Academy Award Snubs: The Best Pictures of the 2000s

As I sit here on my brand new Mac Book Pro I will start by writing about the films Oscar forgot in the
 Best Picture category.  The Academy Awards do a decent job of picking five great films in a year.  There are some years where they did better than most, and some year where the nominees were trash.  In 2008 they snubbed The Dark Knight and the next year they had ten nominees.  The Dark Knight was never cited as the reason for ten nominees in the Best Picture race, but it was a contributing factor.  Here are five (well 8) films that deserved a nomination their year and some honorable mentions.

1-The Dark Knight (2008)-The film that "started" the thought process behind ten Best Picture

nominations.  The Dark Knight was a the highest grossing film of the year, and surprisingly was one of the best films of the year as well.  Christopher Nolan's direction was genius.  What would it have replaced: The Reader starring Kate Winslet was another movie about Nazism in World War II and probably the worst to earn a Best Picture nomination.

2-Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) I could have used my own bias to place this at the number one spot, but the The Dark Knight's snub was the biggest middle finger I have ever seen (until Nolan was snubbed for directing Inception).  This is possibly one of the most original films ever, and it earned some big nominations like Best Actress Kate Winslet and best original screenplay (which it won) but when a film this original comes along it should not be ignored.  What would it have replaced:  The paint by number bio-pic Ray.  This was a decent movie but I have seen before, and the Academy loves to honor films they have seen before.

3-Mullholland Dr (2001).  This dark and twisted tale constructed by David Lynch is something you have to watch several times in order to get the full effect.  The plot is well-out there, but this is one of the best films of the decade.  This is not a movie for everyone, but everyone should give it a shot, because it makes you think, and has something to say about the inner workings of Hollywood.  What would it have replaced: Gosford Park-This is a great film and Altman's direction is brilliant, but Mullholland Dr. surpasses this by miles.

4-Pan's Labyrinth (2006)-The best foreign film of the last decade deserved a nomination in this category.  This film did great in the technical categories, but failed get a nomination in Best Picture.  Unlike animated features foreign films were sometimes nominated in this category, and this is one of the worst snubs ever!  What would it have replaced: Tough call, I would say Babel.  Babel was a great acting showcase, but as a film lacked something.

5-The Incredibles/Finding Nemo/Wall-E-Pixar has a three-peat of snubbed animated feature films.  The Incredibles, Finding Nemo, and Wall-E all deserved a Best Picture nomination, and the creation of the Best Animated feature category ruined this from happening.  There were films in each of their year they could have replaced each of them are some of the best films I have ever seen.

This video below highlights the beauty of Pixar and the joy it brings to all of our worlds.

Honorable Mentions:

Memento (2001)

Children of Men (2006)

Requiem for a Dream (2000)

Kill Bill Volume 1 (2003)

Far from Heaven (2002)