The Snub That Still Hurts: Tim Burton is a modern-day fantasy giant, so where's his Oscar?

Quick, name the movies that earned Tim Burton the only two Oscar nods of his career so far: Was it Batman, Beetlejuice, Alice in Wonderland, Sweeney Todd? Try again: It's Corpse Bride (2005) and Frankenweenie (2012) — both nominated for Best Animated Feature, and both shut out. (Though his films have taken home eight Academy Awards altogether in categories like acting and costume design, none of those sit on his mantel at home.)

And yet, just try imagining the last 36 years of cinema without him: No Pee-wee's Big Adventure, no Nightmare Before Christmas, no Edward Scissorhands; some other, more ordinary version of Planet of the Apes or Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. A lot of filmmakers work with an invisible hand, stealth wizards behind the curtain. But that's never been Burton, a master stylist so distinctive it's almost impossible to separate his vision — that spooky, surreal mix of far-out kitsch and gothic whimsy — from the stories he takes on.

Sometimes all that flair tips into pure silliness (see the 1996 alien-invasion farce Mars Attacks!) or gets smothered under its own art direction (2019's pallid live-action Dumbo). Still, the man who dragged Batman into the modern age with Michael Keaton and redeemed a Z-list icon in Ed Wood surely deserves at least some small gold of his own. "People are scared of things that are different," Johnny Depp's pale, Ginsu-fingered Edward once wisely observed in Scissorhands. It's past time his creator made the cut.

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