Entertainment
8 People Who Won Oscars for the Wrong Movie
If we’re just talking about people who deserve Oscars, the list is endless. There have been a myriad of creatives—from actors to directors to composers—throughout the Oscars’ existence who have contributed so much to cinema that recognizing their work with a little golden statuette feels only natural. Sometimes, though, people who deserved to win an Oscar end up doing so for the wrong movie.
Whether it’s Kevin Costner sweeping at the 1991 Academy Awards or Al Pacino earning what can only be seen as a career Oscar, these instances prove that the Academy doesn’t always get it right, even when the people whose achievements they’re recognizing are deserving in a vacuum. I can’t bring myself to be upset about the fact that these people won Oscars, but I do wish it had been for a different film.
8
Kevin Costner — ‘Dances With Wolves’ (1990)
Oscars: Best Directing and Best Picture
Though best known for his legendary work as an actor, Kevin Costner has also stepped behind the camera on a few noteworthy occasions, though none more noteworthy than his directing debut, the Western epic Dances With Wolves. The film is fantastic—one of the most perfect Westerns on HBO Max, in fact—and that’s how it made its way to seven Academy Award victories.
In almost any other year, Costner’s Best Directing and Best Picture wins would have been nothing to complain about. The only problem is that Dances With Wolves came out in 1990, the same year that Martin Scorsese made one of the greatest films of all time, Goodfellas. Great though it may be, Dances with Wolves pales in comparison to Goodfellas in virtually every department, and as such, the fact that Costner won his two Oscars for it stings a little.
7
Ennio Morricone — ‘The Hateful Eight’ (2015)
Oscar: Best Original Score
Calling Ennio Morricone one of the greatest musicians that have ever graced the silver screen with their compositions would be an understatement. The legendary Italian composer, orchestrator, and conductor composed some of the greatest scores in film history, some of them Oscar-nominated (like The Mission), some not (like The Good, the Bad and the Ugly). Morricone won an Honorary Oscar in 2006, but the only competitive Oscar victory of his career came in 2016 for Quentin Tarantino‘s The Hateful Eight.
The Academy is well known for giving out legacy wins (Oscars for people who have been long overdue for one) in the acting categories, but a Best Original Score legacy win? Uncommon, but not unheard of. Case in point: Morricone. Hateful Eight is an extraordinary movie, one of Kurt Russell‘s best thrillers, and probably Tarantino’s most underrated, but its score isn’t its biggest strength. The main theme song is excellent, but outside of that, The Hateful Eight isn’t even among the top 10 Morricone scores. The composer put out dozens of works before this that were far more deserving of an Oscar win.
6
Mahershala Ali — ‘Green Book’ (2018)
Oscar: Best Supporting Actor
2018 was probably the weakest year of the 2010s for cinema, but there were still several films more deserving than Green Book of the year’s Best Picture Oscar. There’s really no element of satisfaction in that victory that, not even a decade later, has already aged like warm milk. Mahershala Ali‘s second Oscar win, on the other hand? He’s one of the greatest actors working in Hollywood today, but Green Book was not the movie that he should have become a sophomore Oscar recipient for.
Ali is fantastic in Green Book, certainly one of the only good parts of the movie, but the script doesn’t really give him much nuance to work with. Furthermore, it is a clear instance of category fraud, as Ali’s presence in the movie is clearly a leading one, so clearly, in fact, that he’s the Supporting Actor winner with the ninth most screentime in history. There’s no denying this actor’s talent, but there were far more deserving alternatives in contention at the 2019 Oscars, from Sam Elliott in A Star Is Born to Richard E. Grant in Can You Ever Forgive Me?
5
Guillermo del Toro — ‘The Shape of Water’ (2017)
Oscars: Best Directing and Best Picture
A master of dark fantasy and one of the greatest Mexican filmmakers in history, Guillermo del Toro is undoubtedly one of the most entertaining directors working today. His filmography is filled with exceptional gems, both fantasy and otherwise. Though The Shape of Water is by no means his magnum opus, it sure is one of his best films, yet the fact that it was the one that landed him two Oscar victories is peculiar, to say the least.
The Shape of Water was by no means the best film of 2017, with competitors Get Out arguably being superior in virtually every department.
It’s not that The Shape of Water is bad. On the contrary, it’s a beautiful and sweepingly romantic tale that screams “del Toro,” and adding one more to the small list of fantasy movies that have won Best Picture is a welcome change of pace. But on the one hand, it was by no means the best film of 2017, with competitors Get Out arguably being superior in virtually every department. On top of that, if there was any film that del Toro should have won an Oscar for, it was Pan’s Labyrinth, one of the greatest fantasy films ever made. Instead, the movie didn’t even get nominated for Best Picture, and it lost Best Foreign Language Film.
4
Rami Malek — ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ (2018)
Oscar: Best Actor
Rami Malek is an exceptional actor, as he’s proven across things like Mr. Robot and the recent Nuremberg. He’s such an exceptional actor, in fact, that his caricaturistic performance in Bohemian Rhapsody feels like a strange hiccup in quality in his career. In quality, sure, but definitely not in acclaim. Malek steamrolled the 2018-19 awards season, eventually making his way to the Dolby Theater stage.
It has aged as one of the most disliked Oscar wins ever, since Malek’s performance here feels more like a half-baked impression than a true transformation into Freddie Mercury, fake teeth and all. It’s hard to complain about the fact that the lovely and immensely talented Rami Malek has an Oscar stashed away somewhere in his home, but did it have to be for such a so-so performance in such a mediocre film?
3
Danny Boyle — ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ (2008)
Oscars: Best Directing
Calling Danny Boyle “versatile” would be like calling The Dark Knight the best film of 2008. It’s a take so glacially cold that it’s more of a statement of fact, really. From cult classics like Trainspotting and 28 Days Later to underrated masterpieces like 127 Hours, the director has made some excellent and sharply distinct work. Often, however, Boyle can be pretty hit-or-miss, and Slumdog Millionaire, sadly, is more of a miss than a hit.
Still, the film made its way to a baffling eight Academy Award victories, the second most of any movie of the 2000s (after the record-breaking 11 that The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King snatched). 2008 had one of the worst Best Picture lineups ever, anyway, but Boyle’s Best Directing win was particularly bizarre. He examines this story that’s been criticized as poverty porn with a keenly Western gaze, and his homage to Bollywood cinema feels more incidental than well-calculated.
2
Al Pacino — ‘Scent of a Woman’ (1992)
Oscar: Best Actor
There’s no denying that Al Pacino is one of the most colossal acting talents of his generation, the kind of thespian who defined Hollywood acting for generations to come. By the time the ’90s rolled in, he was long overdue for an Oscar, having lost in the past for very much Oscar-worthy performances like the ones in The Godfather Part II, Serpico, and Dog Day Afternoon. As such, when the actor starred in Scent of a Woman and delivered a bombastic, larger-than-life performance as a blind veteran, the Academy simply couldn’t look away.
They probably should have. Pacino’s 1993 triumph was one of the most infamous legacy wins in the history of the Oscars, and it hasn’t aged particularly well. It’s generally agreed that that year’s Malcolm X had one of the greatest performances of all time in Denzel Washington‘s portrayal of the eponymous historical figure, and that Pacino winning over Washington simply because of the Academy’s past failures to recognize his work was a travesty.
1
Jamie Lee Curtis — ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’ (2022)
Oscar: Best Supporting Actress
Never, throughout the 44 years that she’d been acting in feature films by the time 2022 came around, had Jamie Lee Curtis ever screamed “Oscar material.” But then, the Daniels‘ Everything Everywhere All At Once came out and took the world by storm, partly thanks to Curtis’ vibrant, amusing, and surprisingly heartwarming supporting performance as a grumpy IRS agent. Even then, though, it seemed like Stephanie Hsu had a far bigger shot at getting up on the Dolby Theater stage come 2023 Oscars night.
Somehow, that didn’t happen. With a performance that’s hardly more than comedic relief, well-executed though it may be, Curtis made her way to an Oscar in another one of the most infamous career wins in the awards’ history. She’s a fantastic actress who’s been delivering strong, timeless work for decades, and as such, it’s not easy to be upset at the fact that she has an Academy Award—at least in a vacuum. But looking at the stacked Supporting Actress race for the 2022-23 season, it would be wild for anyone to point at Curtis as the strongest in the competition. Anyone except the Academy, apparently.