Comingsoon.net has compiled a collection of the most buzz-worthy and controversy-laden Oscar winners from past years. Take a look at our picks in the gallery below!
Easily the biggest night of the year for filmmakers and fans alike, the Academy Awards roll around every February to honor the artistic and technical achievements of the previous year’s films. Held by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Oscars are world renowned and internationally recognized as the biggest award a person in the film industry could dream of.
As a result, the ceremony comes with its fair share of snubs and flubs. No ceremony is complete without its huge controversy, from a monologue joke that goes too far or an acceptance speech that takes the audience by surprise to a film getting robbed in exchange for one that didn’t deserve to win. In its nearly 90 years, some winners remain more controversial than others.
Controversial Oscar winners
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Crash (2004)
Not to be confused with David Cronenberg’s movie of the same name, 2004’s Crash is considered by the masses to be the worst Best Picture winner ever. A sprawling epic about the war on drugs and the lives impacted by addiction, the movie hits all the wrong beats and makes all the wrong arguments—yet, for whatever reason, it resonated with the voters and took the grand prize.
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Driving Miss Daisy (1989)
When Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing lost to Driving Miss Daisy in 1989, you can be sure that people were not happy. Like Green Book, the movie simplifies and glosses over race relations in a way that ends up doing more harm than good.
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Green Book (2018)
The most recent entry on the list, 2018’s Green Book could be argued over for ages. Plenty of Academy voters seemed to think the film was the best of the year, but there are also countless people who consider the film a regressive, misinformed, and poorly-executed take on race relations in 20th century America.
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Moonlight (2016)
2016’s Moonlight was more or less an underdog at the Academy Awards. It was up against La La Land, a musical tribute to the genre’s Old Hollywood roots that was slated to sweep. At first, it did—until the presenters realized that they’d said the wrong title. In the end, Moonlight won Best Picture.
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Ordinary People (1980)
While there’s not really anything too bad about Robert Redford’s directorial debut Ordinary People, the fact that it stole the Best Picture win from The Coal Miner’s Daughter, The Elephant Man, or Raging Bull cements its status as one of the most controversial Oscar wins ever.
