Many Oscar nominations, no wins: 'Killers of the Flower Moon' and other great movies

With 'Killers of the Flower Moon,' Martin Scorsese directed his third film to get ten nominations and zero wins at the Oscars. Particularly painful was the Best Actress award that experts assumed would go to the Native American Lily Gladstone. She saw Emma Stone take the statuette home for 'Poor Things.'

Martin Scorsese already knows what it's like to have 10 nominations and leave empty-handed. He was seen talking to Lily Gladstone at the end of the ceremony, counting to three with his fingers. Three times 0-10, it can happen to the best of us!

It happened to Scorsese with 'Gangs of New York', a film that saw 'Chicago' snatch half of the statuettes it was nominated for. Adding to that, Adrien Brody ('The Pianist') took the Oscar from Daniel Day-Lewis for Best Actor, which is something that many people still don't understand, even Adrien Brody himself.

A similar thing happened in 2019 with Scorsese's movie 'The Irishman' for Netflix. Joe Pesci's Oscar for Supporting Actor seemed a foregone conclusion, and it would have been enough to give the film a small consolation to at least go home with one statuette. But no, Pesci lost the Oscar to Brad Pitt in 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.'

A memorable case of many nominations and no wins was 'The Color Purple.' Curiously, among the 11 nominations, there was none for Steven Spielberg for Best Director, and at the ceremony, this masterpiece left without an award -  quite a historic moment. 'Out of Africa' was one of the big winners of that year's gala.

Third parts are never good, you say? Well, 'The Godfather III' was, and its seven nominations proved it. Yet, Francis Ford Coppola and Andy Garcia, among others, had to settle for applauding 'Dances with Wolves', which took the seven statuettes denied to 'The Godfather III'.

This was the first film to take a big hit. Herbert Ross's film accumulated 11 Oscar nominations but went home empty-handed, mainly because of the steep competition of  'Annie Hall'.

It was one of Hollywood's biggest - and most surprising - flops. David O'Russell's film had nominations for nearly its entire cast, it was up for Best Picture, Best Director, among other nominations, but saw most of the awards taken away from it by '12 Years a Slave' and 'Gravity'.

The gala ceremony where 'True Grit' missed out on 10 Oscars was a strange one. For starters, 'The King's Speech' took the Oscar for Best Picture while 'The Social Network' seemed more likely to take it home. It is possible that 'No Country for Old Men', a film that took four out of eight Oscars three years earlier, avenged the snubbing of this tremendous Western.

Leaving Bette Davis without her third Oscar is one of the most unfair things the Academy has done in its history, but William Wyler's film left empty-handed after nine nominations. Interestingly, competing with films such as 'Citizen Kane' and 'The Maltese Falcon', it was 'How Green Was My Valley' that surprised everyone with the Best Film award.

Mark Robson had to put his film up against 'The Bridge on the River Kwai' and lost tragically. Also at that 1957 gala was the legendary '12 Angry Men'.

It is hard to believe that one of Hollywood's leading lights failed to win an Oscar despite eight nominations. Curiously, it was not 'A Streetcar Named Desire' that snatched the most coveted nominations, but another historical masterpiece, 'An American in Paris', which won five Oscars out of seven nominations.

It's completely impossible to compete with a film that takes 11 of its 12 nominations, as happened to 'Ben-Hur'. Curiously, the misfortune was split 50/50 at this gala, as 'A Nun's Tale' went away with zero out of eight nominations, while 'Anatomy of a Murder' also missed out with seven nominations.

Even the presence of Steve McQueen as Best Actor did not help Robert Wise's film win any Oscars. 'A Man for All Seasons' was the big winner with six statuettes, including Paul Scofield for Best Actor.

David Lynch was left dumbstruck when he saw that no statuette fell to him in the eight categories for which he was competing. Film, Direction, Actor... They were all going to the other productions, among which were those of the team of 'Raging Bull' .

Milos Forman's film was competing against such gems as 'Chariots of Fire' and 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'. Despite this, no one can understand why it didn't win at least two statuettes.

Emma Thompson and Anthony Hopkins were pure chemistry on screen. But then Steven Spielberg came along with 'Schindler's List' and it took them by storm. Then, along came Tom Hanks and Holly Hunter, with 'Philadelphia' and 'The Piano' and they swept the board. Impossible to win anything that day.

One of the Academy's worst decisions. Considered by many experts to be the best film in history, it seems impossible that it didn't win an Oscar. However, in the Academy's defence, it must be said that that year was excellent in terms of quality: 'Forrest Gump', 'The Lion King' and 'Quiz Show' are some of the films with which it competed. Despite this, the film world still doesn't understand what happened that night with Frank Darabont's film.

The problem with Edward Dmytryl's film was called 'On the Waterfront', which swept up eight Oscars out of 12 nominations. Not even the crumbs were left for Humphrey Bogart's superb performance.

The other big casualty of the historic 'Ben-Hur' night was 'Anatomy of a Murder.' Otto Preminger's film deserved much better.

Terrence Mallick's film was in direct competition with 'Saving Private Ryan' and it was Steven Spielberg who won five statuettes. In addition, the vote was split for Best Picture, with 'Shakespeare in Love' coming out on top.

Another seven nominations came to nothing, in a gala dominated by 'Lawrence of Arabia'.

Competing with the legendary 'Casablanca' doesn't help, but failing to win just one of the seven awards it was up for is tough. Especially as Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon are wonderful in this film.

Even Matt Damon is not good enough to hide his disappointment. The year he had the best chance of winning the Oscar, the Academy decided to pay its historic debt to Leonardo DiCaprio.

Billy Wilder went into the Oscars thinking he could win any of the seven categories but would lose them all along the way. He went home with no explanation as to how he missed out winning a single one. His seven Oscars went to 'Going My Way'.

Like 'Mutiny on the Bounty', this legendary film was not eligible for the main awards but left empty-handed. To the consolation of some, 'Yangtze on Fire' had an even more fateful night, as it had eight nominations and took home the same Oscars: zero.

Two years after 'The Sand Pebbles', Robert Wise once again had a night to forget. The seven nominations (all minor, except for Supporting Actor), came to nothing and the director racked up 15 nominations in two films within two years of each other and took home zero Oscars.

'The Last Emperor' was too big a force for this James L. Brooks film. Nevertheless, it could have easily won a statuette or two. Incidentally, Bernardo Bertolucci's film won 9 out of 9 Oscars.

Yes, it had seven nominations but, of course, it was up against such legends as 'The Silence of the Lambs', which won five Oscars, and 'Terminator 2', which won four Oscars.

Surprising that this unforgettable Jim Sheridan film left empty handed. Again, the problem had a name: 'Schindler's List', just like what happened to 'Remains of the Day', but this one with one more nomination, that is, one more disappointment during the ceremony.

Look at the films that 'The Insider' had to compete with: 'The Sixth Sense', 'American Beauty', 'The Cider House Rules' and 'The Green Mile'. Understandable that he left empty-handed. A very high standard of films that year.

One of the easiest flops to watch, not because it was a bad film, but because it was competing with 'The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King', which took 11 out of 11 Oscars. On top of that, 'Mystic River' and 'Lost in Translation' were in the running for Screenplay, Actor (Sean Penn) and Supporting Actor (Tim Robbins).

It is strange that Cary Grant did not get any of the seven nominations for the film, although, looking at the bigger picture, perhaps it was for the best. Seven Oscar choices and no awards on a fateful night for George Stevens, the film's director.

The night wore on for Mervyn LeRoy, as his seven nominations remained only nominations. In contrast, 'Mrs. Miniver' picked up award after award to reach six statuettes.

Henry Koster's film had three actresses nominated for Oscars, but it didn't even get a statuette. It is a wonder that this legendary piece was not recognised with at least one Oscar.

William Wyler and Bette Davis thought that 'The Letter', with seven nominations and zero awards, was going to give them their worst night at the Oscars, back in 1940. As fate would have it, a year later, the same thing happened to them with 'The She-Wolf' and nine nominations. In the 1940 edition, it had to compete with 'Rebecca', 'The Great Dictator' and 'The Grapes of Wrath'.

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