This should've been Spielbergs first Oscar win

Even Richard Attenborough who won the oscar with Ghandi over E.T. for best picture that year said E.T. deserved to win.

"ET was an infinitely more creative and fundamental piece of cinema [than Gandhi]. Without the initial premise of Mahatma Gandhi, the film would be nothing. Therefore it's a narrative film but it's a piece of narration rather than a piece of cinema, as such. ET depended absolutely on the concept of cinema and I think that Steven Spielberg, who I'm very fond of, is a genius. I think ET is a quite extraordinary piece of cinema."

He's right. Ghandi is fine but E.T. is phenomenal on many levels. I wasn't alive then but I can't imagine how pissed I'd have been watching the oscars and seeing it get snubbed. They tend to favor the historical stuff in the academy.

Well, just look at the name of the awarding body: "Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences". That's a fairly heady and serious moniker. So it's no wonder they always seem to be looking for fare that makes movies more serious and egghead oriented.

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The story is king.

What?? You're saying this cutesy thing over Jaws and/or Close Encounters Of The Third Kind? What??

I agree that this should've been his first win, but Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan are both magnificent films as well. I would've loved to see him win for all three!