Biggest Academy Award Best Picture Injustices

This is a list of the 10 biggest mistakes in the history of the Academy Award for Best Picture. The film will only be judged against those that were nominated (for instance, I'm not going to argue that Vertigo should have on Best Picture even though you damn well know it should have).

1. 1941 - How Green Was My Valley over Citizen Kane
Citizen Kane is probably the greatest movie ever made. I love John Ford but what the hell was this?

2. 1952 - The Greatest Show on Earth over High Noon
Everyone who knows anything about the history of the Oscars says this was more or less a lifetime achievement award for Cecil B. DeMille, but did it have to come at the cost of one of the greatest westerns and movies ever made?

3. 1980 - Ordinary People over Raging Bull
Raging Bull is frequently cited as the greatest movie of the decade and perhaps Scorsese's and De Niro's greatest film. Ordinary People, though no doubt a good film, has not aged nearly as well as this.

4. 1964 - My Fair Lady over Dr. Strangelove
Dr. Strangelove is cited by many as the greatest comedy ever made. Enough said.

5. 1998 - Shakespeare in Love over Saving Private Ryan
This one just shocks me. Emphasizing the randomness of this pick, Spielberg won the Oscar for Best Director for "Ryan," an award that 9 times out of 10 goes to the Best Picture winner.

6. 1982 - Gandhi over E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
I argue that if this were to come out now, when Spielberg was thought of more as the master that he is rather than mostly just an action director, this would have been a runaway.

7. 1990 - Dances with Wolves over Goodfellas
I like Dances with Wolves a lot, I really do think it's a great movie. But Goodfellas is Goodfellas, probably the greatest movie of the '90s after Schindler's List.

8. 1979 - Kramer vs. Kramer over Apocalypse Now
Apocalypse Now is a film that's importance has grown with time. We can now see it as Coppola's and Brando's final masterpiece and one of the greatest war films ever made. Kramer vs. Kramer is a movie from that time period that is still talked about but just not nearly as great.

9. 1944 - Going My Way over Double Indemnity
Whether or not Going My Way is a good movie, Double Indemnity is by many standers the quintessential film noir and easily one of the greatest films ever made.

10. 2001 - A Beautiful Mind over The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
The unfortunate thing about The Lord of the Rings as that it was difficult to look at as one film. Once the trilogy was done, notice how Return of the King won 11 Oscars, even though Fellowship is probably the best of the series. Maybe Fellowship didn't deserve 11, but it was snubbed here.