It was during Oscar’s fourth decade that studio control over the movie business faltered, film distribution changed from single theatre premieres to wider openings, and the Hollywood Production Code saw chinks in it that ended it completely by the end of the decade.

Oscar’s 1958 Best Picture was Best Director Vincente Minnelli’s Gigi, a musical about a French gamine trained to be a courtesan. It won over Moron Da Costa’s Auntie Mame, Richard Brooks’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Stanley Kramer’s The Defiant Ones, and Daniel Mann’s Separate Tables. Left out of contention were Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo, John Ford’s The Last Hurrah, and Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil among others.

Oscar’s 1959 Best Picture was Best Director William Wyler’s Ben-Hur over Otto Preminger’s Anatomy of a Murder, George Stevens’ The Diary of Anne Frank, Fred Zinnemann’s The Nun’s Story, and Jack Clayton’s Room at the Top. Ignored were such highly regarded films as Billy Wilder’s, Some Like It Hot, Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest , and Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s Suddenly, Last Summer.

Oscar’s 1960 Best Picture was Best Director Billy Wilder’s The Apartment over Richard Brooks’ Elmer Gantry, Jack Cardiff’s Sons and Lovers, Fred Zinnemann’s The Sundowners, and John Wayne’s The Alamo. Overlooked were the likes of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, the third year in a row that a Hitchcock masterpiece was snubbed, Stanley Kramer’s Inherit the Wind, and Vincente Minnelli’s Home from the Hill.

Oscar’s 1961 Best Picture Oscar winners Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins’ West Side Story over Joshua Logan’s Fanny, Robert Rossen’s The Hustler, Stanley Kramer’s Judgment at Nuremberg, and J. Lee Thompson’s The Guns of Navarone. Among those there was no room for were Federico Fellini’s La Dolce Vita, Blake Edwards’ Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and Billy Wilder’s One, Two, Three.

Oscar’s 1962 Best Picture was Best Director David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia over Ken Annakin, Andrew Marton, and Bernhard Wicki’s The Longest Day, Lewis Milestone’s Mutiny on the Bounty, Morton DaCosta’s The Music Man, and Robert Mulligan’s To Kill a Mockingbird. Left out in the cold were John Frankenheimer’s The Manchurian Candidate, Sidney Lumet’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night, and Frank Perry’s David and Lisa.

Oscar’s 1963’s Best Picture was Best Director Tony Richardson’s Tom Jones over Elia Kazan’s America America, Ralph Nelson’s Lilies of the Field, John Ford, Henry Hathaway, and George Marshall’s How the West Was Won, and Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s Cleopatra. Not nominated were Martin Ritt’s Hud, Otto Preminger’s The Cardinal, and Federico Fellini’s 8 1/2.

Oscar’s 1964 Best Picture was Best Director George Cukor’s My Fair Lady over Robert Stevenson’s Mary Poppins, Peter Glenville’s Becket, Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove, and Michael Cacoyannis’ Zorba the Greek. Ronald Neame’s The Chalk Garden, John Huston’s The Night of the Iguana, and John Frankenheimer’s Seven Days in May were among those not nominated.

Oscar’s 1965 Best Picture was Best Director Robert Wise’s The Sound of Music over John Schlesinger’s Darling, David Lean’s Doctor Zhivago, Stanley Kramer’s Ship of Fools, and Fred Coe’s A Thousand Clowns. Among that might have been nominated were William Wyler’s The Collector, and Guy Green’s A Patch of Blue, and Hiroshi Teshigahara’s Woman in the Dunes.

Oscar’s 1966 Best Picture was Best Director Fred Zinnemann’s A Man for All Seasons over Mike Nichols’ Who’s Afarid of Virginia Woolf?t, Lewis Gilbert’s Alfie, Norman Jewison’s The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming, and Robert Wise’s The Sand Pebbles. Passed over were Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow-Up, Silvio Narizzano’s Georgy Girl, and Costa-Gavras’ The Sleeping Car Murder.

Oscar’s 1967 Best Picture was In the Heat of the Night over Best Director Mike Nichols’ The Graduate, the first and only time this decade the Best Director award went to someone other than the director of the year’s Best Picture. Also in the running were Arthur Penn’s Bonnie and Clyde, Stanley Kramer’s Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, and Richard Fleischer’s Doctor Dolittle. Richard Brooks’ In Cold Blood, Stuart Rosenberg’s Cool Hand Luke, and Robert Aldrich’s The Dirty Dozen were snubbed.

FILMS THE ACADEMY SHOULD HAVE NOMINATED BUT DIDN’T

VERTIGO, directed by Alfred Hitchcock (1958)

Long regarded as Hitchcock’s greatest film and even considered by some to be the greatest film ever made by anyone, it seems incredible that this was a critical and commercial disappointment in its initial release. Hitchcock blamed it on 50-year-old James Stewart who he thought was too old to play the lead opposite 25-year-old Kim Novak. Nominated for just two Oscars for its production design and sound, it should also have been nominated, not just as Best Picture, but also for its cinematography, screenplay, direction, and best actor for Stewart who despite Hitchcock’s misgivings, is perfect in the role of the easily duped private detective.

SOME LIKE IT HOT, directed by Billy Wilder (1959)

Long considered by many to be the funniest movie ever made, this was nominated for six Oscars including those for its direction, screenplay, and acting (Jack Lemmon), cinematography, and art direction and won for its costume design yet somehow missed a Best Picture nod. Many also think that the performances of Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, and Joe E. Brown should also have been recognized but few would disagree that Lemmon’s performance was the film’s standout. He and Curtis play male musicians who masquerade as their female counterparts to elude gangsters pursuing them after they witness a mob hit in 1930s era Chicago.

LA DOLCE VITA, directed by Federico Fellini (1961)

One of the most successful foreign language films ever released in the U.S., Fellini’s masterpiece
Was nominated for four Oscars for its direction, screenplay, production design, and costume design, winning only for the latter. Incredibly, it was not submitted by Italy for consideration for Best Foreign Language Film, nor was it nominated for Best Picture despite its great success. The iconic scene of Marcello Mastroianni and Anita Ekberg in the Trevi Fountain remains a cinema highlight as do many other scenes in the film that gave us a new word: paparazzi. Anouk Aimee, Yvonne Furneaux, Magali Noel, and Alain Cuny co-star.

HUD, directed by Martin Ritt (1963)

Based on a novel by Larry McMurtry (The Last Picture Show, Brokeback Mountain), this modern western featured Paul Newman in one of his most iconic roles as the unscrupulous, arrogant, and egotistical alcoholic son of salt-of-the-earth rancher Melvyn Douglas. Nominated for seven Oscars including those for direction, actor, screenplay, and production design, it won three for James Wong Howe’s cinematography, supporting actor and lead actress. Patricia Neal’s win for playing the housekeeper is still the shortest ever performance to win a lead Oscar, clocking in at 21 minutes and 51 seconds.

IN COLD BLOOD, directed by Richard Brooks (1967)

Based on Truman Capote’s landmark best-selling book about the real-life murders of a family of four in Kansas in 1959, the film was nominated for four Oscars including direction, screenplay, cinematography, and score, but failed to win any. Why it wasn’t nominated for Best Picture remains a mystery all these years later. Scott Wilson and Robert Blake play the killers Dick Hickock and Perry Smith. By coincidence, Smith’s all-time favorite film was 1948s The Treasure of the Sierra Madre in which former child actor Blake played the paperboy who sells Humphrey Bogart the winning lottery ticket.