The Best Movies Never Nominated for a Single Oscar
Last updated: January 24, 2023
Judging from the complaints that pour in each year, the Academy gets many things wrong—including, with surprising regularity, completely ignoring some of each year's most acclaimed films. In the gallery above, you can find the 30 highest-scoring films since 2000 that did not receive any Oscar nominations (in any category). They are ranked by Metascore, but all of these films scored or higher—suggesting massive critical acclaim.
Note that documentaries are excluded (since there are fewer opportunities for those films to receive nominations). Also excluded are movies that qualified for Emmys rather than Oscars (such as the Small Axe films).
Additional content by Keith Kimbell
One of 2018's most pleasant surprises, this indie dramedy is the feature debut for comedian turned writer-director Bo Burnham. The film follows awkward 13-year-old Kayla Day (Elsie Fisher) through her final week of middle school. Eighth Grade premiered at Sundance in 2018 to universal acclaim and then won best film and best actress at the Seattle International Film Festival before going on to pick up over a dozen additional best picture wins (and other honors) from various critic groups and organizations. The only audience it didn't seem to charm? Oscar voters. In fact, Burnham became the only narrative film screenwriter in history to win a WGA Award without also being nominated for an Academy Award for the same film.
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