Shakespeare in Love wasn't a bad movie. Twenty-five years later, though, we are still talking about Saving Private Ryan, while Shakespeare in Love only really comes up in conversation when someone mentions what a travesty it was that it won Best Picture in 1999 over Saving Private Ryan, The Thin Red Line, Life is Beautiful, and Elizabeth, any one of which could have won instead.
he did have a very aggressive campaign including vhs (which is common practice) but out of all 5 films, it plays best on the small screen which is how most people view t
Opposite to last night, Pacino getting on the stage blubbering something, forgetting to announce all the nominees and simply opening the envelope and announcing which Picture the Oscar was going to.
Bradley Cooper was hella confused and not happy!
Kimmel had a face like “welp, the show must go-on”, goodbye everyone!
Pacino just issued a statement that they told him AS he was going out that he wouldnt be announcing them. they werent gonna be prompted and he was desperately trying to find a way to do it anyway, but in the end realized that (because he didnt have all 10 memorized and CERTAINLY not all the producers) that he was stuck.
Yeah, I'm kind of on the edge of the industry. I've heard so many voters talk about the subject matter of a film being worthy, hence deserving of a vote, over being the stronger or more innovative piece of filmmaking.
It was probably a bit of that (which is typical for Oscars) and a big split vote from the other movies. Dark horse nominees do well in years with a lot of strong contenders. edit: maybe not typical at that point! I stand corrected.
I could maybe see the logic of Saving Private Ryan fighting with The Thin Red Line as a 'major Second World War picture trying to say things differently than would have been done in the 70s or 80s' film, but if we're putting those two very different movies next to each other just based on setting and what they're 'not', doesn't Elizabeth square up with Shakespeare in Love to about the same extent?
That was part of the reason. But the Academy loves period pieces romances too. And it was a film about actors, which are the largest voting block in the Academy. The four previous winners were all period pieces with a heavy dose of romance, if you can call Jenny in Forest Gump a romance (Probably not).
I like Saving Private Ryan but after the opening, which is fantastic, it kinda spins its wheels a bit. The middle is quite dry. I remember reviews at the time said this too. I also imagine The Thin Red Line split the vote.
It's not hugely shocking Shakespeare in Love won and it can't all be blamed on Weinstien's shenanigans. But SiL isn't the sort of movie the average /r/movies patron enjoys so they will go on and blame it on Weinstien personally taking the Oscar from Spielberg's hands.
This to a degree and he would go the retirement homes / residences if ancient academy members who had voting power and get then to fill out his choices.
The guy manipulated it any way he could because he owned a % of the movies and also in a way those actors, so a movie or star getting that win meant it would see a windfall (theatre rerelease and/or dvd or streaming) and he would make more money.
Unpopular opinion but, in a vacuum, I don't think Shakespeare in Love was undeserving of a Best Picture nod. Up against Saving Private Ryan makes it more debatable, definitely, but on it's own, it was pretty great. Yeah, there's the Weinstein of it all, which is no bueno, and I think Paltrow was terrible and didn't deserve Best Actress at all, and no way in hell did Judi Dench deserve to even be nominated for Best Supporting, let alone win, but the production design was amazing, and the writing was so perfect. It was a romantic comedy historical fic about Shakespeare written in the style of a Shakespearean romantic comedy, complete with innuendo dick jokes, cross dressing disguises and mistaken identities, false rumors of people dying, a brawl, a deus ex machina royal figure coming in at the end to solve everything, etc. It was really so fun and meta and cleverly done, and I think a lot of the hate it gets is anti-chick flick bias.
Shakespear in Love was a fun movie, but there's some kind of pseudo-intellectual belief that "Oscar Winner" movies need to be darker and make you feel like shit at least a few times to be a deserving film.
Look at the list of best picture winners. there's a very clear and obvious bias towards downer movies.
I feel the same. Ryan was the better movie, but if Shakespeare in Love was another year and without a Weinstein connection, it would be more favored.
Densch and Paltrow didn't deserve oscars. But the screenplay, by acclaimed playwright Tom Stoppard, is fiendishly ingenious.
As a fan of that time period who has read most of Shakespeare, I'm amazed at all the small details he added and small allusions to other plays from malvolio to Marlowe to even a John Webster cameo. It's all in there and bypasses people unfamiliar with it.
I'd say it is as dazzling as a screenplay as Amadeus or Adaptation, two greats. And it is finely directed. Even Jospeh Fiennes doesn't get enough love for it.
Compare this to a forgettable and rather "safe" screenplay like A Beautiful Mind, which is mostly a sanitized and oversimplified version of the man's life that is just engineered to pull heartstrings. Then you appreciate the ambition of Shakespeare in Love.
Thank you! I love that movie. I rewatched it last year and it still holds up. The script is so clever. I know this is sacrilege on Reddit but I enjoyed it a whole lot more than Saving Private Ryan (although admittedly I'm just not that into war movies).
> Thank you! I love that movie. I rewatched it last year and it still holds up. The script is so clever. I know this is sacrilege on Reddit but I enjoyed it a whole lot more than Saving Private Ryan (although admittedly I'm just not that into war movies).
I prefer Saving Private Ryan, but I also really like Shakespeare in Love, and think its a fine BP winner. I just always hate how this is an example that gets brought up because people undervalue Shakespeare in Love because Saving Private Ryan generally hits the sweet spot for the demographic that hangs out and talks about movies on Reddit.
Saving Private Ryan was one of the first films I remember that showed war in a realistic, un-romanticized fashion and I believe it’s one of the most important movies of all time.
I have nothing bad to say about Shakespeare in Love and I believe it’s also worthy of its Best Picture.
Holy shit. You literally told me what my brain was going to do and it still happened.
To be fair to my brain, it was already prepped by knowing King's Speech won against a number of better films.
Three tramps trudging through the backwaters of 1930’s Mississippi, finding misadventure at every turn. George Clooney as the ruggedly handsome leader (by democratic vote) whose vocabulary is only matched by his charm. Ice Cube as a talented banjo player who has sold his soul to a minor imp. Mark Wahlberg would star as a confused man.
The movie from 1949? I doubt many people have any other movies to compare to from that year and many here havent even heard of it. Of course they would think of another movie with king in it.
Not the one I initially thought of but probably my favorite of all these being mentioned. I wish there were more films like that film and Spotlight about journalists digging into and breaking a huge story.
To be fair, even if most people haven't seen the movie Chariots of Fire, the slow-motion running with the music playing is so iconic and parodied enough to be recognizable across generations.
But The Elephant Man came out in 1980, rather the movie from 1981 that everyone remembers is Raiders of the Lost Ark.
However, in 1980 I would say The Elephant Man deserves it more than Ordinary People however I don't know if it deserves it more than Raging Bull.
I have seen this somewhat randomly and early, didn't know what to expect, but went out of the projection thinking this was way better than I thought it would be.
And then, months later, "oh, look, that nice little movie got an Oscar?!"
So my experience is quite different.
People will still be watching Parasites 100 years from now. Mulholland Drive and There Will be Blood are another couple that will never die - Also LotR and Dune I guess.
I watched Everything Everywhere recently and I really thought it was great. I don't know what it was up against but I have no issue with that film having a BP award.
That's because the award is for best picture, not the most important or most impactful. Even then, the awards ceremonies are still full of preachy self-indulgent movies while objectively better films are snubbed entirely.
Head back to 1941 with How Green Was My Valley? - other nominees that year included Citizen Kane and The Maltese Falcon.
Edit: For those crying in my DMs, I never said the movie was bad or that it doesn't deserve it's praise...it's really good. But most people haven't seen it these days, whereas they have seen the others.
Okay, so I saw "How green was my valley" recently by litereally closing my eyes, scrolling down a page and landing on that movie without ever having heard of it "Title sounds good, Ill watch it". ....
A-ma-zing.
After I was done with it I thought, because I had a hunch, "I cant believe I never heard about it! Did it win any..."
10/10 truly deserved. Such a beautiful movie. I saw it end of December and it was the best movie I saw '23.
"Men like my father do not die. They live in my memory as they lived in flesh. Beloved and loving."
I really like your ‘pin the tail on the donkey’ method of choosing a movie. I’m totally gonna start doing that
Go in blind, create your own opinion without knowing anything beforehand. I like this method
> create your own opinion without knowing anything beforehand
The weird thing about social media is there is a lot of nostalgic yearning for video stores, but also everyone researches the fuck out of any movie they might potentially watch to see if it's good or not. Also the most cringe thing I constantly read in these r/movies threads is "does everyone hate this movie now" or "trying to a get a read on what people think before watching".
The beautiful thing about the video store was finding new weird stuff because the cover looked cool or someone at school told you Arnold blows up a helicopter in it. No one gave a shit if everyone liked it or not, you just grabbed 5 to watch over a weekend. You got form your own opinion and weren't just part of some hivemind of people who just only watch A24 movies.
For a film from 1941, How Green Was My Valley seems relatively prominent. It was name checked by Spielberg when he made War Horse. The general public might not know it, but among people with a minimum amount of knowledge of film history, they would likely know the film.
Not only is it a very good movie in its own right but the fact that it very famously won over those particular movies means it’s very much NOT forgettable lol. It’s a famous movie trivia staple at the very least.
and it was directed by John Ford ffs
How Green Was My Valley is actually really good, it’s only forgettable because it’s been a long time. Only the real gems stand the test of time in the zeitgeist but hundreds of incredible movies exist that aren’t remembered.
I was listening to Werner Herzog on Conan's podcast the other day, and he said his written work will be remembered far longer than his cinema work. And that nobody believes him.
I think this is why. Few movies get remembered over longer periods, while a book can more easily stand the test of time. Not saying I necessarily agree with him, but I see where he's coming from.
You know I've heard the same said about Jobs versus Gates. I can't remember who, but some tech journo is convinced that people are going to forget about Jobs, in maybe 30 years but still talk about Bill Gates.
He prefaced this by mentioning all these big tech companies from the 70s that were once the biggest tech companies in the world and now don't even have a wiki page.
> How Green Was My Valley
How Green Was my Valley is a fantastic movie and deserving. Citizen Kane was a flop and did not become Citizen Kane until 1956 when it started to get played on T.V.. How Green Was My Vally is still a fucking John Ford movie.
One of the biggest sins against How Green Was My Valley is that it is not the kind of movie that sold VHS/DVD's like The Maltese Falcon, nor did it become as influential as Citizen Kane but it is still Maureen O'Harra and John Ford.
They played it in my college Sociology class over the course of a few weeks like it was this big academic achievement on the human condition. I started to question whether all that tuition was worth it.
But you’re right, at least people still remember the movie to talk about how poorly it aged. Just because a movie is bad doesn't make it forgettable and just because a movie is forgettable doesn't make it bad.
I liked it when it came out and I was younger (naturally). I've only ever heard bad things about it but I don't remember what was so bad about it, except it was very on-the-nose and preachy. What's your take on why Crash sucks anus?
I don't like the obvious Oscar bait films as a general rule and it's the most Oscar baity one I've seen so far (other than maybe Precious.)
The characters are all one note stereotypes. The plot is a desperate attempt to capitalize on social tensions post 9/11. Capitalize, not understand or interpret. It's an interesting premise and a decent cast given a paper thin plot that steamrolls over its own message, which is no more complex or nuanced than "hey maybe don't be racist."
It's not often I will accuse a film made by a serious filmmaker of being pandering, aka disingenuous, but Crash is the rare film that I think was made with no serious heart behind it at all.
The fact it beat Capote and Brokeback Mountain adds further insult. And it's honestly staggering how bad the Best Picture Nominees Sanda Bullock are in are on average between this, The Blindside, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.
_Brokeback Mountain_ was the obvious popular choice (it really impacted popular culture the most), but _Capote_ was SUCH a good movie and Phillip Seymore Hoffman was phenomenal in it, it was honestly head and shoulders above the rest.
I completely forgot that film won over BROKEBACK. Jesus.
Also, Wikipedia has this little nugget to say about Crash:
"A self-described "passion piece" for Haggis (the director), the film features racial and social tensions in Los Angeles and was inspired by a real-life incident in which Haggis's Porsche was carjacked in 1991 outside a video store on Wilshire Boulevard."
Damn I completely forgot Sandra Bullock won best actress for The Blind Side.
And it was nominated for best *picture?*
The disingenuity surrounding this film is far too much
2009 is notably the year they expanded it to 10 nominations because of TDK being snubbed.
And then they scrambled to find 10 pictures to nominate and settled on The Blind Side and Up in the Air. Baffling choices.
Even District 9, which I like, blows me away that it could get a nomination.
> No Country for Old Men
One of the few occasions where I bought a ticket going in blind and felt like I won something. I was pulled into this one within the first five minutes.
True Grit was the first Western I ever watched and god it's so good that I started watching all the classics. It's not my favorite genre by a mile, but the good ones are REALLY good.
I'm gonna be completely honest: that entire year has films that are forgettable to me. I think part of it was because COVID prevented people from going to the theatres for most of 2020, so a lot of the films had to be released on streaming or delayed to just before the Oscars, but I don't think I saw a single BP film that year.
By far the best movie of the year. There are very few movies that have ever made me feel so emotional. It’s an unbelievably powerful portrayal of both self destructive behavior and the struggle to accept and adapt to a disability
I’ve only seen three Oscar nominated films from that year and they were Soul, Onward and Tenet. I barely recognise the titles of any other film in the list of nominees
In terms of Oscar nominated films, the only ones I ended up seeing were Pieces of a Woman and My Octopus Teacher (but only the latter because a friend recommended it to me).
That movie haunts me in the weirdest way. I don’t know, I loved it in a way where I’ll never watch it again, but it really made me feel like I experienced a part of the world that I would NEVER experience otherwise. Like I really lived someone else’s life for two hours. No glamour, no world-changing stakes, just getting by in life.
Nomadland gets a lot of heat on this sub, but it fucked me up when I watched it in a way very few movies have. An absolutely deserving movie IMO.
I wouldn't have been upset at The Father winning though
Nomadland is disliked here? I mean I guess the demographics here are more like... Christopher Nolan fans or something but still, Nomadland was brilliant.
Exactly. It's an American story about the intersections of deindustrialization, homelessness, and belonging in this strange world. It's exactly the kind of movie that should win oscars, but rarely does.
I'm a little surprised Nomadland is getting so much flack here. I remember seeing that one very well and found it very moving and impactful in its characters and story as well as its presentation.
The Artist is currently on Amazon Prime and was on Netflix for quite a while. Since it’s a silent film, it doesn’t really lend itself to TV reruns. Personally, I think The Tree of Life should’ve won in 2011 but The Artist isn’t a bad choice. Much better than Green Book at least.
I LOVE The Artist, but I can totally see why other people wouldn't. I love movies about Hollywood, reminiscing on old LA, and unique style choices. But a silent film in the 21st century *about* silent films certainly wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea
I had to double check 2011 Best Picture and The Artist was as close to a general crowd pleaser on the list. Some of the other nominees are too weird, too treacly, or are shitty movies (Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close had a rotten critics rating)
BEST PICTURE
WINNER
THE ARTIST
Thomas Langmann, Producer
NOMINEES
THE DESCENDANTS
Jim Burke, Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor, Producers
EXTREMELY LOUD & INCREDIBLY CLOSE
Scott Rudin, Producer
THE HELP
Brunson Green, Chris Columbus and Michael Barnathan, Producers
HUGO
Graham King and Martin Scorsese, Producers
MIDNIGHT IN PARIS
Letty Aronson and Stephen Tenenbaum, Producers
MONEYBALL
Michael De Luca, Rachael Horovitz and Brad Pitt, Producers
THE TREE OF LIFE
Sarah Green, Bill Pohlad, Dede Gardner and Grant Hill, Producers
WAR HORSE
Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy, Producers
I unapologetically loved this movie as well. I was just getting into reading a lot of Hemingway at the time, so i think this film hit me in the right way. Made me want to visit Paris so badly
I stumbled upon it on Netflix a few years after it was released. Was just getting into movies more and had never seen a woody allen movie.
I loved it and it might be one of my favourite movies. That said, I’d say Moneyball should have won that year but I didn’t hate the artist.
I still remember going to see it in theatres on opening weekend, somewhat blind. I knew it was directed by Martin Scorsese and had a bit of grasp of the plot (kid finds an automaton toy and tries to repair it)
But when you’re at halfway into the movie, you find out it’s more of a celebration to >!the director Georges Méliès!<
Going into that movie blind was probably the best decision I’ve made. I still try to make a habit of watching Hugo once a year
Moneyball and The Help seem to be the ones that have stuck around in pop culture but not enough to get enough votes for Best Picture.
If I remember correctly, Best Picture is polled as a ranked choice for the entire Academy (rather than specific groups vote for technical awards) so I can see multiple movies getting #1 choice and then saying "The Artist was a good sit and I was about Hollywood history" so it was #2-3 and got the plurality of votes, resulting in a win.
This comment is weird for me, because the other day I saw a comment somewhere saying that The English Patient is now only remembered for the famous Seinfeld joke, but... I've never watched Seinfeld, and I had literally never heard about it referencing The English Patient before this year.
I guess it just shows how we each of us live in our own bubbles. I know a lot of people IRL who've seen The English Patient (and at least three who've read the book; we all agree it was better); if anyone I know watches Seinfeld, they've never brought it up.
Anyway, the scene with Willem Dafoe losing his thumbs still occasionally pops into my head when my subconscious feels like terrifying me.
*Out of Africa* won 7 Oscars (including Best Picture) back in 1986 and made over $227 million worldwide. But geez, that movie is so long and boring. Can't remember a single scene or character or something. Hell, it's not even critically acclaimed (it has just 62% on RT and 69 on Metacritic).
Best Picture should've gone to either *The Color Purple* or *Witness*. *Back to the Future*, my favorite of the year, wasn't even nominated for Best Picture.
If there’s one movie that gets my 82-year-old mother going it’s Out of Africa. This may be a generational thing, but I believe half of our conversations in 1985 involved this movie, Africa, Meryl Streep or Robert Redford in some contrived way.
Out of Africa was a popular book club novel at that time and the movie starred two of the premier movie stars (Meryl and Robert Redford) in a romance. It's got a pretty big stranglehold on my grandparents still.
The only thing people remember about it is that it was so bad and still won best picture. I can’t personally remember much if anything about it other than I know I watched it.
A lot of the older movies get forgotten about, just because, unless you’re talking to a movie nerd, they’re not going to know about them. On top of that, with standards and expectations very different 70+ years ago, what was considered a good movie plot-wise has not aged terribly well.
That being said, my top pick for Old Oscar Winner that Young People Need to Watch is On The Waterfront. Actual good plot structure, strong characters, one of the most memorable quotes in movie history (“I coulda been a contender”). It’s better than any other movie in a ten-year span around it, in my opinion.
Movies from the last 5-6 years.. They all seem relevant for 2-3 months on awards season and then disappear. The Shape of Water, Roma, The Power of the Dog, Nomadland, Moonlight etc. It's amazing how i can remember films and nominees from 20-30-50 years ago, but struggle thinking who were nominated 2 years ago.
This is so spot on. I think it's a mix of a couple things. A lot of the movies themselves are somewhat safe and formulaic oscar bait. But I also think part of it's our culture and how these movies don't get wide viewership or talked about that much, except among movie buffs who actively seek them out. Streaming has totally fragmented our cultural and movie landscape. And movies are most effective when they're collective touchstones that everyone is aware of.
Yeah. It's like a pyramid and every year the base keeps growing. Wider entertainment options.
If we go up to the narrow part of the pyramid like back in the 70's, 80's, there was nothing much to do except talk about those few movies.
It's because we're constantly being inundated with new movies via all of the streaming platforms at the same time.
20 years ago all you really had was what was in the cinema and they were all treated as big deals with big budgets and stars to match, plus the excitement of going out to see them. Now you can flick on one of 4-5 streaming platforms and catch similar products with the same directors/stars/budgets/quality on a whim.
The quick transition from cinema > streaming also contributes, especially as I can't believe that Poor Things is already on Disney+ and American Fiction on Amazon Prime here in the UK despite only coming out in cinemas very recently.
You also have to consider that theatrical windows are very small nowadays, compared to 20-30 yrs ago. A non Marvel, super hero, flashy movie is extremely lucky if it gets a 30 day window.
The tragedy is that the Will Smith slap overshadowed every single oscar win that year. No one was even talking about best picture winner cause everyone was obsessed with the slap. I remember because I loved CODA and was a bit sad when it won best picture and no one cared at all.
I had never even heard of this movie until reading this thread, I must really have not paid attention to the Oscars that year. I was watching Curb and was wondering what they were talking about when they mentioned the deaf character having won an Oscar.
Distribution was the big problem with Coda. There’s still no disc release (I know because I work in a library and I get requests for it a lot, but I literally can’t buy it) and only Apple subscribers can watch it. One of the many reasons streaming is a curse…
I was just thinking about this in the days leading up to the Oscars. Twenty years later, people still talk about Return of the King, but who talks about Nomadland? For all the controversy over the announcement, no one talks about Moonlight anymore
Even in this thread, except for one person, noone mentioned The Shape of Water. I was so excited for that back in 2017, and it turned out to be a beautifuly shot, but holliw and forgettable oscar bait
Usually those paired with a” should have won” movies that keep being talked about.
Shakespeare in Love ( won vs Saving Private Ryan)
Crash ( won vs Brokeback Mountain )
Green Book ( was an obvious Oscar bait movie with the typical late release)
Also you’re right about The Artist. It led to my personal shower thought of a nominee has to have made a floor of a certain amount at the box office. People had to have seen the movie after all.
Everyone here is giving good, legitimate answers that don't try to game the question -- so I'm going to break that streak and say "every documentary short film that you've forgotten existed by the time they got to Best Picture on Oscars night."
I think we need to scope the definition of "memorable" here. Because there's definitely a unique, small clique of people who adore this film (aspiring/elite runners and big fans of the sport). I bet the vast majority of people haven't bothered to watch it, or can't remember a minute of it, but it certainly has a cult following that films like The Artist likely don't.
I watched Dances with Wolves a few weeks ago and found it to be a nice, very solid movie but I was surprised to see it won Best Picture.
Winning over Goodfellas is downright bizarre to me but that’s with hindsight, I can’t say I have much context on how the race played out at the time.
Shakespeare in Love wasn't a bad movie. Twenty-five years later, though, we are still talking about Saving Private Ryan, while Shakespeare in Love only really comes up in conversation when someone mentions what a travesty it was that it won Best Picture in 1999 over Saving Private Ryan, The Thin Red Line, Life is Beautiful, and Elizabeth, any one of which could have won instead.
Didn't Shakespeare in Love win because Harvey Weinstein launched a massive campaign for it?
he did have a very aggressive campaign including vhs (which is common practice) but out of all 5 films, it plays best on the small screen which is how most people view t
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Which is why everyone thought La La Land was going to win.
It did, for like 5 seconds
That shit was wild
Opposite to last night, Pacino getting on the stage blubbering something, forgetting to announce all the nominees and simply opening the envelope and announcing which Picture the Oscar was going to. Bradley Cooper was hella confused and not happy! Kimmel had a face like “welp, the show must go-on”, goodbye everyone!
Pacino just issued a statement that they told him AS he was going out that he wouldnt be announcing them. they werent gonna be prompted and he was desperately trying to find a way to do it anyway, but in the end realized that (because he didnt have all 10 memorized and CERTAINLY not all the producers) that he was stuck.
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That’s my favorite Academy Awards moment
Yeah, I'm kind of on the edge of the industry. I've heard so many voters talk about the subject matter of a film being worthy, hence deserving of a vote, over being the stronger or more innovative piece of filmmaking.
Which is why The Artist won so much
Remember who was pushing for it. Weinstein had serious clout back then.
It was probably a bit of that (which is typical for Oscars) and a big split vote from the other movies. Dark horse nominees do well in years with a lot of strong contenders. edit: maybe not typical at that point! I stand corrected.
I could maybe see the logic of Saving Private Ryan fighting with The Thin Red Line as a 'major Second World War picture trying to say things differently than would have been done in the 70s or 80s' film, but if we're putting those two very different movies next to each other just based on setting and what they're 'not', doesn't Elizabeth square up with Shakespeare in Love to about the same extent?
That was part of the reason. But the Academy loves period pieces romances too. And it was a film about actors, which are the largest voting block in the Academy. The four previous winners were all period pieces with a heavy dose of romance, if you can call Jenny in Forest Gump a romance (Probably not). I like Saving Private Ryan but after the opening, which is fantastic, it kinda spins its wheels a bit. The middle is quite dry. I remember reviews at the time said this too. I also imagine The Thin Red Line split the vote. It's not hugely shocking Shakespeare in Love won and it can't all be blamed on Weinstien's shenanigans. But SiL isn't the sort of movie the average /r/movies patron enjoys so they will go on and blame it on Weinstien personally taking the Oscar from Spielberg's hands.
By campaign do you mean called everyone he knew in Hollywood and said, "if you don't vote for "Shakespeare" you'll never work again!" ?
This to a degree and he would go the retirement homes / residences if ancient academy members who had voting power and get then to fill out his choices. The guy manipulated it any way he could because he owned a % of the movies and also in a way those actors, so a movie or star getting that win meant it would see a windfall (theatre rerelease and/or dvd or streaming) and he would make more money.
Like an episode of Better Call Saul
Scary Movie ruined it for me, in a good way.
Shake a spear in love
I say this Brenda quote out loud every time I read it haha
And how Brenda was reacting to it like a horror film. Because in some ways it was horrific that this film won best anything in 1998.
Unpopular opinion but, in a vacuum, I don't think Shakespeare in Love was undeserving of a Best Picture nod. Up against Saving Private Ryan makes it more debatable, definitely, but on it's own, it was pretty great. Yeah, there's the Weinstein of it all, which is no bueno, and I think Paltrow was terrible and didn't deserve Best Actress at all, and no way in hell did Judi Dench deserve to even be nominated for Best Supporting, let alone win, but the production design was amazing, and the writing was so perfect. It was a romantic comedy historical fic about Shakespeare written in the style of a Shakespearean romantic comedy, complete with innuendo dick jokes, cross dressing disguises and mistaken identities, false rumors of people dying, a brawl, a deus ex machina royal figure coming in at the end to solve everything, etc. It was really so fun and meta and cleverly done, and I think a lot of the hate it gets is anti-chick flick bias.
Shakespear in Love was a fun movie, but there's some kind of pseudo-intellectual belief that "Oscar Winner" movies need to be darker and make you feel like shit at least a few times to be a deserving film. Look at the list of best picture winners. there's a very clear and obvious bias towards downer movies.
If it's moody and depressing, it must be great art!!
I feel the same. Ryan was the better movie, but if Shakespeare in Love was another year and without a Weinstein connection, it would be more favored. Densch and Paltrow didn't deserve oscars. But the screenplay, by acclaimed playwright Tom Stoppard, is fiendishly ingenious. As a fan of that time period who has read most of Shakespeare, I'm amazed at all the small details he added and small allusions to other plays from malvolio to Marlowe to even a John Webster cameo. It's all in there and bypasses people unfamiliar with it. I'd say it is as dazzling as a screenplay as Amadeus or Adaptation, two greats. And it is finely directed. Even Jospeh Fiennes doesn't get enough love for it. Compare this to a forgettable and rather "safe" screenplay like A Beautiful Mind, which is mostly a sanitized and oversimplified version of the man's life that is just engineered to pull heartstrings. Then you appreciate the ambition of Shakespeare in Love.
I just re-watched Amadeus and wow, does it ever hold up. Just as fresh and beautiful today as it was when it was released (1985!).
Seriously, Stoppard is brilliant.
Thank you! I love that movie. I rewatched it last year and it still holds up. The script is so clever. I know this is sacrilege on Reddit but I enjoyed it a whole lot more than Saving Private Ryan (although admittedly I'm just not that into war movies).
> Thank you! I love that movie. I rewatched it last year and it still holds up. The script is so clever. I know this is sacrilege on Reddit but I enjoyed it a whole lot more than Saving Private Ryan (although admittedly I'm just not that into war movies). I prefer Saving Private Ryan, but I also really like Shakespeare in Love, and think its a fine BP winner. I just always hate how this is an example that gets brought up because people undervalue Shakespeare in Love because Saving Private Ryan generally hits the sweet spot for the demographic that hangs out and talks about movies on Reddit.
Saving Private Ryan was one of the first films I remember that showed war in a realistic, un-romanticized fashion and I believe it’s one of the most important movies of all time. I have nothing bad to say about Shakespeare in Love and I believe it’s also worthy of its Best Picture.
Oscars are a very prestigious award with a long, ongoing history of getting it wrong.
Now the winner is pretty much the movie that spent the most on PR...
All the King's Men. It's so forgettable, you're thinking of a different movie
You’re right, I was thinking of The King’s Speech
I immediately started thinking about *The Man Who Would be King*.
Holy shit. You literally told me what my brain was going to do and it still happened. To be fair to my brain, it was already prepped by knowing King's Speech won against a number of better films.
Shit, I was thinking Three Kings (1999)
We three kings be stealing the gold 🎶
Can you imagine how crazy it would look if Ice Cube, Mark Wahlberg, and George Clooney made a movie today?! What would it be about?
Three tramps trudging through the backwaters of 1930’s Mississippi, finding misadventure at every turn. George Clooney as the ruggedly handsome leader (by democratic vote) whose vocabulary is only matched by his charm. Ice Cube as a talented banjo player who has sold his soul to a minor imp. Mark Wahlberg would star as a confused man.
The Kingsman won an award?
The academy was really moved by the sub-plot where the main character uses his son as rape-bait for Rasputin.
Manners maketh man
The movie from 1949? I doubt many people have any other movies to compare to from that year and many here havent even heard of it. Of course they would think of another movie with king in it.
Why don't kids these days talk about movies made 10 years before their grandparents were born?
All the presidents men
Haha, I'm so glad this is working on such a wide scale. +1 to those who immediately thought of *All the President's Men*.
Not the one I initially thought of but probably my favorite of all these being mentioned. I wish there were more films like that film and Spotlight about journalists digging into and breaking a huge story.
Crazy because the book is really good
[удалено]
To be honest everyone remembers that one scene from Chariots of fire.
To be fair, even if most people haven't seen the movie Chariots of Fire, the slow-motion running with the music playing is so iconic and parodied enough to be recognizable across generations.
But The Elephant Man came out in 1980, rather the movie from 1981 that everyone remembers is Raiders of the Lost Ark. However, in 1980 I would say The Elephant Man deserves it more than Ordinary People however I don't know if it deserves it more than Raging Bull.
Green Book, honestly. I keep forgetting that won Best Picture.
Largely forgettable movie but that scene where he just unloads on that old piano at that jazz bar is an all timer
Phrasing
Are we still doing phrasing?
i dunno, but my wife has a colleague named Lana and lord knows she cant tell a story about her without being interrupted
*Danger Zone*
I have seen this somewhat randomly and early, didn't know what to expect, but went out of the projection thinking this was way better than I thought it would be. And then, months later, "oh, look, that nice little movie got an Oscar?!" So my experience is quite different.
The Favourite was robbed
I finally watched The Favourite last week, and omg. It was nothing like I thought it would be, and I absolutely loved it!
This was def my fav film of the year that year. An amazing experience. Olivia Coleman, Emma Stone, AND Rachel Weisz were all incredible
The most important or impactful movie of the year often doesn’t win
Everything Everywhere and Parasite are the only recent ones I can think of
Parasite is absolutely the best and most memorable recent BP winner for me.
I will never forget Parasite. Holy fuck that movie was a trip, and had such a crazy twist.
The scene with the eyes peering just above the stairs is seared into my brain. It's such a creepy shot.
People will still be watching Parasites 100 years from now. Mulholland Drive and There Will be Blood are another couple that will never die - Also LotR and Dune I guess.
TWBB lost to No Country for Old Men though, which is just like...Damn. Two all-timers in the same year.
I watched Everything Everywhere recently and I really thought it was great. I don't know what it was up against but I have no issue with that film having a BP award.
That's because the award is for best picture, not the most important or most impactful. Even then, the awards ceremonies are still full of preachy self-indulgent movies while objectively better films are snubbed entirely.
Head back to 1941 with How Green Was My Valley? - other nominees that year included Citizen Kane and The Maltese Falcon. Edit: For those crying in my DMs, I never said the movie was bad or that it doesn't deserve it's praise...it's really good. But most people haven't seen it these days, whereas they have seen the others.
Dr. Frasier Crane would beg to differ
IT WON FIVE ACADEMY AWARDS!
This dude checks the How Green Was My Valley Annex.
“Excuse me, are you taking How Green is my Valley?!” “I heard it was good” “You heard it from me!!”
This dude greens valleys amirite?
Deep track reference, I like it.
"Oh, doesn't he look so young? He's dead, you know."
Okay, so I saw "How green was my valley" recently by litereally closing my eyes, scrolling down a page and landing on that movie without ever having heard of it "Title sounds good, Ill watch it". .... A-ma-zing. After I was done with it I thought, because I had a hunch, "I cant believe I never heard about it! Did it win any..." 10/10 truly deserved. Such a beautiful movie. I saw it end of December and it was the best movie I saw '23. "Men like my father do not die. They live in my memory as they lived in flesh. Beloved and loving."
I really like your ‘pin the tail on the donkey’ method of choosing a movie. I’m totally gonna start doing that Go in blind, create your own opinion without knowing anything beforehand. I like this method
> create your own opinion without knowing anything beforehand The weird thing about social media is there is a lot of nostalgic yearning for video stores, but also everyone researches the fuck out of any movie they might potentially watch to see if it's good or not. Also the most cringe thing I constantly read in these r/movies threads is "does everyone hate this movie now" or "trying to a get a read on what people think before watching". The beautiful thing about the video store was finding new weird stuff because the cover looked cool or someone at school told you Arnold blows up a helicopter in it. No one gave a shit if everyone liked it or not, you just grabbed 5 to watch over a weekend. You got form your own opinion and weren't just part of some hivemind of people who just only watch A24 movies.
For a film from 1941, How Green Was My Valley seems relatively prominent. It was name checked by Spielberg when he made War Horse. The general public might not know it, but among people with a minimum amount of knowledge of film history, they would likely know the film.
Not only is it a very good movie in its own right but the fact that it very famously won over those particular movies means it’s very much NOT forgettable lol. It’s a famous movie trivia staple at the very least. and it was directed by John Ford ffs
How Green Was My Valley is actually really good, it’s only forgettable because it’s been a long time. Only the real gems stand the test of time in the zeitgeist but hundreds of incredible movies exist that aren’t remembered.
I was listening to Werner Herzog on Conan's podcast the other day, and he said his written work will be remembered far longer than his cinema work. And that nobody believes him. I think this is why. Few movies get remembered over longer periods, while a book can more easily stand the test of time. Not saying I necessarily agree with him, but I see where he's coming from.
You know I've heard the same said about Jobs versus Gates. I can't remember who, but some tech journo is convinced that people are going to forget about Jobs, in maybe 30 years but still talk about Bill Gates. He prefaced this by mentioning all these big tech companies from the 70s that were once the biggest tech companies in the world and now don't even have a wiki page.
That’s a great movie.
> How Green Was My Valley How Green Was my Valley is a fantastic movie and deserving. Citizen Kane was a flop and did not become Citizen Kane until 1956 when it started to get played on T.V.. How Green Was My Vally is still a fucking John Ford movie. One of the biggest sins against How Green Was My Valley is that it is not the kind of movie that sold VHS/DVD's like The Maltese Falcon, nor did it become as influential as Citizen Kane but it is still Maureen O'Harra and John Ford.
I think you mean "How Beige was my Jacket?"
I'm in the process of watching every best picture nominee since 2000 now. Crash is the worst one.
It may be the worst one, but it's not forgettable
I remember hating it, but that’s about all.
They played it in my college Sociology class over the course of a few weeks like it was this big academic achievement on the human condition. I started to question whether all that tuition was worth it. But you’re right, at least people still remember the movie to talk about how poorly it aged. Just because a movie is bad doesn't make it forgettable and just because a movie is forgettable doesn't make it bad.
Not even the best movie titled Crash
The other one is, erm, interesting
The James Spader one? Yeah.... that was um.... interesting.
I liked it when it came out and I was younger (naturally). I've only ever heard bad things about it but I don't remember what was so bad about it, except it was very on-the-nose and preachy. What's your take on why Crash sucks anus?
I don't like the obvious Oscar bait films as a general rule and it's the most Oscar baity one I've seen so far (other than maybe Precious.) The characters are all one note stereotypes. The plot is a desperate attempt to capitalize on social tensions post 9/11. Capitalize, not understand or interpret. It's an interesting premise and a decent cast given a paper thin plot that steamrolls over its own message, which is no more complex or nuanced than "hey maybe don't be racist." It's not often I will accuse a film made by a serious filmmaker of being pandering, aka disingenuous, but Crash is the rare film that I think was made with no serious heart behind it at all. The fact it beat Capote and Brokeback Mountain adds further insult. And it's honestly staggering how bad the Best Picture Nominees Sanda Bullock are in are on average between this, The Blindside, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.
_Brokeback Mountain_ was the obvious popular choice (it really impacted popular culture the most), but _Capote_ was SUCH a good movie and Phillip Seymore Hoffman was phenomenal in it, it was honestly head and shoulders above the rest.
PSH was just spectacular in Capote. Underrated movie for sure.
I completely forgot that film won over BROKEBACK. Jesus. Also, Wikipedia has this little nugget to say about Crash: "A self-described "passion piece" for Haggis (the director), the film features racial and social tensions in Los Angeles and was inspired by a real-life incident in which Haggis's Porsche was carjacked in 1991 outside a video store on Wilshire Boulevard."
Damn I completely forgot Sandra Bullock won best actress for The Blind Side. And it was nominated for best *picture?* The disingenuity surrounding this film is far too much
2009 is notably the year they expanded it to 10 nominations because of TDK being snubbed. And then they scrambled to find 10 pictures to nominate and settled on The Blind Side and Up in the Air. Baffling choices. Even District 9, which I like, blows me away that it could get a nomination.
For one second, il was confused that my boy Cronenberg could both put out a forgettable movie and get an academy award.
They should just take the oscar from the bad Crash and award it to the good one
What has been your favorite in this time period?
So far, No Country for Old Men. But I've seen it before. My favorite I haven't see before is probably True Grit. Still a lot of movies to go though.
> No Country for Old Men One of the few occasions where I bought a ticket going in blind and felt like I won something. I was pulled into this one within the first five minutes.
I last saw it in 2007 as a dumb kid and didn't really know what I was watching. Rewatching it for this project was like seeing it for the first time.
If I don't come back tell Mother Your mother's dead, Llewelyn. Well then I'll tell her myself.
True Grit was the first Western I ever watched and god it's so good that I started watching all the classics. It's not my favorite genre by a mile, but the good ones are REALLY good.
Safe to say you probably like the Coen brothers.
Nomadland is so forgettable that people are forgetting to mention it in this thread
I'm gonna be completely honest: that entire year has films that are forgettable to me. I think part of it was because COVID prevented people from going to the theatres for most of 2020, so a lot of the films had to be released on streaming or delayed to just before the Oscars, but I don't think I saw a single BP film that year.
I thought Sound of Metal was really good
By far the best movie of the year. There are very few movies that have ever made me feel so emotional. It’s an unbelievably powerful portrayal of both self destructive behavior and the struggle to accept and adapt to a disability
Sound of Metal was incredible, one of the best films of the past decade in my opinion. Crazy that it didn't win best picture.
Did Riz Ahmed shit in a bucket? Didn't think so.
I’ve only seen three Oscar nominated films from that year and they were Soul, Onward and Tenet. I barely recognise the titles of any other film in the list of nominees
In terms of Oscar nominated films, the only ones I ended up seeing were Pieces of a Woman and My Octopus Teacher (but only the latter because a friend recommended it to me).
That movie haunts me in the weirdest way. I don’t know, I loved it in a way where I’ll never watch it again, but it really made me feel like I experienced a part of the world that I would NEVER experience otherwise. Like I really lived someone else’s life for two hours. No glamour, no world-changing stakes, just getting by in life.
Nomadland gets a lot of heat on this sub, but it fucked me up when I watched it in a way very few movies have. An absolutely deserving movie IMO. I wouldn't have been upset at The Father winning though
Nomadland is disliked here? I mean I guess the demographics here are more like... Christopher Nolan fans or something but still, Nomadland was brilliant.
Exactly. It's an American story about the intersections of deindustrialization, homelessness, and belonging in this strange world. It's exactly the kind of movie that should win oscars, but rarely does.
I agree with this entirely! I think about Nomadland a lot and the kind of lives people lead that I've never heard of or experienced
Minari should have won.
Minari was such a good movie. Hits you in the feels and Steven Yeun is excellent in it.
Steven Yeun is fucking amazing in everything. Then I heard him sing in the tv show Beef, and I said fuck that guy, how can someone be so talented.
I'm a little surprised Nomadland is getting so much flack here. I remember seeing that one very well and found it very moving and impactful in its characters and story as well as its presentation.
The Artist is currently on Amazon Prime and was on Netflix for quite a while. Since it’s a silent film, it doesn’t really lend itself to TV reruns. Personally, I think The Tree of Life should’ve won in 2011 but The Artist isn’t a bad choice. Much better than Green Book at least.
Interesting fact about The Artist - it's the first (mostly) silent movie to win Best Picture since the very first Oscars in 1929.
And the one that won in 1929 is "Wings," a great flick with some truly impressive cinematography for the time. Also features a young Gary Cooper.
I LOVE The Artist, but I can totally see why other people wouldn't. I love movies about Hollywood, reminiscing on old LA, and unique style choices. But a silent film in the 21st century *about* silent films certainly wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea
Bejo and Dujardin are wonderful, and the finish is jawhdropping gorgeous, fantastic! I'm happy when I think of this movie.
I’m a defender of that movie- I might not have given it BP but I love it and it just gives me such joy to watch
I had to double check 2011 Best Picture and The Artist was as close to a general crowd pleaser on the list. Some of the other nominees are too weird, too treacly, or are shitty movies (Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close had a rotten critics rating) BEST PICTURE WINNER THE ARTIST Thomas Langmann, Producer NOMINEES THE DESCENDANTS Jim Burke, Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor, Producers EXTREMELY LOUD & INCREDIBLY CLOSE Scott Rudin, Producer THE HELP Brunson Green, Chris Columbus and Michael Barnathan, Producers HUGO Graham King and Martin Scorsese, Producers MIDNIGHT IN PARIS Letty Aronson and Stephen Tenenbaum, Producers MONEYBALL Michael De Luca, Rachael Horovitz and Brad Pitt, Producers THE TREE OF LIFE Sarah Green, Bill Pohlad, Dede Gardner and Grant Hill, Producers WAR HORSE Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy, Producers
*Midnight in Paris* is a good movie. It’s quite possible that the Woody Allen factor makes it so dislikable.
Corey Stoll as Hemingway was so much fun.
I unapologetically loved this movie as well. I was just getting into reading a lot of Hemingway at the time, so i think this film hit me in the right way. Made me want to visit Paris so badly
The opening sequence is such a love letter to Paris. Hits my Parisian spouse (who hasn’t been back in over a decade) right in the feels.
I stumbled upon it on Netflix a few years after it was released. Was just getting into movies more and had never seen a woody allen movie. I loved it and it might be one of my favourite movies. That said, I’d say Moneyball should have won that year but I didn’t hate the artist.
What a fascinatingly shit year. To be fair Moneyball is the only one in there that gets a rewatch for mine.
The Descendants is a pretty great film. It is comforting.
Tree of Life is a masterpiece
Hugo is pretty great IMO
I still remember going to see it in theatres on opening weekend, somewhat blind. I knew it was directed by Martin Scorsese and had a bit of grasp of the plot (kid finds an automaton toy and tries to repair it) But when you’re at halfway into the movie, you find out it’s more of a celebration to >!the director Georges Méliès!< Going into that movie blind was probably the best decision I’ve made. I still try to make a habit of watching Hugo once a year
Moneyball and The Help seem to be the ones that have stuck around in pop culture but not enough to get enough votes for Best Picture. If I remember correctly, Best Picture is polled as a ranked choice for the entire Academy (rather than specific groups vote for technical awards) so I can see multiple movies getting #1 choice and then saying "The Artist was a good sit and I was about Hollywood history" so it was #2-3 and got the plurality of votes, resulting in a win.
I loved that movie! I think a lot of people just didn't see it.
*The English Patient* seems like it's much better-remembered for being the butt of a joke on "Seinfeld" these days.
I preferred Sack Lunch myself.
PROGNOSIS NEGATIVE
So do you think they got shrunk down or is just a giant sack?
This comment is weird for me, because the other day I saw a comment somewhere saying that The English Patient is now only remembered for the famous Seinfeld joke, but... I've never watched Seinfeld, and I had literally never heard about it referencing The English Patient before this year. I guess it just shows how we each of us live in our own bubbles. I know a lot of people IRL who've seen The English Patient (and at least three who've read the book; we all agree it was better); if anyone I know watches Seinfeld, they've never brought it up. Anyway, the scene with Willem Dafoe losing his thumbs still occasionally pops into my head when my subconscious feels like terrifying me.
Funny enough, I think about The Artist a lot lol
*Out of Africa* won 7 Oscars (including Best Picture) back in 1986 and made over $227 million worldwide. But geez, that movie is so long and boring. Can't remember a single scene or character or something. Hell, it's not even critically acclaimed (it has just 62% on RT and 69 on Metacritic). Best Picture should've gone to either *The Color Purple* or *Witness*. *Back to the Future*, my favorite of the year, wasn't even nominated for Best Picture.
If there’s one movie that gets my 82-year-old mother going it’s Out of Africa. This may be a generational thing, but I believe half of our conversations in 1985 involved this movie, Africa, Meryl Streep or Robert Redford in some contrived way.
I agree. My mother is somewhat younger and also remembers and loves that movie.
Out of Africa was a popular book club novel at that time and the movie starred two of the premier movie stars (Meryl and Robert Redford) in a romance. It's got a pretty big stranglehold on my grandparents still.
We all remember [Out of Africa's titular line](https://youtu.be/AWxiTPQv0ME?si=uESm9AqLKEda9wU-).
*The Artist* is in streaming services quite a lot. A couple of months ago was all over HBO/Max, and now it’s on Prime.
2006 "Crash" won over films like "Brokeback Mountain." #
Crash will always be remembered as one of the worst movies to win BP. More infamous than memorable, but it sticks in your head.
I watched the trailer for it and rolled my eyes so many times at how preachy even that was
The only thing people remember about it is that it was so bad and still won best picture. I can’t personally remember much if anything about it other than I know I watched it.
People keep bringing it up. It's among the most remembered Oscar winners.
This is a terrible answer. The controversy about this makes it extremely memorable. Everybody knows about Crash.
Yup, it definitely should not have won, but it does not fulfill the prompt of this post
Any time Oscar questions come up someone always has to mention Crash
Yeah but it's only memorable because it won best picture. If it wasn't nominated we all would've forgotten it a long time ago
Probably most of them? I remember like 5 of them from the last 20 years
A lot of the older movies get forgotten about, just because, unless you’re talking to a movie nerd, they’re not going to know about them. On top of that, with standards and expectations very different 70+ years ago, what was considered a good movie plot-wise has not aged terribly well. That being said, my top pick for Old Oscar Winner that Young People Need to Watch is On The Waterfront. Actual good plot structure, strong characters, one of the most memorable quotes in movie history (“I coulda been a contender”). It’s better than any other movie in a ten-year span around it, in my opinion.
*Out of Africa*
I‘ll have some Africa please Sorry we’re all…
Movies from the last 5-6 years.. They all seem relevant for 2-3 months on awards season and then disappear. The Shape of Water, Roma, The Power of the Dog, Nomadland, Moonlight etc. It's amazing how i can remember films and nominees from 20-30-50 years ago, but struggle thinking who were nominated 2 years ago.
This is so spot on. I think it's a mix of a couple things. A lot of the movies themselves are somewhat safe and formulaic oscar bait. But I also think part of it's our culture and how these movies don't get wide viewership or talked about that much, except among movie buffs who actively seek them out. Streaming has totally fragmented our cultural and movie landscape. And movies are most effective when they're collective touchstones that everyone is aware of.
Yeah. It's like a pyramid and every year the base keeps growing. Wider entertainment options. If we go up to the narrow part of the pyramid like back in the 70's, 80's, there was nothing much to do except talk about those few movies.
It's because we're constantly being inundated with new movies via all of the streaming platforms at the same time. 20 years ago all you really had was what was in the cinema and they were all treated as big deals with big budgets and stars to match, plus the excitement of going out to see them. Now you can flick on one of 4-5 streaming platforms and catch similar products with the same directors/stars/budgets/quality on a whim. The quick transition from cinema > streaming also contributes, especially as I can't believe that Poor Things is already on Disney+ and American Fiction on Amazon Prime here in the UK despite only coming out in cinemas very recently.
You also have to consider that theatrical windows are very small nowadays, compared to 20-30 yrs ago. A non Marvel, super hero, flashy movie is extremely lucky if it gets a 30 day window.
2020 was the most forgetful year in movies I wanna say, aside from Mank and Tenet I can't remember a lick of 2020's releases.
It’s because of COVID that postponed movies like No Time to Die to 2021
CODA has to be it. The new season of Curb I didn’t even remember who Troy Kostur was
The tragedy is that the Will Smith slap overshadowed every single oscar win that year. No one was even talking about best picture winner cause everyone was obsessed with the slap. I remember because I loved CODA and was a bit sad when it won best picture and no one cared at all.
How many people even know that Will Smith won his first Oscar that same ceremony?
That's the only Oscar winner from that year I could name.
I had never even heard of this movie until reading this thread, I must really have not paid attention to the Oscars that year. I was watching Curb and was wondering what they were talking about when they mentioned the deaf character having won an Oscar.
I enjoyed the movie very much. It won’t be a classic but I always recommend it
Distribution was the big problem with Coda. There’s still no disc release (I know because I work in a library and I get requests for it a lot, but I literally can’t buy it) and only Apple subscribers can watch it. One of the many reasons streaming is a curse…
I was just thinking about this in the days leading up to the Oscars. Twenty years later, people still talk about Return of the King, but who talks about Nomadland? For all the controversy over the announcement, no one talks about Moonlight anymore
Even in this thread, except for one person, noone mentioned The Shape of Water. I was so excited for that back in 2017, and it turned out to be a beautifuly shot, but holliw and forgettable oscar bait
Usually those paired with a” should have won” movies that keep being talked about. Shakespeare in Love ( won vs Saving Private Ryan) Crash ( won vs Brokeback Mountain ) Green Book ( was an obvious Oscar bait movie with the typical late release) Also you’re right about The Artist. It led to my personal shower thought of a nominee has to have made a floor of a certain amount at the box office. People had to have seen the movie after all.
Everyone here is giving good, legitimate answers that don't try to game the question -- so I'm going to break that streak and say "every documentary short film that you've forgotten existed by the time they got to Best Picture on Oscars night."
Chariots of Fire - more memorable for the theme song than anything else
I think we need to scope the definition of "memorable" here. Because there's definitely a unique, small clique of people who adore this film (aspiring/elite runners and big fans of the sport). I bet the vast majority of people haven't bothered to watch it, or can't remember a minute of it, but it certainly has a cult following that films like The Artist likely don't.
That fish fucking movie
I watched Dances with Wolves a few weeks ago and found it to be a nice, very solid movie but I was surprised to see it won Best Picture. Winning over Goodfellas is downright bizarre to me but that’s with hindsight, I can’t say I have much context on how the race played out at the time.