No Oscar

After thousands of votes via text message and the web site, bbc.co.uk/fivelive, the final winner for the best film never to have won
Best Picture was announced just before 9am on Five Live this morning.

The audience voted overwhelmingly for "The Shawshank Redemption", the 1994 Frank Darabont tale of hope and humanity, which received 52% of the online votes and 68% of the text messages. The other two finalists, "Citizen Kane" and "A Matter of Life and Death" split the remaining votes roughly equally.

Five Live's resident film critic, Mark Kermode, said of the result: "The Shawshank Redemption is a classic choice for a 'people's favourite' Best Film. Having flopped in cinemas on its initial release (despite positive reviews and a brace of Oscar nominations) the movie was subsequently discovered on video by viewers who then recommended it to their friends, proving that there's no better publicity than word of mouth.

"Having written a book and made a documentary both of which attempted to uncover the secret of the film's universal appeal, I can only conclude that writer/director Frank Darabont was right when he said that 'The film touches people, and apparently it gives them hope -- hope to deal with whatever difficulties they face in their own lives.'

"I still think A Matter of Life And Death is a better film, though..."