Missing Stars
Defining a snub may be difficult, but fans know an Oscar snub when they see one. Here are the films, directors, and actors the Academy has snubbed over the years, even lately, with some bonus entries for those turning the tables and snubbing the Oscars themselves.
Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock, one of the greatest film directors ever, never won a competitive Oscar. This was despite being nominated five times, including for enduring classics Rear Window (1954) and Psycho (1960). The Academy did award him a lifetime award in 1968.
Here’s his acceptance speech in its entirety: “Thank you, very much indeed”. And then he walked off the stage.
ET The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
Viewers of all ages were wowed by ET The Extra-Terrestrial, a tale of the friendship between a young boy and an utterly adorable alien. Yet despite its mass appeal, Academy voters gave Steven Spielberg’s glorious achievement just four technical Oscars.
Richard Attenborough directed Best Picture winner Gandhi, and even he said ET should have won instead.
Universal, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
Glenn Close
Maybe Academy voters are just a bit too prim and proper to approve of the actress who brought us scintillating performances in such films as Fatal Attraction (1987) and Dangerous Liaisons (1988). She’s had eight nominations and no wins so far, an unfortunate Oscars record. Let’s cross our legs and hope for better luck next time!
Barbra Streisand
Few women have been nominated for Best Director, let alone won. Although it received five nominations, Streisand’s The Prince Of Tides wasn’t given a Best Director nomination, and the film failed to win anything on Oscar night.
Despite her famed career, Streisand herself has won just two Oscars: Best Actress for Funny Girl (1968) and a shared award for Best Original Song for A Star Is Born (1976).
Columbia, The Prince of Tides (1991)
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Many people cite The Shawshank Redemption as not just the best prison drama ever, but maybe the best film ever. Critics naturally chafe at the latter claim, but this is doubtless a really, really good movie...yet the film won in absolutely zero Oscar categories.
Forrest Gump dominated the year’s Oscars, so no triumph for director Frank Darabon or actors Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman for this captivating picture adapted from a Stephen King short story.
Columbia, The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Citizen Kane (1941)
Orson Welles’ artistic triumph was maybe too glum and unconventional for Academy voters, who gave their approval to family tale How Green Was My Valley, not one of John Ford’s more invigorating ventures.
Welles’ thinly veiled portrayal of William Randolph Hearst prompted a campaign against Citizen Kane by the media tycoon, which surely didn’t help. In the end, this cinematic masterpiece won in just a single category, for Original Screenplay.
John Hughes
Although the Oscars paid him tribute after his unexpected death, Hughes received not even one nomination for the iconic teen fare he directed—Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1983), The Breakfast Club (1985), and Pretty In Pink (1986).
He also received none for the classic comedies he wrote—National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983); Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987); and Home Alone (1990). At least he got a lasting place in the annals of pop culture.
The Princess Bride (1987)
Royalty of a different sort dominated Oscars the year that saw The Princess Bride nominated for one Oscar and Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor nominated for nine, and winning nine, in an astonishing run. Rob Reiner’s comedy gem went home with just the Oscar for Best Song.
Nonetheless, you can probably guess which movie has settled in the hearts of so many viewers.
Twentieth Century, The Princess Bride (1987)
Stanley Kubrick
A giant of 20th-century film, Kubrick and his films only ever won one Oscar, for Best Special Visual Effects, and that was for 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)—possibly the best science-fiction film ever made, and certainly one of the most influential.
Although the winner was no slouch, it’s still puzzling that Carol Reed’s Oliver! snagged Best Director and Best Picture awards over Kubrick’s effort. Other snubs have included cold shoulders towards Kubrick’s Spartacus (1960), Dr Strangelove (1964), The Shining (1980), and Full Metal Jacket (1987).
Stanley Kubrick, Wikimedia Commons
Amy Adams
Amy Adams was inexplicably left off the nominations for Best Actress in Arrival (2016), a movie that would be hard to imagine without, shall we say, her stellar performance as the linguist determined to understand the peculiar language and philosophy of alien visitors.
Singin’ In The Rain (1952)
Although a musical comedy, this entertaining classic featuring Gene Kelly, Donald O’Connor, and Debbie Reynolds was not above turning some of that dancing rain into satirical icicles aimed at Hollywood’s buffoonery.
That might help account for why this tale of turmoil as talkies come to Tinseltown received just two nominations, and no wins at all.
MGM, Singin' in the Rain (1952)
Peter O’Toole
Even King Henry II couldn’t defeat the naysayers of the Academy, as famous English actor Peter O'Toole failed to win for Becket (1964) and The Lion In Winter (1968), or for two other films he was nominated for.
He begrudgingly accepted an honorary award in 2003, and lost his fourth and last chance at a competitive Oscar when Venus (2007) failed to deliver.
Judy Garland
Some performers are granted an honorary Oscar at the end of their careers. Garland, though, won a special award for The Wizard Of Oz (1939), then was mostly ignored by the Academy for the rest of her life, despite her spellbinding work in movies such as Meet Me in St Louis (1944) and A Star Is Born (1954). A star is snubbed is more like it!
The Searchers (1956)
The Academy snubbed both director John Ford and actor John Wayne, titans of the Western, when 1956's The Searchers was shrugged off with a grand total of zero nominations.
Over his long career, Ford at least received a healthy number of Oscars, six to be exact, but Wayne had to wait for another influential Western, True Grit (1969), to be recognized with an Oscar win, his one and only.
Warner Bros., The Searchers (1956)
Spike Lee
Spike Lee has received two Oscars, one honorary, another for Best Screenplay for BlacKkKlansman (2018), but he’s never won for Best Director and he wasn’t even nominated for Do the Right Thing (1989).
Although it might seem too easy a dig to say the Oscars often don’t do the right thing, Best Picture winner Driving Miss Daisy (1989) was inevitably criticized as the safer winner and less likely to rock the boat.
Universal, Do the Right Thing (1989)
Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese just can't please the Oscars. His mob classic Goodfellas (1990) lost to Kevin Costner’s long Dances With Wolves, while Raging Bull (1980) lost to Robert Redford’s Ordinary People, two examples where the Academy just didn’t seem to recognize Scorsese’s directorial magnificence.
He did win Best Director and Best Picture for The Departed (2006), but that may have been less on the film’s merits and more on Oscar voters thinking “better late than never”.
Harald Krichel, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
Margot Robbie
There was immense controversy when Margot Robbie got no Oscar nomination for Barbie (2023), but this isn’t the first time some have perceived a snub. Despite nominations for her castmates in The Wolf Of Wall Street (2013), she received none. She did get a nomination for Best Actress as Tonya Harding in I, Tonya (2017), but did not skate to victory.
Meryl Streep
With three Oscars to Meryl Streep's name—perhaps most famously for Sophie’s Choice (1983)—some people do the math and think more of the golden statuettes should have gone her way after 21 nominations, especially considering her roles in such films as The Hours (2002) and The Manchurian Candidate (2004).
Leonardo DiCaprio
A blockbuster star never afraid to take on difficult roles, Leonardo DiCaprio received his first Oscar nomination for What’s Eating Gilbert Grape (1993), but then had no nominations until The Aviator (2004).
His first, and so-far only, win has been for The Revenant (2015). Once Upon A Time In Hollywood (2019) was another time he was nominated for an Oscar, but he did not go home with the prize.
Columbia, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)
Bradley Cooper
As an actor, writer, and director, Cooper has garnered 12 nominations, but no win. Maestro (2023) was his latest underloved offering, despite being nominated for Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Original Screenplay.
Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Despite Ang Lee’s win in the Best Director category, Brokeback Mountain somehow failed to win in the Best Picture category. Even Paul Haggis, who won for the racial drama Crash, admitted the riveting gay romance in forbidden times was the better movie.
Focus Features, Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Cicely Tyson
Although awarded an honorary Oscar in 2018, this groundbreaking Black actress received just one nomination, for Sounder (1972), set in the Great Depression. She lost to Liza Minnelli in Cabaret, but is remembered for her amazing work in other films too, such as The River Niger (1976) and The Help (2011).
Twentieth Century, Sounder (1972)
Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin, unrivaled king of silent comedy, only received two solo Oscars, both honorary. The first came in 1929 as the silent era was packing it in—despite Chaplin’s resistance with City Lights (1931) and Modern Times (1936).
Then after two decades of exile, Chaplin returned to the US to accept his second honorary Oscar in 1972 and received a 12-minute standing ovation. That would seem to be it from the Oscars, but then, bizarrely, he shared an Oscar the next year (in absentia) for his score to Limelight from two decades before, which became eligible only after being properly released for LA screenings in 1972.
Unknown Author, Wikimedia Commons
Cary Grant
Yes, Cary Grant received an honorary Oscar in 1970, but that mea culpa of sorts can’t make up for the Academy’s snubbing of his compelling work in Bringing Up Baby (1938), His Girl Friday (1940), and Hitchcock’s mesmerizing North By Northwest (1959).
He received just two Oscar nominations, and was the only lead in The Philadelphia Story (1940) to be ignored by the Academy. Co-star James Stewart won the Best Actor trophy for that film.
RKO publicity photographer, Wikimedia Commons
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Fans of Spielberg’s tale of war, family, and bravery in Saving Private Ryan might have felt a bit gut-punched when the amusing entreaties of Shakespeare In Love won Best Picture, a likely product of now-disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein’s incessant courting of Oscar voters.
DreamWorks, Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Bill Murray
Bill Murray has received just one Oscar nomination, for Lost In Translation (2003), and has been entirely ignored for his many other films, including Caddyshack (1980), Ghostbusters (1984), Groundhog Day (1993), and Rushmore (1998).
Focus Features, Lost in Translation (2003)
Apocalypse Now (1979)
Does anyone think about Kramer Vs Kramer nowadays? Probably few people even know about this slow-paced divorce chronicle compared to the oversized madness, but genius madness, of Vietnam War drama Apocalypse Now. Even so, Francis Ford Coppola's epic film lost out to Kramer vs Kramer and won just two awards, for cinematography and for sound.
United Artists, Apocalypse Now (1979)
All That Jazz (1979)
Like Apocalypse Now, Bob Fosse’s All That Jazz, an intense drama about a choreographer with no bounds, lost out to Kramer Vs Kramer as well, though at least it won a few more awards in the end.
Twentieth Century, All That Jazz (1979)
The Killing Fields (1984)
Miloš Forman’s Amadeus beat Roland Joffé’s The Killing Fields for Best Picture Oscar. Even though the winner was a fine paean to classical music, it somehow lacked the intense immediacy and relevance of Joffé’s wrenching and riveting tale of strife in Cambodia after US forces departed.
Columbia, The Killing Fields (1984)
Paul Thomas Anderson
Oscar voters consistently look other than in Paul Thomas Anderson’s direction, with the filmmaker’s particular vision swamped by the box-office wake from more mainstream fare, such as when his Boogie Nights (1999) lost to Titanic, and his Phantom Thread (2017) lost to The Shape of Water.
Samuel L Jackson
When it comes to Black actors, many perceive Hollywood to have a diversity problem. Well, Samuel L Jackson has had just one Oscar nomination despite his long career that’s added up to critical and box-office success. In 2022 ,the Academy awarded him an honorary Oscar, perhaps recognizing that something had gone awry.
Angela Bassett
Another Black performer to receive an honorary Oscar is Angela Bassett, who, though nominated for playing Tina Turner in What’s Love Got To Do With It (1993) and Queen Ramonda in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022), did not come out on top.
Sam Elliott
Sam Elliott received his first and (so far) only Oscar nomination for his supporting part in A Star Is Born (2018). The Academy failed to recognize his part in Up In The Air (2009), even though George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, and Anna Kendrick received nominations.
Florence Pugh
Pugh received a nomination for her role in Little Women (2020), directed by Greta Gerwig, but Laura Dern won for Marriage Story that year. It got worse. She then failed to receive Oscar acknowledgment for her acting in Oppenheimer (2023), even though the film received 13 nominations.
“We Don’t Talk About Bruno” (2021)
Lin-Manuel Miranda composed this song for Encanto (2021), and it shot up the charts to number one. So why did the meanies at the Academy ignore this hyper-popular hit? Well, it seems Disney itself put forward a different song from the film before the charts exploded. So less a snub, and more some unfortunate timing.
La La Land (2016)
Perhaps not a snub, but certainly a colossal mix-up. At the Oscars celebrating 2016 films, due to a plethora of envelopes, befuddled presenter Warren Beatty handed his co-presenter Faye Dunaway a card she thought announced La La Land as Best Picture winner.
However, it was actually Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight that had won, an error caught before La La Land co-producer Jordan Horowitz could finish his acceptance speech.
Marlon Brando Snubs The Oscars
Although he’d taken home an Oscar for On The Waterfront (1954), Marlon Brando’s career had soon after turned as erratic as his reputed behavior, so it was a triumph of sorts that Francis Ford Coppola was able to convince studio heads to let him cast Brando in The Godfather (1972).
But an Oscar win was an offer that Brando could all too easily refuse. When his name was called, he sent activist Sacheen Littlefeather to read a very political rejection speech in his place about Hollywood's treatment of Native actors, much to the fury of John Wayne, who was backstage.
Paramount, The Godfather (1972)
George C Scott Snubs The Oscars
An actor can snub the Oscars right back. After receiving a Best Actor nomination for Patton (1970), George C Scott sent the Academy a telegram. Its contents made their jaws drop.
In it, he said he wouldn't attend, because the award show was “a two-hour meat parade, a public display with contrived suspense for economic reasons”. Despite his boycott, he still won.
Twentieth Century, Patton (1970)
And The Winner Is…!
That's our look at some of those the Oscars may have snubbed, ignored, rejected, shrugged off, or otherwise under-recognized. Here’s to the next Oscars, and what the critics of the critics will be saying then.
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