Oscars: 25 iconic movies that never won Best Picture

What does it take to win the Oscars’ top award? Mary Poppins, Citizen Kane, Star Wars, La La Land and more iconic films didn’t win Best Picture.

Believe it or not, some of the best movies of all time have never won an Academy Award for Best Picture. No matter how big of an impact they make or how much buzz they receive, there’s always that one film that swoops in to steal the spotlight. And more often than not, those movies aren’t the ones that we watch, adore, and pass on for years and years.

Films such as Citizen Kane, Saving Private Ryan, and The Shawshank Redemption, movies that you’d assume won Best Picture because they are so famously referenced and held up as the all-time greats, were overlooked. Other years, movies that defined the conversation surrounding film and attracted more awards buzz than you could measure were bypassed come Oscars night, such as Brokeback Mountain, Boyhood, and Get Out.

Beyond that, movies that made an irreversible impact on filmmaking and pop culture continue to enjoy popularity and praise without the validation of an Oscar gold. The Wizard of Oz, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Beauty and the Beast, and The Sixth Sense made influential strides for film, but their legacies don’t include a cherry-on-top win for Best Picture. Sometimes these movies aren’t even nominated, like the game-changing superhero masterpiece The Dark Knight.

Which iconic movies have been snubbed of winning the top honor in film? Listed in sequential order by release year, here are 25 movies that never won Best Picture.