Christopher Nolan, Leonardo DiCaprio, Cillian Murphy on the set of Inception
- Michael Nyman for The Piano (1993), The End of the Affair (1999)
- Lee Smith for Inception (2010)
Biggest Oscar Snubs #10a: Gordon Willis, Caleb Deschanel
"The much admired, awarded and internationally popular new Jane Campion film, The Piano," wrote Mark Swed in the Los Angeles Times in November 1993, "is regularly mentioned as prime Oscar material. So, since it is a film about music and since the soundtrack album has attracted considerable interest from Warsaw to Sidney [sic], isn’t it just possible that the composer, Michael Nyman, could also be nominated for an Academy Award?" Huh, No.
Nyman, best known for his collaborations with Peter Greenaway (Drowning by Numbers, The Cook the Thief His Wife & Her Lover) was bypassed by the Academy’s Music Branch. To date, Michael Nyman has yet to receive an Academy Award nomination.
As for the failure of the Academy’s Film Editors Branch to shortlist Lee Smith for his work on Christopher Nolan’s multi-dream-layered Inception, Oscar-nominated visual effects artist Paul Franklin complained to The Hollywood Reporter, "If there was one category that I thought we were going to get, it was editing. It’s a real shame for Lee Smith; he kept Inception cohesive, while telling four stories simultaneously. We worked very closely. Chris has an established team. Working with Lee is an absolute dream."
Lee Smith has been nominated for two Academy Awards: Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003) and The Dark Knight (2008).
Note: The "Biggest Oscar Snubs" series isn’t a reflection of my personal tastes. Instead, the "snubs" are listed according to the furor they generated at the time. Sometimes I agree with those who called the Academy nuts; other times I’m in full agreement with those Academy members who cast their vote for somebody else.
Note Part II: This article and its follow-ups are revised, updated versions of pieces initially posted in Jan. 2010.
Photo: Inception (Stephen Vaughan / Warner Bros.)