David here with some commiserations. The winners have been duly celebrated but what of those valiant souls who came, who sat, and who meekly applauded while silently ripping their pocket speeches to pieces? Are they over it by now?
Leonardo DiCaprio 😠#Oscars pic.twitter.com/Ugrwz1XSw2
— pictoline (@pictoline) February 29, 2016
Sometimes being the biggest loser can make you more famous than being a winner - just ask Leonardo DiCaprio, who may well just cease to exist now that his one purpose in life has been fulfilled and the internet’s long love affair with affectionately mocking memes has come to an end. Can we assume that Roger Deakins is up next for this treatment…?
The record for the biggest loser on Oscar night is jointly held by 1977's The Turning Point and 1985's The Color Purple. Since The Revenant walked away with 3 gongs from a possible 12 and Mad Max: Fury Road gloriously swept the technical categories for 6 out of 10, no film came close to the record - unlike recent failures True Grit and American Hustle, which both saw 10 noms come to sweet f' all. (The Color Purple's director Steven Spielberg was saved from indignity again with Mark Rylance's sort-of-surprise win for Bridge of Spies.)
Yet some of 2015's biggest movies still ended the night empty-handed. Since time has a habit of remembering movies differently to Oscar, let's see what hallowed company Sunday's biggest losers are joining in the hall of infamy. How might they fair in the collective memory in twenty years time? (Please forgive my Photoshop skills after the jump)
The Martian - 7 nominations, 0 wins
Once still Oscar-less Ridley Scott went missing from the Best Director lineup, it never seemed like Ridley Scott’s surprise blockbuster was in contention for any award, dwarfed as it was by another desert-set epic. Of all the films with 7 nominations snubbed on Oscar night, The Martian’s closest cousin is one to take heart from - after all, the valiant escape story The Shawshank Redemption still stands proudly atop IMDb’s Top Rated Movies list. Other classics that have an 0 for 7 final count? Definitive noir Double Indemnity, sharp comedy classic Broadcast News and halcyon epic The Thin Red Line.
Carol - 6 nominations, 0 wins
As Nathaniel has already sadly noted, no Todd Haynes film has ever won a single Oscar. At least Carol Aird joins some timeless diva movies in the 6 noms-0 wins club: Rosalind Russell’s Auntie Mame, Elizabeth Taylor’s purring Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Glenn Close’s merciless fling in Fatal Attraction and - here’s the kicker - Judy Garland’s ingenue in A Star is Born.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens - 5 nominations, 0 wins
The Star Wars series hasn’t won an Oscar since Return of the Jedi 32 years ago. Since the Academy only has room in their hearts for one blockbuster per year, it walked away with nothing to show for its 5 nominations. That puts it in the company of American classics It’s A Wonderful Life and The Talented Mr. Ripley, not to mention American Graffiti which was directed by some guy called George Lucas…?
Brooklyn and Sicario - 3 nominations, 0 wins
This club is inevitably a bit bigger, but Saoirse Ronan and Emily Blunt’s distinctive heroines join other women wronged by Oscar including Celia Johnson in Brief Encounter, Mary Astor in The Maltese Falcon and Bette Davis in Dark Victory.
Of course, all of these films can console themselves with the fact that the night's actual biggest loser was The Revenant, which lost 9 out of its 12 nominations. But Judy the Bear has been photoshopped enough !