It’s an honor just to be nominated of course and often the people who don’t win the Oscar were more deserving. (Small consolation.) The major categories have long been a beauty show rife with political intrigue and media manipulation and that means strange winners and appalling omissions. Science fiction and fantasy films have long been delegated to the second tier of awards despite being popular subjects with directors and fans since the beginning of motion pictures. Here’s some good (and bad) examples that were ignored by Hollywood:

Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke were two of the greatest visionaries in history and their collaboration on this film about a terrifying discovery on the Moon still looks good today. Even HAL couldn’t understand why it didn’t win best picture. Oliver!(!) did.

This incredible play-like film was not nominated for anything (although an Academy award winning cinematographer was involved in the production) but was it less deserving than the 1962 winner West Side Story?

The Deer Hunter won and it was a made-for-TV production, but this adaptation of Ursula K. Le Guin’s story about a psychiatrist and his unusual patient was one of the best films of 1979.

Low budget, made by an industrial filmmaker with an unknown lead and local actors, guaranteeing an Oscar snub. Infinitely better than Les Mis.