The 40 Biggest Awards Show Snubs and Surprises Ever

The internet became divided in early 2024 after Academy Award nominations were announced and Barbie was snubbed twice over: Greta Gerwig for Best Director and Margot Robbie for Best Actress.

Widely heralded as one of the best film directors in history—helming films like Rear Window, Vertigo, and Psycho—Hitchcock was nominated five times for Best Director, yet never took home a trophy.

Glenn Close holds the unfortunate distinction as the most-nominated actor in Oscars history who has never won an award at the ceremony (both she and Peter O'Toole have eight nominations each). The Academy has recognized Close with nods between 1983 and 2021 for performances in The Big Chill, Fatal Attraction, and Dangerous Liaisons—but her biggest snub came in 2019 when she was nominated for The Wife. Despite being a frontrunner, Close lost the award to Olivia Colman, who won for The Favourite.

O'Toole's eight nominations, which were all for Best Actor—and spanned an incredible 44 years—were for his performances in the likes of Lawrence of Arabia, Goodbye, Mr. Chips, The Stunt Man and My Favorite Year. O'Toole died in 2013.

This is one of the most pertinent snubs on the entire list. As her husband, Jay-Z, pointed out at the 2024 ceremony, despite being the artist with the most Grammy wins ever, Beyoncé has never won Album of the Year. In fact, of her 32 wins, only one of those wins has come in any of the "big four" categories: her 2010 Song of the Year win for "Single Ladies." It's particularly egregious when you remember that her surprise drop visual album, BEYONCÉ—which changed the music industry forever—lost in 2014. What does this woman need to do to win Album of the Year?

Of the six principal actors on Friends, Courteney Cox is the only one to be completely shut out at the Emmys during the series' 10-season run. Her five costars all nabbed at least one nomination, with Lisa Kudrow and Jennifer Aniston being the only two to ever take home a trophy. You know the hyper-competitive Monica would feel some sort of way about this—and rightfully so!

Crash winning Best Picture instead of Brokeback Mountain will go down as one of the most shocking upsets in the history of the Academy Awards. The divisive Paul Haggis-directed movie bested Ang Lee's critically beloved romance in 2005, and it's a shocking win that still gets talked about nearly 20 years later. With its win, Crash became just the second Best Picture winner in history to not receive a picture nomination at the Golden Globes.

Michael Scott is one of the most iconic television characters in history, with Steve Carell's career-making performance still having an impact on pop culture today. He was nominated six times during the show's nine-season run, but never won.

While she doesn't hold the title for the most-nominated actor who has never won (a distinction shared by Glenn Close and Peter O'Toole, as mentioned), Amy Adams has been nominated for six acting Oscars and has yet to take home a trophy. Not only that, but many feel as though she deserved a seventh nomination for her performance in 2016's Arrival.

George Costanza is one of the most beloved sitcom characters of all time, but Jason Alexander never walked away with a trophy. In fact, Jerry Seinfeld didn't either! Despite five nominations for his acting, the only Emmy that Jerry ever won for the series was Outstanding Comedy Series in 1993. At least Michael Richards and Julia Louis-Dreyfus nabbed wins for their work on the show.

Spike Lee is an undisputed mogul of the modern film industry, but he has only been nominated for Best Director once. He was completely snubbed for his signature film Do The Right Thing in 1990, the year that Driving Miss Daisy won Best Picture—a decision that hasn't exactly aged well. Lee's lone Oscar win came in the Best Adapted Screenplay category for his film BlacKkKlansman, which also garnered him Best Picture and Best Director nominations, in 2019.

HBO's The Wire is one of the most seminal TV shows of the modern era, and it's often cited as one of the best series in television history. And yet, the Academy barely ever recognized it. The Wire was never nominated for Outstanding Drama Series—or in any acting categories, for that matter—which feels like an absolute crime. Thankfully for the Baltimore-set series, history has been very kind to it.

Perhaps they were ahead of their time, or perhaps the Recording Academy just couldn't bring itself to recognize their talents, but there are plenty of legendary artists who have yet to win a competitive Grammy. Brian McKnight and Snoop Dogg are tied as the artists with the most nominations who have never won (17), while Diana Ross, Nicki Minaj, The Beach Boys, Björk, Jimi Hendrix, and Queen are among the other icons who have never taken home a competitive trophy.

Breaking Bad may have won 16 of the 58 Emmys it was nominated for throughout its run, but its spinoff, Better Call Saul, had a much lower batting average. Of the 53 times that the hit show was nominated for Emmys, it won a grand total of zero. Now that's what we call a snub.

While Roseanne Barr's behavior in recent years has tainted the show's legacy, the original iteration of Roseanne was one of the most defining sitcoms of the '90s. It ran for an impressive 10 seasons and didn't receive any nominations for Outstanding Comedy Series.

John Hughes, one of the most seminal directors of the '80s—who gave us classics like The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, and Ferris Bueller's Day Off—never received an Oscar nomination. His films might not seem like traditional Academy Awards fare, but it's hard not to view his lack of any recognition as a big snub from the Academy.

Samuel L. Jackson is one of the biggest icons currently working in Hollywood, and yet, he has only ever received one Academy Award nomination during his career. His sole nod came in 1995 for his performance in Pulp Fiction, but he shockingly lost the award to Martin Landau for his turn in Ed Wood.

Legendary actress Angela Lansbury holds the unfortunate title of the most-snubbed Emmy-nominated actor of all time, having been nominated an incredible 12 times for her work on Murder, She Wrote—but she never won in her category. She also notched six other nominations throughout her decade-spanning career and didn't win any of those times either.

Macklemore had a genuine zeitgeist-dominating moment in the early-to-mid-2010s, which culminated at the 2014 Grammy Awards, when the duo won Best Rap Album, Best Rap Performance, and Best New Artist over critical darling Kendrick Lamar—but also over legendary names like Jay-Z, Kanye West, and Drake. The outrage over Macklemore's wins reached such a fever pitch that he felt the need to send Kendrick an apology text for "robbing" him of the awards, which he then posted on Instagram to even more backlash.

Gilmore Girls has proven to be one of the most defining shows of the early aughts, but Lauren Graham—who co-starred on the show with Alexis Bledel—was never nominated for her beloved work on the series, which ran for seven seasons. Justice for Lorelai!