What’s the best movie that should have won an Oscar but didn’t?
Jésus de Montréal in 1990, Canada’s entry for best foreign film. It lost to 37[sup]o[/sup]2 le matin, aka Betty Blue, the French entry, which was a total piece of crap movie, IMO.
JDM is a fantastic rental. Get the subtitled version, not the dubbed version.
The year Shakespear in Love won, Saving Private Ryan shouldda blew it out of the water like an amphibious landing craft.
I haven’t seen Jésus de Montréal but I did enjoy Betty Blue. In Scott’s defence, though, you should never see the dubbed version of anything. The Italians, for example, dub the performances of Orson Welles and John Wayne, which is surely an abomination before all cinematic gods. Sadly, most of cinema’s high points were denied the rewards they deserved, though some did still get some recognition. Raging Bull, for example, won best actor oscar but lost out in the best film category to the inescapably mediocre Ordinary People.
I just saw Of Mice and Men and thought it just had to win something, especially Aaron Copland’s score (you didn’t have to follow the movie at all, just hearing the music would have drove you to tears). Unfortunatly, it had to come out in 1939, the year of EVERYTHING: Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Goodbye, Mr. Chips, etc. It still should have won Best Score over stupid Wizard of Oz.
shawshank redemption should have beaten forest gump. I find shawshank on more people’s top three favorite movies than just about anything else.
The Searchers, Touch of Evil, City Lights, Modern Times and The Night of the Hunter all of which are in IMDB’s best 250 films of all time, received no Oscar nominations at all.
Paths of Glory is number 30 all time at IMDB, it too was nominated for nothing. The same year Peyton Place received 7 nominations
The Wizard of Oz is not “stupid”, nor is it’s score unworthy of it’s award. Some of the songs have become cultural linchpins, for Gods’ sake. Puh-leeze. :rolleyes:
Raging Bull was the first movie I thought of, but it was quickly followed by E.T. which lost to the epically conventional Ghandi. The wag was that Hollywood big-wigs voted for Ghandi because he was three things they weren’t: tan, thin, and moral. 
Pulp Fiction over Forrest Gump is another one. And didn’t High Noon and The Quiet Man lose to The Greatest Show on Earth?
A question never asked: When did the Academy get it right? Godfather I and II spring instantly to mind, as does Unforgiven.
I’m assuming the OP is referring to a film that didn’t get any Oscars at all. Many of the above mentioned films won Oscars, but not Best Picture.
The first film to spring to my mind is The Color Purple. 11 nominations. 0 wins.
Danny Peary who wrote “Alternate Oscars” (I recommend this book) does mention the few times in his opinion that the academy got it right:
Besides The Godfather, the Academy did hit it right when it gave the Oscar to Casablanca–1943 Annie Hall-1977 and Platoon-1986
But, as usual, we wonder what the academy was smoking in other years:
Cavalcade got the Oscar in 1933 but not KING KONG???
The Iron Giant. I mean, forget Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, if an animated movie deserved a Best Picture Oscar (or even just a nomination), this is it.
Until the day I die, I will hold that LA Confidential was robbed when it lost to that piece of crap movie about the boat. Remotely interesting (but blandly conventional) special effects on top of a maudlin story, ridiculously bad acting and dialogue and acting more stiff than the frozen corpses bobbing in the ocean, yet it somehow wins Best Picture? No, I don’t think so.
Sorry, Scott Evil, but this is wrong. Jesus lost to Cinema Paradiso, which IMO is a better film. Betty was nominated three years ealier and didn’t win that year either (the french entry against Jesus was Camille Claudel)
Pulp Fiction
Dangerous Liasons should have beaten out Rain Man.
I could be wrong, but I believe Psycho walked away empty handed…
This year provides a good enough example. I thought Gosford Park was way better than A Beautiful Mind.
Okay, but its “songs” don’t count as its score, and it already won best song that year too. It’s score should not have won over Of Mice and Men.
In '88, Dead Ringers should have at least gotten the nomination slot that was taken up by the undeserving Working Girl.
Glory wasn’t even freakin’ nominated for Best Picture in its year. Driving Miss Daisy won that year. Travesty.