Oscar season is in full swing, yet unlike in most years, the race is still wide open, with no clear front-runner leading the pack, even though Boyhood, Birdman and The Imitation Game are clearly the most buzzed-about Best Picture candidates sure to get nominated. With so many films still sight-unseen such as Unbroken, Big Eyes and American Sniper, there are evidently a lot of questions left surrounding the Best Picture race. That said, it's clear that, as ever, it's a crowded field and, along with the 9 or 10 films that end up landing a nod, there will be a bunch of worthy films that just won't be able to slot into place, either because they're not typically Oscar-baiting enough, they're not adorned with Oscar-worthy performances to boot, or they've pretty much been forgotten by the short memories of the voters comprising AMPAS. These 12 movies, a mixture of mainstream Hollywood blockbusters and art-house flicks that flew way under the radar, all deserve Best Picture recognition, and in a number of cases, it wouldn't be a travesty to see them take the gong home outright. With films like, say, District 9 (which received a surprise nomination in 2010), the nomination is often seen as the win, and in the case of these 12 films, that would pretty much be the case.