The Shawshank Redemption has topped a poll from the British cable provider, Sky, which looked to find the greatest film to lose out on the Best Picture Oscar.
The prison drama , directed by Frank Darabont and starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman, lost the award to Tom Hanks’ Forrest Gump in 1995. The Green Mile, another Darabont film, was voted into second place after American Beauty trumped it in 2000.
Ian Lewis, the director of Sky Movies, stated, “Arguably the most prestigious accolade in the film industry, competition is fierce when it comes to the Academy Award for best picture – and as we’ve found even some of the nation’s best-loved movies of all time were pipped to the post in this category.
Other movies on the list include 1962’s To Kill A Mockingbird, which lost out to David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia at the Oscars, as well as Avatar, Saving Private Ryan, ET, Star Wars, Mary Poppins, Doctor Zhivago , and Pulp Fiction. They were deemed inferior to The Hurt Locker, Shakespeare In Love, Gandhi, Annie Hall, My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music and Forrest Gump , respectively.
This year’s Oscars will take place on Sunday, February 24 in Los Angeles at the Dolby Theatre. Ben Affleck’s Argo is seen as the favorite for the Best Picture award, where it will compete against the likes of Amour, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Django Unchained, Les Miserables, Life of Pi, Lincoln, Silver Linings Playbook, and Zero Dark Thirty.
Which movie do you think will claim this year’s Best Picture accolade?