Greatest Oscar robberies
 

1991

Best Picture: Dances with Wolves
Robbed: Goodfellas

Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Whoopi Goldberg, Ghost
Robbed: Lorraine Bracco, Goodfellas

Best Director: Kevin Costner, Dances with Wolves
Robbed: Martin Scorsese, Goodfellas

Greatest Oscar Robertson: Oscar Robertson

1998

Best Picture: Titanic
Robbed: LA Confidential

Do The Right Thing not even being nominated. Believe Driving Miss Daisy won that year too.

Forrest Gump beating Pulp Fiction
Shakespeare in Love and Crash winning best picture :nono:

Also, I would have hated being an academy judge in the year 1975.

Hurt Locker beating anything.

Personally I though Mickey Rourke should have beaten Sean Penn, but I wouldn't call that a robbery since Sean Penn did turn out an Oscar-worthy performance.

I've always felt the same way about Annie Hall and Star Wars. I adore Annie Hall, and understand why it won, but given Star Wars quality and importance, it's a tough pill to swallow that it never won the academy award. In most years it certainly would have.
I don't believe Wizard of Oz won either. I also just noticed King Kong wasn't even nominated. I guess the Academy's general distaste for most things fantastical is nothing new.

I'm pretty sure Alfred Hitchcock and Stanley Kubrick never won an oscar for their efforts, not counting revisionist lifetime achievement awards.

Citizen Kane and The Maltese Falcon both were beat out for best picture, in the same year

I've seen just about every movie worth watching, but neither of those. It's clearly Jeritrons fault.

Hitchcock was totally unappreciated in his time. That's sort of hard to believe. I'm of the mind that more people recognized his talent than they say, but he was sort of blackballed due to the fact that he was a celebrity director in a time when that wasn't common. The studio system probably resented that.
After him, it became pretty commonplace. He certainly paved the way for the director movement of the early 70s, and then Spielberg.

I believe his movies were frowned upon for being so visceral and sexual, too. It was considered low brow, just a step about B-movies really.
I almost can't believe I live in a world where Vertigo, Psycho and Rear Window weren't even nominated for best picture. Particularly Vertigo. I can sort of understand why the content of Psycho and Rear Window may have been overlooked initially.

Kubricks never won an Oscar? That's insane, but I remember hearing that.

Been meaning to watching North by Northwest forever.

Scorcese probably never would have won one either if it weren't for the fact that it became widely criticized that he never had, while he was still churning out good films. Once it became established that he'd never won an oscar for all his efforts, it became a conscious factor on voting.

Best Actor: Sean Penn in Mystic River
Robbed: Bill Murray in Lost in Translation

I find it interesting that Sean Penn has won both Oscars in years where he was up against an actor/performance that was a sentimental favorite. In both Bill Murray and Mickey Rourke's case, I think a lot of people wanted them to take home the gold because of how much they liked them, and the fact that most likely neither man will see another nomination.

Fuck Sean Penn.

I was going to include these as well but I quite like Ford's "How Green was my Valley" it might not be as brilliant as Kane or Falcon but it doesn't suck like Shakspeare in Love.

Rebecca won best picture, but I believe you're right that Hitch never won "best director", which is just terrible.

Sean Penn is the ruiner of everything good.

I think Apocalypse Now lost to Kramer vs. Kramer

Yeah but it lost to Gone with the Wind. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington was nominated that year too.

touche

I would've hated being a judge from 73-76.

1973: The Sting, American Graffiti, The Exorcist
1974: The Godfather Part II, Chinatown
1975: One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Barry Lyndon, Dog Day Afternoon, Jaws
1976: Rocky, All the President's Men, Network, Taxi Driver

Can't argue with any of the winners, but damn.

1981

Best Picture: Ordinary People
Robbed: Raging Bull, The Elephant Man

BDC just hates black actors.

Yeah, completely ridiculous that Stanley Kubrick has never won an Oscar since he is possibly the greatest director of all time. Same for Hitchcock never winning best director.

Ellen Burstyn in Requiem For A Dream losing to Julia Roberts in Erin Brokovich in another obligatory answer.

The Truman Show not even being nominated after it won the Golden Globes!

Marisa Tomei for My Cousin Vinny

First one that comes to mind...

Best Picture 1999-Shakespeare in Love
Robbed: Saving Private Ryan

Oscars 2001

Gladiator winning Best Picture and Best Actor in a Leading Role.

Traffic and both Javier Bardem and Tom Hanks got robbed.

Oscars 2002

Best Actor in a Leading Role: Russel Crowe got robbed. This was an Oscar-worthy performance, not the one in Gladiator.

1977:
Winner: Annie Hall
Robbed: Star Wars

2008:
Won: Slumdog Millionaire
Not even Nominated: Iron Man & The Dark Knight

2009:
Winner: Hurt Locker
Robbed: Inglourious Basterds

Slumdog Millionaire was better than The Dark Knight and Iron Man.

Dark Knight should have been nominated though.

Yes it should have.