The Brady Bunch Movie, Just Cause, Billy Madison, Mr. Payback AND Oscar Nomination Surprises, 1995
S&E special report – Oscar nomination surprises – Gene and Roger couldn’t understand why Hoop Dreams wasn’t included in the Academy Awards list (among other things).
Their rant over Hoop Dreams not getting any major Oscar nominations (mainly the Best Documentary award) despite getting a Best Film Editing nomination (which ultimately went to Forrest Gump that year) was interesting mainly because they love that film to pieces and they were upset that the Academy Award voters didn’t take the time to look at the film because it was 3 hours long and they also had a bad history of not nominating documentaries that Gene and Roger championed like The Thin Blue Line or Crumb for the Best Documentary Award.
Thankly, the voters did listen when Fargo was released in 1996 to critical acclaim and earned seven Oscar nominations including Best Picture and Best Director and won two for Best Actress (Frances McDormand) and Best Original Screenplay (Joel and Ethan Coen).
Hoop Dreams’ snubbing in the Best Documentary category is the most disgraceful and most scandalous act in Academy history! They had a problem with the 3-hour running time? You can’t be serious! Gene and Roger were completely justified in getting pissed off! Sadly, they learned NOTHING in 1995 as Crumb was also disgracefully snubbed!
And they’ve still done it with Life Itself and Won’t You Be My Neighbor? I remember when HD didn’t get nominated that morning I knew Gene and Roger were going to say something about it on their show that weekend.
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