5 best Oscar nominees who didn’t win (and we’re still not over)

1. Heath Ledger (Brokeback Mountain)

The 78th Academy Awards in 2006 were full of injustices. This was the year Crash won Best Picture, to the shock of almost everyone. Jack Nicholson’s eyebrows spoke for all of us.

But it wasn’t the only injustice its fiercest rival Brokeback Mountain faced that night. Heath Ledger, who played cowboy Ennis Del Mar in the film, was up for Best Actor and he lost. This loss came despite Ledger giving a performance that Brokeback Mountain’s author Annie Proulx not only approved of, but praised highly, saying Ledger “understood Ennis better than [she] did”.

Proulx wasn’t the only fan either. Daniel Day-Lewis dedicated his Screen Actors Guild award two years later to Ledger, declaring his performance in Brokeback Mountain “perfect.”

This is, of course, not to rob Philip Seymour Hoffman of his deserved victory, but likewise, there is no denying that Ledger’s performance was extraordinary. You only have to watch the scene where Ennis and his lover Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) are reunited after years apart to see there was something special between the two of them and definite chemistry onscreen.

Call Me By Your Name gained some well-deserved credit this year for being an LGBTQ love story that transcended labeling. But really, Brokeback Mountain did it first (although, admittedly, laced with period-typical homophobia, which is notably absent in Call Me By Your Name). According to Out‘s oral history of the film, Heath Ledger didn’t like people making fun of the film and knew how important it was for this love story to be seen culturally and politically.

The scene where Ledger truly stands out is the final one. Ennis is in his trailer and opens his closet, where he keeps Jack’s shirt from their first night on Brokeback Mountain. Ledger is fairly silent but as he looks at Jack’s shirt and whispers “I swear” with tears in his eyes, it is impossible not to be moved.

Heath Ledger was one of the finest actors of his generation and his career was all too short. What a shame that he had to earn his only (but equally warranted) Oscar posthumously for The Dark Knight. He should have won it in 2006.