Oscar Screw-ups

In honor of the upcoming Academy Awards®, I thought it might be fun to point out just how frequently the Oscar® voters screw up the award for Best Picture. So, here's a by no-means comprehensive list of blown calls by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences:

1963 -- The winner was Tom Jones; the other nominees were America, America, Cleopatra, How the West Was Won, and Lilies of the Field. Notice anything missing? Well, how about the best film made that year -- The Great Escape.

1967 -- Bonnie and Clyde or The Graduate should have gotten the nod over In the Heat of the Night, but the real outrage is the fact that Cool Hand Luke wasn't nominated.

1976-- Sylvester Stallone's Rocky, a very good movie that spawned five increasingly putrid sequels, beat out Network and Taxi Driver, which are both great films.

1979 -- One of the most absurd choices of all time: Kramer v. Kramer. It becomes even more ridiculous when you consider that Apocalypse Now was another nominee. Woody Allen's Manhattan wasn't nominated.

1980 -- Ordinary People beat Raging Bull. Wow.

1981 -- Oscar completes a craptacular three years by giving the nod to Chariots of Fire over Atlantic City and Raiders of the Lost Ark.

1983 -- The hateful Terms of Endearment beat out the wonderful Tender Mercies. Local Hero wasn't nominated.

1987 -- The very boring The Last Emperor beat out the very entertaining Moonstruck.

1990 -- Dances with Wolves beat out Goodfellas. No, seriously, it really did.

1994 -- Forrest Gump beat out Pulp Fiction. Forrest Gump beat out Pulp Fiction. Forrest friggin' Gump beat out Pulp Fiction?!

1996 -- The coma inducing English Patient got the nod over Fargo.

1997 -- Can we now agree that Titanic sucked? L.A. Confidential sure as hell didn't though, and should have gotten the Oscar for Best Picture.

1998 -- Shakespeare in Love beat Saving Private Ryan. American History X didn't get nominated.

Other notable omissions that I discovered include The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, which wasn't nominated in 1962, and Crimes and Misdemeanors , which didn't make the cut in 1989. In 1999, the Academy seems to have decided that the first rule of Fight Club is that you don't nominate Fight Club (although 1999's winner, American Beauty, was a classic).

The Matrix films weren't nominated either, although I have a theory that this might be because they were all pretentious crap and because Keanu Reeves is the worst actor of all time (except for his memorable performance as Ted Logan.).

What's all this mean for this year's Oscars? Bet on the Gay cowboy movie, just don't be surprised if you can't believe they picked it five years from now.