2. Snub: Life Itself & The Overnighters For Best Documentary
The documentary branch is one of the most infuriatingly singular of the entire Oscar collective, frequently defying expected voting patterns to give their own diverse assessment of what were the year's best docs. Two major shocks came when two of the year's most acclaimed documentaries, Roger Ebert tribute Life Itself (97%) and job-seeker doc The Overnighters (98%), were snubbed in favour of lesser-known (if still hugely acclaimed) films such as Last Days in Vietnam and The Salt of the Earth. After Life Itself premiered at Sundance, it seemed like nothing was going to stop the affectionate tribute to the world's most famous film critic from sweeping the awards circuit, but once Edward Snowden doc Citizenfour arrived, that changed the complexion completely, to the point that it derailed two well-deserving movies from ending up on the nominations list.