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 89 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
Chinese-American filmmaker Chloé Zhao’s follow-up to Songs My Brothers Taught Me won the top award at the 2017 Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight and picked up additional awards in 2018 (when it received a theatrical release), including best picture wins from the Gotham Independent Film Awards and National Society of Film Critics. The drama follows a young Sioux cowboy (Brady Jandreau) on the Pine Ridge Reservation as he struggles to come to terms with not being able to ride after a horse crushes his skull.