Birdman is the best movie of the year and should win all the awards. Michael Keaton should win Best Actor, Ed Norton should win Best Supporting Actor, Emma Stone should win Best Supporting Actress, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu should win Best Director and Birdman should win Best Picture. The only movie I can imagine winning Best Picture instead of Birdman is Boyhood, directed by Richard Linklater. Boyhood winning over Birdman would not be a travesty and neither would be Linklater taking Best Director from Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. Michael Keaton losing the Best Actor Oscar to Bradley Cooper or anyone else would be one of the top ten travesties in Academy Awards history. The top 10 as it currently stands…
10. Antonio Sanchez not even being nominated for Birdman.
Birdman has already been part of one of Oscar histories biggest travesties as composer Antonio Sanchez was disqualified from being nominated in the Best Original Score category. The Academy came up with some bullshit technicality for the snub, which I won’t even dignify with trying to explain. The Academy basically just sent a message that they’re biased against drummers and reinforces the negative stereotype that drummers are not musicians. Full disclosure, I am a drummer. Nevertheless, you will be hard-pressed to find a score that so skillfully conveyed the atmosphere of a film like the one Sanchez created for Birdman.
9. Rain Man over Working Girl
I just put this on the list because my dad hates Rain Man and my mom loves Working Girl. Forget it.
9. Crash over Brokeback Mountain
Crash sucked and Ang Lee won for Best Director so it made no sense that Brokeback Mountain didn’t win. I guess the Academy couldn’t quit their homophobia.
8. The English Patient over Fargo
Miramax head Harvey Weinstein spends millions of dollars on promotional campaigns that over the years has gotten many undeserving films the top prize at The Academy Awards and The English Patient beating Fargo is just one example. Years later, The Academy would make-up for robbing the Coen brothers of their well deserved Oscar for Fargo by giving them the Oscar for No Country for Old Men which should’ve gone to Paul Thomas Anderson for There Will Be Blood.
7. The Kings Speech over The Social Network
Harvey Weinstein strikes again! The snubbing of David Fincher has not gotten Martin Scorsese bad but Fincher should have finally won Best Director after being criminally overlooked for Fight Club. Oh well, at least they gave the Best Score Oscar to Trent Reznor.
6. Shakespeare in Love over Saving Private Ryan
Oh look, another Weinstein film! Saving Private Ryan wins on the basis of the opening D-Day scene alone. Spielberg won Best Director but you have to wonder if he would give it back to have kept the next travesty on our list from occurring.
5. Roberto Begnini over Ed Norton
You remember the annoying guy jumping around that one time? Yea, that was Begnini. Spielberg found his Holocaust comedy Life Is Beautiful distasteful and Ed Norton gave one of the all-time best performances as a reformed skinhead in American History X.
4. Forrest Gump over Pulp Fiction
The one Weinstein film that should’ve won didn’t! Pulp Fiction should be higher on the list but you could argue that The Shawshank Redemption should’ve won that year as well. This win reeks of “thanks for the Back To The Future movies Zemeckis!”
3. How Green Was My Valley over Citizen Kane
Citizen Kane is widely regarded as the greatest film of all time but apparently, in The Academy’s infinite wisdom, it wasn’t even the greatest film of 1941.
2. Ordinary People over Raging Bull
This should have been the greatest Oscar travesty of all time but The Academy somehow managed to outdo itself ten years later.
1. Dances With Wolves over Goodfellas
Dances With Wolves is a very good film. Goodfellas is the greatest film of all time. The Academy giving the Oscar to Dances With Wolves was a bigger insult than Billy Bats telling Tommy to go home and get his fucking shine box. It’s too bad they didn’t both share the same fate.
