25 best movies that never won an Oscar

15. Taxi Driver

Scorsese made this list again for yet another film that somehow never won an Oscar despite being considered a solid entry in the legendary director’s oeuvre. This one looks even more egregious on its surface because when naming Robert De Niro’s Oscar-winning roles, you could be forgiven if you assumed Travis Bickle from Taxi Driver was one of them.

The film was nominated for four Oscars at the 1977 Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress (Jodie Foster) and Original Score. For Taxi Driver, context matters more than for any film on this list so far. It’s the rare case in which the Academy didn’t so much fail to notice it, but it just happened to have been nominated into some all-time stacked categories.

De Niro and Foster lost to Peter Finch and Beatrice Straight from Network, which are both fair decisions. Likewise, it lost Best Picture to Rocky, but would’ve also had to contend with Network and All the President’s Man. It could’ve beaten The Omen for Original Score, but honestly it never stood much of a chance in the categories in which it was nominated.

Don’t waste any tears on Scorsese, De Niro or Foster though. All three of them have since won  Academy Awards and established themselves as three of the best talents in Hollywood. They might not have struck Oscars gold with Taxi Driver, but it’s clear now that its poor Oscars showing was just a victim of stiff competition.