25 best movies that never won an Oscar

18. King Kong (1933)

Believe it or not Generation Zers, movies have been around since long before the ’90s. In fact, some films that premiered all the way back in the 1930s were such cinematic achievements that they are still considered to be sterling examples of what movie-makers can accomplish. Take 1933’s King Kong for example, which might look dated now but at the time was a technical marvel.

The film spawned multiple sequels and a few remakes, but even today King Kong is still revered as one of the best and (ironically) most human monster movies ever made. Of course, sometimes it can take years to appreciate a film’s achievements, which is clear by its showing at the1934 Oscars. King Kong wasn’t nominated even once.

Even if the Academy had embraced it, it would’ve been a tough one to properly honor. There weren’t nearly as many technical categories as there are in the modern Oscars, with the only options really being Cinematography, Art Direction and Sound Recording. Still, there’s no reason it couldn’t have made a dent in any of those races.

Seventy years later, Peter Jackson’s long-but-gorgeous King Kong remake took advantage of newer Oscar categories to score three wins for Sound Mixing, Sound Editing and Visual Effects. One could consider those awards a spiritual win for the 1933 original, but it’s a still a shame that such a seminal genre film wasn’t even considered for awards contention.