10 Best Picture Oscar Nominees You Might Not Have Heard Of

10. Lenny

Year: 1974 Fellow Nominees (winner in bold): The Godfather Part II, Chinatown, The Conversation, The Towering Inferno One of the few X-rated film to be nominated for Best Picture, Bob Fosse's Lenny, starring a Best Actor nominated Dustin Hoffman in the lead role, featured as part of one of the great Best Picture lineups in Oscar history, sitting alongside three bona fide masterpieces in The Godfather Part II, Chinatown, and The Conversation (the Towering Inferno seems to be there for a bit of balance). Lenny doesn't quite hit those heights, but it remains a fine film in its own right, shot in stark monochrome and bolstered by an electric central performance from Hoffman, who channels iconic comedian Lenny Bruce's acerbic, establishment-disturbing comedy into his own frantic, ultimately tragic (Bruce was found dead in his bathroom, the victim of an accidental overdose) performance. Fosse, who two years earlier won the Best Director award for his Best Picture nominated, Cabaret (beating out Francis Ford Coppola for the Godfather in one of the Oscar's greatest upsets), was again nominated here, this time losing to Coppola, who picked up the gong for his Godfather sequel.