This day next week is the biggest day in all of Hollywood, the Oscars, but more specifically the 94th Academy Awards. It’s an exciting time for all film fans just to see your favorite films take home statues in excellence. However, with every Oscars ceremony, there’s always snubs or movies that should taken home the award for Best Picture instead of the one the Academy picked. That’s what this list is going to be. It will be a numbered list but instead of ranking these 20 movies, it’s assortment is going to feel differently. What this list will be are movies that got a a Best Picture nomination but never won though some would say it should have won. The other portion of this list will be movies that never got a Best Picture nomination but deserved to be be nominated. Just to clear, this won’t be a best to work scenario, more so an argumentative topic (although some might look at this list as best to worst scenario). Let us begin!
#20 THE LAST DUEL (deserved a Best Picture nomination)
Ridley Scott is no shy feet on Oscar love, considering he’s already made a Best Picture winner in 2000s Gladiator and got The Martian a Best Picture nomination. But leading up to the fall of 2021, Scott was set to have two movies open up a month apart from each other with The Last Duel and House of Gucci. Both had debuts at various film festivals before there theatrical release and both were well received from critics. But what The Last Duel had over House of Gucci is that over time the response for The Last Duel got stronger and stronger with each passing day. The Last Duel proved to be an incredible accomplishment from director Ridley Scott because not only did it feel like a traditional pick for Best Picture, it felt like the Ridley Scott that made Gladiator with the epic sword fighting and strong character moments. Maybe not a win, but with films like Coda, The Power of the Dog or King Richard, The Last Duel deserved to be in that conversation.
#19 Saving Private Ryan (should have won)
It’s great that Steven Spielberg got his victory with Schindler’s List winning Best Picture and Best Director back in 1993 but he once again brought people to tears with his war epic Saving Private Ryan. Knowing that Saving Private Ryan lost too Shakespeare in Love is a bit of a question mark. If you told me that Saving Private Ryan lost to Life Is Beautiful, then that would be a harder argument to fight. Because with both Life Is Beautiful and Saving Private Ryan, both movies get talked about nearly 20 years later where Shakespeare in Love doesn’t get talked about at all. Shakespeare in Love is a good movie by all means, but to have the greatest filmmaker of all time stun us with maybe the most effective ad heart pounding war movie ever put to screen is crazy.
#18 THE DARK KNIGHT (deserved a Best Picture nomination)
Arguably the best comic-book movie ever made and certainly regarded as one of the best movie ever made. There’s a good number of people in the film industry that believe The Dark Knight deserved a Best Picture nomination for transcending the genre to greater heights. Christopher Nolan has obviously made great movies before whether it’s Batman Begins, The Prestige or Memento, but it’s The Dark Knight that catapulted Nolan’s career to where it’s at now and it’s why studios bank on his name on being the only director that can sell tickets. The word of mouth surrounding that movie was unreal and it’s something we see very much. At least The Dark Knight was able to score an Oscar for the traumatizing and captivating performance from Heath Ledger, but a Best Picture nomination was severely due.
#17 PULP FICTION (should have won)
Quentin Tarantino is a name that no matter what is going to get my attention. Give a 140 minute movie with a terrific ensemble talking for the whole time and I’ll be there opening night. While he had Reservoir Dogs two years before, Pulp Fiction is the one that some might regard as Tarantino’s best but it’s also the won that should have scored Tarantino that Best Picture win. No disrespect to Forrest Gump or even its fellow nominees like The Shawshank Redemption, which is regarded as one of the best motion pictures ever made but Pulp Fiction deserved that win.
#16 SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE (deserved a Best Picture nomination)
In the entire history of the Academy of Awards, only three animated movies that scores a Best Picture nomination. Beauty and the Beast, Up and Toy Story 3 are the only ones to get that attention. The animated feature is a stupid and cop-out of a nomination, which was first introduced at the 74th Academy Awards where Shrek took home that awards. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was not only the best comic-book movie or animated movie of 2018, it was one of the best movies of the that year. There was no reason why it shouldn’t have been nominated because it was a movie that’s all about character and story. Those are merits for a Best Picture nomination.
#15 ZERO DARK THRITY (should have won)
This was a tough year and really an incredible list of Best Picture nominations from movies like  Django Unchained, Lincoln, Silver Linings Playbook and Argo. Zero Dark Thirty is not only Kathryn Bigelow’s best movie, this is the movie that should won the Oscar for Best Picture instead of The Hurt Locker. The Hurt Locker is a solid war movie but Bigelow’s follow up was more effective, epic and more staggering of a story because it’s focusing on one of the largest manhunts of our time. It’s got a great ensemble and a finale that will leave you speechless.
#14 HEAT (deserved a Best Picture nomination)
Imagine a world where Braveheart, Apollo 13, Babe and Heat all got Best Picture nominations. Clearly, that worked for Braveheart, Apollo 13 and Babe but to not have Heat in the mix is a damn shame. Arguably Michael Mann’s best work (aside from The Last of the Mohicans ) Heat is a beautiful amalgamation of mafia crime storytelling with one of the best ensembles he’s ever worked with and features the greatest shootout in film history.
#13 JOJO RABBIT (should have won)
The 92nd Academy Awards is by all accounts the best year of Best Picture nominations of all time. The only issue it had was that most of the movies all came out between the October and December. Be that as it may, it was an incredible line up of movies. Films like Ford v Ferrari, Parasite, 1917, Joker, and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood were all some of the best movies of 2019. There really wasn’t an issue of any one of those movies took home Best Picture, but Jojo Rabbit should have won. Taika Waititi is already a great filmmaker with Hunt for the Wilderpeople and Thor: Ragnarok, but what he was able to do with Jojo Rabbit was beautifully handled.
#12 SILENCE (deserved a Best Picture nomination)
We all know how long it took Martin Scorsese to get The Irishman off the ground and in the hand of any studio that was willing to put up the money for it, but with his  epic historical drama Silence, it took Scorsese nearly 25 years to make it. Martin Scorsese is one of the greatest filmmakers of all time so whenever he puts out a movie, we all must keep our eyes on it. The fact that Silence only got a nomination for Best Cinematography is a crime against humanity. It’s a topical movie, but the performances, music and direction from Scorsese felt so personal and raw.
#11 E.T. THE EXTRA TERRESTRIAL (should have won)
This is another situation where Steven Spielberg puts out another gem that gets a Best Picture nomination but looses to Ghandi, which was a well deserved win for director Richard Attenborough and actor Sir Ben Kingsley. This is harder argument to fight but as it stands, E.T. was able to take a concept that we’ve all seen before but with the heart, character and sense of wonder that Spielberg infused in this movie makes it more of a timeless movie than Ghandi.
#10 REAR WINDOW (deserved a Best Picture nomination)
The fact that Alfred Hitchcock never won an Oscar for Best Director is complete insanity. He’s been nominated five total times but has never took home a statue. Rear Window has always been my favorite Hitchcock movie and knowing it never got a Best Picture nomination doesn’t add up. For a movie that’s nearly 70 years old, Rear Window is almost unlike any other modern thriller made today. It’s still as engaging, rich and exciting as it was when it was first released to the public. The jury is still out, but it’s said that out of all the movies that James Stewart has worked on with Alfred Hitchcock, Rear Window is his favorite. I won’t argue with that.
#9 LA LA LAND (should have won)
Moonlight is a forgettable movie. Hate to break it to you. It was a complete shock to all of us that Warren Beaty and Faye Dunaway read the wrong envelope when we all thought La La Land won Best Picture and honestly it should have. Clearly, this is a radically different movie than Moonlight, but with La La Land there was something so unique about its depiction of L.A. and how its characters never ended up together by choosing ambition over their love. Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone worked so well together and Damien Chazelle’s follow up is just as good as Whiplash.
#8 INSIDE OUT (deserved a Best Picture nomination)
It’s ridiculous that the great Pixar movies that have come out post Toy Story 3 that never got a Best Picture nomination. Inside Out is arguably in the top 5 of Pixar movies its overall message about the ideas of growing up and letting things go was poignant and inspiring. A best picture win doesn’t have to feature a political message behind it but it can also have something that can resonate with all people from all ages all over the world.
#7 A STAR IS BORN (should have won)
Green Book taking the Best Picture win is controversial topic for unnecessary reasons. First and foremost, it was so much better than that pretentious pile garbage called Roma. Secondly, Green Book was a good movie with the feels, but the remake of A Star Is Born was a terrific directorial debut from Bradley Cooper and proof that a remake can work. It gave us a wonderful performance from Lady Gaga, exceptional music and maybe the best performance Bradley Cooper has ever given.
#6 THE JUNGLE BOOK (deserved a Best Picture nomination)
Now I know what you’re thinking. A live-action adaptation of one of Disney’s classic animated movies to get a Best Picture nomination? Yes, it sounds crazy when you just look at the title but when you strip away that the entire movie was shot on sound stage, this is a remake that improves upon its original work by serving as a love letter to it and utilizing a terrific ensemble of actors. It’s obviously visually out of this world so when it comes to the technical aspects, The Jungle Book was gonna win those no matter what, but a Best Picture nomination should have happened.
#5 DUNKIRK (should have won)
It’s hard to believe that Dunkirk scored Christopher Nolan’s first nomination for Best Director in the entirety of his career and while I’m okay with The Shape of Water winning the Oscar for Best Picture, Dunkirk is the kind of movie that Michael Bay’s Pearl Harbor should have been. It uses its location as a way build character to the point where the location of Dunkirk, itself, becomes a character. Superb moments of tension, a stupendous score from Hans Zimmer and great performances make Dunkirk the ideal Best Picture winner.
#4 PRISONERS (deserved a Best Picture nomination)
Denis Villeneuve is maybe the most sought out director currently working in the business today. He’s made excellent film after excellent film but the first movie that made me fall in love with him as a director was Prisoners. Starring Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Viola Davis, Maria Bello, Terrence Howard, Melissa Leo, and Paul Dano, Prisoners has always been heads shoulders Villeneuve’s best movie to date. Like Martin Scorsese’s Silence, Prisoners only scored a nomination for Best Cinematography by the legendary Roger Deakins, but this movie should have swept up everything from the acting nominations, original screenplay, director and picture, of course.
#3 RAGING BULL (should have won)
Raging Bull is Martin Scorsese’s best movie to date. More so than Goodfellas, Casino, The Departed or Taxi Driver. All of which are great movies but almost act as stepping stones in comparison to Raging Bull. It’s depiction of humanity and how darkness and brokenness can overcome your true-self and manifest you into a complete monster is why this movie has bene able to stand the test of time for nearly 40 years. Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci are so damn great in this movie and their relationship is why their reunion on The Irishman was so good.
#2 LOGAN (deserved a Best Picture nomination)
Logan was the best way to send off Hugh Jackman’s character in a way that heartbreaking but felt poetic for legacy of the X-Men. There was a lot of good will with the The Wolverine and all that good will came into Logan which was full spectacular and hard-boiled violence, grounded nature and elevating the superhero genre. This was not only he best comic-book movie of 2017, but a top three movie of the year without a doubt.
#1 THE WIZARD OF OZ (should have won)
Outside of The Godfather or Citizen Kane, it’s hard to think of a more iconic movie than The Wizard of Oz. A movie that has been introduced with each passing generation. A movie where a piece of music, quote or prop that anyone can reference and people will know exactly what you’re talking about. Gone With the Wind is a classic but the only thing people can pull from that movie is the line “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn.” With The Wizard of Oz, the options are endless.
Zane's take at the Cinema's 