Following the wonder that was Friday night’s Independent Spirit Awards, the Academy showered the indie community with impressive wins in major categories. Among the underdogs, ‘The Hurt Locker’ walked away with six Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director honors for Kathryn Bigelow, the first awarded to a female. ‘Precious’ took home two Academy Awards, one for Best Supporting Actress (Mo’Nique) and one for Best Adapted Screenplay (Geoffrey Fletcher), while ‘Crazy Heart’ won for Best Actor (Jeff Bridges) and Best Original Song for Ryan Bingham’s “The Weary Kind.” With the upset win over ‘Avatar’ in the ceremony’s final category, ‘The Hurt Locker’ became the lowest-grossing Best Picture winner in history, earning only $21 million at the box office versus $2.5 billion for James Cameron’s blockbuster .
Our Top 5 Films that should’ve had an Oscar nod for Best Picture, and didn’t:
5. ‘Duck Soup‘ (1933): The Marx Brothers mixed war and politics and threw in a famous mirror scene to create a comedy masterpiece.
4. ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs‘ (1937): Before Pixar changed animation forever, this full-length feature was the country’s first animated release.
3. ‘City Lights‘ (1931): The recipient of zero Oscar nominations, this silent romantic comedy remains arguably Charlie Chaplin’s finest films.
2. ‘Psycho‘ (1960): The highest-grossing of Alfred Hitchcock’s films, this thriller reinvented the genre and made taking showers a horrifying experience.
1. ‘2001: A Space Odyssey‘ (1968): Stanley Kubrick directorial interpretation of Arthur C. Clarke’s novel pioneered special effects and set a course for a new frontier.
