In hindsight, what pictures should have been nominated for Best Picture in 2000?

Cafe Society
1

As most of us know, The Academy often gets things very wrong. So I want to take a random year, and see if we can form some sort of consensus, in hindsight, about what movies should have been nominated for best picture. Let’s try this for the year 2000. If we have fun with it, maybe we’ll try other years.

The movies actually nominated for Best Picture in 2000:

Gladiator (winner)
Chocolat
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Erin Brockovich
Traffic

Here’s a list of notable films from the year 2000.

From that list, and with the benefit of hindsight, my nominees would be:

Best In Show
High Fidelity
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (winner)
Cast Away
Gladiator (deserved a nomination, not a win,IMHO)

(I almost nominated The Tao of Steve as a dark horse. I love that movie, but maybe it’s not quite Best Picture material.)

Your picks?

2

American Psycho
Dancer in The Dark

3

Let me clarify. Ideally I’d like each poster to give me a list of their 5 nominees.

4

I’ll go through the list again.

5

2000, so there was still a cap on 5 for possible nominees.

I’d give the win to O Brother, Where Art Thou?

with the other nominees being
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Almost Famous
High Fidelity
Snatch

6

That wouldn’t disqualify it. Best Picture nominees are usually American films but they don’t have to be.

7

Good list bienville. In fact I missed Almost Famous. My revised list:
Almost Famous (very much deserved a nomination)
High Fidelity
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (winner)
Cast Away
Gladiator

I liked Snatch very much, but it wouldn’t quite make my list. Crouching Tiger really didn’t do much for me.

8

Good thread idea, this is fun!

O Brother, Where Art Thou? <-- Best Picture
Gladiator
Erin Brockovich
Memento
Snatch

I really wanted to give the best picture to “Snatch” as it’s one of my favorite movies of all time, but O Brother has such a greater mass appeal, amazing music, and had a delightful style all it’s own.

9

Yeah, I thought about that after I posted it. I’ll add:
Memento
Requiem For a Dream
Shadow of The Vampire
(I do like Snatch, too.)

10

Traffic
O brother
Gladiator
Before Night Falls
Quills

It’s what I thought then and what I think now. For my money Traffic is easily the best film of that year. O brother is second.

11

Winner: O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Other nominees:

Almost Famous
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Memento
Best in Show

Other favorites of mine:

Sexy Beast
You Can Count on Me

12

I know you want 5, but I’m going with current rules (sorry)

All the Pretty Horses
Almost Famous
Best in Show
Castaway*
Chocolat
Erin Brockovich
Finding Forester
Memento
Men of Honor
Pollock

*=winner

13

I wish I could contribute more to a full list but I haven’t seen a lot of these movies.

I would give the award to Cast Away. I think Memento, Snatch, Best In Show and O Brother Where Art Thou deserve nominations.

14

Best in Show is a very funny movie – I actually watched it again a week or two ago – but it really isn’t Best Picture caliber.

15

etv78, I agree with you that All the Pretty Horses is an underappreciated film.

twickster, define your terms. What, in your view, makes a film “Best Picture caliber”?

For me, it is amovie that bears many repeat viewings (which is part of the reason I think hindsight of a few years is helpful in this exercise). Several of the actual nominees just don’t hold up by that standard, IMHO.

16

I tend to give good comedies extra credit because comedy is so hard, and because the Academy tends not to recognize them.

17

Agreed. I love Best in Show, but it’s not really a Best Picture quality film. Best Picture isn’t just about being an enjoyable movie… It’s about the sum of its various parts, the editing, the acting, the writing, etc. When you have a movie that excels in multiple areas, you have a BP caliber film. I’m willing to be proven wrong here, but I don’t think you could give me very many examples of a BP winner or nominee that wasn’t also lauded for its various components.

18

My five nominees for 2000 would be:

Almost Famous
Billy Elliot
Cast Away
Gladiator
Requiem for a Dream

My dark horse would be Nurse Betty, a vastly underrated film.

19

Traffic (winner)
Gladiator
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Requiem for a Dream
Memento

Sort of an odd year, in my opinion; after Traffic and Gladiator, you could probably talk me into choosing from at least six films for those last three spots (the three above, Erin Brockovich, O Brother, and Almost Famous), and possibly a couple more.

20

Memento *
Chicken Run
Best in Show

I’d leave the other two slots vacant, although if I got my wish I’d add Ginger Snaps. :wink: