The movies Oscar snubbed

With only a handful of films nominated in the Academy Awards' Best Picture category each year, omissions are bound to occur that leave film buffs and historians scratching their heads. Two of 2008's most popular and critically acclaimed films were out of the running, perhaps because of a bias by Academy voters against comic book superheroes ("The Dark Knight") or animation ("Wall-E").

By CBSNews.com producer David Morgan

The Little Tramp

Four years after Hollywood studios began the bumpy transition to sound, "City Lights" (1931) showed Charlie Chaplin resistant to forgoing many of the hallmarks of silent film storytelling. But the film's moving conclusion, when Virginia Cherrill as the formerly blind flower girl "sees" her benefactor for the first time, is more memorable than most "talkies" could ever hope to be.

Hollywood in the mirror

Memorable musicals that were ignored for Best Picture include a valentine to the dream factory ("Singin' in the Rain") as well as a poison-pen letter ("A Star Is Born").

It's a crime

Sometimes gangsters can make an offer that the Academy does refuse; crime dramas that failed to make the Oscars' top tier include Howard Hawks' "Scarface" and "The Big Sleep," the Coen Brothers' "Miller's Crossing," and Michael Mann's "Heat."

A Hitch in the voting

Alfred Hitchcock came to America to direct "Rebecca" for producer David O. Selznick, and his first Hollywood film won the 1940 Best Picture Award. But after 1945's "Spellbound," no other film directed by Hitch was ever nominated - not even during his fertile period of the mid-1950s to early '60s, when "Rear Window," "Vertigo," "North By Northwest" and "Psycho" rewrote the rules of suspense.

The mavericks

Hollywood's love-hate relationship with auteurs (they love to hate 'em) means they're often ignored until their Lifetime Achievement Awards are rolled out. Yet the films of Orson Welles ("The Magnificent Ambersons"), David Lynch ("Blue Velvet"), Jim Jarmusch ("Stranger Than Paradise") and Terrence Malick ("Days Of Heaven") demonstrate a keen eye for detail and drama beyond the scope of many Best Picture nominees or winners.

The West

Before "Dances With Wolves" and "Unforgiven," only one Western had won Best Picture (the 1931 "Cimarron"). Some of the classics of the genre that weren't even nominated include John Ford's masterful "The Searchers," and Sergio Leone's "Once Upon a Time in the West."

The greatest adventure

An all-star cast, a crackling true-life adventure, World War II, Nazis, and a motorcycle jump across barbed wire are some of the elements that made "The Great Escape" timeless. Should it have made it into the pool of 1964 Best Picture nominees, which were "My Fair Lady," "Becket," "Dr. Strangelove," "Mary Poppins" and "Zorba the Greek"? Yep.

Ahead of their time

Expanding the roster of Best Picture nominees from five films to ten has opened the gate a little wider for the science fiction genre: 2009's "Avatar" and "District 9" both made it through, as did 2010's "Inception." Prior to that, sci-fi films were alien non grata at the Oscars. With the exception of "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial" and "Star Wars," science fiction films were never nominated for Best Picture, leaving out such landmarks as "2001: A Space Odyssey," "Blade Runner" and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind."

Thanks, but no thanks

"Annie Hall" took the gold for Best Picture in 1977 (a rare win for a comedy), but Woody Allen couldn't be bothered to attend the ceremony in L.A., preferring to keep his clarinet date at New York's Michael's Pub. Is that why the Academy snubbed his 1979 film "Manhattan"?

The horror

Stanley Kubrick had a better Academy Award track record than many filmmakers: Three of his films were up for Best Picture. But even the Master couldn't overcome prejudice against the supernatural in "The Shining," or his Vietnam War drama "Full Metal Jacket," which lacked the clear moral compass of previous Best Picture winners "Platoon" and "The Deer Hunter."

A nightmare

Terry Gilliam's Orwellian nightmare "Brazil" did not have a typical Hollywood happy ending, prompting Universal to withhold the film and try to edit it against the director's wishes. When the Los Angeles film critics' group awarded "Brazil" Best Picture even though it hadn't been publicly screened, the studio gave in and released it to a cult welcome. But the Oscar gold went to the same studio's "Out of Africa."

Head trips

Films that shun straightforward narratives or that delve into trippy alternate realities, like "Memento" (whose story is told in reverse), "Groundhog Day" (in which Bill Murray relives the same 24 hours over and over again) and "Being John Malkovich" (the ultimate head trip), tend to be a tad too bizarre for Academy tastes.

Out in the cold

The Coen Brothers' "Inside Llewyn Davis" was a critical favorite, and one of the most evocative films ever about the life of a musician -- in this case, a folk singer in the early 1960s who begins to question his career path. Sadly, the film was shut out of the Best Picture, Director and Original Screenplay categories (as was star Oscar Isaac).

By CBSNews.com senior producer David Morgan