2. The Good, The Bad And The Ugly (1966)
It has been heralded as one of the greatest cinematic achievements of all time. It launched the film career of Clint Eastwood. It is Quentin Tarantino's all-time favorite movie, and it has been one of the IMDB's 10 highest rated films for over a decade, yet The Good, The Bad And The Ugly was never nominated for an Oscar. How can a film that has spent almost 50 years influencing film-makers and styles globally not have been recognized when first released?The Academy should never be forgiven for passing over The Good, The Bad And The Ugly for any of the great contributions the film gave us, but somehow it happened. Firstly, Eli Wallach who plays Tuco the Ugly was completely robbed of a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his hilarious and downright dirty performance as the smarmy bandito, a performance that garners much more screen time that his co-star Clint Eastwood. Ennio Morricone created one of the most imitated and revered music scores of all time, yet somehow his work wasn't good enough for the Academy. The beautiful widescreen cinematography by Tonino Delli Colli was grossly passed over, as was the influential film editing by Eugenio Alabiso and Nino Baragli. The biggest travesty is not honoring the film with a Best Picture nomination or a nomination for Sergio Leone for Best Director. This probably has to be one of the greatest snubs in Oscar history, not recognizing Leone's amazing and highly influential work. The Academy must have been out to lunch in 1966, because these misses just don't make sense.