25 best movies that never won an Oscar

19. Memento

Memento was the film that put Christopher Nolan on the map as Hollywood’s next great director, and for good reason. The twisted story of one man with anterograde amnesia trying to piece together the real story of his life is the kind of thinking-man’s thriller Hollywood has mostly eschewed for superhero movies in recent years. Without Memento, we probably don’t get The Prestige, The Dark Knight or Inception.

With all that praise in mind, the 2002 Oscars couldn’t find a place to reward Memento for any of the parts that added up to its mind-bending excellence. It was only nominated for Original Screenplay and Film Editing, both of which it lost. To be fair, Memento is objectively a tough film to follow. In this case, the Academy members who probably couldn’t figure it out get a pass.

That said, how in the world did it not win a film-editing Oscar? For the uninitiated, Memento is a story told in reverse-chronological order in rhythm with its protagonist’s memory issues. It’s a master-class in film editing, as the film would’ve been a pile of unintelligible gibberish without deft direction by Nolan and a team of seasoned editors ensuring the final product was cohesive.

There’s also an argument to be made that Guy Pearce — who portrayed poor, memory-deficient Leonard — was deserving of a Best Actor nomination. Of course, there was no way he was beating Denzel Washington’s Training Day performance. No one was up to that herculean task.