Best Picture, 1966

Awards presented April 10, 1967

The nominees were ... 

• Alfie 
• A Man for All Seasons 
• The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming 
• The Sand Pebbles 
• Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

... when they should have been ...

• Alfie 
• Blow-Up 
• Loves of a Blonde 
• A Man for All Seasons 
• Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

And the Oscar went to ...
A Man for All Seasons. More talky than a film should be, revealing its origins as a stage play, and the motives, relationships, and dialogue have a "modern" flavor that's often at odds with the historical pageantry. It also sentimentalizes Thomas More, who had a ruthless streak that put him in power and kept him there: More never met a heretic he wasn't happy to burn.

... when it should have gone to ...

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

So why is this filmed play better than the filmed play that actually won? Perhaps because Edward Albee's drama has a corrosiveness and wit that cry out for the closeup treatment of film, whereas Robert Bolt's A Man for All Seasons keeps getting lost in the scenery and costumes. It certainly didn't go unhonored by the Academy, with Oscars for Elizabeth Taylor and Sandy Dennis, cinematographer Haskell Wexler, and for art direction and costume design. That Richard Burton and director Mike Nichols weren't included among the winners is unfortunate.