25 best movies that never won an Oscar

8. It’s A Wonderful Life

This is a case of a film that fell relatively flat upon its arrival in theaters but gained steam as time passed. It’s now considered a Christmas classic that is aired on network TV ad infinitum every year. With that context in mind, it’s both nice that the Academy nominated It’s A Wonderful Life at all and sad that it went home empty-handed. Them’s the breaks.

The one annoying thing here is that the 1947 Oscars were dominated by a film that left a much less significant mark on movie history than It’s A Wonderful Life. Frank Capra’s movie about a depressed man learning what life would be like if he had never been born has become a revered model of cinematic excellence. The film that bested it is not nearly as beloved.

It’s A Wonderful Life was nominated for Best Picture, Best Actor (James Stewart), Best Director, Sound Mixing and Film Editing, most of which it lost to the William Wyler-directed The Best Years of Our Lives. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, it’s just that its competition is now so treasured that it’s hard to believe it couldn’t prevail during its heyday.

Really, the main tragedy here is that James Stewart’s iconic performance as George Bailey wasn’t rewarded with the historical marker that an Oscar represents.

Maybe it would’ve been for the best if this movie had never come out at all. Wait, is that an angel? Be right back, it appears I have a lesson to learn.