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It ’s time to celebrate the just that motion picture have to offer . That ’s right , the 2024 Oscars ceremony is almost here . And2023 ’s near movies , includingOppenheimer , Poor Things , Killers of the Flower Moon , andBarbie , are among this class ’s telling crop of nominee .
While it ’s fun to celebrate the best in films , it ’s also pleasurable to look back and ask , “ Did they really give an Oscar tothat ? ” The following list highlight some of the Oscars ’ worst and most promontory - scratching winners from each decade that the awards show has live , from one of the all - time worst Best Picture winners in the 1920s to a still - shocking win from a one - clip Scream Queen in 2023 .
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Need more Oscar recommendations ? Check outhow to catch the 2024 Oscars for free,2024 Oscar predictions,10 biggest Oscar snubs ever,10 best Oscar - winning movies ever,10 most Oscar - nominated movies ever , and5 great Oscar - winning movies on Amazon Prime Video .
1920s: The Broadway Melody wins Best Picture
Although the Oscar ceremonial occasion was only around for the last two year of the 1920s , there are still plenty of candidates that qualify as “ the bad Oscar achiever ” for this or any decade . I ’ll go with the consensus and selectThe Broadway Melodytaking Best Picture as the worst achiever for this period . The flick , now well-nigh forgotten , typifies all the negative of the era , which was still undergo the rough , awkward translation from tacit to go movies . This includes awful stilted dialog , direful acting , and stodgy commission .
What ’s worse , The Broadway Melodygave the musical genre a spoiled name ; only one other musical gain ground Best Picture in the next two decades , and that one , The Great Ziegfeld , had the welfare of being a biopic ( a musical genre Oscar sleep with ) .
1930s: Luise Rainer undeservedly wins 2 Best Actress Oscars
It ’s knockout to win an Oscar ; just ask Michelle Pfeiffer and Glenn Close , who have yet to take home a favorable statuette . It ’s even harder to come through two of them , and the first actor to do it was n’t Katharine Hepburn or Bette Davis — it was Luise Rainer , who won consecutive Oscars for her work inThe Great Ziegfeldin 1936 andThe Good Earthin 1937 .
Rainer is n’t particularly good in either movie and to make thing worse , she won over better public presentation from Carole Lombard inMy Man Godfreyand Greta Garbo inCamille .
1940s: How Green Was My Valley wins Best Cinematography
It may seem left over to play up a relatively “ minor ” family like Best Cinematography , but it ’s important to spotlight just how wrong it was for Arthur Miller to win here . First , no , he ’s notTHATArthur Miller ( he did n’t writeThe melting pot ) and secondly , while his work on John Ford ’s pastoral epicHow Green Was My Valleywas very good , it was n’t as closely impressive , not to note as groundbreaking , as Gregg Toland ’s radical camerawork was onCitizen Kane .
You might as well pencil in every Oscar winner this year who beatCitizen Kanein the category it was make in because Orson Welles ’ picture exchange picture palace forever and a day and deserved the acknowledgment . And Toland ’s mysterious - focus visuals afford movies a cornucopia and depth they lacked before . His work onCitizen Kanehelped pave the manner for2001 : A Space Odyssey , Mulholland Drive , and evenDune : Part Two , and it should ’ve been recognise in its time .
1950s: Judy Holliday wins Best Actress for Born Yesterday
This is a toughened one to argue because I in reality think Judy Holliday is wonderful congenital Yesterdayand , in almost any other year , she merit to win an Oscar . But this is 1950 , and Holliday was up against not one , but two legendary actresses who gave the good performances of their impressive careers : Gloria Swanson inSunset Boulevardand Bette Davis inAll About Eve .
That neither one of them won , or even tied with each other or Holliday , is such an artistic crime that it ’s still peach about today . Holliday is still remember , of course of action , andBorn Yesterdaystill holds up because of her , but no one that year , or any decade , really , could adjoin the bright work that Davis and Swanson did in their respective films .
1960s: In The Heat of the Night wins Best Adapted Screenplay
If someone ask you what is one of the most theme song American movies was , chance are , you ’d sayThe Graduate . No other film defines what the 1960s were all about : the clash between generations , the intimate exemption , the uncertainty about where society was go , and above all else , “ Plastics . ”The Graduatesummed up a pivotal moment in sentence that few movies have done before or since .
So it ’s surprising that it did n’t advance a lot of Academy Awards in 1968 . Best Actor , Best Actress , and Best Picture were all grant to other films and performers , with only the movie ’s theatre director , Mike Nichols , winning in his category . At the very least , Buck Henry ’s ingenious screenplay should have make headway over Stirling Silliphant ’s solid if sterile handwriting forIn the Heat of the Night , but the Academy played it too safe , and pass away for the conventional over the surpassing .
1970s: Art Carney wins Best Actor for Harry & Tonto
Oscar is a sucker for sentimentality , and it got really bad in the ’ 70s , when the Academy picked erstwhile favorite over exciting new gift . How else can you explicate Jack Lemmon winning forSave the Tigerover Al Pacino inSerpicoand Jack Nicholson inThe Last Detail ? Or Ingrid Bergman win forMurder on the Orient Expressover Madeline Kahn inBlazing Saddles ? And do n’t get me part on all those nomination forAirport , Earthquake , andThe Towering Inferno , three “ disaster ” picture show that are truly detestable .
But it was never worse than in the 1974 Best Actor category , which had among its candidate Jack Nicholson forChinatownand Al Pacino forThe Godfather Part II . That Art Carney , a boob tube veteran well - known for his role as Ed Norton onThe Honeymooners , won , and that he jubilate for the cloyingHarry & Tonto , is among Oscar ’s biggest mistakes ever , and one that still stings even today .
1980s: Gandhi wins Best Picture
Oscar just ca n’t resist a biopic . FromThe animation of Emile Zolain 1937 to last year’sMaestro , it ’s been the Academy ’s catnip throughout the decades . Biopics are so appealing to Oscar voter because they are normally very square , traditional , and gang - pleasing . you could see all the oeuvre that ’s been put into them just by comparing their fictionalized subjects to their existent - life twin .
WhenGandhiwon Best Picture in 1983 , it ’s was n’t a shock ; it had all the element necessary to take the top dirty money , plus Best Actor and six ( ! ) other honour . But even then , people were probably consider , “ Yeah , Gandhi‘s OK , but I ’d rather watchE.T.andTootsieagain . ” That those two movies fail to take the top prize , and have since became beloved classics that are just as strong in 2024 as they were in 1982 , speak both to the Academy ’s stubbornness in being attracted to , and award , one eccentric of movie , and toGandhi‘s decrease cultural implication . Now , if you ’ll apologise me , I need to go watchTootsieagain .
1990s: Roberto Benigni wins Best Actor for Life is Beautiful
Mamma mia ! I apologize for come out off the an Italian stereotype , but that ’s what Roberto Benigni ’s performance inLife is Beautifulis full of : cartoonish overstatement . That he wrote and directed such an offensive picture only impart salt to the combat injury . Why did the Academy gloaming head over hound for his public presentation ? And why did it abide by him not once , but double , by awarding him Best Foreign Film that year over better prospect likeCentral StationandChildren of Heaven .
I ’d understand well if the Best Actor playing field was weak that twelvemonth , but it was n’t ; in fact , it was the strongest in yr , with Ian McKellan ( Gods and Monsters ) , Tom Hanks ( Saving Private Ryan ) , Nick Nolte ( Affliction ) and Edward Norton ( American History X ) each merit a situation at the winner ’s podium . Each of those actors have since been appoint for other Oscars , while Benigni has since fleet from the limelight .
2000s: Frida wins Best Original Score
picture move people in dissimilar agency . Sometimes , it ’s a performance that tinge something mysterious in you ; other times , it can be a well - directed successiveness that becomes blacken in your retentivity . In 2003 , Philip Glass ’ deep and resonant grade toThe Hoursspoke volumes about the lead character reference ’ complex privileged lives , and seemed to be the gross finishing touch to an already telling music career .
Alas , it was not meant to be , as Elliot Goldenthal deliver the goods forFrida , a middling 2002 biopic ( there it is again ! ) starring Salma Hayek . I have nothing against Goldenthal ’s work in that pic , and he should ’ve won for his great grade forTitusin 1999 , but it ca n’t equate to what Glass did inThe Hours . It ’s not every daylight someone can compose a soundtrack for the human soul , but Glass did just that inThe Hours , and should have won his overdue Oscar .
2010s: Green Book wins Best Picture
It had been a while since the Academy had mucked up Best Picture . AfterThe Artist‘s incomprehensible winnings in 2012 , there was a long stretchability when the Best Picture winner was not only respectable , but made sense . Birdman,12 Years a Slave , Spotlight , Moonlight — these movies were indicative of an Academy willing to be riskier ( for them ) than in years retiring , while also honour picture show that were fairly popular with critics and audiences alike .
And then cameGreen Bookin 2018 , and the Academy collectively lost their damn minds . Who know why they decide to honor a movie that take a complex subject like race relations in the 1960s American South and makes it into a generic road motion picture full of Hallmark clichés ? WhileDriving Miss Daisy , another simplistic motion picture that reduce spiny racial issues into soft platitude about the human shape , had won Best Picture in 1990 , that was decades ago , and the notion was that the Academy had evolve since then . It change state out that it had n’t , at least in 2019 , and voters made one of their big misunderstanding ever by honoringGreen Bookover the likes ofRomaandThe Favourite .
2020s: Jamie Lee Curtis wins Best Supporting Actress for Everything Everywhere All at Once
Do n’t get me wrong , I love Jamie Lee Curtis . She ’s been fantabulous for ten , from 1978’sHalloweento 1988’sA Pisces the Fishes prognosticate Wandato 1994’sTrue Lies . She was never been an Academy - friendly actress , preferring genre fare over Oscar - sweetener movies , and that made me value her even more . She did n’t give a hoot about awards ; she just wanted to make nerveless movies likeKnives Out .
So I was conflicted when she was honored her supporting performance inEverything Everywhere All at Once . It was nerveless seeing her win , but let ’s front it , her public presentation was just OK . It could n’t be anything more than that , because the role was n’t all that cryptical , of import , or interesting . To slip a renowned citation , there was notherethere , and her profits is one of the most perplexing triumph in Oscar history .
