The forgotten big screen stars of the Oscars

Leonardo DiCaprio has long awaited the famous sesame, 22 years after his first appointment to the Academy. If the actor titanic has never received a statuette, many talented directors have been ignored during their career by the Academy of Cinema Arts and Sciences. These oversights, sometimes significant, have each time further damaged the credibility of the most prestigious American award ceremony.

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The producers

●Alfred Hitchcock

How could voters miss the masterpieces of the master of suspense? Hitchcock might not have been the most well-liked in the profession, but he certainly didn’t deserve such disregard. Despite four Best Picture nominations for Rebecca, Correspondent 17, suspicions and The House of Doctor Edwardes, only the first was rewarded. By the Oscar for best production. No statuette therefore, for Hitchcock.

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● Stanley Kubrick

Same observation for the director of shiningnominated three times for Doctor Strangelove, Clockwork Orange and Barry Lindon in the best film category. He will not find better fortune as best director or screenwriter, despite multiple nominations.

Extract of Doctor Strangelove (1964)

● George Lucas

The creator of Star Wars never found favor with Oscar voters. Yet he is the director, producer and screenwriter of the cult sci-fi epic of the 20th century. Perhaps the Oscars thought that the commercial success recorded by the episodes of Star Wars widely praised his work. It is nevertheless quoted in 1974 for American Graffiti and in 1978 for the very first Star Wars.

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● Sergio Leone

With The good, the bad and the ugly (1968)Once upon a Time in the West (1969) and Once upon a time in America (1984), Sergio Leone left his mark on cinema forever with his mastery of the camera and editing. Despite these three masterpieces now anchored in the cinematographic heritage, the Italian director has never been awarded or even nominated for the Oscars.

Excerpt fromOnce upon a Time in the West (1969)

● Orson Welles

A child prodigy, George Orson Welles is also one of the great absentees from the Oscars. The director is nevertheless the creator of one of the most legendary films in the history of cinema, namely Citizen Kane (1941). He did not simply create a work, but a reference studied in all film schools. A work that won no award despite its three nominations (best film, actor, director). The rest of his career would see him hit the red carpet in Los Angeles with The Splendor of the Ambersons (1942), without success.

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The actors / actresses

● Joaquin Phoenix

This 92nd Academy Awards is the perfect opportunity for the actor to get out of the list of forgotten greats. Joaquin Phoenix is ​​a regular at non-winning Oscar nominees. The first dates from 2001 with his role as Commodus in Gladiator. Five years later, he failed again after his performance in walk the line and in 2013 with The Master. For his fourth nomination, the actor intends to recover once and for all the statuette for his role as the Joker in the eponymous film.

Excerpt fromHer (2014) with Joaquin Phoenix

● Johnny Depp

The actor is best known to the public for his role asEdward Scissorhands by Tim Burton and for portraying Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean. Johnny Depp was nominated three times for the Oscar for best actor for the first part of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2004), neverland (2005) and Sweet Todd: The Evil Barber of Fleet Street in 2008). Unfortunately, today his personal escapades are more talked about than his cinematographic performances.

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● Glenn Close

Six nominations but no trophies won for the actress. Accustomed to Broadway, she made her film debut with the role of Jenny Fields in the film The World According to Garp which earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress in 1983. She was later nominated in the same category for her role as Sarah Cooper in Friends first in 1984 and Iris Gaines in The best in 1985. Glen Close would be nominated for the Oscar for Best Actress four times in her career for her performances in Fatal Liaison (1988), Dangerous relationships (1989), Albert Nobbs (2012) as well as The Wife (2019).

Glenn Close’s speech for his role in The Wife at the 2019 Golden Globes

● Michael Fassbender

The German-Irish actor has made a name for himself among the greats of cinema. In 2009, he played alongside brad pitt and Diane Kruger in Quentin Tarentino’s film Inglorious Basterds. In 2011, he joined the Marvel team with the films X-Men ( The Beginning, Days of Future Past, Apocalypse, Dark Phoenix). His performance in the biographical drama 12 Years A Slave (2013) will earn him a nomination in the category Best supporting actor by the academy. He will also be in the Best Actor category in 2016 for his role as Steve Jobs in the eponymous film.

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● Sigourney Weaver

It’s the saga Alien with the role of Ellen Ripley who revealed her to the big screen. The second part of the saga, Alien the return will earn her a nomination in 1987 for the Oscar for best actress. Two years later, the actress is nominated in the same category with the film Gorillas in the mist but also for the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for the film Working Girl.

Extract Alien, the eighth passenger (1979)

● Sir Ian McKellen

During his 48-year career, the 80-year-old British actor has never won an Oscar. Nominated for the first time for the Oscar for Best Actor in Neither gods nor demons in 1999, it was thanks to his role as Gandalf in the trilogy The Lord of the Rings that he achieves notoriety. He will be nominated in 2002 for the Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.

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● Edward Norton

The actor and producer came to prominence in the 1990s for his performances in comedy Everyone says I love you and the drama fight club. He earned a 1997 Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor playing the character of Aaron Stampler in primal fear. It is with his performance in the film American History X, where he played a far-right activist that he entered the race for the Oscar for Best Actor in 1999. Today, he is more occupied with other projects, notably his data science company EDO.

Extract of fight club (1999)