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

4. Fight Club (1999)

Nominated For: Best Sound Editing. IMDB Ranking: #10 Rotten Tomatoes: 81% Despite receiving notably polarised reviews from critics and eluding expectations at the box office, David Fincher's Fight Club is the absolute definition of a cult hit. It was voted as the 7th greatest movie of all time by Empire readers in 2006, brought Chuck Pahlaniuk (the author of the novel upon which it is based) international recognition and has inspired real life fight clubs and Project Mayhems all over America. But in accordance with its controversial beginnings, Fight Club was almost completely overlooked at the 72nd Academy Awards. Watching the movie now, possibly the most instantly striking token of its quality is its visual effects, coupled with the stunningly gritty, desaturated, myopic style. However, The Academy Award for Best Visual Effects is always a tough category in this day in age, and that year Fight Club was up against The Matrix, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace and Stuart Little, so it perhaps isn't too surprising that it wasn't nominated. Contrastingly, however, the competition for Best Cinematography was not so strong, with box office bombs Snow Falling on Cedars and The End of the Affair each receiving the nod; how Fight Club cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth was not nominated remains a mystery. Elsewhere, it seems almost unfathomable now that the movie was completely overlooked in every single other category except Sound Editing, particularly Fincher for Best Director (he was later nominated for both The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and The Social Network), Helena Bonham Carter for Best Supporting Actress, Edward Norton (who had played a beefed-up neo-Nazi in American History X only a year earlier) for Best Actor, and Jim Uhls for Best Adapted Screenplay.