16 Great Recent Movies The Oscars Outrageously Snubbed
4. Calvary
Nominated For:
Unfortunately, nothing at all.
Nearly every award ceremony overlooked Calvary for no apparent reason. Even the BAFTAs didn't give it a glance. This is despite it being one of the very best films of 2014.
Maybe it was too small, dark and quirky for Academy tastes, but that's no excuse. After all, it's an emotional drama with serious themes. Also, the Best Picture winner the very next year, Spotlight, was a small independent film with somewhat similar subject matter.
Calvary is an all-around excellent film. Since it was marketed mistakenly as a dark comedy, it's a lot tougher than most were expecting, but it's seriously worth the effort. In an ideal world it would've earned nominations across the board, but there are 2 snubs which stab mercilessly at one's heart.
Brendan Gleeson, the always wonderful Irish character actor, gives one of his best performances and him being overlooked is a sign of how messed up the Best Actor field was at the 87th ceremony. Gleeson, not to mention Jake Gyllenhaal in Nightcrawler and Tom Hardy in Locke, were far better than most of the actors nominated in the acting fields that year, yet they were completely overlooked. If there was one time Gleeson should have been nominated, this was it.
The worst snub of all is for Best Original Screenplay. There was strong competition, but given how moving, brilliantly crafted, deep and rich the film's screenplay is, it should have been included without question.