The Academy Awards are a challenging event. The Academy honors are the most prestigious and well-respected film awards in the world. They are a legendary organization that has lasting respect from both the public and the film industry. But the Oscars certainly not ideal.
The Academy has a history of overlooking some of the most significant and enduring films, for one reason or another. Examples include the strange decision to award Best Picture to “Green Book” a few years ago, the failure to nominate film industry titans like Martin Scorsese or Stephen Spielberg until several decades into their careers, and the recent scandalous decision to not nominate Greta Gerwig or Margot Robbie in their respective primary categories for “Barbie.”
In order to discredit the Oscars as a whole, let’s look back at certain films and directors who, to be quite honest, should never have received a nomination. For crying out loud, “Citizen Kane” is still regarded as one of the best movies ever made, while having only received one Oscar. The Academy should be ashamed of these additional errors and snubs.
5. Greta Gerwig for “Little Women”
If they’re being really honest, Gerwig’s most egregious rejection was in 2019, when she was not nominated for her modern masterpiece, “Little Women.” Her name has been in the headlines a lot lately because to her loss of a Best Director nomination for “Barbie.”
Gerwig produced something very amazing in “Little Women,” radically changing the basis of the renowned source material. As a result, audiences were deeply moved by this captivating piece of cinema. Gerwig’s amazing directing, however, was not nominated, despite other elements of the movie being.
While there were some really excellent movies and directors nominated that year (Scorsese’s “The Irishman,” Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood,” and eventual and well-deserved winner Bong Joon-ho’s “Parasite”), what other director was there? Todd Phillips.
It would be insane to believe that Todd Phillips’ self-serious and completely unimpressive performance in “Joker” earned him a nomination more so than Gerwig’s for “Little Women.”
4. Alfred Hitchcock
The creator of suspense, himself, was never an Oscar winner. How on earth is it even possible?
Hitchcock produced an incredible amount of timeless classics over the course of several decades, including some of the most innovative and brilliant films ever made. Because Hitchcock pushed the boundaries of the cinematic form, all of them were enormously popular with both critics and audiences and had a significant impact.
The director of films such as “North by Northwest,” “Vertigo,” “Shadow of a Doubt,” “Notorious,” “Rope,” “Rear Window,” and “Psycho” did not appear to be considered deserving enough to win an actual Oscar.
One of the Academy’s most obvious blind spots is the enormous number of filmmakers who *have* won Oscars and were directly influenced by Hitchcock’s work.
3.Samuel L. Jackson
Samuel L. Jackson is among the most iconic, versatile, and definitive performers of the past 50 years, yet he has never taken home an Academy Award. Although the Academy recently gave him an honorary statue, in all honesty, that’s more of a token of failure on their part.
Jackson hasn’t even received an Oscar nomination since his 1994—30 years ago—performance in “Pulp Fiction.” That is completely crazy. Jackson is amazing at whatever he does and consistently produces art that is interesting.
The subversive and simmeringly furious performance Jackson gave in “Django Unchained,” for which he was strangely not even nominated, is the one for which I would cherry-pick the one performance for which Jackson most deserved the award.
2. “Singin” in the Rain“
This one is fairly simple: one of the finest celluloid cinematic wins ever is Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen’s large, bold, and endlessly entertaining musical. Nevertheless, it left the Oscars completely empty-handed.
When you take into account that “Singin’ in the Rain” represents everything the Oscars purport to love—an ardent tribute to the history of cinema while swiftly advancing the medium—this rejection seems even more ridiculous.
Now, if you somehow overlooked “Singin’ in the Rain,” check it out right away. It’s more, much more than what you think. A timeless gem that hits all the right notes, “Singin’ in the Rain” has stood the test of time.
1. Stanley Kubrick
This writer believes that the fact that Stanley Kubrick, one of the finest minds to ever contribute to the history of film, never received an Oscar is the most egregious insult.
In actuality, the only Oscar that a Kubrick film has ever received was for “2001: A Space Odyssey” in the Best Visual Special Effects category, despite his timeless masterpieces that profoundly changed the way movies are made.
The Academy should be ashamed that Kubrick did not win an actual Oscar because he made some of the most unique and important movies ever.
