The film was regarded as more of a phenomenon than the great film in its day. While scores and scores of people went to see it (it's still second all-time in ticket sales, behind Gone With The Wind), it wasn't seen as the landmark achievment that we know it be now. Along with creating the most compelling sci-fi universe ever, Lucas changed the way films were shot, employing dozens of new techniques that are still in use 25 years later. The story itself, borrowed from Kurosawa's Hidden Fortress, is the perfect faerie tale for every age, which may have hurt it, in losing to Annie Hall.

While there were many great Westerns in the same era, and years before, not many thought that this would stand up as arguably the best Western ever. With all the Howard Hawks and John Ford films that had gone before it, people didn't give High Noon enough credit for being unlike the classics before it, with a dark, almost anti-hero in what would stand up as not only the darkest role Gary Cooper ever took, but also the best. Perhaps it seemed like a good idea at the time, but that year's winner, The Greatest Show On Earth, is now clearly inferior to High Noon.

Perhaps this should count as two items, but I'll insert it as an event instead. In back-to-back years, two films that featured a "doctor" lost to musicals. Granted, My Fair Lady (1964) and The Sound Of Music (1965) were among the great musicals, but for their own reasons, the doctors were greater.

Zhivago, like all the other David Lean epics (Lawrence, Passage, Bridge) was up for the best picture award, but this one missed out. The Academy loves a war epic, but somehow the musical won the day, splitting the awards with Zhivago. Both were nominated for 10 awards, and won 5.

Strangelove was seen in its day as an incredibly smart film, but it certainly wasn't regarded as the classic that it later became. On many critics' all-time top ten lists, this was Kubrick's only comedy, as dark as it was.

People today see Wonderful as often as any other film, because it's on every station, all day, every day, during the holidays. With so many viewings, it's easy to see how masterful of a film Frank Capra put together, the perfect cautionary tale about greed, that's supplanted Scrooge and company as the holiday film of choice. Being public domain also means that stations can play it for free...

One of the most celebrated and studied filmmakers ever, Hitch was shunned by the Academy as being an entertainer, not an artist (a mistake they didn't make again with Spielberg and Schindler's List). He himself never won a Best Director award, and only one of his films, Rebecca, ever won the Best Picture trophy. Of course, that award went to the producer, Selznick, not Hitchcock. Among what were seen as pop movies in their day, were some of the great films of all-time: Rear Window (1954), North By Northwest (1959), and some critics' pick for the best film ever, Vertigo (1958). How the so-called golden era for Hitch was completely overlooked is baffling, although the many belated awards that Hitch received at the end of his career, at least showed him that the snubs were just setbacks and not losses.

The 1940 Best Picture was awarded to Gone With The Wind, which led a crop that is still considered to be the best year of films in history. Among the losers that year are The Wizard Of Oz, Stagecoach, Of Mice And Men, Wuthering Heights, Goodbye Mr. Chips, Ninotchka, and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. (Back then, there were 10 nominees for the top film.) Among those not nominated were Gunga Din, Roaring Twenties, Only Angels Have Wings, and The Four Feathers, not to mention the French Rules Of The Game. Wow. Every year it becomes more apparent that we're not going to have a year like that again.