Snubbed for Best Picture: Dreamgirls

A Best Picture nomination would have been a fitting recognition for Dreamgirls, a movie that asks you to believe in happy endings. In the movie's alternate reality, the Diana Ross figure is known for her sweet guilelessness, the Flo Ballard character doesn't die in poverty but reunites with the group, and the James Brown/Marvin Gaye figure...well, somebody has to suffer. But the film's buoyant quality, along with the promise of a black musical that would wow even white male Broadwayphobes, proved irresistible to the dream ensemble (Beyoncé, for instance, signed on for a quarter of her normal fee). Can a piece of celluloid croon to its audience: And you, and you, and you, you're gonna love me. Ooh, you're gonna love me!...? This one certainly has. —Chris Willman