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10 Of The Biggest Mistakes In Oscar History

I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with the Academy, as many people often do. Usually, they tend to make decent decisions. They may not always choose the best in a given category, but they usually at least choose a decent representation for it. Of course, there are times when they are completely right on the nose (Casablanca, Lawrence of Arabia, Schindler’s List, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, etc.), but on the flip side, there are also moments where you have to question whether or not they’ve really seen all of the nominees.

9. Pulp Fiction Loses Best Picture and Best Director to Forrest Gump

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1994 saw a few great choices in the Best Picture category, including Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction, Robert Zemeckis’ Forrest Gump, and Robert Redford’s Quiz Show. However, the one that most people look back on as the film that should have won the big prize is Tarantino’s influential masterpiece. Few movies end up shaping a generation of filmmakers, but that’s just what Tarantino did with Pulp Fiction, a film that plays with structure while featuring tons of unforgettable dialogue and plot elements.

That being said, it’s hard to fault the Academy for going with Forrest Gump and Zemeckis for Best Picture and Best Director, respectively. It too is a great film, but Tarantino broke new ground with Pulp Fiction, and in the process created one of the greatest, most quotable, movies ever made. The film garnered seven Oscar nominations and walked away with Best Original Screenplay, a fitting consolation prize. However, the film had already won the prestigious Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival for 1994, so you don’t need to feel too bad for it. Like many of the movies that the Academy nominates for Best Picture, they just didn’t appreciate it enough when it came out. Now though, it’s highly regarded as one of the best films ever made. People still appreciate Forrest Gump to this day as well, but it just hasn’t had the long-lasting love that Tarantino’s masterpiece has had.