6. 2000: Gladiator vs. Steven Soderbergh & Traffic
When he made Traffic in 2000, Soderbergh found his film nominated against a fearsome competitor: himself. This was one of those rare occasions when someone in the industry had such a successful year, they garnered multiple nominations in the same category. Infamously, cinematographer Roger Deakins missed out on the gold in 2007 when, despite creating two of the most beautiful films of the century in No Country for Old Men and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, his vote was split and the win went to the similarly deserving There Will be Blood. But while Deakins' films were similarly spectacular, Traffic was a clearly superior movie to Erin Brockovich, and Soderbergh managed to avoid splitting his votes and won the Academy Award. That same year, Gladiator won Best Picture. Though a solid film with classic archetypes in an epic scope, Gladiator in retrospect does seem a bit less significant when compared to the multi-narrative drama of Traffic. But, overall, this was a decision the Academy made that I can't find too much fault with.