Movie piracy skyrocketing which can mean only one thing – award season is upon us. Between the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards, honours are divvied out amongst the best movies and industry individuals from the past year. While there are plenty of winners and losers, there have been some real surprise nominations over the past few years that you would not have expected to find. Here are our top five unlikely movies that received award nominations.
Junior
1 Academy Award nomination & 3 Golden Globe nominations
It simply wouldn’t be right to have a list of acting surprises without Arnie in it. We need you to just go ahead and say the following sentence out loud. Junior, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito was nominated for an Oscar. If you need to go grab a cup of tea or something, we’ll wait right here for you.
Okay, this is a nugget of trivia and a gem to stump your friends but we’ll level with you. Junior was nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Song in 1995, with “Look What Love Has Done”
The on-screen talent wasn’t completely missed however, with Arnie and Emma Thompson being nominated for Best Performance by an Actor and Actress respectively at the 1995 Golden Globes. I don’t think anyone can truly deny Arnie deserved to go all the way, but it just wasn’t to be.
Bad Grandpa
2 Academy Award nominations
Fair enough, we’re probably being a bit sneaky and liberal here in the definition of “nomination”, but fair is fair. Inspired by his time with the Jackass crew, Johnny Knoxville took to the streets as an old man thanks to some extremely convincing make-up work. The make-up work was so impressive in fact, the team that did all the work earned themselves an Oscar nomination. Initiate shocked face.
Under Siege
1 Academy Award nomination
Another “say it out loud moment”. Surely, you are thinking what we’re thinking at this stage. This could earn you a few bob down the pub as a chorus of “ara g’way you’re talking shite” follows you saying one of the Steve Seagal epics was nominated for an Oscar, not once, but twice.
Yup, while the arm breaking to nomination ratio is still in comfortably in favour of the emergency room, Under Siege earned two 1993 Oscar nominations for Best Sound and Best Sound Effects Editing. No wins though. I wouldn’t like to be the one who breaks it to Seagal.
Batman Forever
3 Academy Award nominations & 1 Golden Globe nomination
You surely see where this one is going right? Perhaps one of the greatest songs to grace a movie soundtrack of all time…
Kiss From a Rose by Seal, what a gem of a song. If you thought that this was the driving force behind the movies big four award nominations, you’d be wrong. While this may be the greatest miscarriage of justice in the history of mankind, Kiss From a Rose was overlooked, with Batman for Ever instead joining the unlikely movies that received award nominations list for Best Cinematography, Best Sound and Best Sound Effects from the Academy.
The Golden Globes didn’t overlook the soundtrack of the movie, but they did favour the Dublin lads, U2, who provided their talents for Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me -receiving a nomination for Best Original Song.
Crocodile Dundee
1 Academy Award nomination, 1 Golden Globe win & 1 Golden Globe nomination
We shit you not. Paul Hogan, the inspiration behind both the definition of knives and the classic parlour game – knifey spoony; ‘strewth.
What makes Crocodile Dundee’s Oscar nomination most impressive is that it’s actually one of the more serious ones; Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen. Better still, the legend that is Paul Hogan earned himself a Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Comedy of Musical, fending off Matthew Broderick’s Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
What was less impressive was the attempt at an Aussie accent by the lady presenting the award. A well deserved Aussie boot up the arse is needed for this.
That completes our selection of unlikely movies that received award nominations. Let us know if you think there were even bigger surprises.
