1 | Raging Bull
Suggested by: Primaballerina, Haigin88, Acciocloak, HoopleHead, Kemster
In what is widely regarded as an unforgivable gaffe in Academy history, Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull lost out the 1980 best picture award to Robert Redford’s Ordinary People. Furthermore, Redford won best director over Scorsese. However, Robert De Niro’s extraordinary performance as the troubled boxer Jake LaMotta, based on LaMotta’s memoirs, won him the best actor.
2 | Pulp Fiction
Suggested by neocdz, Klamath, JAYJ111, chiefhairyman
Considered one of the most influential films of the 1990s and winning best original screenplay at the Oscars in 1994, Pulp Fiction was beaten to best picture by Forrest Gump. Featuring Samuel L Jackson and Bruce Willis, Pulp Fiction was characterised by wacky, cartoonish violence, witty dialogue and dark humour. The film brought director and screenwriter Quentin Tarantino to mainstream attention and single-handedly revived John Travolta’s career.
3 | Elizabeth
Suggested by Sandyra, Automat, LiviaDrusilla
Some feel that Cate Blanchett, with her magnificent performance in Elizabeth, was robbed of best actress by Gwyneth Paltrow in rom-com-with ruffs Shakespeare in Love, which also won best picture in 1998. The film brought Australian actor Blanchett to international attention, starring alongside an experienced and impressive cast including Geoffrey Rush, Christopher Eccleston, Joseph Fiennes and Sir John Gielgud.
4 | Boyhood
Suggested by Shanghaidiver, tyorkshiretealass, tuxedocat
An astonishing achievement, Richard Linklater’s epic Boyhood was 12 years in the making, but lost out on the 2014 best picture gong. The surprise winner, Birdman (Alejandro González Iñárritu) also won best director and best original screenplay (although lead actor Michael Keaton lost out on best actor to Eddie Redmayne, who won for The Theory of Everything). Patricia Arquette salvaged the day by winning best actress in a supporting role and giving a rousing speech calling for equal pay for women.
5 | The Shawshank Redemption
Suggested by James Forrest, catchytitled
Though everyone now loves this uplifting prison drama, it wasn’t a box-office hit at the time. Written and adapted from Stephen King’s short story by Frank Darabont, The Shawshank Redemption competed with Forrest Gump and Pulp Fiction in 1994. Starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman, it tells the story of a banker who is sentenced to life for the murder of his wife and her lover.
6 | A Beautiful Mind
Suggested by mstt252, jennyanydots
Russell Crowe won wide acclaim for his depiction of the Princeton University mathematician John Nash’s struggle with paranoid schizophrenia, in this film released in 2001. The biographical drama won four awards, including best director for Ron Howard, but Crowe was pipped to the post as best actor by Denzel Washington for Training Day.
7 | The Lego Movie
Suggested by johnny68, stevenjameshyde
The fourth-highest-grossing film of 2014 worldwide, The Lego Movie was inexplicably not even nominated for best animated feature, achieving just one nomination for best original song for its infectious anthem Everything is Awesome. The film, featuring the voices of Chris Pratt and Will Ferrell and directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, was No 10 in the Guardian’s films of the year list, but the Oscar went to How to Train Your Dragon 2, directed by Dean DeBlois and produced by Bonnie Arnold – much to the outrage of Twitter.
8 | Goodfellas
Suggested by Steve Smith, JFBridge
It’s regarded as a great injustice that Marty Scorsese’s 1990 film about organised crime, starring Robert de Niro, lost out on best picture and best director awards to Kevin Costner’s Dances with Wolves.
9 | The Color Purple
Suggested by mattyii, Rembetis
The Color Purple, directed by Steven Spielberg, received 11 Oscar nominations in 1985 but failed to win a single one. Sydney Pollack’s Out of Africa won best picture, and Whoopi Goldberg, who played an African-American woman who survives abuse and bigotry growing up in the deep south, lost out to Geraldine Page for The Trip to Bountiful for best actress. Oprah Winfrey was also overlooked for best actress in a supporting role.
10 | Selma
Suggested by Marybeau
To general disappointment, Ava DuVernay’s film Selma only received two nominations at the 2014 Oscars, allegedly because it was screened too late for Academy voters. David Oyelowo’s performance as Dr Martin Luther King Jr didn’t even get a nod, and the film lost out to Birdman for best picture. The only thing Selma won was best song, for Glory. Another indication that the Academy needs to be more diverse in its nomination process?
