Oscar Injustices

                               Winning a Oscar, is considered to be a great honor for every Hollywood actors and Film-makers. It's also followed keenly by many movie-fanatics throughout the world. Every time , when Oscar nominations are announced, there will be excitement as well as disappointment. Many great actors or directors are robbed or denied Oscars by the voters. There are also many artists, who have done nothing good after their awards or some artists are one-movie wonders.


Here are some cases of great Oscar Injustices , in it's 83 year old history. Let me start with a example from current year, 2011.

The Adventures of Tintin for Best Animation : Animators have always used live performance as a basis for their work; the only difference being that it's usually the animators doing the acting, not name stars. And in a year where movies like Puss In Boots can nab a nomination, it’s crazy that an exceptionally well-made, entirely delightful movie like Tintin can’t beat Kung Fu Panda 2 into the top five.

Charlie Chaplin :  A great shock. Chaplin made a great number of comedy classics from 1920's, but he has never won a Oscar, except a 'Lifetime Achievement Award' , a few months before his death.

Al Pacino : One of the legendary actor, Pacino did classics like Godfather 1, 2, Serpico, Dogday Afternoon in a span of five years as a young actor. He was nominated for all these movies, but never won. He had to wait until 1992 for 'Scent of Woman' to score his first Oscar. He totally has eight Oscar nominations to his name.


Alfred Hitchcock : The master of suspense, who directed many classic thrillers, was only nominated 5 times as 'Best Director' and never won, even one.


Stanley Kubrick : One of the master of cinema, Kubrick had variety of movies from various genres like, science fiction , horror, war, history, thriller, comedy. He directed only 13 movies in his 43 year directing career , making every movie with excellent skill and hardwork. He won one oscar, but it's for special effects for the movie, '2001:A Space Odyssey.' He had never won for 'Best Director.'


Leonardo Di Caprio : He always does Oscar-worthy roles. That might be little exaggerated but Leo is known for taking on the difficult roles. He rarely gets nominated and never won any.


Tom Cruise : Maybe Mission Impossible, Top Gun, weren’t exactly Oscar quality, but the list of Cruise’s quality movies are endless. He is a Director’s favorite and one of the top grossing actors of all time. He has had three Oscar nominations, and no wins. Tom Cruise is always recognized as box-office star, but he is great quality actor, who deserves a Oscar.

Johnny Depp : It's bit of a Shocker. Nominated for three Oscars for Pirates of the Caribbean, Sweeney Todd, and Finding Neverland but obviously hasn't won. Bit, if he keeps making movies like The Tourist, and Rum Diary then he's in trouble.

 

These are just few injustices. There are many other great artists like Cary Grant, Gary Oldman, Edward Norton, Brad Pitt, Liam Neeson, Akira Kurosawa, Ridley Scott, Christopher Nolan.

Wasted Oscars :

Nicolas Cage : Cage won his Academy Award for playing a suicidal alcoholic who decides to drink himself to death in the movie Leaving Las Vegas. Since then, he had been in a great number of poor movies and box-office flops. His recent movie, Drive Angry earned only $5.1 million on its opening weekend. Also, he is rarely doing any critically acclaimed movies.

 

Roberto Benigni : Benigni received his Best Actor Oscar for portraying Guido Orefice, an Italian-Jewish man placed in a concentration camp during World War II in 'Life Is Beautiful.' Without the shadow of a doubt, Benigni did a phenomenal job in this film. That being said, he managed to follow up with nothing. His future films bombed in the United States, and he failed to garner another Academy Award nomination in the States. 

 

Adrien Brody : Brody won his Oscar for his portrayal of a distraught musician, trying to survive the devastation and destruction of his Warsaw ghetto during World War II in 'The Pianist.' Brody has taken a drastic fall from grace in the acting world since his Academy Award win. 

 

                                                         Oscars could be considered as a great one, when compared to the award systems in India, where it is held for various sponsors and advertisers. Any award is a great boost to a artist, young or old. But Oscars or any other awards , shouldn't be considered the benchmark for great acting or great movie. There is a lot of contribution to cinema, from a consistent actor than a actor, who has just given, very few wonderful performance in his whole career.

 

A list of Great actors, Directors, who had never won an Oscar:
http://www.imdb.com/list/dSH0m25sbj0/