THE OSCAR 100 - The 100 Greatest Oscar-Nominated Performances

Enjoy! :)

#100-96: Kathleen Turner, Shelley Winters, Rosie Perez, Lesley Ann Warren and Kathy Bates
#95-91: Gary Busey, James Stewart, John Hurt, Glenn Close and Maureen Stapleton
#90-86: Morgan Freeman, Sally Kirkland, Jill Clayburgh, George Sanders and William Holden
#85-81: Robert De Niro, Michael O'Keefe, Judith Anderson, Michael Caine and Jason Miller
#80-76: Dustin Hoffman, Bette Davis, Meryl Streep, Fredric March and Elizabeth Taylor
#75-71: Agnes Moorehead, Piper Laurie, Sissy Spacek, Barbara Stanwyck and Jean Hagen
#70-66: Jane Alexander, Cloris Leachman, Ellen Burstyn, Martin Landau and Natalie Portman
#65-61: Angela Lansbury, Shirley MacLaine, Vivien Leigh, Jane Darwell and Faye Dunaway
#60-56: Brenda Blethyn, Olivia de Havilland, Dorothy Malone, Geraldine Page and Thelma Ritter
#55-51: Kim Stanley, Teri Garr, Susan Tyrrell, Patricia Neal and Meryl Streep
#50-46: Ingrid Bergman, James Coburn, Nick Nolte, Joan Allen and Anthony Hopkins
#45-41: Robert Duvall, William Holden, Marlon Brando, Barbra Streisand and Whoopi Goldberg
#40-36: Ellen Burstyn, Katharine Hepburn, Julianne Moore, Ian McKellen and Roy Scheider
#35-31: Peter O'Toole, Katharine Hepburn, Joanne Woodward, Joan Crawford and Angela Bassett
#30-26: Al Pacino, Edith Evans, Judy Garland, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton
#25-21: Peter Sellers, Orson Welles, Montgomery Clift, Katharine Hepburn and Robert Forster
#20-16: Jodie Foster, Martin Landau, Jessica Lange, Patty Duke and Anne Bancroft
#15-11: Charlie Chaplin, Timothy Hutton, Mary Tyler Moore, Ida Kaminska and Gregory Peck
#10-6: Jack Nicholson, Gloria Swanson, Shirley Booth, Anthony Hopkins and Rod Steiger
#5-1: Henry Fonda, Juanita Moore, Montgomery Clift, Celia Johnson and Gena Rowlands

Over the past couple of months, with the Oscar season drawing to a close, I've been mulling over possible projects to dive into during the post-season. In the past, I've reviewed every year of Best Original Song, plus all acting categories graced by Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson. Those, plus more modest side projects, like Horror at the Oscars. All of these were a blast to work on, so I've of course been eager to approach another 'Oscar Flashback' for this year.

Ideas crossed my mind like reviewing every Bette Davis or Katharine Hepburn category, or even 'The Fondas,' a mix of the Henry, Jane and Peter years. Or perhaps veering from actors to directors, reviewing each category in which say, Steven Spielberg or William Wyler appeared. I've also considered approaching a single category, as I did with Original Song, like Best Costume Design or even Best Animated Short Film (of which the vast majority of past nominees are available for online viewing).

While I won't rule out tackling any or all of those in the future, I don't quite feel the fire in the belly at this moment. Instead, I'm going to try something a little different but probably just as challenging and time-consuming (and, hopefully, rewarding).

There is no shortage of Oscar rankings to be found online, lists composed by fellow awards season aficionados of their favorite Oscar-winning performances or Best Picture winners, ranked from best to worst. Which is fantastic...but what if someone, a film buff who has inexplicably had the time and dedication to see nearly every Oscar-nominated performance, looked back and compiled a list (including commentary) of the 100 greatest acting turns recognized by the Academy?

Yes, over the coming months, I'll be traveling back in awards season history as I reveal my picks for the 100 best performances ever nominated for an Oscar. First, I need to fill in a few gaps - there are a handful of recognized turns I've yet to get around to, plus a few performances I've seen but barely recall and I'm not about to put this thing together without revisiting them. After that, the list shall be compiled and, beginning with #100, I plan to reveal five performances each week, looking back at what made each portrayal so special and what ended up going down in each Oscar race.

I'm fascinated to see what comes of this pet project and hope you'll join me in reminiscing about what will no doubt be 100 truly remarkable performances.

Oscar Flashback - NICHOLSON AT THE OSCARS!

2002: About Schmidt
1997: As Good As It Gets
1992: A Few Good Men
1987: Ironweed
1985: Prizzi's Honor
1983: Terms of Endearment
1981: Reds
1975: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
1974: Chinatown
1973: The Last Detail
1970: Five Easy Pieces
1969: Easy Rider

After five months of 20 Years of Streep, in which I ventured back and reviewed 100 Oscar-nominated performances, you'd think I'd be yearning for a blog break before Oscar season kicks into full gear.

Alas, I just can't help myself.

No worries, I will be outside, taking advantage of this glorious summer (and fall, by the time this project is finished) but I adore cinema, am (as you know) supremely obsessed with all things Oscar and simply cannot go without writing every day. So, since it's still a tad early for full-time coverage of the coming awards season, it's time for yet another edition of...OSCAR FLASHBACK!

This time around, I will be tackling the Oscar run of none other than a two-time co-star of the incomparable Meryl Streep, the comparably incomparable, three-time Oscar-winning living legend that is JACK NICHOLSON!

In addition to reviewing all 12 Oscar-nominated Nicholson turns, I'll be looking back at the 48 performances he faced over five decades, from the legendary likes of George C. Scott in Patton and Al Pacino in The Godfather Part II, to criminally underrated turns like James Whitmore in Give 'Em Hell, Harry! and Marcello Mastroianni in Dark Eyes. No doubt, there will be a few eyebrow-raising nominees too (I'm looking at you, Charles Durning in To Be or Not to Be). And, as was the case with the Streep years, I'll do a full rundown of the contenders inexplicably absent on Oscar nominations morning.

I was so pleased by the response to 20 Years of Streep, both here and on Twitter, and hope you'll again join me on this journey by offering up your own thoughts on these categories and performances. No doubt, this will be a blast!

Oscar Flashback - 20 YEARS OF STREEP!

2016: Florence Foster Jenkins
2014: Into the Woods
2013: August: Osage County
2011: The Iron Lady
2009: Julie & Julia
2008: Doubt
2006: The Devil Wears Prada
2002: Adaptation
1999: Music of the Heart
1998: One True Thing
1995: The Bridges of Madison County
1990: Postcards from the Edge
1988: A Cry in the Dark
1987: Ironweed
1985: Out of Africa
1983: Silkwood
1982: Sophie's Choice
1981: The French Lieutenant's Woman
1979: Kramer vs. Kramer
1978: The Deer Hunter

As this past Oscar season drew to a close, I began mulling over writing projects I'd like to work on in the post-season. Last year, of course, I spent seven months reviewing all 82 years (up to that point) of Best Original Song and then followed that up with a month's worth of revisiting horror films recognized by the Academy. Both of these projects were a complete blast to work on and I've been eager to dive into another Oscar Flashback.

So, I was thinking...maybe review every single year of a category like Best Supporting Actor? Perhaps just a tad too time-consuming. How about Best Makeup, a more recent category, with fewer nominees? Hard, frankly, to get super-passionate about that. Best Animated Short Subject? An eyebrow-raiser for sure (in a good way) but again, not something I could muster a ton of enthusiasm for.

Then, I thought...wait....just wait. What if I went back and revisited the nominations of a certain performer? That could work. And if I go that route, why not look back at the appearances of the most nominated star in Oscar history - that being the incomparable, brilliant, all-around amazing Meryl Streep? Bingo!

So, that's what I'll be doing over the coming months - venturing back to 1978, the year of Streep's very first Oscar nomination (for The Deer Hunter, of course) and reviewing all 20 categories the actress graced. Now, this won't be me just looking back at the Streep performances alone - I'm going to revisit and review her competition as well, highlight actresses inexplicably snubbed for recognition in these respective years and ultimately determine just what this living legend of the big screen really should've won in terms of Oscars.

If this project intrigues or excites you in the least, I whole-heartedly encourage you to join me in revisiting these performances - 100 overall - and offer up your own reviews in the comments section. Beyond Streep's turns, I'll be looking back at marvelous, underrated performances like Maureen Stapleton in Interiors, Marsha Mason in Only When I Laugh and Sally Kirkland in Anna; legendary ones like Shirley MacLaine in Terms of Endearment, Jessica Lange in Frances and Whoopi Goldberg in The Color Purple; and perhaps some "WTF is she doing here?" appearances too (I'm looking at you, Anne Bancroft in Agnes of God).

This should, no doubt, be heaps of fun to work on. And, depending on how much time this eats up, I may just have enough to tackle a second performer's Oscar history later this year...

HORROR at the Oscars! Chapter IV (1999-present)

Nearly a decade following The Silence of the Lambs' victory in Best Picture, another horror film at last surfaced in the top category.

M. Night Shyamalan may be a polarizing filmmaker now - and deservedly so, given some of the junk he's inflicted upon the masses in recent years - but in 1999, he really did take Hollywood by storm with The Sixth Sense, an unlikely juggernaut that hit theaters that August and stayed atop the box office for five consecutive weeks. By the end of its run, it garnered nearly $300 million in domestic receipts alone, with only Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace reaping in more dough that year.

The Bruce Willis starrer, which made overnight sensations out of both Shyamalan and child actor Haley Joel Osment, was not thought to be a significant awards player that season, beyond for Osment and perhaps Shyamalan's twisty, clever screenplay and indeed, those were the two nominations it garnered at the Golden Globes. Shyamalan was recognized by both the Writers Guild and Directors Guild but the film missed at the Producers Guild Awards.

Nonetheless, come Oscar morning, The Sixth Sense exceeded even the greatest expectations of Oscar pundits, scoring six nods, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor and even a jaw-dropping nod for the marvelous Toni Collette in Best Supporting Actress. The film capitalized on the lukewarm reception for Oscar bait The End of the Affair and The Hurricane and, let's face it, Being John Malkovich was probably a tad too quirky to grab a Best Picture nod.

On Oscar night, I'm afraid, the picture did not score any wins. American Beauty nearly swept the evening, with Michael Caine (for The Cider House Rules) and Angelina Jolie (for Girl, Interrupted) defeating Osment and Collette, as expected. There was, however, a smidge of good news for the genre that evening - Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow scored victory in Best Art Direction, and had been nominated in Best Cinematography and Best Costume Design. The bombastic retooling of The Mummy (1999, Sommers) also mustered a nod, in Best Sound.

The Blair Witch Project (1999, Sanchez/Myrick) was, no surprise, nowhere to be found at the Oscars.

At the start of the new millennium, in 2000, the Academy did not embrace Christian Bale's tour-de-force turn in American Psycho (2000, Harron). They did, however, on the heels of pictures like Ed Wood and Gods and Monsters, shower some love on another film about the men who made horror cinema.

Willem Dafoe's scenery-chewing portrayal of Nosferatu's Max Schreck in Shadow of the Vampire (2000, Merhige) scored him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nod.

Shadow of the Vampire (2000, Merhige) is not quite as satisfying or memorable a picture as the aforementioned two. It does, however, sport a bravura turn from Willem Dafoe, here portraying the elusive Max Schreck, who gave life to Graf Orlok in F.W. Murnau's legendary Nosferatu. Carrying the film on his shoulders, alongside John Malkovich as Murnau, Dafoe's eerie and amusing turn proved a hit that awards season - Dafoe was nominated just about everywhere and scored a few critics' awards wins too, most notably from the Los Angels Film Critics Association. As expected, Dafoe was defeated on Oscar night by Benicio del Toro in Traffic. The picture garnered a second nomination, in Best Makeup, which went to the truly horrific How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

Also amusingly up for a nomination this year - Paul Verhoeven's raunchy Invisible Man clone Hollow Man, which picked up a nod for its memorable visual effects.

The rest of the decade to come and frankly, even beyond that, would not prove the best of times for horror at the Oscars.

There was hardly a shortage of terrific cinema. The Others (2001, Amenabar), for instance, garnered fabulous reviews and strong box office, and fared well at the precursor awards that season, but ultimately did not muster a single Oscar nod. Neither did Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later, a true triumph in film editing, the following year.

The Academy did, despite underwhelming reviews, throw a few nominations to the film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera musical (2004, Schumacher) but I consider it a real stretch to label that one a true horror film. Its nods came in Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design and Best Original Song and yes, you can read my full review on that year's Original Song line-up here. The picture, thankfully, did not go home with any prizes.

The endearing Monster House (2007, Kenan) was one of several horror-comedies to recently grace the Best Animated Feature category at the Oscars.

The gruesome, truly terrifying The Descent (2006, Marshall) was sadly not recognized by the Academy for its suffocating production design or superb cinematography. At least the genre was kinda-sorta represented this year, by Tim Burton's visually impressive, albeit not terribly memorable The Corpse Bride. It mustered a nod in Best Animated Feature, as did the cute Monster House (2007, Kenan) the following year. The films were no match for winners Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit and Happy Feet, respectively.

Speaking of 2007, this was a year that could have marked a real comeback for horror at the Oscars but, ultimately, only left a modest dent.

Stephen Sondheim's marvelous Sweeney Todd: The Demon of Barber of Fleet Street was at last receiving a film treatment, and from none other than Tim Burton, who, while hardly an Oscar favorite, at least had a pretty solid track record of delivering the goods on the big screen. With Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter headlining, the picture garnered solid critical notices but fared only modestly at the box office. After flying out of the starting gates at the beginning of the awards season, winning Best Director from the National Board of Review and Best Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical at the Golden Globes, the film slowly petered out, just as it did among audiences. Ultimately, it garnered three Oscar nods - in Best Lead Actor, Best Costume Design and Best Art Direction, the last of which it won. What looked like a Best Picture contender in December was suddenly a complete also-ran by February.

A significant snub that year - no Best Foreign Language Film nod for Juan Antonio Bayona's exquisite The Orphanage, which garnered ample notices from overseas film awards. Tomas Alfredson's critically acclaimed Let the Right One In was also overlooked in this category, the following year, despite plenty of precursor attention.

At last, at the start of the new decade, another horror film - the fifth to date - graced the Best Picture category.

Following lukewarm reception to his Requiem for a Dream and The Wrestler, Darren Aronofsky at last won over the Academy with his horrifying Black Swan.

Up until 2010, visionary filmmaker Darren Aronofsky had not been whole-heartedly embraced by the Academy. Requiem for a Dream and The Wrestler were among the finest films of 2000 and 2008, respectively, but failed to leave a dent at the Oscars, beyond a few acting nominations.

The Academy could not, however, resist 2010's Black Swan, a truly terrifying, exquisitely staged vehicle for Natalie Portman that would mark the most incredible work of her career (to date, at least) and finally nab her an Oscar. An enormous critical and box office hit, ultimately amassing more than $100 million in domestic receipts, the picture mustered five nominations in total, for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Lead Actress, Best Film Editing and Best Cinematography. With The King's Speech and The Social Network in a tight dual for overall Oscar glory, Black Swan itself was somewhat overshadowed that season in terms of wins. That did not, thankfully, keep Portman from prevailing.

One more horror item from 2010 - Joe Johnston's silly, overstuffed The Wolfman showed up in Best Makeup and managed to score the win, securing Oscar #7 for the legendary Rick Baker. Universal's original (and, unlike the remake, awesome) The Wolf Man was of course the recipient of zero Oscar nominations.

Ever since Black Swan and The Wolfman claimed Oscar victory, the genre's presence has, unfortunately, dimmed quite a bit at the awards. Only two horror films have garnered recognition, both in 2012, in the Best Animated Feature category - Tim Burton's Frankenweenie and Chris Butler and Sam Fell's ParaNorman. Pitted against the latest from Disney-Pixar, Brave, the two flicks hardly stood a real prayer.

Critically acclaimed and financially successful horror films like The Cabin in the Woods (2012, Goddard), The Conjuring (2013, Wan) and The Babadook (2014, Kent) failed to make inroads in their respective awards seasons. This year's The Witch (2016, Eggers) appears exceedingly likely to also miss out.

Could The Witch (2016, Eggers) emerge a player this awards season?

Regardless of this ho-hum showing in recent years, it is of course inevitable this fantastic genre will again surface in a big way at the Oscars, and not just in Best Visual Effects and Best Makeup. One of these days, we will again be greeted by a critic-adored box office mammoth, in the mold of The Exorcist and Jaws, or perhaps another horror flick that rides the strength of a performance (ala Bette Davis and Natalie Portman) to a boatload of nominations. The Witch very much proved there's still plenty of juice and creativity - and genuine frights - in horror.

HORROR at the Oscars! Chapter III (1980-1998)

On the heels of their lukewarm reception to Alien (1979, Scott), the Academy continued, for the most part, to neglect horror cinema at the start of the new decade.

Stanley Kubrick's divisive The Shining, adored by countless horror buffs and notably loathed by author Stephen King, was not the Academy's cup of tea (though it did inexplicably garner Razzie nominations in Worst Director and Worst Actress, for the amazing Shelley Duvall). Brian De Palma also struck out with his comparably divisive Dressed to Kill, also nominated for several Razzies in spite of a number of critical raves, including from the legendary Pauline Kael. Peter Medak's eerie and underrated The Changeling? Also M.I.A.

The one 1980 horror flick the Academy could bring itself to embrace was the collaboration of two Academy favorites, filmmaker Ken Russell and screenwriter Paddy Cheyefsky, the trippy and visually compelling Altered States. It garnered Oscar nods in Best Original Score and Best Sound, losing to Fame and The Empire Strikes Back, respectively.

The following year, 1981, marked the establishment of a new Oscar category - Best Makeup. Twice before, to 7 Faces of Dr. Lao and Planet of the Apes, the Academy had awarded special honorary Oscars for achievement in makeup. Never before, however, had their been a competitive race. That changed here as two makeup legends in cinema - Rick Baker and Stan Winston - faced off for their work on An American Werewolf in London and Heartbeeps, respectively. John Landis' American Werewolf is an intense, gory horror-comedy, hardly traditional Oscar-calibur fare. Heartbeeps, however, was even more unacceptable - an ambitious, yet completely dreadful romcom with Andy Kaufman (in his final film role) and Bernadette Peters as robots who fall in love. Baker, thankfully, prevailed.

The Spielberg-written/produced Poltergeist (1982, Hooper) lost all three of its Oscar nominations to the Spielberg-directed E.T.

In 1982, the Academy sadly did not recognize John Carpenter's breathtaking remake of The Thing or George A. Romero and Stephen King's delightfully scary Creepshow - which, at the very least, would have been worthy of Original Score and Film Editing nods, respectively. They did, however, toss a few technical nominations to Tobe Hooper's (or Steven Spielberg's, for the conspiracy theorists out there) Poltergeist, which made appearances in Best Original Score, Best Sound Editing and Best Visual Effects, all of which went to Spielberg's E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial. Over at BAFTA, Poltergeist actually managed to edge out the Spielberg flick for their Visual Effects prize.

Two years later, Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street was, not surprisingly, not making a killing during Oscar season. The Academy could not, however, resist that year's second-highest-grossing picture, a little horror-comedy called Ghostbusters (1984, Reitman). The film, which garnered Best Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical and Best Lead Actor - Comedy/Musical (for Bill Murray, of course) nods at the Golden Globes, showed up in Best Visual Effects and Best Original Song on Oscar nominations morning.

It was not until 1986 that a horror flick really made a significant dent at the Oscars this decade.

Aliens (1986, Cameron) was more warmly embraced than Alien (1979, Scott) by the Academy, scoring seven Oscar nods, including two wins.

The first Alien picture (1979, Scott) did not much move members of the Academy. By 1986, however, voters were more receptive to this franchise. James Cameron's sequel, Aliens, was critically acclaimed and performed solidly at the box office that summer, holding the number one slot for four consecutive weeks. It was not, however, expected to be much more of an awards contender than its predecessor, though leading lady Sigourney Weaver was in the running for a Best Lead Actress nod.

On nominations morning, however, Aliens overperformed even the highest expectations by scoring seven nods, including for Weaver and the film's editing and original score (by James Horner). Still, Weaver was, unfortunately, not seen as a serious contender for the win. On Oscar night, the picture scored two victories, in Best Visual Effects and Best Sound Editing. Marlee Matlin, as generally expected, defeated Weaver for her work in Children of a Lesser God.

Also in the mix at the 1986 Oscars - David Cronenberg's horrifying retooling of The Fly won that year's prize in Best Makeup. Leading man Jeff Goldblum was a dark horse for a Best Lead Actor nom - he received notices from the National Society of Film Critics and New York Film Critics Circle - but ultimately did not surface on nominations morning. The uneven Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986, Gibson) scored a Best Visual Effects nod, while the delightful horror-musical-comedy Little Shop of Horrors (1986, Oz) showed up in Best Visual Effects and Best Original Song. (My review of 1986 Best Original Song can be found here.)

1987 wasn't quite as hot a year for horror at the Oscars, though George Miller's amusing The Witches of Eastwick managed to sneak in for Best Original Score and Best Sound nominations, falling to Best Picture winner The Last Emperor in both. Another horror comedy - Tim Burton's Beetlejuice - scored the win in Best Makeup the year after. Headliner Michael Keaton, who also starred in Clean and Sober that year, was named Best Lead Actor by the National Society of Film Critics.

The genre got off to a strong start at the Oscars with the start of a new decade.

In 1990, Kathy Bates took home the Best Lead Actress prize for her unforgettable breakthrough turn as Annie Wilkes in the film adaptation of Misery (1990, Reiner). A shame James Caan didn't garner some recognition for his comparably terrific work.

The following year, however, marked the strongest performance for a horror film at the Oscars since The Exorcist in 1973.

The Silence of the Lambs (1991, Demme) marked the first - and, to date, only - horror film to score the Best Picture Oscar.

Initially, Jonathan Demme's The Silence of the Lambs, based on the eponymous 1988 Thomas Harris novel, was not expected to be something of an Oscar contender. For one, the piece focused on a cannibalistic serial killer - not exactly traditional Oscar bait. To boot, however, the Demme picture was released by Orion in February of 1991, nearly a full year out from the awards season. Films released in the spring are often forgotten by the following winter, let alone pictures from February.

Nonetheless, The Silence of the Lambs had real staying power in 1991. It remained in the box office top 10 through that May, eventually earning more than $130 million domestically and clocking in as the fourth-highest-grossing film of the year. At the start of the awards season, the film was also helped by the first Oscar precursor to vote - the National Board of Review, which gave the film Best Picture, Best Director and Best Supporting Actor (Anthony Hopkins) prizes.

Despite the NBR nod, Orion opted to campaign Hopkins for the Lead Actor prize, pitting him against early front-runners Warren Beatty in Bugsy and Nick Nolte in The Prince of Tides. At the 1991 Golden Globes, The Silence of the Lambs took home just one prize - Best Lead Actress for Jodie Foster - with Bugsy, Nolte and Oliver Stone (for JFK) beating Silence, Hopkins and Demme. The critics awards, however, were largely with the Demme film and the film swept the important guild awards.

By Oscar night, the awards were largely unsettled. Foster looked like a shoo-in, as did Ted Tally for his screenplay. But Demme was locked in a tough race with Stone and the picture was contending with the Beatty and Stone films and a complete wild card, Beauty and the Beast, the first animated film ever nominated in Best Picture. Hopkins and Nolte looked completely deadlocked.

Come Oscar night, however, The Silence of the Lambs made a killing, sweeping the big five - Best Picture, Best Director, Best Lead Actor, Best Lead Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay. The Nolte film went nowhere and Bugsy and JFK were left only technical scraps. It was, of course, the first (and to date, only) horror flick to ever win the Best Picture prize.

We cannot, of course, forget The Addams Family (1991, Sonnenfeld), which mustered a nomination in Best Costume Design.

The following two years were halfway decent for the genre too, at least for the technical prizes. The zany horror-comedy Death Becomes Her (1992, Zemeckis) and ravishingly designed Dracula (1992, Coppola) garnered nods in Best Visual Effects and Best Costume Design/Best Sound Editing/Best Makeup/Best Art Direction, respectively. Sans the Art Direction prize, the films took home trophies for them all. The next year, Addams Family Values (1993, Sonnenfeld) and The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993, Selick) showed up in Best Art Direction and Best Visual Effects, respectively. No wins, I'm afraid.

Martin Landau won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his brilliant turn as horror legend Bela Lugosi in Ed Wood (1994, Burton).

Horror-comedy continued to resonate with the Academy in 1994, with the release of Tim Burton's flat-out brilliant Ed Wood, arguably the greatest movie ever made about making movies. Though deserving of a whole plethora of nominations and wins, the film struggled at the box office and had seemingly lukewarm support from its studio, Touchstone Pictures. Only Martin Landau, portraying horror legend Bela Lugosi, really broke through that awards season, taking home the Best Supporting Actor prize nearly everywhere, including the Oscars. The pic also took home the Best Makeup prize.

Also nominated in 1994 - the beautifully designed, if miscast and rather hollow Interview with the Vampire (1994, Jordan). The film garnered nods in Best Art Direction, Best Original Score and Best Makeup. Kirsten Dunst, the best part of the film by far, was a contender in that year's messy Best Supporting Actress race but ultimately failed to land the Oscar nom.

After four consecutive years of horror flickers mustering multiple nominations at the Oscars, only one nod was received in 1995 - for Richard Francis Bruce's exemplary editing on Se7en (1995, Fincher).

Sir Ian McKellen's portrayal of Frankenstein filmmaker James Whale in Gods and Monsters (1998, Condon) netted him a Best Lead Actor Oscar nomination.

As the genre underwent a so-called "revival" with the popular likes of Scream (1996, Craven) and I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997, Gillespie), its presence completely dried up at the Oscars. Only in 1998 did it kinda-sorta resurface, with Bill Condon's brilliant Gods and Monsters, a look at the final, tragic days in the life of Frankenstein director James Whale. Nominated for three Oscars - Best Lead Actor (Ian McKellen, who should have prevailed), Best Supporting Actress (Lynn Redgrave) and Best Adapted Screenplay - Condon took home the film's sole prize, for his screenwriting.

Next up, the final (for now) chapter - how horror has fared from the close of the 1990s, through present day, from The Sixth Sense to Black Swan and beyond.