Oscar Trivia: Which films received the most nominations yet missed Best Picture?
Thursday, November 14, 2019 at 9:58AM by Nathaniel R
We love to throw random Oscar trivia at you. We love you for not even trying to dodge it! So here's a top ten for you. Here's something we were pondering the other day quite randomly: pictures that Oscar voters obviously loved but somehow skipped in the Best Picture race. This trivia is now a different game entirely given that there are so many Best Picture nominees each year. Unless Oscar returns to the days of 5 nominees, we aren't likely to see this list change ever again. But do you think any film this year might see a lot of nominations without a Best Picture bit. Anyway here is the all-timers list of such things...
The "Most-Nominated" Films That Missed Best Picture
01. Nine nominations
THEY SHOOT HORSES DON'T THEY (1969)
Director Sydney Pollack would make multiple classics in his career, among which The Way We Were (1973) and Tootsie (1982) are arguably the best loved today, and win two Oscars for Out of Africa (1985). His fifth, which preceeded those "greatest hits" catapulted him into greatness. This bleak masterpiece about a Depression-era dance marathon is still an intense watch a full half century after its debut. The performances by Jane Fonda, Susannah York, and Gig Young are sensational and the film is never less than riveting. It was nominated for 9 Oscars, more than any of the Best Picture nominees that year save Anne of a Thousand Days, but won only supporting actor for Gig Young. Perhaps it was too bleak... or those Academy members with a taste for grit and edge were all already in Midnight Cowboy's pocket that year?
02. [TIE] Eight nominations plus a non-competitive special achievement Oscar
THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE (1972)
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND (1977)
Two effects-heavy spectacles are the runner up to the all-time record for "most nominations without a Best Picture citation". Both were enormous hits in their years, landing in the top three of their respective years box office top ten, but curiously missed out on the top category. The Poseidon Adventure is perhaps understandable as it's very broad and nearly camp today but Close Encounters, one of Steven Spielberg's all-time finest films, is less explicable given its widespread critical acclaim at the time. In other words it wasn't just a "populist" choice. The films had very similar Oscar success. Both films were up for Best Supporting Actress, Cinematography, Sound, Film Editing, and Art-Direction. Furthermore they won the exact same number of Oscars, each taking one competitive win (Best Song for Poseidon and Best Cinematography for Close Encounters) and one non-competitive "special achievement" Oscar in categories that were traditionally "off & on" with the Academy (Visual Effects for Poseidon Adventure and "Sound Effects Editing" for Close Encounters). Neither of those categories stabilized until much later, alternating between non-competitive and competitive, and "no awards given". Sound Editing stabilized in 1988 and Visual Effects in 1991.
04. [TIE] Eight nominations
RAGTIME (1981)
DREAMGIRLS (2006)
THE DARK KNIGHT (2008)
Three very different films within three very different genres, though two of them had black protagonists back when Oscar was more resistant to movies about the black experience. Ragtime was a costume drama about a pianist involved with a rich white family at the beginning of the 20th century, Dreamgirls was a stage-to-screen adaptation of the Tony-winning musical about a Motown group, and The Dark Knight a Batman sequel that was, more importantly, the zeitgeist moment when the superhero genre completed its ascension to the top of Hollywood's foodchain. As near as we can tell only one of these films caused an Oscar-changing backlash roar by being left out of the top category... but it should be noted that Dreamgirls also helped cause a small Oscar change. After its 3 nominations for Best Original Song (which Enchanted repeated the very next year) the category rules changed to allow only 2 songs to be nominated from a single film. Some campaign teams take it a step further now and submit only one to up their chances of a win (think "Shallow" from A Star is Born, though it still would have won with another of its songs as a nominee).
One more note about this grouping. Dreamgirls (2006) holds the very strange honor of being the most-nominated film of its year, period, without a Best Picture nomination. The BP lineup that year (Little Miss Sunshine, The Queen, Departed, Babel, and Letters from Iwo Jima) had an atypically low collective nomination count in terms of how Oscar usually behaves with its most-beloved top five.
07. Seven nominations plus an Honorary Award
JOAN OF ARC (1948)
In the early days of Oscar they were much freer with "Honorary" prizes and special awards ass those things had not yet settled into a routine. Take this well meaning lengthy epic. It was the kind of prestige biopic that's more respected than loved at the time (note the lack of a best picture nomination) but they felt the need to give it an Honorary Award in addition to its 7 nominations. The honorary award was for producer Walter Wanger, who had actually already received both an Honorary Award and a Irving J Thalberg Memorial award in the ten yars preceding this picture. The award was for...
...distinguished service to the industry in adding to its moral stature in the world community by his production of the picture Joan of Arc.
Wanger would have one last run with Oscar as a nominee for producing Cleopatra (1963) which would also prove to be his last motion picture.
08. [TIE] Seven nominations
This has only been accomplished by 12 films so it's essentially a top 20 we're talking about rather than a top ten. (again, we're only talking non Best Picture players). One third of the final 12 pictures in this list share the same movie star!!!. The movies are...
COME TO THE STABLE (1949)
PEPE (1960)
HUD (1963)
HUSH HUSH SWEET CHARLOTTE (1964)
ALIENS (1986)
DICK TRACY (1990)
BULLETS OVER BROADWAY (1994)
COLD MOUNTAIN (2003)
Of the pre-1980s movies only Hud and Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte have really lived on due to the eternal starpower of Paul Newman and Bette Davis, respectively, and the latter has also been helped by its connection to Bette's feud with Joan Crawford. Though we should note that Cantinflas, the legendary Mexican star of Pepe, recently got his own biopic. Of this sextet it is absolute insanity that Hud missed a Best Picture nomination since it towers over the actual nominees that year in terms of quality (Tom Jones, America America, Cleopatra, Lilies of the Field, and How the West Was Won) and is also a serious drama with pedigree. Aliens is also an unthinkable miss but it was dealing with heavy genre bias AND sequel bias.
...and, look, an Unofficial Julie Andrews Tetralogy also received seven nominations without a Best Picture nod.
HAWAII (1967)
THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE (1967)
STAR! (1968)
VICTOR/VICTORIA (1982)
Star! was regarded as an hubristic debacle from the start for Julie Andrews but Oscar at least was partially onboard. Victor/Victoria's miss is harder to read in retrospect since it was such a delightful success in the early 80s when "genderbending" was all the rage... but perhaps Tootsie stole its comic thunder for Best Picture? And no one speaks of Hawaii despite its large success at the time; we've never had the opportunity to see it.
RUNNERS UP?:
Films that have managed six nominations without a Best Picture nomination include but are definitely not limited to: The Rains Came (1939), The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), Some Like It Hot (1959), The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964), Empire of the Sun (1987) and both Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Thelma & Louise in 1991. But once you get to six nominations or less there are a ton of films that hold that distinction.
Most impressively and frustratingly My Man Godfrey (1936) and Carol (2015), two masterpieces of their respective genres, arrived in time periods in history wherein the Academy was nominating more than 5 movies for Best Picture each year and yet they were still denied their richly deserved status as nominees for the top prize despite six nominations and some in major categories ---ARRRRRGH.
Reader Comments (48)
Six nominations in 1954 for A Star is Born but no Best Picture
Actress, Actor, Art Direction, Costume, Score, Song
Wasn’t Aliens up there?
Looks like it was 7 nominations per IMDB.
Love this Oscar trivia, and anything that charges discussions about those first 3 films.They Shoot Horses, Don't They? is excellent. I was glad that Susannah York won the Smackdown (back when StinkyLulu was hosting it) for that year.
Seven nominations for Bullets over Broadway in 1994 but no Best Picture
Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, Supporting Actress, Writing, Directing, Costume, Art Direction
Jane Fonda in They Shoot Horses, Don't They? turned me gay and socialist.
Hud most definitely does NOT tower above America America. It is, however, better (or at least on par) with the other four nominees.
I don't think it's impossible that a new film will be added to the list (after all, big "tech" films like Skyfall and The Force Awakens routinely get 5 or so nominations a year); but it was more likely for some of these films considering that the Cinematography/Costume/Art Direction had separate color/B&W categories.
The real question is how many of these that weren't under the current system would have gotten in under our current system.
They Shoot Horses, Don't They? - Yes
The Poseidon Adventure - Maybe
Close Encounters of the Third Kind - Yes
Ragtime - Yes
Dreamgirls - No
The Dark Knight - Yes
Come to the Stable - Yes
Pepe - Yes
Hud - Yes
Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte - Yes
Hawaii - Maybe
Star! - No
Victor/Victoria - Yes
Aliens - Yes
Bullets Over Broadway - Yes
The Rains Came - Maybe
The Bad and the Beautiful - Yes
A Star is Born 1954 - Yes
Some Like it Hot - Yes
The Unsinkable Molly Brown - Yes
Empire of the Sun - Yes
Thelma and Louise - Yes
Great post but you should have included the title of the movie that fuck with their chances like The O.C. fucked mine.
Sigourney Weaver should have won for Aliens.
Great post but you should have included the title of the movie that fuck with their chances like The O.C. fucked mine.
Oops. Cleared the wrong field, but you all knew it was me anyway. Duh.
Two more at six nominations with no Best Picture
The Cardinal 1963
Director, Supporting Actor, Cinematography, Art Direction, Costume, Film Editing
The Road to Perdition 2002
Supporting Actor, Score, Cinematography, Art Direction, Sound, Sound Editing
Shut up and sing, Aretha! I should have Miss Kathleen Turner
The big reveal that Joan Castleman = /3rtful surprised absolutely no one.
Terminator 2 was way ahead of the Oscar curve. Given the expanded BP field, love for James Cameron and the more genre-friendly voting body today, T2 would have scored at least 2 more nominations - Actress and Picture, very solid chance at squeezing out Singleton for Director, and even a possibility of a Screenplay nom (I'm assuming it would be Original but maybe not).
Great post! It's wild that Julie Andrews has three films on the list. But Star was directed by Robert Wise.
Star! was directed by Robert Wise.
oops - sorry everyone. fixed.
According to my database, there were four more pictures with seven nominations and no Best Picture:
Joan of Arc (1948) (plus one honorary award)
Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967)
Dick Tracy (1990)
Cold Mountain (2003)
All pictures with six nominations and no Best Pic:
My Man Godfrey (1936)
The Rains Came (1939)
The North Star (1943)
A Song to Remember (1945)
The Jolson Story (1946)
The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)
Hans Christian Andersen (1952)
Lili (1953)
The High and the Mighty (1954)
Sabrina (1954)
A Star Is Born (1954)
Love Me or Leave Me (1955)
I Want to Live! (1958)
Some Like It Hot (1959)
Spartacus (1960)
The Cardinal (1963)
It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963)
The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964)
The Way We Were (1973)
Murder on the Orient Express (1974)
Fame (1980)
An Officer and a Gentleman (1982)
Das Boot (1982)
Fanny och Alexander (1983)
Empire of the Sun (1987)
Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) (plus one honorary award)
Thlelma & Luise (1991)
Terminator 2 (1991)
Road to Perdition (2002)
Frida (2002)
Memoirs of a Geisha (2005)
El Laberinto del Fauno (2006)
WALL-E (2008)
Carol (2015)
And to be honest: I believe True Grit from Joel & Ethan Coen would have been the second movie after They Shoot Horses with nine nominations and no Best Picture, if there would have been only five BP-Nominees that year. I can't imagine, that it would have prevailed over King's Speech (the winner), Social Network (the challenger), Inception (seven nominations besides Best Picture and four wins), The Fighter (six nominations besides Best pic, including three acting nominations and two acting wins) and Black Swan (with only four nominatoins besides Best pic the most vulnerable candidate... but come on!).
FRIDA also took six nominations in 2003.
Great post. I love this stuff!
Re: Victor Victoria, yes, it achieved seven, including four biggies (Actress, Supporting Actor, Surpporting Actress and Adapted Screenplay). But I'm not too surprised it missed a Best Picture nomination. A number of films in 1982 received heavy nominations without getting into Best Picture:
Das Boot - 6 including Directing and Adapted Screenplay
An Officer and a Gentleman - 6 including Actress, Supporting Actor and Original Screenplay
Sophie's Choice - 5 including Actress and Adapted Screenplay
Hawaii is a very underrated film. It should have won Best Score and Best Supporting Actress - Jocelyn La Garde is wonderful - and she couldn't speak English and learned her lines phonetically! Max Von Sydow is really excellent and should have been nominated.
Ha, too true Suzanne. They do a C- Faye Dunaway though!
"After its 3 nominations for Best Original Song (which Enchanted repeated the very next year)"
"Enchanted" was the year before.
HUSH...HUSH, SWEET CHARLOTTE scoring seven noms makes me so giddy.
Wait, so with Thoroughly Modern Millie then Julie Andrews has FOUR movies with seven nominations and no Best Picture nomination. That sounds like another kind of record to me. ;-)
Jonathan: No, Nathaniel's right. Dreamgirls was 2006, Enchanted 2007.
Peggy -- Quote of the year!
Suzanne - I'm the original Joan Castleman and I have nothing to do with /3rtful.
/3rtful -- Don't mess with my nick. If you were trying to be funny, please stop. It's not in your nature.
Joan Castleman uses commas. She can't be 3rtful
TSH, DT? and Hud are phenomenal. Melvyn Douglas’s win for the latter may be my favorite in his category.
I know the cast of Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte had, like, 5 Oscars between them by that point, but that movie getting 7 nominations is WILD. The queens in the tech categories showed out!
I was starting to think about possible options but I see Andy's post and the fun is over : (
Anyway ... one of my choices was Who Framed Rogger Rabbit because the animation process is techincally complex and i knew at least they would reward that effort.
Is just a shame that wasn´t even nominated for screenplay or director. In my mind Robert Zemeckis won the Oscar for this and not for Forrest Gump.
Silkwood has 5 nominations without a Best Picture nod. Best Actress, Best Supp Actress, Best Director, Best Screenplay (original) and Film Editing.
Doubt has 5 nominations without a Best Picture nod. Lead Actress, Lead Actor, Support Actor, Support Actress and Best Screenplay (adapted).
Glory has 5 nominations without a Best Picture nod. Support Actor, Cinematography, Art/Set Direction, Sound and Film Editing.
Head scratcher that The Towering Inferno gets a BP nod, yet the Great Poseidon Adventure didn’t.
At the opposite spectrum: "Grand Hotel" (1932) received just one Oscar nomination - Best Picture, and won! I want to be alone.
"Star" should be on Blu ray by now- there is an excellent DVD of this long and not perfect film but it's the sort of big budget star vehicle they don't make anymore. I would love to see "Those Were The Happy Times" a truncated version of the film which 20th Century Fox released after the road show extravaganza failed at the box office.
An interesting fact is that the four movies that are mentioned with Julie Andrews received at least one nomination for a suppoprting role.
Always love the Oscar trivia posts, and this inspired me to try and programme RAGTIME with my local film society.
But, if I can put my pedant hat on for a minute... the correct term for four films(plays/books/etc.) is "tetralogy", or "quartet" if you prefer. "Quadrilogy" is a bastardised mash-up of Greek and Latin, popularised by the marketing team behind the ALIEN series, that I will always rally against (even if/when it eventually changes definition, much like "literally" became officially recognised to have one definition that is the exact opposite of what it has meant for centuries *sigh*).
Sorry, off my soapbox now. As you were.
Edward L. - Oops! You're right. I had "The Dark Knight" on the mind.
Joan - I'm the original Suzanne and I don't care, so there.
Someone is trolling you by posting garbage under other posters' names.
Luce, commas are part of his method acting to get into a grande dame role lol. Two poorly done Joan Castleman accounts? I think not.
Peyton Place had NINE nominations and won nothing.
Dennis: Yes, but this post is about films with large numbers of nominations that didn't get a Best Picture nomination, and Peyton Place did get one.
Julie also has the distinction of starring in movies four years straight that earned supporting acting noms.
PS the only other actors I believe who’ve done that are Bette Davis and Marlon Brando.
PS2 Star! is unfairly maligned and IS wonderful!
"Star" was released at the wrong time
Peyton Place was INDEED nominated for best picture, Jerry Wald would have been the recipient. Leaving this movie off the list is a real error.
Doubt did not receive a Best Actor nomination.