Michael Mann’s “Heat” is the Most Laughable Oscar Snub of All Time

Nearly 25 years after it first hit theaters in 1995, Michael Mann’s epic crime drama “Heat” is considered a modern classic. It also failed to garner any Oscar consideration in the run-up to the 1996 Academy Awards telecast.

Seriously. Not one single nomination to its name.

It’s a stupifying snub that outranks Best Picture almosts like “Pulp Fiction,” “Taxi Driver,” “Brokeback Mountain” and last year’s “Roma” as arguably the Academy’s most egregious oversight ever.

It’s not as if the pieces hadn’t been in place at the time either. You had: Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, both of whom reached the apex of their 90s-era career resurgences with this film; a holiday season release date, typically saved for awards bait and Disney’s next Star Wars cash grab, and; a studio in Warner Bros. that had been on a Best Picture tear for nearly a decade (see “The Accidental Tourist,” “Dangerous Liaisons,” “Goodfellas,” and “The Fugitive,” to name just a few).

Somehow, Academy voters still chose to ghost a film that has become a modern crime masterpiece. The funny thing part is that its influences can be felt almost everywhere in pop culture — from “The Dark Knight” to the “Grand Theft Auto” video game franchise to real-life armored car robberies in countries around the world.

Adding to the retroactive embarrassment is the list of Best Picture nominees from the 1996 Oscars. As you might expect, it hasn’t aged well.

Beyond “Braveheart,” the movie that took home the night’s biggest prize, the category is light on work that has penetrated the general zeitgeist as thoroughly as “Heat. I mean, even “Babe” got a Best Picture nomination.

Like, huh? What?

Saltiness aside, there’s some scientific proof waiting in the wings here. I want to take a closer at this snub and look at five major reasons why “Heat” was so richly deserving of Academy recognition:

De Niro, Pacino and the Rest of the Cast Are Excellent

From the two world-class leading performances to a long list of supporting players who more than rise to the occasion, “Heat” is a film that features great casting choices and…