Any belief that the Oscars award the right films, directors and performances has faded over the years.
While every ceremony has a smattering of correct decisions – trophies handed to the right people for the right films – more often than not, the pervading feeling is one of pessimism caused by a deluge of undeserving recipients.
The Oscars are a far cry from what they claim to be – a celebration of the previous year’s cinematic offerings. But his does not stop people from trawling the internet the following morning in the hope that maybe, just maybe, the winners list impresses rather than disappoints.
With the 2024 ceremony taking place in March, we have highlighted 17 films that really should not have been awarded Oscars.
A Beautiful Mind is one of the mustier Best Pictures winners of the century so far. While its win was a coup for DreamWorks – the film was the studio’s third victor in a row– it was far from a deserving recipient, especially considering Ron Howard won Best Director over Robert Altman and David Lynch for Gosford Park and Mulholland Drive, respectively.
While Chariots of Fire is precisely the type of film the Academy usually takes under its wing, the fact it won was a big surprise, considering everybody present had expected Reds to win the top prize. The Warren Beatty film would have been a far worthier winner, too.
The first half of CODA probably ranks as the worst 45 minutes of any film that has ever won Best Picture. It’s filled with frustrating characters who commit frustrating actions, and it makes for – you guessed it – an immensely frustrating watch. The final half improves, but it’s too little too late. CODA meant well, but it could have been so much more if it had a bit more clout to it. It was lucky to win.
Cold Mountain lucked out by being nominated in what was a particularly weak year for Best Supporting Actress. Renée Zellweger recovered from failing to win for Chicago the previous year and, in doing so, earned the unremarkable drama its “Oscar-winning” tag.
Viewers of the Oscars have grown used to unexpected victories, but none was more famously ill-judged than when Paul Haggis’ drama Crash beat Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain to Best Picture.
It’s less that Dances with Wolves is a bad film – more that Kevin Costner’s epic scooped a total of seven Oscars in the same year that Goodfellas was nominated. It won just one – Best Supporting Actor for Joe Pesci.
Alicia Vikander’s performance in The Danish Girl is by no means weak, but it was nothing on Rooney Mara’s affecting turn in Todd Haynes’ film Carol. Had Tom Hooper not won five years before for The King’s Speech, it seems unlikely that the drama would have picked up many, if any, nominations.
The musical Going My Way may have been the biggest cinematic hit of its year, but it certainly wasn’t better that classic noir Double Indemnity, which it beat to win Best Picture. In fact, it’s nowhere near director Leo McCarey’s greatest film; he won six years before for The Awful Truth and would be nominated again for The Bells of St Mary’s two years later.
There’s a reason why Grand Hotel is the only film to ever win Best Picture without receiving a nomination in any other category. A film that’s worth a watch, sure, but nothing more.
It’s ironic that a film with the word “greatest” in its title has gone down as one of the worst winners in Oscars history. A prime example of when the Academy voted for spectacle over quality.
To those who don’t care about awards ceremonies, Green Book is a crowdpleaser that boasts decent performances from Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali. To everyone else, it’s the damp squib that somehow came out of nowhere to snatch Best Picture from under Roma’s nose.
The Imitation Game won Best Adapted Screenplay, which begs the question: what the hell was this extremely average film doing having any nominations at all?
Meryl Streep has won enough Oscars for the world to know she’s evidently one of the finest actors who’ll ever live. Her win for The Iron Lady, though, was one Oscar too many. Although Viola Davis has since spoken out against the film she was nominated for that year – The Help – it was easily the better performance.
Sydney Pollack’s drama boasts decent performances from Meryl Streep and Robert Redford, but remains interminable in stretches.Thankfully John Barry’s score and the beautiful scenery saves it from being a complete waste of time, but it’s a far cry from being the best film of 1985. Out of its fellow nominees, Witness would have been the worthy winner.
It might finally be accepted that disgraced film director Roman Polanski shouldn’t be handed accolades, but back in 2003, this was still what the Oscars were doing. He won Best Director for The Pianist, an award the French-Polish filmmaker could have done without.
