‘Babe’ Should’ve Won Best Picture in 1995 (and We’d Be Better Off If It Did)

The Oscar race of 1995 was a unique and wide-open one. Apple-pie blockbusters like Apollo 13 and star-studded provocations like Oliver Stone’s Nixon were up in the mix with some dark character studies (Leaving Las Vegas; Dead Man Walking) and costume dramas (Sense and Sensibility). But the Oscar year would end up being characterized by three mostly unlikely films: the action-heavy, incredibly violent Scottish crowd-pleaser Braveheart; the schmaltzy Italian romance Il Postino (“The Postman”); and an unexpected Australian hit about a pure-hearted pig who learned how to herd sheep, Babe. All three films would end up nominated for Best Picture, and that Braveheart prevailed means that history got to be written by the hyper-violent, macho victor. Mel Gibson was crowned king of Hollywood that year, and it would be another decade before his own bad behavior would dismantle his star power. (That he’s been able to re-assemble his star power with Oscar nominations for Hacksaw Ridge is another matter altogether.)

It’s not like things would’ve been much better with an Il Postino win, since that nomination was the work of some heavy campaigning by Miramax head Harvey Weinstein. Il Postino was a rather modest Italian movie, and Miramax had the Sean Penn-directed The Crossing Guard and the costume drama Restoration to push that year; but when those films faltered, Weinstein grabbed onto Il Postino‘s most marketable element: its deceased leading man. And with the full weight of the Miramax machine behind it, Il Postino managed nominations for Picture, Director, and the late Massimo Troisi.

There is an alternative universe out there where Braveheart didn’t win Best Picture — neither did Il Postino, for that matter — and instead, the film that had actually captured American filmgoers’ hearts that year had prevailed. Babe had been released in early August, and while it only made around $60 million, it also became an instant piece of popular culture. People fell in love with the movie in a way few movies ever experience. And if there had been social media back then? Forget about it? Little Babe would have been crowned King of Memes and carried off to live on a throne somewhere in Buzzfeed headquarters. Meme-King Babe would’ve been bigger than Tiffany Haddish, hey-girl-era Ryan Gosling, and the mandarin duck all put together.

It’s also a fantastic movie! In 90 short minutes, Babe is a picture-perfect fairy tale story about a misfit pig, raised as an orphan by a patchwork community of kind dogs, friendly sheep, a mischievous duck for a sibling, and several mice as a Greek chorus. The lessons about sheep and dogs and how they see each other in the worst of terms and treat each other accordingly, is deceptively impactful, all while being fun, funny, sweet, and clever.

Babe was a surprise entry in Best Picture that year, the film nobody saw coming. It wasn’t until the National Society of Film Critics shocked everybody by naming it Best Picture that it started looking like a serious contender. But there was something of a zeitgeist quality to that pig, and if the only thing holding it back was its perception as a children’s movie? Time to remove those blinders.

It’s hard to say whether the kids-movie thing is what held it back from winning. Braveheart was the much more traditional Oscar movie, full of World History and Heroism and Speeches and a Damsel and Homophobia and A Surprising Amount of Violence, All Things Considered. Mel Gibson was an actor-turned-director, and Hollywood loved that. But a win for Babe — aside from letting the better movie win — would have done wonders for the Academy when it came to opening up to lighter, more comedic genres. If Babe wins Best Picture in 1995, maybe Wall-E doesn’t get snubbed in 2008. Maybe The Incredibles doesn’t in 2004. Maybe George Miller’s gonzo Babe: Pig in the City gets taken a lot more seriously. In short, we’d all be a lot better off.

Stream Babe on Hulu