50 Years of Oscar Inconsistency: The 1960s

As promised, here's the results of my insanely inefficient examination of Oscar's snubs. But, before I begin, let me be clear what I mean by "snub". I'm looking at which movies got all the right nominations but either still couldn't get the Best Picture win or even get a Best Picture nomination. These aren't the movies that couldn't even get nominated for anything. These are the movies that seems to get all the love from the Academy except for the big one. If you still don't understand what I mean, keep reading. You will.

In case you missed my lengthy diatribe about why I'm doing this. Here you go. And, in cased you missed my explanation of how I calculated the "snubs", here you go.

Previously: The 2000s

               The 1990s

               The 1980s

               The 1970s

42nd Academy Awards

This is the first case of the most nominated and seemingly deserving movie for the win not even getting the a Best Picture nod. They Don't Shoot Horses, Don't They? (42) looks like the favorite over Midnight Cowboy and Anne of the Thousand Days until you realize that it wasn't even in the field.


41st Academy Awards

Oliver! made sense to win. Fellow exclamation point title, Star! (43) made more sense to be nominated than Shakespeare adaptation, Romeo and Juliet.


40th Academy Awards

This looked like a year that a Sidney Potier movie was going to win. Instead of his seeming favorite, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (44), the less likely In the Heat of the Night got the W.

39th Academy Awards

Fun Fact: No movie in the last 50 years of was as dominate in the nominations fields as Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (45). It almost doubled up A Man for All Seasons in nominations and still lost.


38th Academy Awards

It's a shame Dr. Zhivago had to go against The Sound of Music. It was a year of Titans. Cat Ballou (46) looks to have been screwed out of a best picture nod in favor of A Thousand Clowns though.

37th Academy Awards

It was a three horse race between between My Fair Lady, Becket, and Mary Poppins. Becket (47) had a lot more going for it but didn't get the win. As I've already covered, that happens a lot. As much as I hate saying it Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (48) had more going for it than Dr. Strangelove.

36th Academy Awards

Hud (49) matches America, America and adds acting nominations, which I think should be enough to get it a best picture nominations. What I think didn't really matter 25 years before I was born.

35th Academy Awards

Alas, 50 years back: the final snub. It seems that teaching Helen Keller is more feasible than pulling a best picture nod over The Longest Day for The Miracle Worker (50).

There we go. 50 different cases of the Oscars not even making sense within it's own process. A lot of these are weak reasoning and would be subject to change with a different formula. I'm happy with this list though, simply because I just finished it and it's too late to back out now.
Sadly, my goal of finding a statistical way to prove which movie will win best picture. If anything, this little 50 year study tells you why that is. The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences are a fickle group.
It's about time I start looking this year.