16 Great Recent Movies The Oscars Outrageously Snubbed
11. Blackfish
Nominated For:
Realistically the only one this would've had a chance in was Best Documentary Feature, but nope, it was entirely left out.
This one is very strange. Blackfish's lack of an Oscar nomination is a huge surprise given that it's one of the most popular and talked-about documentaries of recent years. It's a bit of movie trivia everyone would be shocked by.
Blackfish isn't perfect; it's very blatantly a message movie and occasionally feels like propaganda, but that's fine. It doesn't pretend to be anything other than an attack on SeaWorld's captivity policy. On the whole, it's a strong and well-told documentary that doesn't feel manipulative or emotionally exploitative. One would have assumed an Oscar nod was guaranteed.
Still, despite the lack of a nomination, Blackfish has received a lot of acclaim and popularity. It's been so successful that SeaWorld has lost millions in revenue and they're now removing their shows involving killer whales altogether. Even though it missed out on an Oscar nod, it's had a bigger impact than most documentary films could ever dream of.