4. Scorsese Overlooked Again... And Again... And Again...
Has there ever been (besides Alfred Hitchcock) a director more overlooked by the Academy than Martin Scorsese? Scorsese was nominated for Best Director six times before he eventually won in 2006 for The Departed. Scorsese really should have been nominated even more than six times, when you think about it. His first nomination came in 1981 for Raging Bull. That's after Mean Streets, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore and New York, New York failed to receive nominations. Fine. At least he was nominated, right? After that he was nominated for The Last Temptation Of Christ, Goodfellas, The Age Of Innocence, Gangs Of New York and The Aviator before finally getting a win. So just where, exactly, were the nominations for The King Of Comedy, Casino and Bringing Out The Dead? There's a good case to be made that most of Scorsese's work should have been nominated when compared to what it was up against each year. Scorsese himself was shocked when he won the award for Best Director for The Departed, asking the Academy if they read the right envelope. It was a great, well-deserved moment for one of cinema's best ever directors but, boy, did the Academy take their sweet time in getting there.
