The 7 best sci-fi films that never won the Oscar

Keir Dullea in a scene from 2001: A Space Odyssey, which appeared in 1968. Stanley Kubrick was nominated for best director but incredibly, his movie got snubbed in the nomination for best picture of the year.

1971 poster for "A Clockwork Orange," Stanley Kubrick's brilliant portrayal of a future society in which the government attempts to solve society's crime problem through a controversial, experimental therapy.

Truth be told, when "Star Wars" came out in 1977, I thought it was the coolest thing to ever hit the big screen. OK, my youthful enthusiasm got the better of me. Still, it was a super-fun yarn and a universe better than any other sci-fi plot to get turned into a movie. For what it's worth, the original "Star Wars" was voted the 16th best film ever by readers of IMDB

Way ahead of its time Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner" (1982) was brilliant and stark in its portrayal of a heartless 21st century Los Angeles where a policeman has to track down and kill genetically made criminal replicants.

Official homepage for the 20th anniversary edition/Universal Studios

When "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial" came out in 1982, Steven Spielberg pulled off a feat no previous director ever accomplished: He figured out how to turn one of the weirdest-looking aliens in movie history into a huggable cutie.

James Cameron's 2009 futuristic epic about Pandora, a faraway world where the humans are greedy, the locals are buff and the scenery puts even Yosemite to shame.

At least Hollywood kept it interesting in 2009 with two best picture nominees from the sci-fi world. In "District 9," aliens who had been rescued years earlier, have to get relocated to a government camp inside Johannesburg (known as District 9, naturally.) That's when things get interesting.