1958 Best Actress -- Wes Marshall
Won: Susan Hayward for I Want to Live (MGM Home Entertainment)
Should Have Won: Rosalind Russell for Auntie Mame (Warner Home Video)

I Want To Live has its own charms, chief amongst them John(ny) Mandel’s un-nominated jazz score. But Susan Hayward’s overwrought attempt to look like a swinger and martyr was strictly old school even in 1958. Rosalind Russell, the poster girl for fast-talking dames, turns in a magnificent performance full of love, wild abandon, and arch humor. Her philosophy: "Life's a banquet, and most suckers are starving to death." In a career spanning 53 films, including classics like His Girl Friday and Gypsy, this was her most fully formed performance. She was robbed.

1981 Best Picture and Best Original Score -- Rad Bennett
Won: Chariots of Fire (Warner Home Video)
Should Have Won: Raiders of the Lost Ark (Paramount)

Though Chariots of Fire is an excellent film, Raiders of the Lost Ark is a magnificent one. It also featured one the best scores John Williams has ever written, including a march with a main theme as memorable as any by Sousa. I think the Vangelis score for Chariots won because the main theme, which is all the "score" is, was hyped over and over again on radio and TV. Academy voters were bludgeoned into accepting it as the best of the year, but I think time has proven that vote misguided.

1991 Best Picture, Best Writing, and Best Directing -- Anthony Di Marco
Won: The Silence of the Lambs (MGM/UA Video)
Should Have Won: Barton Fink (20th Century Fox Home Video)

There is no denying The Silence of the Lambs is a fantastic film. Between Howard Shore’s pervasive score and the creepy performance by Anthony Hopkins I still get chills watching it. Under the skin, however, it is a cop movie with a predictable ending. Barton Fink is a rarity: an original story directed by two of the most innovative filmmakers of my generation. Joel and Ethan Coen did not adapt their screenplay from a book; they created a world of tangible characters that jump off the screen. The acting is superb. John Goodman and John Turturro turn in performances that are arguably the best of their careers. Couple this with one of the most memorable and creepy endings in recent memory, and you have a classic that wasn’t even nominated!

2003 Best Supporting Actor -- Josh Barber
Won: Chris Cooper, Adaptation (Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment)
Should Have Won: Paul Newman, Road to Perdition (Universal)

The Oscars seem perpetually to be more about "actor X should have won a few years ago for film Y, so we'll give him one now" than a real judge of current merit. See Julia Roberts for one example. Chris Cooper was beautifully overbearing in American Beauty, but Adaptation was a real clunker through and through. However, as aging gangster John Rooney, Paul Newman gave a performance worthy of a leading man without ever overstepping the film's main stars -- he did it as a support to the others, but got overlooked. Maybe it's just Sam Mendes who pulls great performances from his actors -- he directed both Road to Perdition and American Beauty.