15 Oscar-Baiting Films That Hilariously Failed To Win

15. Seven Pounds

After scooping his second Best Actor nomination working opposite his son Jaden in The Pursuit of Happyness, Will Smith clearly got a taste for the allure of Oscar gold, and so went to work on scoring a third nomination for Seven Pounds. In the drama, Smith plays a man whose carelessness causes the deaths of seven people, and so he goes about finding a way to redeem himself for his actions. With its mature, serious subject matter, it was widely expected to be a major awards player, though when the movie began screening for critics and awards voters, it became clear that it just didn't measure up. The movie was largely criticised for being mawkish and emotionally manipulative. Though Smith gives one of his better performances, he can only do so much with the script, and so the film went away empty handed, not scoring a single Oscar nomination.