You don't see any connection between Spielberg getting 11 nominations and not a single prize and his choice to make a film about the holocaust with as near as possible to an up-beat ending for his next dip into 'serious' cinema?

The general consensus about Spielberg back then was he was the master of the blockbuster (juvenile/family centred films) but as well crafted as the film was (hence the nominations) it was too sentimental (in the Spielberg idiom) it took 'safe' liberties with the source material and he was too light weight to deal with the Racial, Historical and Gender issues of the book.

He then adapted a text about the Holocaust, as a Jewish film maker no-one dare question his qualifications to make a film on that subject but by picking that story he could keep within his idiom and successfully break into more experimental (for himself) areas of style and subject.

Naturally he swept the board at the Oscars (to snub him twice would be political suicide for the Academy).