15 Oscar-Baiting Films That Hilariously Failed To Win

4. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

Alongside The Blind Side, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is one of the most questionable Best Picture nominees of the last decade: despite only scooping one other Oscar nod (for Max von Sydow's decent performance), the movie somehow still made the Best Picture slate, all this with a spate of scathing reviews from critics as well. On paper, though, it's easy to see why it's prime Oscar bait: it's an adaptation of a beloved novel with a 9/11 theme, it stars likeable actors Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock, is directed by Stephen "Oscar bait" Daldry (The Hours, The Reader), and is written by four-time Oscar nominee and one-time winner Eric Roth (Forrest Gump, The Inside, Munich, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button). It's hard to argue with the movie's good intentions, but it's just too emotionally manipulative and keen to use a major national tragedy to earn your tears. The weird CGI imagery of Tom Hanks falling through the air also seems a bit tacky and tasteless. Thankfully the movie didn't win Best Picture (obviously), and quietly faded into obscurity.