Oscars: 10 Films That Should Have Won Best Picture (But Didn't)

10. King Kong (1933)

King Kong has become a hallmark of cinema, spanning near-ninety-years and eleven adaptations – with his twelfth appearance in a punch-up styled collab with Godzilla coming this year. Yet back in 1933, the revolutionary original production and the beating of the mighty ape’s chest wasn’t enough to astound even a nomination out of the Academy, due to its lesser regarded sub-genre of “monster movie”.

However, King Kong swung into theatres with incomparable visuals, an adaptation of the now classic tale, and the biggest box office opening ever at the time. With the unusual love story between beauty and the beast, the Mighty Kong lost to Best Picture to a movie most modern audiences likely haven’t even hear of, Cavalcade.

Nonetheless, Oscar or not, King King stands as an excellent blend of horror and adventure that explored a prehistoric corner of the world and was as much a wonder of cinema as Kong was a wonder of the world. Its lack of recognition is as upsetting as the infamous climatic fall from the Empire State Building.