12 Hugely Iconic Movies That Shockingly Didn't Win A Single Academy Award

9. The Searchers (1956)

Nominated For: None. IMDB Ranking: Outside Top 250 Rotten Tomatoes: 100% The Searchers in an interesting entry on this list. Not only is it is the only film of the twelve to rank outside the top 250 on IMDB.com, but (other than the other Western on the list: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly) it's also the only film not to be nominated for a single Academy Award. Despite not being the biggest fan-favourite, John Ford's tale of a Civil War veteran (played by John Wayne; who else?) spending years searching (as the title suggests) for his abducted niece with the help of her adopted brother (Jeffrey Hunter) has become one of the most critically acclaimed motion pictures ever made, named as both the Greatest Western of all time and the 12th best movie of all time by the AFI, and the 7th best movie of all time by Sight & Sound magazine in 2012. The Searchers has directly influenced many directors over the years (recently Vince Gilligan in the Breaking Bad finale) and has established itself as a classic, even if it doesn't have the Oscar statuettes to back it up.