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In our industry, this time of year has a tendency to get a touch overwhelmed by awards season—and while we loved so much of the work that 2019 had to offer (Hey, 'Parasite'), we thought we'd dedicate this bulletin to nine of our favorite films that weren't nominated for a Best Picture Oscar in their year. It's not an exhaustive collection by any means, but it's a straight-from-the-heart reminder that if you stick to a list of winners, you're bound to miss some masterpieces.
To help make sure you keep mining the cinema canon, our great pals at the Criterion Collection are giving annual subscriptions to the Criterion Channel to five lucky subscribers. Details are below, so read on!
Happy New Year, friends.
Jake & Riva
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I
1 9 4 9
The Third Man
It's a shame that the GOAT, 'The Third Man,' didn't have a star better than Orson Welles, a writer finer than Graham Greene or a director more talented than Carol Reed. It might really have been something.
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II
1 9 5 2
Singing in the Rain
When Leonard Bernstein saw this movie, his reaction was clear: “there has never been a greater celebration of life.” And you know what the old adage says: always trust the guy who wrote 'West Side Story.'
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III
1 9 6 0
Breathless
Jean Seberg: the New York Herald Tribune saleswoman who launched a thousand French New Waves. The style of this film—Godard's first!—has been such a profound and pervasive cinematic influence that it's wild to see it contained neatly in one, ninety-minute package.
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IV
1 9 6 3
8 1/2
The paen to creative crisis and the mess of life that is '8 1/2' is Fellini at his very best. With the past, present and subconscious collapsed into one fractured narrative, this shamelessly self-referential opus is different—and better—every time.
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V
1 9 8 9
Do the Right Thing
This Spike Lee joint tackles a neighborhood simmering with racial tension with comedy, heart and an unafraid eye. Though weighed down by absurd, racist controversy when it was released, 'Do the Right Thing' is still as brilliant as ever.
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VI
2 0 0 0
In the Mood For Love
Written and directed by master Wong Kar-wai, 'In the Mood for Love' is a lush meditation on fidelity, loneliness and our confused, universal hunger for connection. It's also one of the most visually stunning movies you'll ever see.
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VII
2 0 0 1
Monsoon Wedding
Mira Nair took Sabrina Dhawan's beautiful screenplay—the first draft of which was written in a week—and turned it into a total triumph. Fearless and full of joy, 'Monsoon Wedding' is everything we want from a movie.
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VIII
2 0 1 3
Stories We Tell
Directed and written by Sarah Polley, this magic trick of a film about family memory is sweet and slippery in equal measure. There's nothing else like it.
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IX
2 0 1 6
Cameraperson
Kirsten Johnson's documentary-autobiography was stitched together from decades of footage from her life behind the camera. Part treatise on the ethical perils of documentary and part personal memoir, this movie will astonish you.
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AND A "FEW" HONORABLE MENTIONS
in no particular order:
Mudbound
Orlando
Distant Voices Still Lives
The Rider
Underground
A League of Their Own
The Royal Tenenbaums
Back to the Future
Persepolis
Point Break
Ratcatcher
Europa Europa
Hoop Dreams
City of Lights
2001: A Space Odyssey
Days of Heaven
Badlands
Cool Hand Luke
A Face in the Crowd
Full Metal Jacket
Heat
Seven Samurai
Harold and Maude
His Girl Friday
The Long Goodbye
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W O O H O O
Criterion Channel Giveaway
Send an email to hello@ninestoriesproductions.com by Friday 1/31 and tell us your favorite not-nominated movie of all time. We'll pick five winners at random to receive a year-long membership to the Criterion Channel.
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It's all I have to bring to-day,
This, and my heart beside,
This, and my heart, and all the fields,
And all the meadows wide.
Be sure you count, should I forget, --
Someone the sum could tell, --
This, and my heart, and all the bees
Which in the clover dwell.
Emily Dickinson // It's all I have to bring today
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