10 Favorite Golden Globe Winners That Didn't Win Best Picture at Oscars

by Tyler Glover and Julian Spivey

Sunset Boulevard

Photo: Paramount Pictures

Director Billy Wilder’s “Sunset Boulevard” is just one of those classic movies about the movies themselves and I’m thrilled it won Best Film at the Golden Globe Awards in 1950 back before the Golden Globes separated the film categories into Drama and Comedy or Musical. Featuring terrific performance from Gloria Swanson and William Holden it’s one of the all-time great film noirs. At the Oscars that year it was beaten by Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s “All About Eve,” which was nominated for a record 14 awards. - JS  

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La La Land

Photo: Summit Entertainment

And the Oscar goes to "La La Land!" Or wait, it didn't. One of my top five films that won the Best Picture Globe that did not pull off a Best Picture win at the Oscars is at the heart of one of the biggest blunders in Oscar history. When Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty went to present the Best Picture Oscar, they were given the wrong envelope and mistakenly proclaimed "La La Land" as the winner but it turned out the winner was actually "Moonlight." After winning a record seven Golden Globes including Best Picture, "La La Land" felt like a sure thing to take home the Best Picture Academy Award. This musical directed by Damian Chazelle follows Mia and Sebastian as they fall in love while chasing after their dreams in Los Angeles. The movie is a whimsical and romantic film for all of the dreamers out there encouraging us to hang on to our dreams while also showing us there are going to be roadblocks but if we just press on, our dreams can come true. Most of the time, movie musicals are adaptations from Broadway plays but this was an original script meant just for the screen. It made this all the more exciting and all the more worthy of a Picture win at the Oscars. However, it will take a long time for someone to ever break that Globes' record if it ever is broken. - TG

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On Golden Pond

Photo: Universal Pictures

Director Mark Rydell’s 1981 family drama “On Golden Pond” was a masterclass in acting from two of the all-time greats at the end of their careers. Henry Fonda would win his only Best Actor Oscar for his performance as Norman Thayer, in his final film role. Katharine Hepburn portrayed his wife Ethel and Fonda’s real-life daughter Jane Fonda rounded out the terrific cast. “On Golden Pond” would win Best Drama at the Globes in 1981. Hugh Hudson’s “Chariots of Fire” would defeat “On Golden Pond” for Best Picture at the Oscars. - JS

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Brokeback Mountain

Photo: Focus Features

Leading up to the Oscars, "Brokeback Mountain" had won tons of critic's prizes for best film and had won the Globe, PGA and DGA. It felt like a shoo-in to win. Even presenter Jack Nicholson appeared completely shocked when revealing the winner to be "Crash." "Brokeback Mountain" was a landmark film for the LGBTQ community. It tells the tragic love story of two gay cowboys in 1960s America as they battle their feelings and trying to do what is socially acceptable at the time. It is a heartbreaking film that reminds us all that love is a powerful and beautiful thing. The Academy was called homophobic and there was a public backlash at the film's loss and it was deserved. "Brokeback Mountain" should be a Best Picture winner at the Oscars and that is a fact. - TG

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Almost Famous

Photo: Dreamworks Pictures

Director/writer Cameron Crowe’s “Almost Famous” is one of the all-time great films to never be nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards, but it did win Best Comedy or Musical at the Golden Globes in 2000. “Almost Famous” is loosely based on Crowe’s time writing for Rolling Stone magazine at a teen in the ‘70s and features Patrick Fugit as Crowe’s stand-in covering the fictional band Stillwater. The film also features terrific performances by Billy Crudup and Kate Hudson, who would win Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture at the Globes for the performance. - JS

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Beauty and the Beast

Photo: Walt Disney Pictures

"Beauty and the Beast," one of the movies released during Disney's Renaissance, became the first animated film to win Best Picture at the Golden Globes and also became the first animated film nominated for the Best Picture Oscar. On Oscar night, the Best Picture was named as horror classic, "The Silence of the Lambs." While the merits of that film cannot be questioned, it would have been "beautiful" if this film would have taken home the Oscar. "Beauty and the Beast" follows Belle as she becomes a prisoner of the Beast in exchange for the release of her father, Maurice. While living in the castle, Belle starts to fall in love with the Beast. The Beast is actually a cursed prince who has to have the love of someone before the last rose petal falls on his 21st birthday or he will remain a beast forever. The film managed to win two Oscars for Best Original Song and Best Original Score but it would have been great for it to pull off a Best Picture win as well. Since the Best Picture nomination for “Beauty and the Beast,” two other films ("Toy Story 3" and "Up") have also reaped bids. This year, "Soul" is hoping to join that club. - TG

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Lost in Translation

Photo: Focus Features

Films like “Lost in Translation” are why I’m occasionally happy the Golden Globe Awards choose to separate its best film categories into Drama and Comedy or Musical because terrific films like director/writer Sofia Coppola’s film about two lonely Americans who become fast friends in Tokyo almost never win Best Picture at the Oscars, though it was nominated. “Lost in Translation” features terrific performances from Bill Murray, who won Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical at the Globes, and Scarlett Johansson, in one of her earliest roles. The film was beat by the juggernaut that was “Lord of the Rings: Return of the King” for Best Picture at the Oscars. - JS

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Moulin Rouge

Photo: 20th Century Fox

​"Moulin Rouge!" is the film that got me interested in award shows in the first place. After watching "Moulin Rouge" and hearing of its Golden Globe nominations, I became interested in seeing if it would be able to translate any of those nominations into wins. On the evening of the Globes, "Moulin Rouge!" would go on to win Best Picture-Musical/Comedy and Best Actress for Nicole Kidman! I had become obsessed with this movie to the point of watching it multiple times and listening to the CD in my car everywhere I was going. I was wanting it to win the Best Picture Oscar! However, on Oscars night, "Moulin Rouge" would have to settle for two Oscars for Art Direction and Costume Design. "Moulin Rouge" tells the story of Christian, a penniless writer in early 1900s France who falls in love with a courtesan named Satine while trying to put on a play funded by a Duke that also is in pursuit of Satine's affection. "Moulin Rouge" is also the film that got me interested in movie musicals in general and also had me looking into the musicals of the past as well. I really wish "Moulin Rouge" also had a Best Picture Oscar to go with its Best Picture Golden Globe. - TG

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The Descendants

Photo: Fox Searchlight Pictures

At the time I was probably disappointed that Alexander Payne’s “The Descendants” won the Golden Globe for Best Drama over Martin Scorsese’s “Hugo,” and I’d probably say “Hugo” is still my preferred film of the two (I haven’t seen either film again), but that was such a great year for film pretty much all of the nominees would’ve made for great winners (I still haven’t seen Steven Spielberg’s “War Horse” though). In his Golden Globe-winning performance George Clooney plays Matt King, an attorney in Hawaii whose family has entrusted him with 25,000 acres of land and the decision on whether he should sell it for a fortune or keep it, all while trying to raise two troubled daughters by himself after his wife suffers an accident that has her in a reversible coma. It’s a tour de force performance by Clooney and a well-crafted film by Payne. - JS

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Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Photo: Fox Searchlight Pictures

The 2017 Oscar race was an interesting one. "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" won the Globe for Best Picture, SAG and the BAFTA but had to settle for the nomination being the reward on Oscar night. "The Shape Of Water" ended up winning Best Picture that year and it has really stumped me as to why. "The Shape of Water" was an interesting film but "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" was a brilliant piece of art examining the lengths we go through to right a wrong. In this film, two-time Oscar winner Frances McDormand plays Mildred Hayes, a mother hellbent on justice for her daughter who was raped and murdered. She rents three billboards that question the police as to why nothing has been done and no arrests have been made. As a father myself, it is heartbreaking to watch Mildred on this journey but in a way admiring her for her tenacity in her journey for justice. I can't say that in her shoes, I would not do the exact same thing. 'Three Billboards' would win Actress and Supporting Actor on Oscar night but it should have won the Best Picture Oscar as well. - TG