Why did the Oscars snub Angelina?

Unbroken had all the promise of a truly epic Hollywood movie.

It tells the true story of Louis Zamperini, who died shortly before the film was released.

During his life, he was an Olympic athlete who ran the 5,000 metres at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.

He was then enlisted to the United States Army Air Corps during World War II, survived in a raft for 47 days before becoming a prisoner of war and surviving that too.

Zamperini wrote his biography in 1956 and the rights were quickly bought by Universal Pictures.

His story was written again in 2010 and that version spent more than 180 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list.

Unbroken sees O'Connell portray Louis "Louie" Zamperini a WWII pilot who was held in a prisoner of war camp

So you have his incredible story, Add in Angelina Jolie as director, the Coen Brothers on the writing team and the Oscar winning composer Alexandre Desplat.

And let's not forget about British rising star, Jack O'Connell, who's performance has been widely praised.

Isn't this what Oscar dreams are made of?

Well apparently not.

The film has only been nominated in, what are often considered, as the smaller categories.

Sound editing, mixing and cinematography.

Jack O'Connell has already picked up one prize, the New Hollywood Award in November.

So why has this film, which delivered at the box office, not translated into Oscar nominations?

"Before I even went to see it, the buzz was this is going to win an award," BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra's film critic Rhianna Dillon told us.

"When you go into a film thinking that, you of course, always mentally tick the boxes.

"Yes beautiful cinematography, yes the performances are outstanding, Jack O'Connell was fantastic, Angelina Jolie herself, having done this masterpiece of a film, considering she is so new to the directing game."

But Rhianna has a theory.

"There is the possibility that everyone just assumed Angelina Jolie was going to obviously get nominated for this, for Best Film, Best Director, that they didn't bother nominating her themselves.

"They went elsewhere, went for maybe smaller films, less obvious films and if enough people did that, then it's not going to get a nomination."

Jack O'Connell as Louis Zamperini in Unbroken

But the other explanation is that, while Unbroken has all the elements of an Oscar perhaps it is simply not good enough.

There are those "worthy" films that we go to see because they've won lots of awards but we secretly find quite dull.

Unbroken is watchable and while very dark in places, ultimately uplifting, maybe that's where Angie went wrong?

Reviews were mixed for the film, despite lots of us going to see it. As of this week, it has made more than 68.5 million pounds.

The Daily Telegraph wrote that it "barely scratches the surface of an extraordinary life."

"A great true story is telescoped down to a merely good one in Unbroken," wrote The Hollywood Reporter.

Hollywood Life said: "Angelina does a fantastic job making his story come to life and you will be on the edge of your seat throughout the film."

Despite Rhianna's shock at Unbroken not being nominated for any of the major Oscars, she admits she struggled at times with the movie.

"It was a very slow film, I would have liked to have seen some of the lighter scenes," she explained.

"The trailer was so much about the running side of Louis Zamperini and that is what I was really intrigued about, and I didn't see enough of that.

"But it's not like the Oscars to shy away from these really slow long films.

"Look at Daniel Day Lewis in Lincoln, that got all the nominations."

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