15 Oscar-Baiting Films That Hilariously Failed To Win

By Jack Pooley /

9. A Dangerous Method

One of the most disappointing awards players in recent years, how could a David Cronenberg-directed movie about the feud between Jung and Freud be anything less than a stone-cold masterpiece? What's more, it starred a brilliant trio of actors (Michael Fassbender, Viggo Mortensen and Keira Knightley), was adapted from literary source material, and had period detail that would give it a huge advantage in all the crafts Oscar categories, such as Costume Design and Makeup. In the end, it missed out on Oscar nods entirely, and scooped a single Golden Globe nomination for Mortensen's performance as Freud, as well as a few consolatory nominations from lesser awards shows. Given the potential and the fact that Cronenberg actually managed to secure an R-rating for his movie, it was a surprisingly tame, toothless depiction of what could have been a very sexy story, and as a result the movie was merely watchably decent rather than the electrifying psychological odyssey it should have been.