25 best movies that never won an Oscar

22. The Big Lebowski

The Dude probably wouldn’t care that The Big Lebowski wasn’t nominated FOR A SINGLE AWARD at the 1999 Oscars, but fans of the Coen brothers’ masterpiece about nothing might be horrified to know how little respect the Academy showed for it. It’s definitely way too unorthodox a film for Academy traditionalists, but it’s still a strange historical footnote that the Oscars ignored it altogether.

So, what could The Big Lebowski have been nominated for and what could it have won? One could argue that it’s a better film than that year’s Best Picture winner Shakespeare in Love, but in an ideal world Saving Private Ryan wins over both those films. The Coen brothers would’ve had a legitimate shot at Best Director, but again, that should’ve gone to Steven Spielberg for SPR.

Jeff Bridges probably should’ve gotten a Best Actor nomination, but he would’ve had to contend with a murderer’s row of Tom Hanks for SPR, winner Roberto Benigni for Life is Beautiful and Edward Norton for American History X.  Its best chance probably would’ve been for Original Screenplay, considering how widely quoted the film still is today.

Just like Die Hard, it was the foreign awards-voting bodies that gave The Big Lebowski its due at the time. Both the Association of Polish Filmmakers Critics Awards and Russian Guild of Film Critics bestowed upon The Big Lebowski the title of 1998’s Best Foreign Film. The Dude abides!