Oh how I would like to start our Oscar-less series by writing resentfully about how Forrest Gump won over more voters in AMPAS than Pulp Fiction and The Shawshank Redemption. That alone is worthy of an article, an essay, Hell, a book. Forrest Gump is not awful by any stretch of the imagination, but Pulp Fiction and The Shawshank Redemption are movies that have grown like wine, and become classics very fast. With a couple more missing nods from 1994, here are the first 5 of 100 Not Nominated For Oscars.
Foreign Language Film — Three Colors: Red (1994) — Robin Write
As you likely already know this is a personal favorite of mine, so I will try not to get too sentimental or twisted about this one. I won’t go giving too much credit either to the Academy, that they managed to sort-list this, the final color of the trilogy by Krzysztof Kieślowski, in Directing, Cinematography, and Original Screenplay – not many non-English movies achieve this kind of feat, even now, twenty years plus on. But Red did not make the Foreign Language Film nominations either. Like the first installment, Blue, which became ineligible as a Polish entry because of the French characters, Red was deemed not Swiss enough on this occasion. On a personal note I would have liked to have seen a Best Picture nod too, with Irene Jacob nominated for Best Actress (in what appeared to be a rather weak category that year), and the music by Zbigniew Preisner.
Leading Actor — Tom Hanks (Captain Phillips) 2013 — Al Robinson
Tom Hanks has been so good for so long that he’s now become underrated when it comes to the Oscars. He’s twice won and since then hasn’t seen quite the same amount of respect that he’s earned and deserved. In 2013 he starred in Captain Phillips as the titular captain whose ship is taken captive by pirates in the open seas off the coast of Somalia, Africa. His role is to keep everyone calm and safe. But what happens is he’s taken hostage and held captive for several days. Hanks brings such realism and humanity to this character, and makes you believe 100% that this is really happening to him. When he breaks down in the end, you feel nothing but sympathy for this guy who’s been through a harrowing experience. The fact that Tom Hanks was passed over is ridiculous, especially since he’s better than both nominee Christian Bale (American Hustle) and winner Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club).
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7q-j2aDKaA?rel=0&w=560&h=315]
Film Editing — The Graduate 1967 — Steve Schweighofer
Its amazing that the film editor of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Rosemary’s Baby, and Chinatown has never won an Oscar. Even more incredulous is that Sam O’Steen wasn’t even nominated or his benchmark work on The Graduate in the 1967 race – the year that changed Hollywood. O’Steen had two films that year – Cool Hand Luke was the second one. Perhaps his imaginative cutting wasn’t noticed, but some of his splices are iconic. One particular scene, where swimming pool Benjamin hikes himself up on his air mattress and lands on top of Mrs. Robinson in bed is a classic and perhaps one of a half dozen “WOW” edits that continue to dazzle at every viewing. BAFTA recognized this, awarding him their prize for Film Editing. But Oscar…”Sam Who”?
Supporting Actress — Margot Robbie (The Wolf of Wall Street) 2013 — Matt St. Clair
In her big breakthrough role in The Wolf of Wall Street, Margot Robbie was given the task of going toe-to-toe with the biggest movie star on the planet and boy, does she knock it out of the park. As Naomi Lapaglia, the bombshell wife of sleazy Wall Street stockbroker Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio), Robbie is a commanding presence whether she gives a piercing, sensual gaze or engages in a shouting match with DiCaprio. Her star may be rising thanks to her involvement in the DC Cinematic Universe as Harley Quinn and I,Tonya for which she is expected to land a Best Actress nomination. But The Wolf of Wall Street managed to serve as a beacon that would signal her arrival.
Director — Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption) 1994 — Robin Write
Seven nominations for The Shawshank Redemption, and Frank Darabont was one of two directors with Best Picture nominations to be left out (Mike Newell also left out for Four Weddings and a Funeral – not nearly as big a surprise). Darabont would suffer the same omission again when The Green Mile was nominated for Best Picture a few years later. And they really didn’t like Tim Robbins back then did they. Forget how the movie is now in top ten lists everywhere, at that time this was still deserving of having it’s director nominated. They nominated Woody Allen for Bullets Over Broadway without a Best Picture nod, so they had some gusto. For me, not even Robert Zmeckis would have made my list, Darabont most certainly would have.
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“It’s a clean sweep!” Steven Spielberg announced enthusiastically as he declared The Return Of The King winner of Best Picture – like we did not know that was going to happen considering the movie had taken each of the ten Oscars it was nominated for that far (remarkably though, no nominations in Sound Editing or Cinematography). It was touted as the possible winner before the show, but it was an unprecedented steam-roll that became more obvious as the night went on. It was clearly a reward for all three films, but did the trilogy deserve this kind of recognition finally. Yes. And did The Return Of The King warrant eleven Oscars? No. Was this fair on other contenders? No. The main contender was Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation (with just four nominations – what?), marking the first time an American woman was nominated for Director. If that does not make you feel a shameful disbelief, not much in the movies can surprise you.
Original Song — Gollum’s Song (The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers) 2002 — Robin Write
Comparing them purely on their merit within their trilogy, I am just going to come out and say The Two Towers was The Empire Strikes Back or The Godfather II of The Lord Of The Rings series. Forget about, for now, what would happen the next year when The Return Of The King would stampede over everything as the Academy compensated for neglecting the incredible trilogy. Those three years that The Lord Of The Rings movies were released really fucked with the voting system. For these movies, this was its worst year (winning two Oscars from six nominations), but the superior movie of the three. There were no nominations for Screenplay, Cinematography, Costume Design – and not even Make Up, where there were just the two nominees that year. What?! Oh yeah, and Peter Jackson was not anywhere to be seen on the Director list. There was no room for Score either, which moved toward a different, and possibly better theme this time around. Howard Shore also wrote the music to Fran Walsh’s lyrics for the also missing Song, performed by the heavenly Emiliana Torrini. I wonder how Oscar history would have altered had this been given the love it deserved.
Picture — Almost Famous 2000 — Al Robinson
One of the biggest snubs ever in Oscar history is when in 2000 Almost Famous was not nominated for Best Picture. WHAT? HOW? This is what I was thinking on nomination day, and frankly, what I still think now. It’s easily one of the 5 best films of 2000 and it is now considered a classic. The pieces were all there for a Best Picture nomination. It was about an interesting subject, rock and roll, journalism, it had great music, interesting characters, and it was based partially on a real story of what happened to a young Cameron Crowe as he was a teenager. Crowe wrote and directed it, and poured his heart and soul into it, and it shows greatly. The film is a beautiful heartfelt story about coming of age at a time when rock and roll was trying to figure out where to go next. I don’t know why the Oscar voters didn’t nominate it, but I blame The Weinstein Company at the time Miramax for getting Chocolat in instead. The irony now is that if it was this year, this wouldn’t happen, and I’d probably get that happy ending. Oh well…
Supporting Actor — Armie Hammer (The Social Network) 2010 — Steve Schweighofer
There are two things that Oscar voters don’t usually reward: Blockbusters and Handsome Actors. Perhaps they feel these two entities already have an abundance of riches and require no further validation. Or, more likely, they are simply jealous. Whatever the reason, Armie Hammer’s portrayal of the celestial Winklevoss twins was left out in the cold, despite his perfect balance of casual entitlement, jockishness and arrogance, an irresistible target for The Social Network’s protagonist. His double duty that required him to play off of himself as his characters slide from relaxed confidence into anger and panic enhance the tonal change of the film. The fact that Hammer shared a well-to-do background similar to the Winklevi may have seemed like not that much of a stretch to Oscar. With his good looks amplified by playing the rowing twins, Oscar was having none of it. Hopefully wiser heads will forgive his perfections when they cast their ballots this year.
Leading Actress — Scarlett Johansson (Lost in Translation) 2003 — Matt Fisher
Scarlett Johansson plays Charlotte, a woman who befriends aging actor Bob Harris played by Bill Murray. The film was nominated for 4 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Murray, Best Director for Sofia Coppola and Best Original Screenplay. The biggest snub was Johansson for Best Actress. Lost in Translation is the kind of movie that is only as good as its actors and Johansson delivers. As you watch her performance, you believe without a doubt that she is falling for Bob Harris. Her subtle innocence is delivered with just a glance or a slight smile. Very few actresses can make a story like this one convincing. Her choice of films in the last few years certainly have not shown what she is fully capable of, but her performance in Lost in Translation most certainly does.
Cinematography — Lance Accord (Lost in Translation) 2003 — Robin Write
Lost In Translation won Original Screenplay, with so little dialogue. This does not mean this was did not warrant the win. A screenplay is words describing dialogue and actions – what you see not just hear on a movie screen. And Lance Accord delivers a beautiful visual landscape here, of both the expanses and the isolation of Tokyo, and of the characters Bob and Charlotte themselves. There maybe are no words, then, for the composition of the chalky brightness, or the dark frames full of colorful lights, or the reflections from a swimming pool, or views beyond a hotel window. Some of it hand-held, some of it just sitting there, a wandering gaze. I’m sure there a thousand ways to interpret every color and frame and vivid light, but what is not really up for debate is how marvelously Accord’s camera captures everything it needs to. Superb. See for yourself:
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Had a certain movie budget-bombed as it looked for a while it would, then 1997 at the Oscars would have been a well fought out race between LA Confidential and Good Will Hunting. With nine nominations apiece there was a lot of love for both movies. Amidst the ridiculous, record-breaking sweep, they managed an acting support and screenplay win each – fine consolation. I also had a glitch with Gloria Stuart being nominated. And then Celine Dion wearing the heart of the ocean necklace as she sang that song at the awards ceremony was a sickening gimmick. Equally matched by James Cameron’s king of the world declaration. A technically accomplished blockbuster, it had no right making such an influence for it to be a Best Picture contender. Not the Academy’s finest hour. The silver lining is, of course, that Cameron was not nominated for Best Original Screenplay.
Supporting Actress — Sigourney Weaver (The Ice Storm) 1997 — Robin Write
Robbed. That’s what people were saying, or feeling, about Sigourney Weaver suddenly disappearing from the Best Supporting Actress radar and not making the list when the nominations were announced. In fact, The Ice Storm was forgotten altogether when it came to the Oscars. The critics for the most part seemed to fall in love with it, and it did well in Cannes. Weaver was nominated for a Golden Globe, and went on to win the BAFTA. In the Oscar line-up too, other than Julianne Moore (Boogie Nights) I would have happily swapped any of them out for Weaver. Maybe it is just me too, but as much as I love L.A. Confidential, I still don’t quite share the love for Kim Basinger.
Director — Alfred Hitchcock (Vertigo) 1958 — Steve Schweighofer
If one requires proof that Oscar has no clue, one needs to look no further than this – not only did they fail to award Alfred Hitchcock with a competitive Oscar – ever. They only nominated him a couple of times for his early work. The cherry on the top of this crap cake is that Vertigo reached the number one position on the definitive Sight & Sound list of the best films ever made in the mist recent survey – and Hitch couldn’t even snag a forgettable nomination for his directing. Although he had been nominated five times, none of those were for Notorious, North by Northwest, or Strangers on a Train, which, along with Rear Window, are personal faves. There is no better proof that legacy trumps Oscar.
Original Score — Howard Shore (The Silence of the Lambs) 1991 — Bianca Garner
How does one capture the horror of the events that take place in The Silence of the Lambs? How can you inspire and both shock the viewer without resorting to big booming drums and loud trumpets? How do you score a horror film without everyone instantly comparing your score to Psycho? What Howard Shore’s beautifully haunting score manages do is create a moving world with sinister undertones, perfectly complimenting the film’s visuals. One of the strongest pieces is at the start of the film, the music starts off optimistic, almost upbeat, but slowly becomes far more sinister and unnerving, our first indication that all is not as it seems. The Cellar theme is the most chilling, making the very hairs stand up on the back of your neck and sending a chill own your spine. Shore’s unnerving score heightens our fears. In 1992, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast stole the Oscar for Best Original Score, but it was a safe bet going with a Disney film. Personally, I am not moved by the sickly sweet score of Beauty and the Beast. Shore’s score is dark, it’s disturbing, it’s not music you want to listen to on your own, but it will almost always stir up a response in you, flee or fight.
Picture — Carol 2015 — Matt Fischer
In 2015 Carol trampled through awards season. It is a period romance about the love that blossoms between two women in New York in the 1950’s. Director Todd Haynes made every shot look like a postcard from that era. Carol captures the excitement of falling in love at a time when the world was not ready to accept them. Rooney Mara (Therese) and Cate Blanchett (Carol) brilliantly portray their forbidden love with such restraint. A simple gesture like Carol placing her hand on Therese’s shoulder in public is much more intimate than you will see in other love films. This is the stuff that Oscar-bound films are made of. Carolreceived a 10-minute standing ovation at Cannes, 5 Golden Globe nominations, 9 BAFTA nominations, 6 Spirit Awards nominations and 9 Critics Choice nominations. The New York Film Critics Circle awarded Carol with Best Film, Best Director, Cinematography, and Screenplay. Almost everybody had Carol on their Oscar list as a sure thing. When it was all said and done Carol was completely left out of the Best Picture list. There is plenty of speculation as to why. The Oscars have always had a diversity problem. Was it the 85% white male Academy members that are still living in the 50’s and was this was too much for them to handle? Are their artistic tastes threatened by strong women? Was it just plain “too gay”? We will never know the answer, but we can hope that as younger members join the Academy, they will recognize great art when they see it.
Original Screenplay — Rian Johnson (Looper) 2012 — Robin Write
As screenwriting is my field I often can’t talk the Oscars (snubs or otherwise) without delving into the conceptual categories. Especially when a screenplay like that of Looper by Rian Johnson is not nominated as Original Screenplay. Knowing how it all works generally this still felt like a long shot in practice – but it should have got in. They say it starts with the writing, and Johnson follows through with his expert execution. A narrative that shifts you out of the way just when you think you are figuring out where it is going. The time-shifting is a real testament to creative story-telling, and grabs hold of you right until the very end when you can only watch the characters reach their destiny, whether we want it or not, we accept it is the right conclusion.
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Crash. The verb to describe the significance of Jack Nicholson’s announcement, as well as the actual name of that Best Picture winner. It was a collision that knocked Brokeback Mountain off the road right at the very end. I won’t mention that this collision was not avoided by Lionsgate making a late DVD Screener dispatch, or some much more shameful homophobic publicity by noted AMPAS members. Opinions of Crash as a movie are mixed, but Ang Lee’s seamless motion picture should have been one of the great and most loved Best Picture winners in the Academy’s history. I’m sure many have easily the imagined the what-if scenarios, but in 2005 Crash was the alternate reality.
Visual Effects — Sin City (2005) — Robin Write
So you are an Academy voter, what do you do with Sin City? Let’s start with the maestro Robert Rodriguez, who not only directed this visual and audio feast, he also had a hand in the music, visual effects, and is credited with the editing and cinematography. In another reality, Rodriguez could have made Oscar history. It is unlikely Sin City would ever contend in the major categories, but would have been a shoo-in for Ensemble if that category existed. Really, though, this could have snagged nominations in any number of tech categories, and I was blessed with drawing Visual Effects out of the hat. For the record, Austin Film Critics awarded it with the Animated Film prize, in Cannes that year (where it was in competition) it was given the Technical Grand Prize, and the St Louis Film Critics gave Sin City the award for Best Overlooked Film (or Most Original, Innovative Film). Innovative and overlooked – yeah, that does that sound familiar.
Leading Actor — Jack Nicholson (The Shining) 1980 — Bianca Garner
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. You can call Jack Nicholson’s performance in Kubrick’s horror masterpiece The Shining, a lot of things but dull is not one of them. Nicholson is always at his best when he’s let off his leash to chew up all of the scenery and sink his teeth into a meaty role. Nicholson’s performance is the most memorable, he is the man your mother warned you about; unhinged, violent and narcissistic. The character of Jack could have simply been campy and over the top, but Nicholson manages to bring some depth to a character with a very average background (he’s basically a drunker meaner version of Stephen King). There is something hypnotizing about watching a human being descend into madness, and this is what we get with Nicholson’s troubled writer, it’s not a role that anyone could simply churn out and we get the impression that Nicholson had to tap into something dark and almost primal within him. Nicholson unfairly didn’t get nominated for Best Actor at the 1981 Oscars, The Shining is the first film that we associate with Jack Nicholson’s name, and that just proves how much of an impact that performance has.
Leading Actress — Radha Mitchell and Radha Mitchell (Melinda and Melinda)2005 — Robin Write
To say that in the last thirty years Woody Allen has been churning out great roles and stellar performances from his actresses is an understatement. His muse this time around was Radha Mitchell. Her striking dual role (kind of) here was originally campaigned for Best Actress prior to the Golden Globes under Comedy or Musical, which is not quite fair enough, as Melinda and Melinda‘s prime tone and premise is based on the parallels of comedy and drama in our lives. It is a clever notion, and a delightful enough movie, perhaps why it weighed slightly away from the Drama category with the HFPA. And perhaps one of the reasons it sadly was not rewarded at the Oscars. Mitchell is quite perfect here though, and transcends between her two personas with great skill. I felt Mitchell tended to be an actress on the cusp of roles that would perhaps establish her as an acting force to be reckoned with. And in Melinda and Melinda she is afforded two bites at two very different cherries. Successfully affecting with both.
Original Score — Ryuichi Sakamoto (The Revenant) 2015 — Steve Schweighofer
Sakamoto may have won a single Oscar – the only one he has ever been nominated for – in The Last Emperor sweep in 1987, but that doesn’t diminish his accomplished soundtracks for The Sheltering Sky, Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, Babel, and Little Buddha. Oscar’s greatest disservice to the composer their oversight of what is perhaps his most original composition was the score for 2015’s The Revenant – a completely original, minimalist and organic soundtrack that captures nature as it enfolds and nearly suffocates the wounded and abandoned Hugh Glass. Sakamoto often works in tandem with another composer on his film work – for The Revenant, it was German techno-stylist Alva Noto, with whom he often collaborates. Oscar has some bizarre and medieval rules regarding what music qualifies to get an invitation to dinner and what does not. Critics have been wailing about these restrictions for years, but in the case of Sakamoto’s score for The Revenantbeing shunned, they hollered, “scandalous,” and called it “single-minded lunacy.” Will Oscar ever evolve? Not unless they can hum along, I’m afraid.
Adapted Screenplay — Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl) 2014 — Robin Write
I, and many other peers, have drummed on about this huge piece of film voting neglect. Gone Girl, as David Fincher’s movies were irresistible to the the Academy in recent years, was completely shut-out barring the Best Actress nod for Rosamund Pike. A film extremely popular and anticipated for months, made a shit-load of money, earned very positive reviews, and adapted brilliantly from her own smash book by Gillian Flynn. Not a particularly strong year for adapted works, so this seemed like a sure-thing, not to mention a touted winner, and an ideal opportunity to reward strong women in the field of writing.
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