by Nathaniel R
KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON marks a third time for Scorsese to reach a particular Oscar stat
Most die-hard movie fans can tell you who the "all time biggest losers" are in Oscar history though they'll usually cite actors (Peter O'Toole, Glenn Close, etcetera) rather than films. The film list is interesting because usually when Oscar really loves a movie they'll find a way to give it at least one Oscar. Yet sometimes they really love you only on the first ballot but are over you when it comes time to pick winners. In the past ten years this list of "losers" had grown. Please take the term "loser" in good fun as being nominated for tons of Oscars is still a rarity in the grand scheme of Hollywood releases.
After the jump all of the films with 8 nominations or more that won nothing on Oscar night...
Tied with 8 nominations / 8 losses
ELVIS
• Quo Vadis (1951)
• The Nun's Story (1959)
• The Sand Pebbles (1966)
• The Elephant Man (1980)
• Ragtime (1981)
• Remains of the Day (1993)
• Elvis (2022)
Usually once you land this many nominations, you're bound to be a favourite in at least one category. But none of these films managed a single one. Elvis is still fresh in the memory and it was surely running in second place in at least a couple of categories (Actor & Costumes). We wonder if any of the other films here were.
Tied with 9 nominations / 9 losses
• The Little Foxes (1941)
• Peyton Place (1957)
• The Banshees of Inisherin (2022)
Peyton Place is understandable (why did it have so many nominations in the first place?) but The Little Foxes is a stone cold masterpiece if you ask us. So riveting and tight that it's impossible to look away. It packs twice as much drama and performative chills into two hours than many of today's two and a half to four hour films manage. How did it lose all 9 of its nominations? And early in the season last year it looked like Banshees would be competitive somewhere. But it was not meant to be.
Tied with 10 nominations / 10 losses
• Gangs of New York (2002)
• True Grit (2010)
• American Hustle (2013)
• The Irishman (2019)
• Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)
Apologies to fans of Killers of the Flower Moon (a big hit here with the TFE staff) but this group of films makes a general suspicion into something like a hard truth. The industry admires Martin Scorsese's filmography - so much so that his films are automatic contenders each year and the question is 'how many?' with nominations, not the 'will they get around to screening it?' problem so many other films have. But here we see the Great Auteur holds three of the five 'runner up' positions for biggest Oscar night loser. Respect and admiration don't always mean "love". When it comes time to pass out wins, they're far less generous. This is surely why it also took this legendary auteur so very long to win Best Director though he is the second most nominated Director of all time (after William Wyler).
With the exception of The Irishman and (maybe) True Grit, all of these films were considered strong contenders in at least one race only to lose everything on Oscar night.
and Oscar's biggest losers remain...
Tied with 11 nominations / 11 losses
THE COLOR PURPLE
• The Turning Point (1977)
• The Color Purple (1985)
Aging dancers melodrama The Turning Point (1977) and the beloved blockbuster The Color Purple (1985) remain the films with the most nominations to lose all of their categories. It's worth noting that both films are inarguably about women and Oscar still -- even in the 21st century -- prefers films to be about men. That these two films came out within 8 years of each other is interesting though it seems random in terms of Oscar stats.
Still with Oscar nominating less features than they once did (the expanded era has strangely narrowed their focus to Best Picture contenders only) and more films scoring an absurd amount of nominations we know that these two will soon have to share this dubious honor with a third film. Why am I so certain? Please note again the five runners up to this "all time loser" title and note that they were ALL released in the past 25 years.
Do you have any other observations from this list?