r/Oscars • u/Fun-Illustrator-345 • 2d ago
What if Shawshank Redemption beat Forrest Gump for Best Picture?
There's no denying Forrest Gump is a masterpiece and maybe even Tom Hanks' best film, but considering it was running against Shawshank Redemption, which is also one of the greatest films ever made, I'm wondering what if Shawshank won the Best Picture award over Forrest Gump, since it won the most awards that year while Shawshank unfortunately won nothing
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u/Lucky_Luciano642 2d ago
Look, I love Forrest Gump. The winner should have been Shawshank.
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u/Price1970 2d ago edited 2d ago
There's no fun in this "What If" because it wasn't even close to happening.
First off, Forest Gump also won the Golden Globe for Drama, and Shawshank wasn't even nominated.
The other frontrunner by a mile was Pulp Fiction, which had won the most film critics awards, Los Angeles Film Critics (In a tie with Forest Gump) National Board of Review, National Society of Film Critics, Boston Film Critics, Kansas City Film Critics, Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics, Texas Film Critics, Southeastern Film Critics.
Even when neither Forest Gump nor Pulp Fiction didn't win New York Film Critics, they didn't even go with Shawshank, but rather, Quiz Show, with Pulp Fiction as the runner-up.
Even BAFTA, who went with Four Weddings and a Funeral, didn't even nominate Shawshank.
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u/Dangerous_Doubt_6190 2d ago
There would be a lot more posts calling Shawshank overrated, Pulp Fiction would be the most popular alternate choice for BP winner on most film subreddits, and the Oscars subreddit would be the last stronghold for the FG fans.
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u/RoxasIsTheBest 2d ago
Pulp Fiction is already somehow the more popular choice
Personally, I don't see how Shawshanks reputation would be that much worse if it won the oscar. I think it would be considered a great win that aged very well, while Forrest Gump won't get shit on as much
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u/jshifrin 2d ago
Then there would have been Justice. Even if Pulp Fiction beat Forrest Gump there would have been Justice.
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u/coffeysr 2d ago
Probably viewed worse historically, I think.
Obviously you have the basic bitches who would complain that it beat their precious Pulp Fiction.
Plus you lose the sense many cinephiles have of discovery re: Shawshank over the mid-00s that birthed its great reputation. It won zero Oscars, and was largely forgotten about until TNT and TBS started airing in nonstop on the weekends during the early 00s.
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u/theguineapigssong 2d ago
I've said it before and I will say it again: Shakespeare in Love beating Saving Private Ryan for Best Picture is the moral arc of the universe punishing Tom Hanks for Forrest Gump beating Pulp Fiction for Best Picture.
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u/IHope_ButNotYet 2d ago
While I do think "Shawshank" probably should have won, I can't be mad, because my favorite movie of all time won Best Picture that year!
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u/sungo8 2d ago
Shawshank is a great movie, yes, but its reputation and place in the cultural zeitgeist was formed so much from being shown on TNT, etc. a million times because it flopped. If it wins best picture then it doesn’t get seen as much; I think we end up talking about it less if it wins.
FWIW, while I love Shawshank, I would give the Oscar to Pulp Fiction and possibly even rate the criminally underrated Quiz Show in 2nd place.
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u/bottenskrapet 2d ago
Pulp Fiction should have won. I’m in a minority on Shawshank, since I do not quite see its greatness.
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u/Raichu10126 2d ago
Most agree it should have. 1994 had some incredible films, some were not even nominated
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u/nobodiespointofview 22h ago
Forrest Gump is hard for me to really like on paper because it beat Shawshank for best picture. If you happen to catch Shawshank on tv at any point in the movie, you’ll find yourself saying “oh, this is such a good scene” over and over until you accidentally finish the movie.
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u/Price1970 2d ago edited 1d ago
There's no fun in this "What If" because it wasn't even close to happening.
First off, Forest Gump also won the Golden Globe for Drama, and Shawshank wasn't even nominated.
The other frontrunner by a mile was Pulp Fiction, which had won the most film critics awards, Los Angeles Film Critics (In a tie with Forest Gump) National Board of Review, National Society of Film Critics, Boston Film Critics, Kansas City Film Critics, Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics, Texas Film Critics, Southeastern Film Critics.
Even when neither Forest Gump nor Pulp Fiction won New York Film Critics, they didn't even go with Shawshank, but rather, Quiz Show, with Pulp Fiction as the runner-up.
Even BAFTA, who went with Four Weddings and a Funeral, didn't even nominate Shawshank.
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u/Grammarhead-Shark 1d ago edited 1d ago
This.
Folk tend to forget, Shawshank was the surprise 5th nomination coming out of nowhere.
Its beloved status was the result of its surprise nomination and able to use that to promote itself when it went to VHS (and THAT is when it became popular!), not because it had any traction going into the award season.
The competition that year was Forrest Gump vs Pulp Fiction. And if there was a 3rd place that year, both Quiz Show and Four Weddings and a Funeral both have a lot stronger case in my opinion (Quiz Show was a Critical Darling and Four Weddings was a giant box office smash).
Maybe say the equivalent of "I'm Still Here" this year. Even then I'd say "I'm Still Here" was a little less of a surprise.
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u/Price1970 1d ago
Shawshank also only blew up because Ted Turner got the rights to it and played it all the time on TBS and TNT.
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u/Full_Argument_3097 2d ago
It was all about the Benjamins, per usual. Shawshank didn't get promoted at all, and only took on popularity through good old word of mouth upon dvd release later on.
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u/Price1970 2d ago
Ted Turner
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u/Full_Argument_3097 2d ago
Funny Guy. What about him?
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u/Price1970 2d ago
He's the reason Shawshank blew up. Same as with A Christmas Story. Those films came as part of packaged deals as flops, but he liked them and played them to death on TBS and TNT.
Both are no doubt great films. I actually saw A Christmas Story at the theater in Nov 83.
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u/MathTutorAndCook 2d ago
I feel Gump has more staying power. Its more entertaining. And that matters, not the most, but in some sense
There's more reasons id choose Gump, but that's a small thing I noticed
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u/Full_Argument_3097 2d ago
Gump has been shown, most would argue, to have far LESS staying power than both of the other two.
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u/Same-Excuse8787 2d ago
If voting totals were made public I’d be surprised if Shawshank was the runner up. I’d guess it was Pulp Fiction.
I think most people would look positively on either Pulp Fiction or Shawshank as Best Picture.