Last month, I wrote an article about Oscar-nominated movies that didn’t win the top-prize Best Picture award. As judging and rewarding art (and film, as much as it has devolved recently, is still considered an art form) is subjective and open to interpretation, but there are certain movies that undoubtedly and without argument, clear the bar to qualify as classic examples of the medium.
The following are 10 classic movies that were never even nominated for Best Picture, which offers further proof (as if any was needed) that the bestowing of award nominations by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) has less to do with artistic achievement and more with pure, unadulterated industry politics, backroom marketing, and metaphoric arm-twisting.
This (*) indicates a film that has been deemed “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant” by the Library of Congress, and has been selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.
To put this in perspective, as of 2023, there are only 875 titles in the Registry. Of the estimated 500,000 feature films ever produced globally, less than .18 percent have been considered worthy of inclusion, an especially rare honor.
‘Singin’ in the Rain’ (1952)*
Directed, choreographed, and starring Gene Kelly, “Singin’ in the Rain” is considered by almost every informed critic and film historian to be the greatest movie musical ever made. Co-starring Donald O’Connor and Debbie Reynolds, the movie was a sly, not-so-subtle jab at the Hollywood system where stars in films were falsely presented by the studios to be romantically involved off-screen for the purpose of increasing box office returns.
‘Rear Window’ (1954)*
The first of two Alfred Hitchcock movies on this list, “Rear Window” is a claustrophobic chamber piece starring James Stewart as newspaper photographer Jeff Jefferies, who is confined to his New York apartment because of a broken leg and witnesses what he believes to be a murder committed by a neighbor (Raymond Burr). Past Oscar winners Grace Kelly (as Jeff’s love interest Lisa) and Thelma Ritter (as his nurse Stella) offer infrequent but crucial support.Related Stories
“The Searchers” (1956)*
Considered by many to be the greatest western in history, director John Ford’s “The Searchers” stars genre legend John Wayne as Confederate Civil War veteran Ethan Edwards who, in tandem with his nephew Martin (Jeffrey Hunter), tries to locate Ethan’s kidnapped niece Debbie (Natalie Wood). One of the first movies to blur the lines between Western film’s acknowledged race-based, hero-villain dynamic, “The Searchers” was light years ahead of its time, which is probably why AMPAS chose not to nominate it for Best Picture.
‘North by Northwest’ (1959)*
Starring Cary Grant (as Roger) and Eva Marie Saint (as Eve) as the leads in this Alfred Hitchcock thriller, “North by Northwest” is one of the finest “mistaken-identity” movies ever produced. Written by Ernest Lehman (“The King and I,” “West Side Story,” “The Sound of Music”), “North by Northwest” is the great jewel in Hitchcock’s “Golden Era” crown, which also includes “Rear Window,” “To Catch a Thief,” “Vertigo,” and “Psycho.” The final act set primarily near and on Mt. Rushmore is one of the most white-knuckle, nail-biting sequences ever committed to film.
‘Rio Bravo’ (1959)*
John Wayne, Dean Martin, and Ricky Nelson are the three co-leads in what the “Sight and Sound Critics’ Poll” considers to be the second best western of all-time (after “The Searchers”). Directed and produced by Howard Hawks, “Rio Bravo” was also one of the few non-musical Westerns to include musical performances by cast members. The three instantly identifiable songs sung by Martin and Nelson (two of them duets) confirmed what many have long suspected—the two men were cast more for their vocal talents than their acting skills.
‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ (1968)*
Stanley Kubrick’s watershed epic was more science-future than science-fiction. Co-written with Arthur C. Clarke, “2001” was a technical marvel and delivered Kubrick his only career Oscar (for Best Special Visual Effects). After a 25-minute opening salvo, including rival bands of hominines, the action shifted to the 21st century with two space station astronauts drawn into a battle of wits with HAL 9000 (voiced by Douglas Rain), the ship’s Artificial Intelligence computer overseer.
‘Marathon Man’ (1976)
Dustin Hoffman leads a dream cast as Babe, a Jewish New York grad student living in the shadow of a father who committed suicide and his mover-shaker, big deal brother (Roy Scheider). A former Nazi dentist, Christian Zell (Laurence Olivier), whose States-side brother dies suddenly, is forced to come out of hiding to travel to the United States to retrieve millions of dollars’ worth of diamonds confiscated from imprisoned Jews.
‘Being There’ (1979)*
In his penultimate role, Peter Sellers stars as Chance, a savant gardener who is essentially tossed to the curb after the death of his lifelong employer. After seeing himself on a storefront TV, Chance is hit by a car carrying Eve Rand (Shirley MacLaine), the wife of power broker Ben Rand (Melvyn Douglas), who is the top advisor to a nameless U.S. president (Jack Warden). Chance’s simple, common-sense utterances are interpreted as pearls of wisdom by the press, which leads to him becoming the most famous man in America.
‘Glory’ (1989)
Director Edward Zwick’s factual Civil War drama tells the story of New England Union officer Robert Gould Shaw (Matthew Broderick) leading one of the first all-black regiments. Morgan Freeman, the late Andre Braugher, and Denzel Washington (in a Best Supporting Actor Oscar performance) play the principal secondary characters that, through words and actions, prompt Shaw into transforming his soldiers from a novelty gesture into a group of devoted combatants that changed the course of the war.
‘The Dark Knight’ (2008)*
The second installment in writer-director Christopher Nolan’s “Batman” trilogy, “The Dark Knight” is the premier anti-comic book comic book adaptation, featuring a posthumous, Oscar-winning performance by Heath Ledger as the Joker. Many (correctly) believe that the movie’s omission from the Best Picture category led AMPAS to forever double the number of nominees from five to 10 beginning the following year.Would you like to see other kinds of arts and culture articles? Please email us your story ideas or feedback at [email protected]
