If you love following the Oscars each year, you’ll know that the Academy is usually a really effective barometer for what’s good and what’s not so good. But, they sometimes get things very wrong, so we’ve put together a list of the 10 biggest Oscar snubs of all time, and added details of where to watch them.
We absolutely love most of the Oscar nominated films for 2025, but as always, there’s some films the Academy neglected this year – Sing Sing deserved far more attention, and Challengers was robbed!
It’s going to be fascinating seeing which film becomes the latest Best Picture winner at the Oscars this year, but let’s take a moment to remember all of those special films through the years that were wrongly rejected by the Academy. Here’s the biggest Oscar snubs of all time, and streaming options for them all.
Nightcrawler
We were never expecting Nightcrawler to scoop a bunch of awards or anything. The grimy thriller was up against it with the likes of Birdman, The Grand Budapest Hotel, and Whiplash dominating the 87th Academy Awards, but there is one category that it was notably absent from.
Seriously, how did Jake Gyllenhaal not get a nomination for his unhinged portrayal of Lou Bloom? The fact this captivating depiction of a man possessed by his pursuit of infamy was ignored is a heinous crime; so much so that Lou Bloom would probably be desperate to cover the story himself if he had the chance.
Dune
It would be unfair to claim that the Oscars forgot about Dune. The sci-fi epic was nominated for ten awards in 2022, winning six of them, but they were all in the technical categories. Yes, Dune is a technical marvel in many ways, but it’s so much more than that, and that’s largely thanks to the incredible direction from modern master, Denis Villeneuve.
So, the fact that the man at the helm for this one didn’t get a nomination, despite his film racking up so many nominations elsewhere just feels odd. Even more so, when you consider that he’s been spurned again this year for Dune: Part Two.
Arrival
Thankfully, Denis was nominated for his directing back in 2017 for the magnificent Arrival. The poetic sci-fi movie picked up eight nominations in total, but somehow only took home one award, for Best Sound Editing. But, what would Arrival be were it not for the stellar work in front of the camera from Amy Adams?
The whole film sinks or swims based on Adams’ portrayal of Dr. Louise Banks, and she imbues the movie with so much heart and emotional conflict that it becomes something transcendental, far deeper than a simple alien time travel story. The Academy instead opted to nominate Meryl Streep and Isabelle Huppert, for Florence Foster Jenkins and Elle, respectively. Both brilliant actors doing fine work, but Adams should have won the whole thing never mind being nominated.
Rear Window
The fact that Alfred Hitchcock never won an Oscar – apart from his consolation prize of the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award in 1968 – is simply ludicrous. The master of suspense is heralded as one of the greatest ever filmmakers and yet he was only nominated for Best Director five times, losing them all.
We could have picked any one of his works to label as a huge snub, but Rear Window is perhaps his finest film of all time and it deserved so much better. The riveting 1954 classic picked up just four nominations at the time, including one for Hitch himself, but it went home empty handed on the night.
2001: A Space Odyssey
If you thought Hitchcock’s catalogue of snubs was bad, spare a thought for the late, great Stanley Kubrick. The famed director, who mastered every genre going throughout his illustrious career, was never given any love by the Academy. Though he was nominated as Best Director for Dr. Strangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, and Barry Lyndon, he was ignored every time.
It is Space Odyssey that feels the most egregious of them all, though. For a film as influential and astounding as this to win just one Oscar – for visual effects – is a major miscarriage of justice. It’s the greatest sci-fi movie of all time, and it’s not even close!
Do the Right Thing
The Academy clearly didn’t pay attention to the title of this searing Spike Lee joint, because they most certainly did not do the right thing at all in 1990. The fact that Do the Right Thing didn’t even pick up a Best Picture nomination, in the same year that Driving Miss Daisy infamously won the award, just feels wrong on so many levels. Indeed, the two nominations for Best Screenplay and Best Support Actor (Danny Aiello) are more of a kick in the teeth than a justified consolation prize.
Do the Right Thing is bursting with life, tension, humour, and hatred. It’s both an indictment of the prejudices which plague our world, and a celebration of the differences between the rich cultures in our society. It’s a vitally important piece of work, regardless of how many Oscars it was snubbed for.
La La Land
Yes, La La Land won lots of awards – six, to be precise, including a Best Director gong for Damien Chazelle. Yes, its 14 nominations are a fantastic achievement, too. And yes, Moonlight was a very worthy winner in the end, but the way La La Land lost the big prize on the night still stings.
When Faye Dunaway called out La La Land as the Best Picture winner in 2017, no one batted an eye, because it was exactly what this magical musical deserved. Chazelle’s love letter to Hollywood is gorgeous to look at, sublime to listen to, and is achingly romantic in all the best ways.
Hereditary
We know the Academy doesn’t really like the horror genre, but its rejection of some performances over the last decade have just been plain terrifying. Most notably, how did Toni Collette not get a nomination for her brutal and brilliant performance in Ari Aster’s breakout hit, Hereditary?
To be honest, Colette should have won the award for her screaming talents alone. But, the way her character, Annie Graham, evolves in this spine-chilling story from a troubled woman, to a heartbroken mother, into a veritable monster, is so engrossing and so unsettling, and perfectly showcases her immense range as an actor.
Brokeback Mountain
Throughout the years there have been some very prominent shock wins in the Best Picture category. We mentioned Driving Miss Daisy earlier, and you can add the likes of Shakespeare in Love and The Green Book to that list, too. However, when Crash took home the top prize in 2006, the whole of Hollywood’s collective jaw dropped, and not in a good way.
That’s because the Paul Haggis movie beat the massive favourite on the night, Brokeback Mountain. Ang Lee’s painful love story is so intimate and intricately made, and it deserved the world. Instead, all it got was three Oscars, including Best Director, which almost makes the Best Picture snub even more criminal.
Citizen Kane
Citizen Kane is arguably the best film of all time, and that’s not a subjective opinion; there are countless lists that have the Orson Welles classic sitting at the top of the pile, and critical consensus hails the 1941 movie as a bona fide masterpiece. From its delightfully simple yet compelling story, to the range of different technical feats Welles manages to achieve in this one picture, Citizen Kane will live long as a cornerstone of cinematic history.
It’s funny, then, that this revered artefact wasn’t even considered the best film of the year at the time, losing out on the Best Picture award to How Green Was My Valley. Still, would you rather take one night of glory or a lifetime of admiration? Welles probably wanted both, to be fair.
Honourable mentions
- Saving Private Ryan
- It’s a Wonderful Life
- 12 Angry Men
- The Exorcist
- Dr Strangelove
- The Graduate
- Star Wars: A New Hope
- Dead Poets Society
- The Shawshank Redemption
- Singin’ in the Rain
Where to watch the movies that received the biggest Oscar snubs streaming online
Check out the list below for where to watch all these incredible movies that the Oscars snubbed on streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and more!
