# Films you can't believe weren't nominated for a single Oscar **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 25, 2006, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-you-cant-believe-werent-nominated-for-a-single-oscar/341496 "2006-01-25T03:15:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![andrewdt85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/71e660/32.png) [@andrewdt85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andrewdt85)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2006, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-you-cant-believe-werent-nominated-for-a-single-oscar/341496/1 "2006-01-25T03:15:30Z")
First off, please allow me to make a few requests for this thread: ``` 1.) No mentioning films that *were* nominated for Oscars in *any* category (even if it was a mediocre one like Best Sound, whereas you feel the film deserved nomination for Best Picture) but didn’t win any Oscars- I want this list to consist only of films that were not nominated for *any* Oscars, but should have been nominated for SOMETHING for goodness sakes. Granted, you may not know for sure if your movie you have in mind was nominated for some lesser award- but someone else will hopefully correct us. 2.) No nominating actors/actresses whom you’d love seeing win an Oscar ``` but haven’t yet. ``` I did a search to see if the topic’s been done already- I found a thread in ``` which **Archive Guy** lists these as his 50 Best American Movies with absolultely no Oscar nominations: The Wind (Sjostrom, 1928) Steamboat Bill, Jr. (Keaton, 1928) Trouble in Paradise (Lubitsch, 1932) Scarface (Hawks, 1932) Love Me Tonight (Mamoulian, 1932) King Kong (Cooper/Schoedsack, 1933) Footlight Parade (Bacon, 1933) Dinner at Eight (Cukor, 1933) Man’s Castle (Borzage, 1933) Duck Soup (McCarey, 1933) It’s a Gift (McLeod, 1934) The Scarlet Empress (Sternberg, 1934) A Night at the Opera (Wood, 1935) Modern Times (Chaplin, 1936) Make Way for Tomorrow (McCarey, 1937) His Girl Friday (Hawks, 1940) The Shop Around the Corner (Lubitsch, 1940) Sullivan’s Travels (Sturges, 1942) The Palm Beach Story (Sturges, 1942) Scarlet Street (Lang, 1945) The Big Sleep (Hawks, 1946) Out of the Past (Tourneur, 1947) Force of Evil (Polonsky, 1948) Letter from an Unknown Woman (Ophuls, 1948) On Dangerous Ground (Ray, 1951) The Man from Laramie (Mann, 1955) Kiss Me Deadly (Aldrich, 1955) Night of the Hunter (Laughton, 1955) The Searchers (Ford, 1956) The Incredible Shrinking Man (Arnold, 1957) Sweet Smell of Success (Mackendrick, 1957) Paths of Glory (Kubrick, 1957) The Pajama Game (Donen/Abbott, 1957) The Tarnished Angels (Sirk, 1957) Touch of Evil (Welles, 1958) Rio Bravo (Hawks, 1959) Ride the High Country (Peckinpah, 1962) The Naked Kiss (Fuller, 1964) Point Blank (Boorman, 1967) Two-Lane Blacktop (Hellman, 1971) Mean Streets (Scorsese, 1973) Dawn of the Dead (Romero, 1978) Killer of Sheep (Burnett, 1978) This Is Spinal Tap (Reiner, 1984) The Terminator (Cameron, 1984) Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure (Burton, 1985) House of Games (Mamet, 1987) Simple Men (Hartley, 1992) Dead Man (Jarmusch, 1995) Smoke (Wang, 1995) And other posters feel these should have been nominated for something, too: Three Kings (1999) City Lights Night of the Hunter The Iron Giant Dead Ringers How about you? Personally, here’s my list: Pleasantville- 98. Was this even nominated for anything? It was beautiful, and had some good ideas to it. Reservoir Dogs- 92. Richard Roeper believes it to be one of the 100 best American films of all time. Scream- it won a Saturn award (that’s for best horror movie each year), but no, the Academy would never touch a film like this. Sucks… Battle Royale- Best Foreign Film? 😃 Okay, maybe that’s pushing it- but the film is great. Last Action Hero- I’m not kidding; Best Original Screenplay or something… Fight Club- was it nominated for anything? The Ring- so good at being horror, it deserved something. Yes, I know it was based on Japanese film Ringu- it’s much better than that original version. Cast Away- nominated for anything? ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2006, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-you-cant-believe-werent-nominated-for-a-single-oscar/341496/2 "2006-01-25T04:20:45Z")
> [@andrewdt85](#): > > Pleasantville- 98. Was this even nominated for anything? It was beautiful, and had some good ideas to it. Nominated for Best Art Direction, Best Original Score, and Best Costume Design. > [@](#): > > Reservoir Dogs- 92. Richard Roeper believes it to be one of the 100 best American films of all time. Reservoir Dogs didn’t really become popular until after its initial theatrical release. > [@](#): > > Last Action Hero- I’m not kidding; Best Original Screenplay or something… No, you’re kidding. Best Original Screenplay for what? And who would you give the award to? It had about a thousand writers. > [@](#): > > Fight Club- was it nominated for anything? Best Sound Effects Editing. > [@](#): > > Cast Away- nominated for anything? Best Actor (Tom Hanks) and Best Sound. ---
**Author:** ![Alistair\_McCello](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/58956e/32.png) [@Alistair\_McCello](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alistair_McCello)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2006, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-you-cant-believe-werent-nominated-for-a-single-oscar/341496/3 "2006-01-25T07:04:07Z")
As IMDB seems to be either down or ungodly slow at the moment I can’t confirm this 100%, but to the best of my knowledge neither Rushmore (1999) nor The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) were nominated for any oscars. Wes Anderson’s second movie, The Royal Tennenbaums, was nominated for best original screenplay but while I liked it I’ve always thought that it paled in comparison with his other movies. I might have more but without the confirmation of IMDB I think I’ll put it off. The only reason I am posting these two with any amount of confidence is that the cases are sitting on my desk and neither mentions anything about an oscar nominations. ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2006, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-you-cant-believe-werent-nominated-for-a-single-oscar/341496/4 "2006-01-25T07:09:21Z")
Holy cow, those are some great movies in the OP’s list that weren’t nominated for anything!!! Not a single thing for The Searches, His Girl Friday, Trouble in Paradise?? Wow. The list seems extra thick with bona fide classic older movies, which is either a reflection of how long it takes for something to be accepted as a classic (and thus award-worthy), or it’s a reflection of there having been fewer categories to be nominated in in the old days. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2006, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-you-cant-believe-werent-nominated-for-a-single-oscar/341496/5 "2006-01-25T07:29:51Z")
Easy: Akira Wings of Honeamise Grave of the Fireflies Vampire Hunter D (new one) Patlabor the Move I etc. ---
**Author:** ![andrewdt85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/71e660/32.png) [@andrewdt85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andrewdt85)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2006, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-you-cant-believe-werent-nominated-for-a-single-oscar/341496/6 "2006-01-25T08:05:13Z")
> [@Rodgers01](#): > > Holy cow, those are some great movies in the OP’s list that weren’t nominated for anything!!! Not a single thing for The Searches, His Girl Friday, Trouble in Paradise?? Wow. The list seems extra thick with bona fide classic older movies, which is either a reflection of how long it takes for something to be accepted as a classic (and thus award-worthy), or it’s a reflection of there having been fewer categories to be nominated in in the old days. It’s also because people back then took Westerns (The Searchers) and madcap comedies (His Girl Friday) and musicals (Singin’ in the Rain) for granted, whereas, with the benefit of hindsight, we recognize them as the brightest lights in their field. That’s right- Singin’ in the Rain got _no_ nominations. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2006, 8:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-you-cant-believe-werent-nominated-for-a-single-oscar/341496/7 "2006-01-25T08:49:19Z")
Is it ok if I look into the future? **Mirromask** It deserves nominations in Visual Effects Art Direction Costumes Makeup And will not receive a one. ---
**Author:** ![andrewdt85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/71e660/32.png) [@andrewdt85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andrewdt85)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2006, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-you-cant-believe-werent-nominated-for-a-single-oscar/341496/8 "2006-01-26T18:03:00Z")
Kill Bill Volumes 1 and 2- no AMPAS nominations, [as you can see.](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0378194/awards) Man, that’s whack. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2006, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-you-cant-believe-werent-nominated-for-a-single-oscar/341496/9 "2006-01-26T18:23:44Z")
Well, in the 30s, the Oscars were fixed. Studios basically told the Academy what to nominate (it was at that time run by the studios as a fake union), and their choices had to do with choosing big budget, “prestige” films. They also told their employees who to vote for, and, supposedly, determined studio would win beforehand. The Oscars really didn’t become independent of the studios until TV. The studios paid AMPAS’s operating expenses, so called the shots. When they got tired of Oscars going to nonstudio pictures, they pulled their payments in the early 50s. AMPAS went to TV and was able to go on independently of the studios. But anything before the mid-50s is skewed by the way the studios ran things. ---
**Author:** ![Malodorous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e47774/32.png) [@Malodorous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malodorous)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2006, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-you-cant-believe-werent-nominated-for-a-single-oscar/341496/10 "2006-01-26T19:09:29Z")
> [@Sage Rat](#): > > Akira > Wings of Honeamise > Grave of the Fireflies > Vampire Hunter D (new one) > Patlabor the Move I > etc. I think you need to have been shown in a theater in LA to qualify for the Oscars. Is this true of any of the movies you mentioned? ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2006, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-you-cant-believe-werent-nominated-for-a-single-oscar/341496/11 "2006-01-26T19:48:03Z")
> [@andrewdt85](#): > > That’s right- Singin’ in the Rain got _no_ nominations. Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Jean Hagen); Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture (Lennie Hayton). ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2006, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-you-cant-believe-werent-nominated-for-a-single-oscar/341496/12 "2006-01-26T19:56:28Z")
> [@Malodorous](#): > > I think you need to have been shown in a theater in LA to qualify for the Oscars. Is this true of any of the movies you mentioned? All have played in Los Angeles theaters. ---
**Author:** ![andrewdt85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/71e660/32.png) [@andrewdt85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andrewdt85)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2006, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-you-cant-believe-werent-nominated-for-a-single-oscar/341496/13 "2006-01-26T19:58:26Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > But anything before the mid-50s is skewed by the way the studios ran things. And most anything after that is skewed by the idiocy of the Academy. I mean, GLADIATOR!!! FUCK!!! ---
**Author:** ![andrewdt85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/71e660/32.png) [@andrewdt85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andrewdt85)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2006, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-you-cant-believe-werent-nominated-for-a-single-oscar/341496/14 "2006-01-26T19:59:37Z")
> [@Walloon](#): > > Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Jean Hagen); Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture (Lennie Hayton). :o Whoops- I guess I read that it didn’t _win_ any awards, which is still bad… ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2006, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-you-cant-believe-werent-nominated-for-a-single-oscar/341496/15 "2006-01-26T19:59:39Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Studios basically told the Academy what to nominate (it was at that time run by the studios as a fake union), and their choices had to do with choosing big budget, “prestige” films. They also told their employees who to vote for, and, supposedly, determined studio would win beforehand. Then, as now, nominations were by individual ballot. Editors nominated editors, actors nominated actors, directors nominated directors. Studios were free to “tell” their employees whom to vote for, but the employees were under no obligation to listen. They were private ballots, after all. ---
**Author:** ![M.Meursault](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b487fb/32.png) [@M.Meursault](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/M.Meursault)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2006, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-you-cant-believe-werent-nominated-for-a-single-oscar/341496/16 "2006-01-26T20:58:14Z")
The Big Lebowski (98) was not nominated for anything, which is a shame. Farenheit 9/11 (04) was not nominated, mostly as a result of Michael Moore’s attempt to get it nominated for Best Picture over Best Documentary. I would have imagined it would have been a lock for the Documentary category. Apparently, Werner Herzog rarely, if ever, gets nominated for his wonderful documentaries. I read an article about this today, but can’t seem to find where I read it. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2006, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-you-cant-believe-werent-nominated-for-a-single-oscar/341496/17 "2006-01-26T21:42:17Z")
**Star Trek II** should have been nominated for, and won, the Best Original Score Oscar. The score makes the movie. Instead, **E.T.'s** soulless score won that year (1982) ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2006, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-you-cant-believe-werent-nominated-for-a-single-oscar/341496/18 "2006-01-26T21:54:50Z")
I was always a little surprised that Ang Lee’s **the Ice Storm** wasn’t nominated for anything, especially given that (at least during the year 1997), the Academy’s standards were low enough that “Titanic” (of all movies) swept the oscars. Gawd! I mean, _Titanic_??? But I’m digressing… ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2006, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-you-cant-believe-werent-nominated-for-a-single-oscar/341496/19 "2006-01-27T00:49:35Z")
> [@Malodorous](#): > > I think you need to have been shown in a theater in LA to qualify for the Oscars. Is this true of any of the movies you mentioned? Other foreign films made it in during the same time frame. No idea whether that’s Japan being cheap or the US not liking adult animation, but it still goes that those movies would have been able to win out over something in some category. ---
**Author:** ![jimmmy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/73ab20/32.png) [@jimmmy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimmmy)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2006, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-you-cant-believe-werent-nominated-for-a-single-oscar/341496/20 "2006-01-27T01:18:09Z")
Michael Moore’s 1st film\*\* Roger and Me \*\* wasn’t nominated for [anything](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098213/awards) by the Academy and IMO was one of the most enjoyable & unusual Documentaries ever. It raised the bar in its genre – and Moore has never come close to its uniqueness since really. As a HUGE Coen fan I have to say: \*\* Raising Arizona\*\*, in hindsight, deserved several nominations and got none. **Hudsucker Proxy & Millers Crossing** may be slightly less obvious and thier slighting less ridiculous, but neither got \*ANY \* nominations whatsoever – and I think there must have been a weak spot or two somewhere in the Nominations to honor these two films [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-you-cant-believe-werent-nominated-for-a-single-oscar/341496.md?page=2)