I ended taking award ceremonies critically a very long time in the past, to be sincere, as a result of there may be in the end no proper or incorrect reply regarding the best achievements in any subjective artwork type, together with cinema. Nevertheless, I nonetheless take pleasure in watching the Academy Awards, and the Academy of Movement Image Arts and Sciences does handle to shock me with its decisions occasionally, and I’m actually not the one one. See for your self as we reminisce in regards to the Oscar wins and losses that left film lovers slightly shocked.
Moonlight Wins Finest Image
Seeing Barry Jenkins’ acclaimed A24 film tracing a homosexual Black man’s lifelong identification battle, Moonlight, take dwelling the highest prize on the 2017 Oscars was shocking sufficient, provided that La La Land was the frontrunner. Nevertheless, the second itself grew to become notorious attributable to an incident wherein presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway have been handed the incorrect envelope and by accident introduced the romantic musical because the victor at first.
Citizen Kane Solely Takes Residence Finest Unique Screenplay
Citizen Kane is broadly celebrated as the best film of all time looking back, however you wouldn’t comprehend it from its low turnout on the 1942 Academy Awards, at which it was nominated in 9 classes however solely earned Finest Unique Screenplay. Its blended reception (and reported boos on the Oscar ceremony, based on Collider) have been the results of a smear marketing campaign ordered by William Randolph Hearst, who is alleged to have impressed star, director, and co-writer Orson Welles’ drama a few megalomaniacal media tycoon.
Mikey Madison Wins Finest Actress Over Demi Moore
After Demi Moore’s tragic efficiency within the immediate basic horror film, The Substance earned her the Finest Lead Actress award for practically each different ceremony prior, consultants have been satisfied the Hollywood veteran would win the class on the 2025 Academy Awards. Thus, it was stunning to see then-25-year-old up-and-comer Mikey Madison take dwelling the gold for her efficiency within the title function of Anora.
Alan Arkin Wins Finest Supporting Actor Over Eddie Murphy
It appeared like Eddie Murphy was a lock to be the primary Saturday Night time Dwell star to win an Oscar for his supporting function within the 2006 musical Dreamgirls. But, it ended up going to Alan Arkin for Little Miss Sunshine. With all due respect to the late actor’s great efficiency within the beloved dramedy, many nonetheless consider Murphy deserved the award and even blame his ill-received comedy Norbit from the identical 12 months for hurting his possibilities.
Shakespeare In Love Wins Finest Image Over Saving Non-public Ryan
Director Steven Spielberg’s highly effective warfare film, Saving Non-public Ryan, was the frontrunner to win Finest Image on the 1999 Oscars. Whereas Spielberg took dwelling his second directorial prize, the film misplaced to Shakespeare in Love. A retrospective by Den of Geek claims the romantic interval drama’s wins – additionally together with Finest Actress, Supporting Actress, Unique Screenplay, and Rating – have been the results of the producers’ strategic campaigning, supposedly altering the Academy’s decision-making course of perpetually.
Marisa Tomei Wins Finest Supporting Actress
Marisa Tomei beat esteemed Hollywood veterans Vanessa Redgrave and Miranda Richardson within the 1993 Oscars’ Finest Supporting Actress class for her breakthrough function as Mona Lisa Vito in My Cousin Vinny. Her win for the in any other case hilarious and charming efficiency was such a shock that many speculated presenter Jack Palance had by accident learn the incorrect identify, and the Academy simply let her preserve it.
Barbra Streisand And Katharine Hepburn Tie For Finest Actress
The third time that an Oscar vote led to a tie occurred in 1968 when each Barbra Streisand and Katharine Hepburn earned Finest Actress. Streisand received for her efficiency in Humorous Woman, and Hepburn’s function in The Lion in Winter additionally impressed an equal variety of Academy voters.
Suicide Squad Wins Finest Make-up And Hairstyling
In 2017, director David Ayer’s Suicide Squad took dwelling the award for Finest Make-up and Hairstyling for the way in which it reworked its actors into weird DC supervillains. Setting apart the comedian guide film’s largely destructive reception, the movie’s victory over the eye-popping make-up results in Star Trek Past was stunning.
Anora Wins Finest Image
The story of a younger “woman of the evening” and her ill-fated marriage to a wealthy, Russian twenty-something grew to become the 2025 Oscars frontrunner late within the sport, which made its Finest Image victory over safer bets like The Brutalist fairly a shock. Anora additionally made historical past when Sean Baker earned Oscars for steering, writing, and modifying in the identical evening.
Anthony Hopkins Wins Finest Actor Over Chadwick Boseman
There was a lot confidence within the likelihood that Chadwick Boseman would win a posthumous Finest Actor Oscar for Ma Rainey’s Black Backside that the class was saved for the tip of the 2021 telecast. As an alternative, it went to The Father‘s Anthony Hopkins, who was not even current on the ceremony, which left a little bit of a bitter style in viewers’ mouths.
Crash Wins Finest Image Over Brokeback Mountain
The world was completely satisfied that director Ang Lee’s buzzy homosexual love story, Brokeback Mountain, would take dwelling the highest prize come Oscar evening in 2006. As an alternative, the winner was author and director Paul Haggis’ examination of contemporary prejudice, Crash, a lot to the shock and even dismay of many critics and audiences on the time and for years to return.
Marcia Homosexual Harden Wins Finest Supporting Actress
In 2001, Marcia Homosexual Harden’s portrayal of Lee Krasner in Pollock earned her each her first Academy Award nomination and win, however that isn’t what made it such a outstanding achievement. The actor had not received a single accolade for the efficiency earlier than beating the likes of Kate Hudson and Frances McDormand in Nearly Well-known on Oscar evening.
Eddie Redmayne Wins Finest Actor Over Michael Keaton
Michael Keaton’s efficiency in 2015’s Finest Image Oscar winner, Birdman or (The Sudden Advantage of Ignorance), was poised to earn him the Finest Actor award that evening. As an alternative, the previous Batman actor misplaced to Eddie Redmayne, whose portrayal of Stephen Hawking in The Concept of All the things is retrospectively not held in as excessive regard.
Rocky Wins Finest Image
Rocky, starring author Sylvester Stallone because the titular aspiring boxer, is a superb underdog story, and the identical might be mentioned about its jog to the Oscars stage in 1977. The movie received three Oscars, together with Finest Image over robust contenders Taxi Driver, Community, Sure for Glory, and All of the President’s Males.
Bob Fosse Wins Finest Director Over Francis Ford Coppola
It’s uncommon to see a film win the Finest Image Oscar with out seeing its director additionally take dwelling a statuette. Nevertheless, that’s what occurred in 1973 when Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather received the highest prize, however greatest director went to Bob Fosse for Cabaret.
Three 6 Mafia Win Finest Unique Track
When Three 6 Mafia received the 2006 Oscar for Finest Unique Track for Hustle & Stream‘s “It’s Onerous Out Right here for a Pimp,” it was not the primary time {that a} hip-hop artist earned the award, as Eminem had received for “Lose Your self” from 8 Mile only some years earlier. Nonetheless, a rap track incomes such an accolade was nonetheless thought-about a rarity, and including the truth that Dolly Parton (for Transamerica‘s “Travelin’ Via”) and Kathleen “Hen” York (for “Within the Deep” from Crash) have been the competitors, it was an sudden victory.
Driving Miss Daisy Wins Finest Image
The competitors between Driving Miss Daisy and its fellow Finest Image Oscar nominees (Born on the Fourth of July, Useless Poets Society, Discipline of Goals, and My Left Foot) was not precisely fierce. What made its victory – along with wins for Finest Actress (Jessica Tandy), Tailored Screenplay, and Make-up – a shock was that its director, Bruce Beresford, was not even nominated.
Beatrice Straight Win Finest Supporting Actress
Beatrice Straight seems in 1976’s Community, wherein she, as Louise, tearfully and angrily reacts to her husband, Max Schumacher (William Holden), revealing he has been having an affair. Her powerhouse efficiency within the five-minute sequence was sufficient to persuade the Academy that she deserved the Finest Supporting Actress Oscar.
Adrien Brody Wins Finest Actor For The Pianist
Adrien Brody received his first Academy Award for main the 2002 World Battle II-era biopic, The Pianist, making him the youngest individual to win within the Finest Actor class at 29 years previous. Making issues much more shocking, he was going up in opposition to esteemed Oscar winners Jack Nicholson (About Schmidt), Michael Caine (The Quiet American), Nicolas Cage (Adaptation), and Daniel Day-Lewis (Gangs of New York), the latter of whom was the frontrunner.
Olivia Colman Wins Finest Actress Over Glenn Shut
In 2019, Glenn Shut acquired her seventh Academy Award nomination for her function in The Spouse, which had already earned the actor a number of accolades, convincing many who this is able to lastly be the 12 months she goes dwelling with an Oscar. As an alternative, her shedding streak would proceed when the Finest Actress winner turned out to be Olivia Colman for her great efficiency in Yorgos Lanthimos’ absurdist interval satire, The Favorite.
Dances With Wolves Wins Finest Image Over Goodfellas
Kevin Costner made his directorial debut with the Civil Battle-era, Western film basic, Dances with Wolves, which took dwelling Finest Image. Whereas it was an undeniably spectacular achievement for the actor and filmmaker, who additionally starred within the drama, it was a bittersweet event as esteemed veteran Martin Scorsese’s acclaimed crime thriller, Goodfellas, solely took dwelling a statuette that evening for Joe Pesci’s supporting efficiency.
Grace Kelly Wins Finest Actress Over Judy Garland
On the 1955 Academy Awards, the frontrunner within the Finest Actress class was the legendary Judy Garland for the primary remake of A Star is Born. Thus, it got here as fairly a shock to see Grace Kelly profitable the Oscar for her function in The Nation Woman because the spouse of an alcoholic actor desperately in search of a comeback.
Parasite Wins Finest Image
By Oscar evening 2020, it was practically inconceivable to inform which of the numerous Finest Image frontrunners, from Quentin Tarantino’s As soon as Upon a Time in Hollywood to Sam Mendes’ 1917, would show to be the victor. But, no person anticipated that Bong Joon Ho’s South Korean thriller Parasite, which had additionally received Finest Worldwide Function that evening, would take dwelling the highest prize, changing into the primary foreign-language movie to take action.
Artwork Carney Wins Finest Actor Over Al Pacino
Al Pacino’s two-decade shedding streak would finish in 1993 when he received the Finest Actor Oscar for Scent of a Girl, which was additionally his eighth nomination. One of the shocking cases wherein he misplaced was in 1975, when his efficiency as Michael Corleone in The Godfather Half II was anticipated to be the winner till he was bested by Artwork Carney within the street journey comedy Harry and Tonto.
Inexperienced Ebook Wins Finest Image
Whereas it was well-received upon launch, many critics and consultants feared the thought of a easy and secure drama like Inexperienced Ebook profitable Finest Image on the 2019 Oscars in opposition to extra esteemed and refreshingly formidable movies like Roma, The Favorite, and A Star is Born. In fact, that turned out to be precisely what occurred.
Kevin Costner Wins Finest Director Over Martin Scorsese
Not solely did Kevin Costner’s Dances with Wolves earn the highest prize on the 1991 Oscars, however the first-time filmmaker was additionally awarded Finest Director. Additionally nominated in that class that 12 months, and for the third time, for his expertly crafted mafia drama, Goodfellas, was Martin Scorsese, who wouldn’t take dwelling the award till 16 years later for The Departed.
Anna Paquin Wins Finest Supporting Actress
The Finest Supporting Actress Oscar nominees in 1994 included Rosie Perez for Fearless, Winona Ryder for The Age of Innocence, Emma Thompson for Within the Identify of the Father, and Holly Hunter for The Agency (the latter two of whom have been nominated for 2 performing classes the identical 12 months). Nevertheless, the winner was The Piano‘s Anna Paquin, who, at simply 11 years previous, grew to become one of many youngest folks to obtain an Academy Award.
The Colour Purple Wins Nothing
You possibly can normally depend on the movie with essentially the most Oscar nominations to go dwelling with at the very least one statuette, however that was not fairly the case in 1986. The Colour Purple was tied with Out of Africa with 11 nominations, and whereas Sydney Pollack’s romantic drama earned seven awards, together with Finest Image, director Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of Alice Walker’s celebrated novel left utterly empty-handed.
Joel Gray Wins Finest Supporting Actor
Three of the Finest Supporting Actor nominees on the 1973 Academy Awards have been from The Godfather (particularly Al Pacino, Robert Duvall, and James Caan), and none of them ended up taking dwelling an Oscar. The winner, as an alternative, was Joel Gray, for his efficiency as “Grasp of Ceremonies” in Cabaret.
Juliette Binoche Finest Actress Over Lauren Bacall
Display legend Lauren Bacall earned her sole Oscar nomination in 1997 for The Mirror Has Two Faces. Nevertheless, the Finest Actress winner that evening was first-time nominee Juliette Binoche for her efficiency in The English Affected person, which additionally received Finest Image.
The Best Present On Earth Wins Finest Image
Steven Spielberg has cited director Cecil B. DeMille’s The Best Present on Earth as an early affect on his curiosity in filmmaking. Nevertheless, most trendy audiences and critics are baffled by the truth that this drama, going down on the circus, was voted Finest Image on the 1953 Academy Awards.
Robert Donat Wins Finest Actor
In a Finest Actor Oscar class that additionally included Clark Gable in Gone With the Wind and Jimmy Stewart in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, the winner turned out to be Robert Donat for Goodbye, Mr. Chips, surprisingly.