HOLLYWOOD — Since the recent announcement that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was returning to 10 best picture nominations — something it hasn’t done since 1943 — fans and pundits have been discussing the pros and cons of the decision. Are there even enough good films these days to find five best picture nominees, let alone 10?
But over the decades, numerous quality films and box office hits have been shut out of the best picture race. Just this year, such critical and commercial favorites as “The Dark Knight” and “Wall-E” didn’t make the cut. Consider this personal selection of randomly picked years of five nominees over the past eight decades of the awards.
1930-31: The academy entered its first full decade with these best picture nominees: “Cimarron,” which won, “East Lynne,” “The Front Page,” “Skippy” and “Trader Horn.”
If there had been 10 nominations, consider the Marx Brothers’ “Animal Crackers”; the witty Ernst Lubitsch musical “Monte Carlo”; “Little Caesar”; “The Dawn Patrol”; and the spoof of the Barrymores, “The Royal Family of Broadway.”
1944: “Going My Way” won the best picture Oscar, beating fellow nominees “Double Indemnity,” “Gaslight,” “Since You Went Away” and “Wilson.”
But the notable films that didn’t get nominated include the Technicolor musical “Cover Girl,” the quintessential film noir “Laura,” Preston Sturges’ romp “The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek,” Alfred Hitchcock’s “Lifeboat”; and Vincente Minnelli’s enchanting “Meet Me in St. Louis,” starring Judy Garland.
1955: The low-budget drama “Marty” won the best picture Oscar, beating out its more high-profile nominees: “Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing,” “Mister Roberts,” “Picnic” and “The Rose Tattoo.”
But with an extra five nominees, actor James Dean’s influential dramas “East of Eden” and “Rebel Without a Cause” could have been included as well as John Sturges’ thriller “Bad Day at Black Rock,” with Spencer Tracy; Charles Laughton’s masterful thriller “The Night of the Hunter,” with Robert Mitchum; and the Ruth Etting biopic “Love Me or Leave Me,” with Doris Day and James Cagney.
1972: A great year for movies saw “The Godfather” earning the best picture Oscar, though fellow nominee “Cabaret” ended up winning eight Academy Awards. Rounding out the nominees were “Deliverance,” “The Emigrants” and “Sounder.”
But classic films that failed to earn best picture nominations include “The Poseidon Adventure”; “Jeremiah Johnson,” with Robert Redford; the political satire “The Candidate,” with Redford; the thriller “Sleuth,” with Michael Caine and Laurence Olivier; and Woody Allen’s “Play It Again, Sam.”
1997: “Titanic” sunk the competition, winning 11 Oscars, including best picture. Competing with “Titanic” were “The Full Monty,” “Good Will Hunting,” “As Good as It Gets” and “L.A. Confidential.”
But the race could have been more intriguing with five more nominees: Steven Spielberg’s historica“Amistad”; Wolfgang Petersen’s thriller “Air Force One”; Ang Lee’s “The Ice Storm”; “Men in Black”; and “My Best Friend’s Wedding” with Julia Roberts.
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