Sorry, “Crash.” Sorry, Anora. We’re correcting some of the biggest mistakes made in the Oscar Best Picture race over the years.
After 97 years of announcing Best Picture at the Oscars, the Academy sometimes makes mistakes.
Surprisingly, their assessments in recent years have been fairly accurate. In 2020, Parasite became the first foreign language film in Oscar history to win the prestigious category. Inspirational selections followed, including “CODA” in 2022 and “Everything Everywhere All at Once” in 2023. And as much as we love Barbie, we could have made far worse choices in 2024 than Oppenheimer.
Sometimes things get a little more chaotic. Remember Envelope Gate? At the 2017 Academy Awards, La La Land won Best Picture, but when the envelope was checked, it was revealed that the winning film was Moonlight, so it didn’t win the award. It’s as if the movie gods had intervened to ensure that the right movie was respected and not one about a man trying to save jazz.
Or it could be a situation like the 2019 awards show, where “Green Book” won an Oscar but left some people with a bad taste.
“The referee made a bad decision,” Spike Lee said. Well, it wasn’t the first time.
Before another film joins the hallowed ranks at the 98th Academy Awards on March 15 (ABC and Hulu, 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT), we’re revisiting past Best Picture winners and the films that should have won them.
1942
I won: “How green was my valley?”
Should have won: “Citizen Kane”
Perhaps the most egregious mistake occurred relatively early in Oscar history, when John Ford’s coal-country drama, which won five Academy Awards and won the solo screenplay for Caine, was rated better than Orson Welles’s epic about an eccentric media mogul, widely considered the best film of all time.
1953
I won: “The Greatest Show on Earth”
Should have won: “Midday High”
Despite an all-star cast that includes Charlton Heston, Dorothy Lamour and Jimmy Stewart, “The Greatest Show” is essentially a 152-minute circus commercial. they are must That’s because this category also included High Noon, one of the best westerns from the genre’s golden age, starring Gary Cooper as a cool lawman.
1974
I won: “Sting”
Should have won: “exorcist”
Both films were blockbusters with 10 nominations, and Robert Redford and Paul Newman’s ragtime-style con-man exploits were a safe choice. The Exorcist is a true masterpiece, a horror masterpiece about faith and innocence that has terrified audiences for over 50 years.
1980
I won: “Kramer vs. Kramer”
Should have won: “Apocalypse of Hell”
Not to take anything away from its harrowing look at Dustin Hoffman’s divorce from Meryl Streep, Apocalypse Now was an operatic, epic episode that, unlike previous war films, delved into the physical and other horrors endemic to the battlefield.
1982
I won: “Chariot of Fire”
Should have won: “Raiders of the Lost Ark”
One is the true story of an Olympic athlete that we still remember because of its catchy theme song. The other is a thunderous ode to the adventure serials of yesteryear, about an adventurous archaeologist searching for the Ark of the Covenant, which has taken pop culture by storm. And if Raiders had won, things would have changed for the blockbuster.
1986
I won: “From Africa”
Should have won: “The color purple”
Robert Redford and Meryl Streep’s epic romance set in colonial Kenya won over Oscar voters, but not critics who gave “Africa” mixed reviews. The Academy was deceived by not recognizing Whoopi Goldberg’s Golden Globe-winning performance, Oprah Winfrey’s notable Hollywood debut, and Steven Spielberg’s honest exploration of racism, sexism, and domestic violence in the early 20th century.
1990
I won: “Driving Miss Daisy”
Should have won: “Field of Dreams”
Jessica Tandy and Morgan Freeman’s heartwarming drama about an elderly white woman and her African-American driver beat out “Born on Independence Day,” “My Left Foot” and “Dead Poets Society.” There are great movies all over the place, but none quite like Kevin Costner’s corn-fed fantasy about the wonders of baseball and, yes, dreams.
1995
I won: “Forest Gump”
Should have won: “pulp fiction”
Tom Hanks literally running through history in the all-too-serious “Gump” was, at least at the time, the life of the Oscars. Director Quentin Tarantino’s genre mashup Pulp Fiction is an ultra-violent and narratively complex cultural phenomenon that was not only the best film of the year, but arguably the best film of the entire decade.
1997
I won: “The English Patient”
Should have won: “Fargo”
Anthony Minghella’s romantic World War II drama is a great film, but it tests the viewer’s patience over its three hours. Meanwhile, “Fargo,” the Coen brothers’ offbeat black comedy about murder and dark insanity in snowy Minnesota, spawned a television series and fandom.
1999
I won: “Shakespeare in Love”
Should have won: “Saving Private Ryan”
“Dunkirk” and “1917” also tried to immerse audiences in the midst of the horrors of war, but “Saving Private Ryan” did it best – and no less, it starred “American Father” Tom Hanks. “Shakespeare” had an interesting concept as a reference experimental biopic, but there’s no need to upend another Spielberg classic.
2005
I won: “Million Dollar Baby”
Should have won: “The Aviator”
Martin Scorsese would go on to score a big Oscar win two years later with The Departed, but that should have happened with The Aviator as well. The Howard Hughes biopic that guided Leonardo DiCaprio’s bizarre descent into madness is comparable to Clint Eastwood’s above-average boxing drama with a super-downer ending.
2006
I won: “crash”
Should have won: “Brokeback Mountain”
Director Paul Haggis’ all-star drama about LA’s racial tensions has been criticized for years as an Oscar flop, with mixed reviews and complaints about stereotyping. And that’s especially true considering Ang Lee’s timeless and heartfelt “Brokeback” is right up there, with Jake Gyllenhaal and the late Heath Ledger playing cowboys in forbidden love.
2011
I won: “The King’s Speech”
Should have won: “Black Swan”
The consensus at the time was that “The King’s Speech,” a period drama in which Colin Firth’s King George VI overcomes his troublesome stutter, upset David Fincher’s Facebook-vaunted biopic “The Social Network.” But flying above them both was the polarizing “Swan,” Darren Aronofsky and Natalie Portman’s strange and wonderful portrait of a beleaguered ballerina.
2019
I won: “Green Book”
Should have won: “Black Klansman”
Green Book is a great film with great acting, but on a night where many black voices were celebrated, the top award went to a film that depicts race relations from a white perspective. But Spike Lee’s “BlacKkKlansman” would have been an ideal choice. A funny and thought-provoking crime drama that delves into America’s racist past and reflects our own turbulent times.
2025
I won: “Anora”
Should have won: “Brutalist”
“Anora” was the center of attention and the sassy Gen Z “Pretty Woman” who made a big splash at the Oscars. But really? “The Brutalist” is a glorious, expansive postwar epic about the immigrant experience and the toxicity of the American dream that is far more meaningful and challenging than another Cinderella story.
