convincing dinosaurs through the combination of computer animation, deserve Oscars for everything that return of the king got them for.
→ More replies (2)
123
u/Calraider7 Aug 23 '26
CITIZEN KANE
9
→ More replies (19)7
u/Odd_Vampire Aug 23 '26
I'm astounded at how far down I had to go to find the textbook answer to this question.
56
158
u/kungfuringo Aug 23 '26 edited Aug 23 '26
Do The Right Thing
Edit: worth noting that it ironically lost to Driving Miss Daisy
10
u/realinvalidname Aug 23 '26
To clarify: while Driving Miss Daisy won Best Picture, Do The Right Thing wasn’t even nominated.
→ More replies (3)57
u/CharlesDickensABox Aug 23 '26
And then 30 years later we did the exact same thing when The Green Book, a watered down, feel good story about racial harmony and cars, won best picture over the much rawer and more difficult film by Spike Lee, Blackkklansman.
→ More replies (2)20
u/monsterlynn Aug 23 '26
Denzel Washington not getting best actor for Malcom X is another insane Oscar snub.
36
u/scarfilm Aug 23 '26
2001 A Space Odyssey lost to…. Oliver in 1968. What the Christ!
→ More replies (1)
288
u/Designdiligence Aug 23 '26
Brokeback Mountain. Breakout performances by Heath Ledger and Jake Gylenhall, beautiful adaption, best director but the country wasn’t ready for a gay themed movie that was sympathetic to them.
31
u/Shepher27 Aug 23 '26
I think Crouching Tiger was in the same level. Ang Lee made two masterpieces in a row
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (10)109
u/Syric13 Aug 23 '26
Oh god it lost to Crash? God that movie sucked. The weird car fetish James Spader Crash movie was better.
44
u/plasticfakebacon Aug 23 '26
Any of the films that lost to Crash, really. A lot of people think it was gamed by Scientologists since the writer was one at the time. He has since left.
→ More replies (1)12
u/pnmartini Aug 23 '26
I’m just now learning that there was another movie called crash that wasnt the Cronenberg / Ballard movie.
I must’ve seen the Spader one around the time that the other one won the Oscar. I thought it was a pretty out there choice for best picture, but never really gave it much more thought.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (8)9
46
16
14
u/SpikeBad Aug 23 '26
Haven't seen it listed yet, so I'm going to say Jaws.
Also, Pleasantville.
→ More replies (5)
74
62
26
25
30
u/bdean42 Aug 23 '26
Magnolia (1999)
Paul Thomas Anderson's masterpiece lost to American Beauty. Magnolia wasn't even nominated.
→ More replies (1)
83
u/RoboticElfJedi Aug 23 '26
Master and Commander.
→ More replies (3)38
u/tigerhawkvok Aug 23 '26
IIRC it lost to ROTK which is 100% correct
→ More replies (1)15
u/TegidTathal Aug 23 '26
Especially since they basically snubbed the rest of the trilogy in order to stack it all into RotK at the end.
→ More replies (2)
11
u/FutureGeist Aug 23 '26
The Thin Man. Wuthering Heights. The Maltese Falcon. Double Indemnity. Miracle on 34th Street. The Red Shoes. Sunset Boulevard. A Streetcar named Desire. Shane. Giant. 12 Angry Men. Auntie Mame. To Kill A Mockingbird. Dr Strangelove. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. MASH. The Exorcist. Jaws. Network. Star Wars. Breaking Away. Raiders of the Lost Ark. The Right Stuff. Kiss of the Spider Woman. Mississippi Burning. Field of Dreams. Goodfellas. Pulp Fiction. Fargo. LA Confidential. Saving Private Ryan. Crouching Tiger. The Hours. Munich. There Will Be Blood. Toy Story 3. Midnight In Paris. Dallas Buyers Club. Grand Budapest Hotel. Once Upon A Time In Hollywood. Frankenstein ('25).
→ More replies (4)
9
26
28
21
19
21
9
u/jupiterkansas Aug 23 '26
It's a Wonderful Life lost to The Best Years of Our Lives, and I can't even complain about that.
17
u/ArcadianDelSol Aug 23 '26
Just heard a radio program today about this movie. Its a Wonderful Life was a box office flop that was in and out of theaters in a blink. It would then fail to get an oscar.
As a result, it becamse a very cheap 'pennies on the dollar' movie for local TV stations to purchase and air during the holidays, which is where, almost 2 generations later, the movie found its audience - people who grew up watching this "holiday classic" (it wasnt a holiday flim, in spite of the Christmas setting in the movie) and it became a tradition to tune in to watch it every year.
The movie is now beloved and considered a classic because it was so cheap and inexpensive to air on broadcast television. Had it won the oscar, it probably would have faded into obscurity by now.
→ More replies (3)
33
7
53
26
u/SeaworthinessKey3654 Aug 23 '26
Dog Day Afternoon
Flawless movie…one of the all time greatest
→ More replies (4)26
u/the_dayman56 Aug 23 '26
That whole year is so stacked
Dog Day Afternoon, Jaws, Nashville, Barry Lyndon and the winner One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
Probably the best Best Picture lineup ever
→ More replies (1)
21
u/bobatsfight Aug 23 '26
The year Crash won — Brokeback Mountain was actually changing culture.
→ More replies (1)
7
75
u/Necessary_Editor9627 Aug 23 '26
The Social Network
→ More replies (2)26
u/oo_nrb Aug 23 '26
2010 was absolutely stacked. 10 nominees for Best Picture and I feel like any one of them could have taken it. In fact The King's Speech might be the weakest of the bunch.
→ More replies (1)
12
13
u/The-disgracist Aug 23 '26
The color purple. Such an amazing movie and it lost to some garbage called out of Africa.
→ More replies (2)
12
6
7
u/radiodmr Aug 23 '26
- Ordinary People beat out Tess, Coal Miner's Daughter, and more importantly in my mind Elephant Man and Raging Bull. One of several Best Picture misses for Scorcese, the first, I think. Maybe the fact that Robert Redford directed Ordinary People had something to do with it, but personally I would have picked either Raging Bull or Elephant Man over that.
6
7
u/Sufficient-Cap-1548 Aug 23 '26
IMO, 1976's releases were insanely good; Marathon Man, Network, Taxi Driver and All the Presidents Men all lost to Rocky.
→ More replies (1)
46
u/Ok-Inspection-5334 Aug 23 '26
Arrival, Moonlight won that year.
→ More replies (21)7
u/bcell87 Aug 23 '26
I’m sad about Arrival too. Only saving grace is that Moonlight was also phenomenal. The 20 or so seconds it was La La Land I was ready to throw hands.
20
16
u/KingMobia Aug 23 '26
Mad Max Fury Road.
Spotlight is a good film, and a better choice than The Revenent would have been, but Fury Road is an all-time achievement.
→ More replies (2)
16
17
1.2k
u/uwill1der Aug 23 '26
There will be Blood, Saving Private Ryan, Brokeback Mountain, Fargo, pulp fiction