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
The third film from Iranian-American director Ramin Bahrani (Man Push Cart, 99 Homes) was, like many of his features, a hit on the festival circuit, where it picked up the FIPRESCI International Critics Prize in Venice. The two-person character study, which traces the unlikely bond between a Senegalese taxi driver in North Carolina and his depressed passenger, was hailed as an "almost perfect film" by the New York Times. But despite the love from critics, Solo was snubbed not only by the Oscars, but also by the Independent Spirit Awards, where it seemed like a sure thing.