all of last years Best Actor nominees (michael caine was the fifth nom) were deserving and truly any one of them could have feasibly won and it would have still been a deserved win. Adrien Brody's win, as it has been fairly documented, was a result of Day Lewis and Nicholson splitting votes amongst themselves leaving room for him to sneak in.

In regards to GFIII and the Oscars-it has always been debated as to whom was actually submitted for consideration, but at the time Pacino was looked at as a lock for a Best Actor nod, so much so that too many people assumed he would get in, that he actually didn't. and back in 1990, no film was beating DWW, plain and simple. it was like a steamroller.