Top 10 Great Movies That Didn’t Win An Oscar

As quickly as 2010 came and went, here we find ourselves in the middle of another exciting awards season. The Golden Globes have been awarded and the 83^rd Oscar ceremony is next.

When it comes to Hollywood’s highest honors, the Academy’s omissions often provoke more outcry and buzz than the actual winners. The Academy Awards are quite controversial among many film experts and fans. Although the Academy has honored many of the cinema’s masterpieces, numerous other great movies have been entirely overlooked. It seems they weren’t even worth the nomination. Other notable films were nominated, but didn’t win a single Oscar. It’s the case of Double Indemnity (a classic film noir masterpiece with seven nominations!!!) Pretty Woman, Being John Malkovich, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Munich, It’s A Wonderful Life,  Singin’ in The Rain, Mangnolia, The Magnificent Ambersons and many more.

10. Poltergeist (1982)

The first Poltergeist movie was released during the summer 1982. The very successful thriller of the 80s ranks 84th on AFI’s 100 Years…100 Thrills list. The 1986 and 1988 sequels didn’t quite measure up to the original.
Special effects can often make or break a film. It’s for sure not the case of Poltergeist (1982). Many consider that producer Steven Spielberg and director Tobe Hooper are the real stars of Poltergeist, both of them famous for creating awesome special effects. Poltergeist won in 1983 the BAFTA Film Award for Best Special Visual Effects, but failed to win the Oscar. It remains a visually striking movie that harmonically combines effective special effects with a human touch, something most horror movies lack these days.

Poltergeist – Oscar nominations

1983, Best Effects, Sound Effects Editing: Stephen Hunter Flick, Richard L. Anderson

Best Effects, Visual Effects: Richard Edlund, Michael Wood, Bruce Nicholson

Best Music, Original Score: Jerry Goldsmith

9. Ghostbusters (1984)

The 1984 Ghostbusters is one of those few great films “where the original, fragile comic vision has survived a multimillion-dollar production”, said Roger Ebert. The American fantasty-comedy made close to $300 millions in the United States, the equivalent of nowadays $596,878,264 and AFI ranked it #28 on the „ 100 Greates Comedies of all Time” list.

The plot of the movie is imaginative and very well written, the special effects were spectacular for it’s time and the cast was well put together, for both leading and supporting roles. Bill Murray portrayed Dr. Peter Venkman, Dan Aykroyd – Dr. Raymond Stantz, Sigourney Weaver – Dana Barrett and Harold Ramis – Dr. Egon Spengler.

Times columnist Caitlin Moran sparked quite a bit of controversy with her article titled “Sorry Star Wars fans, but Ghostbusters is the best film ever made!” I didn’t read such a funny, yet thought provoking article for a very long time. Great stuff, well worth reading. What do you think? Is she right?

Ghostbusters – Oscar nominations

1985,  Best Effects / Visual Effects: Richard Edlund, John Bruno, Mark Vargo, Chuck Gaspar

Best Music / Original Song: Ray Parker Jr.

8. Vertigo (1958)

Great story with original plot twists, obsessive passions, astonishingly visceral music, spine-tingling suspense, mystery…in one word: Vertigo! Vertigo’s screenplay is credited to Samuel Taylor and Alec Coppel. It  was an adaption of P. Boileau’s and T. Narcejac’s novel, D’Entre les Morts (Between Deaths / The Living and the Dead).

Although Hitchcock’s Vertigo was nominated for only two Oscars, and won none, it is widely regarded as a masterpiece. Hitchcock perfectly combined multiple levels to create a complex movie. On a literal level, Vertigo tells the  suspense-filled mystery story of a man manipulated into acting as an accomplice in a crime. On the other hand, the film’s psychological level reveals a man’s dark and twisted psyche full of fears and laden with guilt. The story follows Scottie’s obsessive fantasies and the desire to end his existential vertigo, “desperately searching for an object on which to concentrate its repressed energy”. (Magill’s Survey of Cinema) The movie explores the dangerous link between desire and death, between falling in love and falling. Finally, at a deeper and metaphorical level, Vertigo retells the ancient legend of Orpheus and Eurydice. John “Scottie” Ferguson, just like Orpheus, travels into the terrifying underworld to reclaim his lost love. These multiple levels blur the fine line between subjectivity and objectivity.

Vertigo – Oscar nominations

1959, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration / Black-and-White or Color: Hal Pereira, Henry Bumstead, Sam Comer, Frank R. McKelvy

Best Sound: George Dutton

7. Basic Instinct (1992)

Written by Joe Eszterhas and directed by Paul Verhoeven, Basic Instinct features Michael Douglas, Sharon Stone, Jeanne Tripplehorn and George Dzundza. The film generated major controversy  due to its steamy love scenes, overt sexuality and intense acts of violence.

A diabolical killer, a brutal murder, a police detective who can’t resist the temptation of danger, and a mysterious femme fatale who promises carnal pleasures, but delivers death. What more can we ask for? Basic Instinct was immensely successful upon release. It was one of the highest grossing movies of that year.

While Frank J. Urioste got nominated for Best Film Editing and Jerry Goldsmith  for Best Music, Sharone Stone and Paul Verhoeven were left out. Still can’t believe that Basic Instinct didn’t win a single Oscar.

Basic Instinct – Oscar nominations

1993, Best Film Editing: Frank J. Urioste

Best Music / Original Score: Jerry Goldsmith

6. Fatal Attraction (1987)

Can you trust that 26 directors rejected Fatal Attraction because they considered it uncommercial? One thing is for sure: Fatal Attraction was not ignored upon its release in 1987. It was the year’s most intensely debated movie, grossing over $320 million at the box office. Fatal Attraction was such a massive hit because it gave the audience something different. As Tom Hanks stated in Sleepless in Seattle: “Fatal Attraction scared the shit out of every man in America.” All the actors’ performances were outstanding. AFI ranked Glenn Close for portaying Alex Forrest #7 on its “100 Years…100 Heroes and Villains” list.
Although popular with six nominations, Fatal Attraction didn’t win any Academy Awards.

Fatal Attraction – Oscar nomincations

1988, Best Actress in a Leading Role: Glenn Close

Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Anne Archer

Best Director: Adrian Lyne

Best Film Editing: Michael Kahn, Peter E. Berger

Best Picture: Stanley R. Jaffe, Sherry Lansing

Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium: James Dearden

5. Frost/Nixon (2008)

Ron Howard’s Frost/Nixon is a sharp historical drama adapted from a theatre play by Peter Morgan. Certain characters and actions have been fictionalized, but the plot is based on the famous 1977 interviews. The highlights of the movie are Frank Langella as former US President Richard Nixon and Michael Sheen as British journalist David Frost. The confrontations between these two ambitious men are truly electrifying. While Nixon struggled to regain his reputation by reminding America of his political achievements, Frost aspired to be recognized as a prominent journalist, he wanted to be admired and respected. Frost/Nixon was nominated for five Academy Awards, but lost most of the awards to Slumdog Millionaire. I’ll never understand how this fantastic movie lost to Slumdog Millionaire…

Frost/Nixon – Oscar nominations

2009, Best Achievement in Directing: Ron Howard

Best Achievement in Editing: Mike Hill, Daniel P. Hanley

Best Motion Picture of the Year: Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, Eric Fellner

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role: Frank Langella

Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published: Peter Morgan

4. The Godfather, Part III (1990)

The third part of The Godfather trilogy is another interesting movie that failed to win an Academy Award, despite being nominated seven times. The American gangster film received mixed reviews. While Washington Post columnist Bal Hinson wrote “The man who made those two masterpieces is not the man who has given us this failed final chapter… you can’t help but see The Godfather Part III as his headstone”, Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert considerd it a “beautiful-looking film, a beautiful-feeling film, it’s great to see these people again. It’s interesting the way they dig in to the controversy invlving the Catholic Church.”

The Godfather, Part III – Oscar nominations

1991, Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Andy Garcia

Best Art Direction-Set Decoration: Dean Tavoularis, Gary Fettis

Best Cinematography: Gordon Willis

Best Director: Francis Ford Coppola

Best Film Editing: Barry Malkin, Lisa Fruchtman, Walter Murch

Best Music / Original Song: Carmine Coppola (music), John Bettis (lyrics) For the song “Promise Me You’ll Remember”.

Best Picture: Francis Ford Coppola

3. Once Upon A Time in America

One of the last memorable epics to come out of Hollywood is Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in America starring Robert De Niro and James Woods. And I am talking about the original version with a running time of 227 minutes. Once Upon a Time in America was so heavily edited for its U.S. theatrical release, that the Italian film director was left inconsolable. He never made another film after Once Upon a Time in America. Unfortunately, the movie’s most interesting scenes are missing from the short version and the plot is kind of hard to understand. The full-length version of the crime drama explores the lives of a group of Jewish immigrants, chronicling their childhoods and years of glory as gangsters in America.
Why Leone’s masterpiece never received an Oscar, let alone a nomination, remains a mystery.

2. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

The Shawshank Redemption is an inspiring ‘lesson’ on how to unleash our full potential by embracing new challenges, building on our strengths and having the courage to fight back against life’s injustices and miseries. “Get busy living…or get busy dying. That’s god damn right.” Just like Red (Morgan Freeman) said.

Although The Shawshank Redemption depicts the story of two men who become close friends while serving life sentences in a maximum security prison, it is not the typical prison drama. Frank Darabont defied all conventions of the genre (bullying, violence, crime, hopelessness of a life) to reveal new themes: friendship, determination, survival and faith. The cast is headed by Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman and Bob Gunton. Yet, despite all of its greatness and 7 Oscar nominations, The Shawshank Redemption did not succeed in winning one.

The Shawshank Redemption – Oscar nominations

1995,  Best Actor in a Leading Role: Morgan Freeman

Best Cinematography: Roger Deakins

Best Film Editing: Richard Francis-Bruce

Best Music / Original Score: Thomas Newman

Best Picture: Niki Marvin

Best Sound: Robert J. Litt, Elliot Tyson, Michael Herbick, Willie D. Burton

Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium: Frank Darabont

1.Psycho (1960)

Here we are at number one: immortal Psycho! No other movie had such a great psychological impact on the audience as Psycho had in its time. Hailed as the father of modern suspense, Hitchcock broke all the conventions and created one of the best and scariest movies ever. However, it failed to win an Academy Award. Psycho influenced many films that came after it ( Silence of the Lambs, Portrait of a Serial Killer etc.) and helped shape the slasher genre. No wonder it tops AFI’s list of 100 most thrilling American movies.

Psycho connects directly with some of our most vivid emotions: terror, despair, fear, and this makes it immortal. The nightmarish movie’s themes of paranoia caused by isolation, voyeurism, the dual nature of the human psyche, the lack of distinction between reality and appearance, the supremacy of death over life and the way in which madness is represented make Psycho stand out as one most disturbing and violent films. But…“We all go a little mad sometimes. Haven’t you?” – Norman Bates

Psycho – Oscar nominations

1961, Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Janet Leigh

Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White: Joseph Hurley, Robert Clatworthy, George Milo

Best Cinematography, Black-and-White: John L. Russell

Best Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Top 10 Saturday Night Live Hosts

Hosting Saturday Night Live is a pretty thankless job. Hosts, who often having little or no comedy training, are expected to come in on a Monday and be hilarious by Saturday. Add to that that the show often has no idea what to do with the guests hosts besides some lame sketch that capitalizes on whatever show or movie they’re on, and it’s no wonder that the hosting position is often the weakest link in the show. Still, despite the odds being stacked against them, some guest hosts turn in amazing performances and even outshine the regular cast members. These are the Top Ten Saturday Night Live Hosts. In the interest of fairness, we’ve decided to exclude former cast members from consideration. If they can’t be good, nobody can.

10. Buck Henry

He hasn’t been on the show in years and there’s a good chance most people under the age of 30 have no idea who he is, but writer and comedian Buck Henry was one of the best SNL hosts of the 70s. Back in the glory days, Henry was the host of each of the show’s first four season finales, and he was an indelible part of the early show’s success. Like Steve Martin, he was involved in some of the greatest sketches of the era, and is often mistaken as a cast member. His work opposite John Belushi in the classic Samurai sketches is a master class in playing it straight and by itself merits his inclusion on this list. He also had a ton of other great characters and set the bar high for what a person could do in the hosting role.

Best Sketches: Various Samurai Customers, Uncle Roy

9. Drew Barrymore

Way back on November 20^th, 1982, a seven year old Drew Barrymore became the youngest person to ever host Saturday Night Live, a record she still holds to this day. Take that Macauly Culkin! Barrymore has gone on to host the show more than any other woman (6 times so far) and is one of only two ladies in the super-exclusive Five Timers Club, Candace Bergen being the other. Comedy in general is a man’s world, but every time Barrymore shows up on the SNL set, you know she’s going to be funny. Even if she isn’t (or the writers give her stinkers) she always charming and fun to watch. She’s also, like the people on this list, one of the few hosts who can carry a sketch, rather than just stand in the corner and say a line or two.

Best Sketches: The Welshly Arms Hotel Lovers, Disturbed Job Applicant

8. Paul Simon

If you don’t include his musical appearances, Paul Simon hasn’t appeared all that much on SNL. But when he does, he always turns in very funny and surprisingly sweet performances. Unlike other singers who shined on the show like Justin Timberlake, Simon has never really pursued a career as an actor, but from the awesome work he’s done on SNL, he certainly could have. Add to that his long list of knockout performances including a reunion with Art Garfunkel, an amazing duet with George Harrison, and the moving first episode after 911, and you have one entertainer that will always be welcome on the show.

Best Sketches: Desert Island Christmas, Still Crazy After All these Years in Turkey Costume

7. Christopher Walken

It’s always the ones you least expect. Before he made his first appearance on SNL, you would have been forgiven for thinking that Christopher Walken wasn’t a particularly funny guy. Intense? Yeah. Creepy? Sure. But hilarious in a live comedy setting? Probably not. But he was. Playing against his well established type, Walken is always totally fearless and totally funny when he comes to host SNL. Trading on his image and deadpan voice, he’s the perfect straight man, and if they let him cut loose, he can turn in a performance that’s edgy, weird ,and most importantly of all, very funny. SNL is frequently called out for playing it safe, but whenever Christopher Walken makes an appearance, you’re guaranteed the comedy will be a little on the bizarre side. And that’s why we love him.

Best Sketches: Behind the Music: Blue Oyster Cult, The Continental

6. Alec Baldwin

With the second highest number of hosting appearances, Alec Baldwin was another one of those people who surprised everybody by being amazingly funny right from the start. It seems hard to believe now, but Baldwin made his name in Hollywood as a serious actor and romantic lead. It wasn’t until he appeared on SNL that people even knew he could do comedy. These days, he recognized as one of the funniest comedic actors of his generation, and a lot of that has to do with the incredible stuff he did on SNL. Which of course led to him being cast on 30 Rock, where he continues to rack up the comedy accolades and awards. In a way, SNL allowed him to make the transition from dramatic lead to hilarious character actor. Well, that and his expanding waistline.

Best Sketches: Canteen Boy, Schwetty Balls

5. John Goodman

John Goodman got his start playing Roseanne Barr’s husband on Roseanne, so it shouldn’t come as surprise that he thrived in the comedic atmosphere of Saturday Night Live. During the Monica Lewinsky scandal, he practically became a regular cast member, returning week after week to portray whistle-blower Linda Tripp. Goodman has hosted the show a record 11 straight seasons in a row and is third overall in most appearances. SNL even joked about his incredible amount of appearances and included him as a potential cast member in one sketch. Goodman even helped replace John Belushi as one of the Blues Brothers, making him one of the few guest hosts to actually start in an SNL movie. Even if it was one as terrible as Blues Brothers 2000.

Best Sketches: Da Bears, various appearances as Linda Tripp

4. Justin Timberlake

Justin Timberlake is one of those great SNL hosts who comes on with low expectations and surprises everyone. When he first appeared in 2003, most people watching were expecting him to embarrassingly mug his way through a couple sketches, and hopefully not humiliate himself too badly in between his musical numbers. Instead, Timberlake knocked it out of the park. Not only was he game and gave it his all, he was actually as funny as the rest of the cast. He continues to appear on the show- often uncredited in the Lonely Island guys’ digital song parodies, and an episode with him hosting is usually a guarantee of a funny show that week. And these days, those are few amnd far between.

Best sketches: Dick in a Box, MotherLover

3. Jon Hamm

A relative newcomer to the SNL hosting game, Mad Men’s Jon Hamm has instantly become a show favourite. And can you blame them for loving this guy? He’s handsome, he’s funny, and he seems to have as much talent for dumb comedy as he does for searing drama. Not bad considering his signature role is a hard-drinking womanizer who’s life is always one step away from total collapse. SNL (never one to let a good thing go to waste) realized how well Hamm fit into the proceedings, and have had him back once a season since he first hosted back in 2008. His episodes have been among the highest rated in recent years and tend to be the funniest ones all year. Here’s to many, many more.

Best Sketches: Hamm and Buble, Don Draper at the Apollo

2. Tom Hanks

There are few Hollywood stars who are able to move from comedy to drama as easily as Tom Hanks. He started his career playing lovable idiots, moved on to playing idiots with sensitive hearts, and then out of nowhere became one of the best actors of his generation. On his many Saturday Night Live appearances over the years, he fits in like he’s always been there. He’s created memorable recurring characters, poked fun at himself like a pro, and generally looks like he was having a great time. How much more could you ask for from a guy who’s basically there to plug a movie?

Best Sketches : Two Lonely Guys, Mr. Short-term Memory

1. Steve Martin

Steve Martin was such a huge part of the early success of SNL that it’s hard not to think of him as a regular cast member. One of the show’s first break-out sketches was the Martin led “King Tut.” It was a profoundly silly sketch, but Martin’s performance in it as well as one of the Two Wild and Crazy Guys, helped turn SNL into an overnight sensation. Martin would go one to host dozens of episodes over the course of the show’s long history (most recently in 2009) and has become such a huge part of the mythology of SNL that he may as well be a cast member. At the very least, he deserves the same amount of credit for turning in funny performance after funny performance and helping to establish the show as the preeminent American comedy institution.