4. John Williams Loses Best Score in 1978, 1980, and 1981
John Williams, the maestro of movie music, won his third Oscar for best music for scoring Star Wars in 1977. He had previously won for Jaws and Fiddler on the Roof. I suspect a bit of awards fatigue for the Academy may have set in at that point because no other sane reason could have explained what happened next. John Williams lost the Oscar in three of the next four years to the scores from Midnight Express, Fame, and Chariots of Fire. Outside of a mildly inspirational but slightly annoying Vangelis theme from Chariots of Fire, these three scores are mostly forgotten. Williams€™ three scores that lost? Oh, just three of his most iconic scores of all time: Superman, The Empire Strikes Back, and Raiders of the Lost Ark. The Academy must have realised their several mistakes because they gave Williams his fourth Oscar for E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial in 1982. Regardless, that amazing stretch of film scores should not have been ignored.
