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The Academy Awards have given us unforgettable cinematic moments, but they've also given us some seriously questionable decisions. Join us as we count down the most glaring miscalculations in Oscar history, from undeserving winners to shocking snubs and baffling omissions that left Hollywood — and audiences everywhere — completely speechless!
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00:00Well, uh, I know that I, for one, am very excited to work with you guys.
00:05Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the moments when the Academy Awards made severe miscalculations
00:12regarding the movies they awarded, the movies they didn't, and the ones they forgot to nominate altogether.
00:18So full of disdain and resentment and always so annoyed.
00:24Number 20. Gwyneth Paltrow wins Best Actress, the 71st Academy Awards.
00:30The 71st Oscars might be the only instance of two actresses both receiving nominations for playing the same person in
00:36different movies.
00:37Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett played Queen Elizabeth I in Shakespeare in Love and Elizabeth, respectively, and the Academy put
00:43themselves on the wrong side of history when honoring them.
00:45Have her then, but you're a lordly fool. She's been plucked since I saw her last, and not by you.
00:52While Dench's supporting actress win for a performance that's practically a cameo is head-scratching enough,
00:57Blanchett losing to Dench's co-star Gwyneth Paltrow is simply unacceptable.
01:01If my hurt is to be that you write no more, then I shall be the sorrier.
01:07While not bad, Paltrow's work doesn't exactly scream Oscar caliber,
01:11often appearing as the kind of one-dimensional rom-com work that any actress of her generation could pull off.
01:15But considering the movie's aggressive awards campaign, this win may have been more inevitable than anyone is willing to admit.
01:23I wanted to be an actor.
01:26I'm so sorry, Will.
01:28Number 19. No nomination for The Lego Movie, the 87th Academy Awards.
01:33Phil Lord and Christopher Miller more than earned Oscars for their work on Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse,
01:38but their first trip to the Dolby Theater stage should have occurred four years earlier.
01:42That's super frustrating.
01:44With The Lego Movie, the filmmaking duo confirmed themselves as a cut above the rest,
01:48as the movie's use of computer animation with a stop-motion edge felt like something we'd never seen before.
01:54Fellow master builders, including, but not limited to,
01:57Robin Hood, Mermaid Lady, Gandalf, Swamp Preacher, 1980-something Space Guy,
02:022002 NBA All-Stars, and Wonder Woman.
02:05You have traveled far to be here for a moment of great import.
02:09With hilarious pop culture references and a surprisingly thoughtful story,
02:13The Lego Movie looked poised to win the gold.
02:16Heck, it was even named one of the 10 best movies of the year by the National Board of Review,
02:20and yet its nomination for best animated feature was nowhere to be found.
02:25Everything about this decision was not awesome.
02:27Yeah!
02:30Everything is cool when you're part of a team.
02:33Everything is awesome when you're part of a team.
02:38Have you heard the news? Everyone's talking!
02:39Number 18.
02:40Amy Adams is Dead on Arrival, the 89th Academy Awards.
02:45If there's a genre that notoriously has it hard in the acting categories, it's sci-fi.
02:50But it seemed like an exception was about to be made with Amy Adams in Arrival.
02:54The actress was already an Academy darling with five previous nominations,
02:58but Denis Villeneuve's heady first contact movie was widely viewed as her best performance yet.
03:03We need to clarify the difference between a specific you and a collective you,
03:08because we don't want to know why Joe Alien is here, we want to know why they all landed.
03:15As linguist Louise Banks, Adams keeps things remarkably human,
03:19even as the movie delves deeper into its complex story about communication with alien life.
03:23It's by no means flashy, but she nevertheless manages to seamlessly connect with audiences.
03:29I don't understand.
03:32What is your purpose here?
03:35How that connection did not lend itself to an Oscar nomination is beyond us,
03:39but seeing her shut out was a shock even more surprising than the movie's twist ending.
03:43If you could see your whole life from start to finish,
03:49would you change things?
03:52Number 17.
03:53The Greatest Show on Earth Wins Best Picture,
03:55The 25th Academy Awards.
03:57By 1952, the Academy was celebrating its 25th anniversary,
04:02and capitalized on that milestone by honoring that year's slate with the first televised Oscars ceremony.
04:07But what should have been a great night was instead marred by the horrendous choice
04:11of The Greatest Show on Earth as Best Picture.
04:14Look at her!
04:18The ensemble's circus drama may have been the highest grossing movie at the box office,
04:23but it's also about as incoherent and safe as an Oscar winner can get.
04:27The Academy likely needed a harmless movie to prop up
04:30as television and the Hollywood blacklist both emerged as threats to the industry's well-being.
04:35Now I know he's kidding.
04:38But if appealing to the masses meant ignoring High Noon
04:41and not even nominating Singing in the Rain,
04:43we are not okay with it.
04:45The sun's in my heart,
04:48and I'm ready for love.
04:51Number 16.
04:52James Dean loses Best Actor twice,
04:55the 28th Academy Awards and the 29th Academy Awards.
04:58James Dean's short-lived career is a major what-if in Hollywood history,
05:03as he had so much left to offer before his 1955 passing.
05:07Well, I don't know who else to ask.
05:11You got a lot of nerve coming to me.
05:13Why?
05:14I didn't do anything to you.
05:16The Academy clearly admired his capabilities
05:19as two of his performances earned him posthumous Best Actor nominations.
05:23Unfortunately,
05:24any chance voters had to put a definitive cap on his legacy went to waste,
05:28as his roles in East of Eden and Giant both went home empty-handed.
05:31I don't know,
05:32but it just might not be a pretty good idea to gamble along with old madame.
05:39The performances Dean lost to did not exactly push the medium forward,
05:43with Yul Brynner's win for The King and I aging particularly badly
05:46given the cultural appropriation involved.
05:48This would be a frustrating trend for the 1957 Oscars,
05:52as Giant eventually lost Best Picture
05:53to the equally problematic Around the World in 80 Days.
05:57What if we decided to save her?
05:58Good heavens, man, you can't interfere with Native Affairs.
06:00Why not?
06:01Oh, it isn't done.
06:03Number 15.
06:04Toni Collette gets nothing for Hereditary,
06:06the 91st Academy Awards.
06:08Horror is another genre that's often on the outside looking in with Academy voters,
06:12but it still has a track record of success.
06:15Misery, The Silence of the Lambs,
06:17and Black Swan all propelled their lead actresses to Oscar wins.
06:21With her uncompromising blend of dramatic intensity and physicality,
06:25Toni Collette's role in Hereditary could have easily followed suit.
06:35Her portrayal of a grieving mother's unraveling is both heartbreaking and horrifying,
06:40demonstrating a degree of acting that needs to be seen to be believed.
06:43Yet much like Annie Graham,
06:45larger forces overtook Collette's momentum,
06:48and her powerful performance went unnoticed at the Oscars.
07:00While bigger travesties occurred at that year's ceremony,
07:04this snub nevertheless underscored issues that many have with the Academy's genre bias.
07:09If you could have just said,
07:10I'm sorry,
07:11or faced up to what happened,
07:13maybe,
07:14and we could do something with this,
07:16but you can't take responsibility for anything!
07:18Number 14.
07:19Roberto Benigni wins Best Actor,
07:21The 71st Academy Awards.
07:23Directing,
07:24co-writing,
07:25and starring in Life is Beautiful,
07:27the historical dramedy is a true passion project for Roberto Benigni.
07:36Like his character Guido,
07:38the Italian comic's exuberance propelled him to a rapturous Oscar win in 1999.
07:43It's the kind of win that simply warms your heart,
07:45at least in the moment.
07:46In hindsight,
07:47it simply leaves you wondering if voters watched any other movies.
07:50On top of the movie's love-it-or-hate-it use of humor in portraying the Holocaust,
07:54Benigni's comedic stylings are simply too broad and one-dimensional to compare with his fellow nominees.
08:06If the Academy wanted to honor someone searching for identity in the face of intolerance,
08:10Ian McKellen in Gods and Monsters and Edward Norton in American History X were both sitting right there.
08:16I think they're in a better position to make that judgment call than you are.
08:19Number 13.
08:19The Dark Knight is cut short.
08:21The 81st Academy Awards.
08:23Like a dog chasing cars,
08:26the Academy didn't know what to do with this genre-defining superhero epic once they caught it.
08:30Despite a respectable eight nominations and a well-deserved win for Heath Ledger's eerie performance as the Joker,
08:35The Dark Knight was stopped short of being nominated for Best Picture.
08:47It was an utterly confounding decision, as the movie was a critical and financial sensation,
08:52and has arguably had a greater shelf life than anything released in 2008.
09:04An omission pretty much no one respected.
09:06The backlash was so severe that the Academy began expanding its pool of Best Picture nominees the following year.
09:12While it doesn't make up for an unwarranted snub,
09:15you can't deny it at least led to a greater good.
09:18This is what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object.
09:25Number 12.
09:26Whoopi Goldberg loses Best Actress.
09:29The 58th Academy Awards.
09:31A number of questionable decisions were made at the 1986 Oscars.
09:35Master filmmaker Akira Kurosawa lost his only Best Director nomination for Ron,
09:40while Steven Spielberg wasn't even nominated for The Color Purple.
09:43I am the two children that need a lie.
09:48The latter movie had it rough, tying a dubious record of 11 nominations without a single win.
09:54One of those losses inexplicably went to Whoopi Goldberg in her breakout performance as Seelie.
10:00It's the kind of acting that feels tailor-made to be recognized without ever coming across as calculated.
10:05She becomes one with her character in a harrowing story of abuse, deceit, and trauma,
10:10all while imbuing the part with hope for better things ahead.
10:13Until you do right by me, everything you think about is gonna crime.
10:18In short, Goldberg was far too well-rounded to lose to Geraldine Page in the trip to Bountiful.
10:24Be honest, have you even heard of that movie?
10:26I guess the Lord is with me today.
10:29I wonder why the Lord's not with us every day.
10:32Sure would be nice if he was.
10:34Number 11.
10:35Apocalypse Now loses the Best Picture War.
10:38The 52nd Academy Awards.
10:40In fairness, a Best Picture win for Kramer vs. Kramer made sense in 1980.
10:45On top of its moving performances, its portrayal of shifting parental roles amidst a contentious custody battle
10:51made it well-timed for an era when divorce rates began to skyrocket.
10:55And I don't love you anymore.
10:59Where are you going?
11:00I don't know.
11:02However, it's fair to say that its legacy has been dwarfed by that of its fellow nominee, Apocalypse Now.
11:08Arguably the greatest war film ever made, Francis Ford Coppola's descent into the jungles of Vietnam
11:14was a towering achievement that bravely explored the conflict in all of its nightmarish madness.
11:19Nothing else in the world smells like that.
11:25I love the smell of napalm in the morning.
11:28Its meditation on the human spirit was just as attuned to the late 70s as Kramer.
11:32But in the Academy's eyes, its efforts were as futile as the war itself.
11:37The horror indeed.
11:38That your methods were unsound.
11:47Are my methods unsound?
11:49Number 10.
11:50Al Pacino finally wins, at precisely the wrong moment.
11:54The 65th Academy Awards.
11:56By the time this acting legend received his first Oscar,
11:59he was perhaps the most overdue performer of his generation.
12:02Al Pacino's best actor win for Scent of a Woman should have been Vindication
12:06after his turn in The Godfather Part 2 infamously lost to Art Carney in Harry and Tonto.
12:11I appreciate that, Jacob.
12:13But I think we'd end up hating each other.
12:16You know, I could be a real pain in the ass.
12:18I lived with my wife for 40 years.
12:21I can live with you.
12:22Instead, it was an error on two fronts.
12:25Not only did voters award Pacino for an inferior and borderline goofy performance,
12:30but they ignored Denzel Washington's powerhouse role as Malcolm X in the process.
12:34Now, you know, you don't have to come down here every day begging these folks for a job.
12:38Well, you can wash their clothes for them.
12:40You can scrub their floors.
12:41You can rock their little breaths to sleep for the rest of your life.
12:44You'll still end up pouring without anything.
12:47Ironically, Washington's interpretation of the civil rights leader
12:50feels much closer to the epic scale and tragic magnitude of Michael Corleone's journey
12:54than anything Pacino does in Scent of a Woman.
12:56So much for writing a Godfather-related wrong.
12:59You're nothing to me now.
13:03You're not a brother.
13:05You're not a friend.
13:07I don't want to know you or what you do.
13:10Number 9.
13:10Best Picture to the King's Speech
13:12The 83rd Academy Awards
13:14The National Society of Film Critics
13:16Los Angeles Film Critics
13:18New York Film Critics Circle
13:19National Board of Review
13:21and Golden Globes
13:22are just some of the organizations
13:23that picked David Fincher's The Social Network
13:26as the best film of 2010.
13:27Mark!
13:28He's wired in.
13:29Sorry?
13:29He's wired in.
13:30Is he?
13:30Yes.
13:33How about now?
13:33You're still wired in?
13:34Quentin Tarantino has even called it
13:36the best film of the decade
13:37saying,
13:38quote,
13:38It is number one because it's the best.
13:41That's all.
13:41It just,
13:42it crushes all the competition.
13:44However,
13:44according to the Academy Awards,
13:46The Social Network
13:47wasn't even the best film of the year 2010.
13:49I believe I deserve some recognition
13:51from this board.
13:55I'm sorry?
13:56Yes.
13:57I don't understand.
13:59Which part?
14:00You deserve recognition.
14:02That honor went to Tom Hooper's
14:04The King's Speech,
14:05a solid period drama
14:06but hardly the best film of that year.
14:08There may be
14:09dark days ahead
14:13and
14:14try again.
14:15Almost 10 years later,
14:17Fincher continues to make
14:18Oscar-caliber movies like Manc
14:19while Hooper made Cats.
14:22Number 8.
14:22Spielberg
14:23Not Nominated for Jaws
14:25The 48th Academy Awards
14:27Steven Spielberg
14:28is the most financially successful
14:30director of all time
14:31and
14:32is often credited
14:33with creating the modern blockbuster
14:34with his 1975 film Jaws.
14:36You yell shark?
14:40We've got a panic on our hands
14:41on the 4th of July.
14:42The film was even nominated
14:44for Best Picture
14:44at the Academy Awards.
14:46Although,
14:47Spielberg was not among
14:48the Best Director nominees that year.
14:50You're gonna need a bigger boat.
14:51To be fair,
14:521975 was a pretty great year
14:55at the movies
14:55and the director category
14:57was stacked
14:58with some of the best filmmakers
14:59of their generation
15:00including
15:01Fellini,
15:02Kubrick,
15:02Lumet,
15:03Altman
15:03and
15:04that year's winner
15:05Milos Forman
15:06for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
15:08Mr. McMurphy,
15:09the meeting was adjourned
15:10and the vote was closed.
15:11The vote was 10 to 8.
15:13The chief,
15:14he's got his hand up.
15:14Look!
15:15However,
15:16there was probably some
15:16old school thinking
15:17among Academy members
15:19who couldn't appreciate
15:20the talent
15:20and artistic vision
15:21behind a blockbuster movie
15:23about a shark.
15:28Number 7.
15:29Green Book
15:30wins Best Picture,
15:32the 91st Academy Awards.
15:34The
15:34Oscars So White
15:36hashtag
15:36stemmed from
15:37a noticeable lack
15:38of diversity
15:38at the 2015
15:39and 2016 Oscars,
15:41most notably
15:42in the acting categories.
15:43You have a very
15:44narrow assessment
15:45of me, Tony.
15:46Yeah, right?
15:47I'm good.
15:48No, no,
15:49you're not good.
15:50You're bad.
15:51Since then,
15:52the Academy has tried
15:53or at least
15:53tried to make it
15:55look like they're trying
15:56to bring more diversity.
15:57In 2019,
15:58multiple people of color
16:00got acting nods
16:01while Best Picture nominations
16:02went to
16:03Black Klansman
16:03and Black Panther.
16:05My king.
16:06Stop it.
16:06Stop it.
16:07On the surface,
16:08Green Book
16:08taking home Best Picture
16:09looked like another
16:10step forward.
16:11However,
16:12beneath the surface,
16:13this divisive film
16:14could be considered
16:15a step back.
16:16Christ,
16:16I'm blacker than you are.
16:17Excuse me?
16:18The New York Times
16:19wrote that the movie
16:20has, quote,
16:21very little
16:22that can't be described
16:23as crude,
16:24obvious,
16:25and borderline offensive.
16:26Well,
16:27at least the Academy
16:28finally made up
16:29for Peter Farrelly's
16:29Dumb and Dumber snub.
16:31Want to hear the most
16:31annoying sound in the world?
16:36Guys!
16:37Guys!
16:38Number 6.
16:39Raging Bull
16:39loses Best Picture,
16:41the 53rd Academy Awards.
16:43Martin Scorsese's
16:44Raging Bull
16:45is a masterpiece.
16:50Not only did it
16:51garner plenty of praise
16:52in 1980,
16:53but it has been
16:54deemed by many,
16:55including famed
16:56film critic Roger Ebert,
16:57as the best film
16:58of that entire decade.
17:00It's so ingrained
17:01in our cinematic
17:02subconscious
17:03that many people
17:03probably assume
17:04it won awards
17:05for Best Picture
17:06and Best Director
17:07at the Oscars.
17:08But it didn't.
17:12Those honors
17:13actually went to
17:14a good film
17:15from a very good director,
17:16Robert Redford's
17:17Ordinary People.
17:18It was Redford's
17:19first time
17:19behind the camera.
17:20You make it look easy.
17:24And in a crazy coincidence,
17:26Scorsese would suffer
17:27the same fate
17:28exactly 10 years later.
17:30Number 5.
17:31Dances with Wolves
17:32gets the win,
17:32the 63rd Academy Awards.
17:34A decade after
17:35failing to give
17:36Raging Bull
17:37the top prize,
17:38the Academy had
17:39ample opportunity
17:40to make it up
17:40to Martin Scorsese.
17:41The director
17:42arguably topped
17:43his 1980 masterpiece
17:44with 1990's
17:45Goodfellas,
17:46one of the
17:47definitive mob movies.
17:48As far back
17:49as I can remember,
17:50I always wanted
17:51to be a gangster.
17:53Goodfellas was
17:54nominated for
17:55Best Picture
17:55and Scorsese
17:56earned a directing nod.
17:57The film was
17:58arguably his best
17:59since Raging Bull
18:00and some critics
18:01have even called it
18:02Scorsese's finest work.
18:03What do you mean funny?
18:04Funny how?
18:05How am I funny?
18:06But again,
18:07not the Academy.
18:08Talk about
18:08Deja Vu.
18:09Scorsese and his film
18:10lost to an actor
18:12turned first-time director.
18:13This time,
18:14it was Kevin Costner
18:15and Dances with Wolves.
18:16The longer this condition
18:18persists,
18:18the less inclined
18:19I am to believe
18:20that anyone will.
18:21Sure,
18:21that's a good movie,
18:22but it's no Goodfellas.
18:23Don't worry,
18:24Marty,
18:24your Oscar
18:25is only another
18:2616 years away.
18:27How many of these guys
18:28have been with you
18:29long enough
18:29to be disgruntled,
18:30huh?
18:31Number 4.
18:32Crash over
18:32Brokeback Mountain,
18:34the 78th Academy Awards.
18:36When people talk about
18:37overrated
18:37Best Picture winners,
18:39Crash has become
18:40the default answer
18:41for many.
18:42So you tell me,
18:43why aren't we scared?
18:45Because we got guns?
18:47You could be right.
18:49One particular director
18:50had this to say
18:51about the crime drama.
18:52Quote,
18:52was it the best film
18:53of the year?
18:54I don't think so.
18:55Why should anyone care
18:56what this one director
18:57had to say?
18:58Well,
18:58maybe because he is
19:00Paul Haggis,
19:01the writer and director
19:02of said Best Picture winner.
19:03You embarrass me.
19:06You embarrass yourself.
19:08And he isn't alone.
19:09In 2015,
19:11the Hollywood Reporter
19:12asked hundreds of
19:13Academy voters
19:14to recast their vote
19:15on the 2006 race.
19:16And this time,
19:17in their poll,
19:18Brokeback Mountain
19:19came out on top.
19:20I wish I knew
19:21how to quit you.
19:24Then why don't you?
19:29Why don't you just
19:30let me be, huh?
19:31Number 3.
19:32The Wrong Thing to Do
19:33to Do the Right Thing,
19:34the 62nd Academy Awards.
19:36In 1992,
19:38John Singleton
19:39became Oscar's
19:40first black
19:40Best Director nominee
19:41for Boys in the Hood.
19:43Hey man,
19:43what's wrong with you?
19:44He should have been
19:45at least the second,
19:46following Spike Lee
19:47for Do the Right Thing.
19:48While Lee did get in
19:50for Best Original Screenplay,
19:52he lost that award
19:53and wasn't even nominated
19:54for Best Director.
19:55I'm gonna get it!
19:57The film wasn't nominated
19:59for Best Picture either.
20:00Instead,
20:01the Oscars laid praise
20:02on a much tamer,
20:03less important,
20:04and more Academy-friendly
20:05look at race relations,
20:07Driving Miss Daisy.
20:08What are you doing?
20:09I'm trying to drive you
20:11to the stove.
20:12As Lee put it,
20:13Driving Miss Daisy
20:14isn't, quote,
20:15being taught in film schools
20:16all across the world
20:17like Do the Right Thing is.
20:18While Lee finally won
20:19a Screenplay Oscar
20:20for Black Klansman,
20:21star John David Washington
20:23went overlooked
20:23in Best Actor.
20:25Number 2.
20:26Citizen Kane
20:27loses Best Picture,
20:28the 14th Academy Awards.
20:30What is the greatest movie
20:31of all time?
20:32The answer to that question
20:34will obviously vary
20:35depending on who you ask.
20:38But,
20:38when it comes to critics,
20:40filmmakers,
20:40historians,
20:41and writers,
20:42the answer that you will hear
20:43most often
20:44is without a doubt
20:45Citizen Kane.
20:46Mr. Thatcher
20:47is one of our most
20:47devoted readers.
20:48He knows what's wrong
20:49with every copy
20:50of the Enquirer
20:50since I took over.
20:51And one answer
20:52you will probably never hear
20:54is How Green Was My Valley?
20:56And yet,
20:57in 1942,
20:57at the 14th Academy Awards,
20:59it was the latter
21:00that took home
21:01the top prize.
21:02What can I do for you?
21:03In fact,
21:03on another lesser
21:05but still wrong note,
21:06The Maltese Falcon,
21:07a great movie
21:08often cited
21:09as the birth
21:09of film noir,
21:10was another one
21:11of the Best Picture nominees
21:12that lost
21:13to How Green Was My Valley
21:14that year.
21:15What is it?
21:20The, uh,
21:22stuff that dreams
21:23are made of.
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21:40Number one.
21:41Saving Private Ryan
21:42loses Best Picture,
21:44the 71st Academy Awards.
21:46Of all the films
21:47that have won Best Picture
21:48at the Academy Awards,
21:49a significant percentage
21:50of them also won Best Director.
21:52I think I got a winner.
21:53What are you talking about?
21:54One of the times
21:55that didn't happen
21:56is also the most
21:57egregious mistake
21:58that the Oscars
21:59has ever made.
22:00In 1999,
22:02the Academy deemed
22:03Steven Spielberg
22:03the best director
22:04for his film
22:05Saving Private Ryan.
22:07Come up with a better way
22:07to not the tracks
22:08off a tank.
22:09I'm all ears.
22:10However,
22:10in a decision
22:11that shocked Hollywood,
22:12the Best Picture Oscar
22:14went to Shakespeare in Love.
22:15And while Shakespeare in Love
22:17is a very good film,
22:18most people credit
22:19its victory
22:20less to artistic merits
22:21and more to the
22:22hardcore and overwhelming
22:24marketing push
22:24that it got from the studio.
22:26What do we do now?
22:27The show must...
22:29You know.
22:30Go on.
22:30A victory that,
22:32as Vanity Fair wrote
22:33just a few years ago,
22:34quote,
22:34changed the awards forever.
22:36Do you know of another time
22:38the Oscars got it wrong?
22:39Be sure to let us know
22:40in the comments.
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