10 Most Outrageous Oscar Snubs

Let's be needlessly clear here – Al Pacino is one of cinema's truly great actors, and it is right that he has an Oscar. If he didn't, it would likely be a list-topping entry, when talking snubs. The issue is not that his trophy cabinet contains an Oscar – it's the film he won it for.

In 1992's Scent Of A Woman, Al Pacino plays Frank Slade. He's a military veteran who is blind and shouts “hoo-ah!” at one point or another, and that's basically all that anyone remembers of the film. It is likely, many theorise, that Pacino won his Oscar not for shouting “hoo-ah!” per se, but for his entire body of work.

As such, Pacino's being “due” an Oscar led to Denzel Washington missing out for a career-best role as Malcolm X – and nine years later was awarded the Oscar in lieu for Training Days (a great cop thriller without doubt, but not standard Oscar fare by any means).

The theory of being owed the award is of course highly speculative, but we do often see artists receiving Oscars for, let's say, lesser works (i.e Scorsese for The Departed, as opposed to His Other Films). On the other hand, Washington's win kept Russell Crowe from picking up a second prize for that maths film – so maybe everything worked out OK after all.