The Oscars are officially known as Academy Awards. The celebrations are held annually to honor the film industry’s most outstanding achievements in the previous year. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts chooses the nominees and winners from multiple categories. This of course created a phenomenon of people betting on every year’s favorites to win. According to the blog post by the JackpotCity online casino in New Zealand, the bettors usually have up to a month to go through the nominees’ list and select where to put their money. However, there have been several surprises over the years. There are those Academy Awards Nominees that many considered a “sure bet” to win, but they didn’t! Read on to find out who they are.
Will Smith
Can you believe Will Smith has won very few serious awards! If you are objective, you will agree that Will Smith’s acting has been great no matter the genre he is playing in. his first nomination came in 2002 when he was nominated in the Best Actor category for the docudrama Ali. Despite many fans thinking he was going to bag this, he lost to Denzel Washington.
Half a decade later, he was nominated once more for his leading role in The Pursuit of Happiness. He acted together with his son Jaden in the film. However, he did not win again! Frustrating, right? These decisions have dented the relationship between Will Smith and the Academy. In 2016, his wife Jada Pinkett accused the Academy Awards of racism. She even recommended that people of color should give the awards the cold shoulder.
Sharon Stone
Sharon Stone is a household name when it comes to the film industry. She has starred in over 40 feature movies. Her role in Basic Instinct is was her breakthrough into stardom. She was an Academy Award nominee for her role in Casino but did not win. Susan Sarandon won the award that year.
She began her acting career rather late, at the age of 34. In her previous life, she used to work as a model and took acting roles in B films. After failing to get recognition in the US, she moved to Europe. She is acknowledged as the person who made the Cannes Film Festival one of the world’s most famous movie festivals.
Johnny Depp
In his acting career, Johnny Depp has been nominated for the Academy Awards three times. In 2004, he was Best Actor nominee for his role in the Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. Surprisingly, he lost to Sean Penn in the movie Mystic River.
He was also nominated the following year for his role in Finding Neverland, but he lost again. He was also nominated in 2008 for his leading role in the musical drama Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. However, he lost to Daniel Day-Lewis.
When asked about it in interviews, Johnny Depp says that he does not act for the awards. He claims that he does what he does for his fans.
Amy Adams
Amy Adams has featured in five Academy Award nominations. Her nominations came from her roles in films such as Doubt, The Master, and American Hustle. In 2016, she was outstanding in her role as Louise Banks in the Sci-fi flick Arrival. Her fans became furious when she wasn’t even nominated for an Oscar for her role in this film.
Despite her fans feeling she deserves several awards for her different roles in her acting career, she hasn’t bagged one yet.
Leonardo DiCaprio
Even though he eventually won the Academy Award, Leonardo DiCaprio has endured numerous near misses in his acting life. His first Oscar nomination came in 1993 for his role in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape.
One of his biggest misses came in 1998 when the epic movie Titanic got nominations for 14 awards. The film scooped 11 awards out of the 14. Surprisingly, Leo did not receive an award after his heroic performance as Jack Dawson went unrewarded. Lucky for him, he finally got the breakthrough in 2016 when he won the Best Actor Award for his role in The Revenant.
