Oscars: Most Controversial Winners, From ‘Crash’ to ‘Green Book’

Will Smith Wins Best Actor Right After the Slap

Will Smith’s best actor victory for “King Richard” was not supposed to be controversial. Then came the infamous slap. Smith took to the Oscars stage and slapped Chris Rock across the face while the latter was presenting the best documentary feature category. Best actor had not yet been announced, meaning Smith would win as the industry and the entire Oscars viewership remained stunned and confused over the slap. Some attendees gave Smith a standing ovation when his name was called, while others sat appalled. The Academy earned backlash for allowing Smith to remain in the theater and accept his Oscar, with AMPAS president Janet Yang later admitting the organization dropped the ball by waiting too long to respond.

“I’m sure you all remember we experienced an unprecedented event at the Oscars,” Yang said at the 2023 Oscars Nominees Luncheon. “What happened onstage was fully unacceptable and the response from our organization was inadequate. We learned from this that the Academy must be fully transparent and accountable in our actions, and particularly in times of crisis you must act swiftly, compassionately and decisively for ourselves and for our industry. You should and can expect no less form us going forward.”

‘Crash’ Wins Best Picture Over ‘Brokeback Mountain’

Ang Lee’s acclaimed romance drama “Brokeback Mountain” was the critical favorite for best picture heading into the 2006 Oscars. “Brokeback” won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival before claiming top prizes at the Golden Globes and the BAFTAs, but Paul Haggis’ divisive “Crash” stole some of its thunder with a crucial ensemble cast win at the Screen Actors Guild Awards. As the Oscars drew closer, reports of homophobia among the Academy’s old guard surfaced and led many pundits to wonder if “Brokeback” could stick the landing. Actors and Academy members such as Ernest Borgnine and Tony Curtis spoke out against the film, both saying John Wayne would despise the movie because of its gay cowboys. Lo and behold, “Crash” prevailed over “Brokeback Mountain” in one of the most controversial best picture wins in Oscars history. Critics still ask if “Crash” is the worst best picture winner.

‘Green Book’ Wins Best Picture Over ‘Roma’

“Crash” was widely considered the worst best picture winner of the 21st century until Peter Farrelly’s “Green Book” took home the Oscars’ top prize at the 91st Academy Awards. “Green Book,” a sanitized biographical drama about Black jazz pianist Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali, who won the Oscar for supporting actor) and his white driver and bodyguard Frank “Tony Lip” Vallelonga (Viggo Mortensen, nominated for best actor), prevailed over “Roma,” Alfonso Cuarón’s acclaimed drama that won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and best picture at the BAFTAs. “Roma” won Oscars for director, cinematography and international feature from 10 total nominations (the most nominated film at the 2019 Oscars along with “The Favourite”), but Academy members’ alleged opposition toward giving the top Oscar to a Netflix movie reportedly impacted the drama in the best picture race.

‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ Wins Best Editing

It wasn’t necessarily a surprise that “Bohemian Rhapsody” won the Oscar for film editing, as the movie prevailed at the ACE Eddie Awards prior to the 2019 Oscars, but the victory led to a considerable amount of backlash from moviegoers and film critics who believed the Queen biopic was one of the worst edited films of the year. A video essay released after the Oscars detailed how sloppily edited “Bohemian Rhapsody” was, and it went viral with over 3 million views. One scene from the film, in which the band meets with their eventual manager John Reid (Aidan Gillen), was especially criticized for its frenetic over-editing. Even the film’s editor, John Ottman, eventually derided the scene, telling The Washington Post, “Whenever I see it, I want to put a bag over my head. Because that’s not my aesthetic. If there’s ever an extended version of the film where I can put a couple scenes back, I will recut that scene!”

‘Life of Pi’ Wins Best Cinematography

Ang Lee’s “Life of Pi” was awarded the cinematography prize at the 85th Academy Awards, but the win for director of photography Claudio Miranda ignited controversy as the film was largely constructed using digital effects. The Oscar win led to many conversations about the intersection between cinematography and visual effects. “Life of Pi” was also awarded the Oscar for visual effects. Following the 2013 Academy Awards, veteran cinematographer Christopher Doyle slammed the “Life of Pi” win by saying, “What a total fucking piece of shit. Let me be blunt….What the fuck are you talking about cinematography? I think it’s a fucking insult to cinematography…That’s not cinematography…You’ve lost cinema. This is not cinema and it’s not cinematography.”

Rami Malek Wins Best Actor Over Bradley Cooper

Rami Malek dominated the 2019 Oscar season by winning best actor honors from the Golden Globes, SAG Awards and BAFTAs for his performance as Freddie Mercury in the Queen biographical drama “Bohemian Rhapsody,” which made his Oscar win one of the biggest locks at the 91st Academy Awards. Even so, Malek’s performance divided film critics all season long and the film itself was largely panned. Many pundits believed Bradley Cooper deserved the prize, not only for giving one of his best acting performances in “A Star Is Born,” but also because the Academy snubbed him in the best director race. Cooper created an original character that permeated the cultural zeitgeist (everyone knows the name Jackson Maine), but Oscar voters still went their usual route of honoring a prosthetics-laden performance for a real-life figure.

Marisa Tomei Wins Best Supporting Actress

Not many Oscar pundits were expecting Marisa Tomei to win the Oscar for supporting actress at the 1993 Oscars. The Academy rarely honors comedic performances (Tomei’s role in “My Cousin Vinny” is a bawdy comedic delight), and Tomei failed to garner nominations at any of the major pre-cursor awards ceremonies. “Enchanted April” actor Joan Plowright won at the Golden Globes and “Damage” star Miranda Richardson won the BAFTA, and both actors were nominated against Tomei at the Oscars. Following Tomei’s shocking victory, rumors surfaced that her name was called by mistake and that she didn’t actually win the award. However, the Academy has long fell in love with young breakthrough female actors and Tomei certainly fit the bill with her vivacious turn in “My Cousin Vinny.”

‘Shakespeare in Love’ Wins Best Picture Over ‘Saving Private Ryan’

John Madden’s “Shakespeare in Love” triumphing over Steven Spielberg’s war epic “Saving Private Ryan” for best picture at the 1999 Oscars remains one of the most controversial upsets in Academy Awards history. The 11-time Oscar nominee and Golden Globe winner “Saving Private Ryan” was the presumed frontrunner, although “Shakespeare in Love” had taken the BAFTA and “Life Is Beautiful” claimed the SAG ensemble prize. It wasn’t a clean best picture sweep for Spielberg’s film going into the Oscars, and Harvey Weinstein’s ruthless awards season campaigning for Miramax-backed “Shakespeare in Love” ended up giving it the edge over “Saving Private Ryan.” The industry was shocked, and awards season was forever changed.

‘Driving Miss Daisy’ Wins Best Picture

“Driving Miss Daisy” was the big victor at the 62nd Academy Awards in 1990, winning best picture and best actress (Jessica Tandy) from nine total nominations. The film faced competition from BAFTA winner “Dead Poets Society” and Golden Globe winner “Born on the Fourth of July,” but the reason “Driving Miss Daisy’s” victory proved controversial was because it won in a year when the Academy mostly shut out Spike Lee’s magnum opus “Do the Right Thing.” Lee’s film only got a nomination in the original screenplay race. That the Academy rejected “Do the Right Thing” for best picture and gave the prize to a more sanitized look at race relations led to backlash, which was already brewing because of the “Do the Right Thing” snub in the first place. While presenting at the 1990s Oscars, Kim Basinger told the audience about the best picture race: “We’ve got five great films here, and they’re great for one reason: They tell the truth. But there is one film missing from this list that deserves to be on it because, ironically, it might tell the biggest truth of all. And that’s ‘Do the Right Thing.’”

Tom Hooper Wins Best Director Over David Fincher

Tom Hooper’s “The King Speech” proved a controversial winner at the 83rd Academy Awards, winning the top prizes for best picture and best director over the far-more acclaimed “The Social Network” and David Fincher. Facebook drama “The Social Network” is widely regarded as one of the best movies of the 21st century, so the Academy’s decision to award the more paint-by-the-numbers historical drama “The King’s Speech” with its top prize remains a point of contention among cinephiles. Some pundits hoped Fincher would still take the directing prize even if “The King’s Speech” claimed best picture (in a similar way to Ang Lee winning director without “Brokeback Mountain” taking picture), but the Academy was still very much in its old school lane of awarding the same film with its top two prizes.

‘Forrest Gump’ Wins Best Picture Over ‘Pulp Fiction’

Quentin Tarantino had to settle with winning original screenplay for “Pulp Fiction” at the 67th Academy Awrds, where Robert Zemeckis’ “Forrest Gump” owned the ceremony with six total wins and top victories for best picture and best director. History has proved far kinder to “Pulp Fiction,” Tarantino’s Palme d’Or winner that shocked audiences and came to define the rebellious indie spirit of 1990s U.S. cinema. “Forrest Gump” has waned in critical popularity over the years, but its crowd-pleasing nature proved more attractive to Oscar voters in 1995 than Tarantino’s more radical blend of violence and comedy.

Roman Polanski Wins Best Director

Roman Polanski was awarded best director for “The Pianist” at the 75th Academy Awards, but the filmmaker was not in attendance as he fled the United States decades earlier after pleading guilty to statutory rape. Polanski was found guilty in 1977 of having sexual intercourse with a minor and served 42 days behind bars. Polanski was ready to accept a plea bargain that would have freed him from additional prison time, but he fled the country after learning the judge in his case didn’t plan to accept the agreement. The filmmaker has never returned to the U.S. In the midst of the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements in 2018, the Academy expelled Polanski from its membership for not meeting the organizations’ standards of conduct.

Kevin Costner Wins Best Director Over Martin Scorsese

Kevin Costner’s Western drama “Dances With Wolves” dominated the 63rd Academy Awards with wins for best picture and best director from 12 total nominations. Overall, “Dances With Wolves” ended the ceremony with seven Oscars. Costner’s wins in the top two categories would’ve been far less controversial had Martin Scorsese’s gangster masterpiece “Goodfellas” not also been nominated. What made Scorsese’s snub for best director painful was not just that “Goodfellas” was one of his most defining directorial achievements, but also that Scorsese had yet to win an Oscar at the time. Even the Academy’s penchant for honoring “long overdue” nominees didn’t apply to Scorsese this year. Scorsese would have to wait until “The Departed” to win his director Oscar.

Robert Redford Wins Best Director Over Martin Scorsese

Martin Scorsese could never catch a break at the Oscars. Although “Raging Bull” is considered one of Scorsese’s crowning directorial achievements, the filmmaker lost the directing Oscar to Robert Redford for “Ordinary People.” Redford had an irresistible narrative in his corner. An acting icon who at the time only had one Oscar nomination to his name (best actor for “The Sting”), Redford redefined his career with feature directorial debut “Ordinary People” and the Academy just couldn’t ignore him. The emotional family drama won four Oscars, including best picture. Scorsese would just have to keep waiting.

‘The English Patient’ Wins Best Picture Over ‘Fargo’

Anthony Minghella’s romance epic “The English Patient” was the big winner at the 69th Academy Awards with top prizes for picture and director, but many pundits felt the Academy made the safer choice in selecting “The English Patient” over the Coen Brothers’ “Fargo” for best picture. “Fargo” lacked the sweeping historical scope that made “The English Patient” more traditional Oscar bait, but there’s a reason “Fargo” has stood the test of time and that’s because of the Coen Bros.’ idiosyncratic black humor. “Fargo” felt like no other movie nominated at the 1997 Oscars, but the Academy was a lot more resistant in the 1990s to spotlighting something fresh for best picture than it is today.

Robert Benton Wins Best Director Over Francis Ford Coppola

“Kramer vs. Kramer” is a searing divorce drama that was awarded many of the top categories at the 52nd Academy Awards. No one is going to argue against “Kramer vs. Kramer” landing Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep wins for actor and supporting actress, respectively, as the movie is first and foremost a powerhouse acting showcase. But “Kramer vs. Kramer” for picture and director? That’s a different story considering the film beat out Francis Ford Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now,” widely considered one of the greatest movies ever made. Even Bob Fosse’s dazzling vision for “All That Jazz” should’ve made him a stronger director choice than Robert Benton. Perhaps the Academy felt Coppola had his time in the Oscars’ spotlight with “The Godfather,” but failing to recognize “Apocalypse Now” remains a controversial snub.

Marlon Brando Declines Best Actor for ‘The Godfather’

One of the most controversial Oscar moments took place at the 45th Academy Awards, where Marlon Brando was named the winner in the best actor race thanks to his performance in “The Godfather.” Brando declined the award and sent up Apache actress and activist Sacheen Littlefeather in his place so that she could read a speech denouncing the “poor treatment of Native Americans in the film industry.” Littlefeather added, “I’m representing Marlon Brando this evening, and he has asked me to tell you in a very long speech which I cannot share with you presently, because of time, but I will be glad to share with the press afterwards, that he very regretfully cannot accept this very generous award.” Brando’s decision garnered both cheers and boos from the Oscars audience.

George C. Scott Declines Best Actor for ‘Patton’

George C. Scott became the first actor in Oscars history to decline his Academy Award when he was named the winner for best actor at the 43rd Academy Awards thanks to his leading role in “Patton.” Scott infamously called the Oscars “a two-hour meat parade” and “a public display with contrived suspense for economic reasons.” The actor requested that his name not even be included on the best actor ballot during the voting process. In a telegram sent to the Academy, Scott wrote, “I respectfully request that you withdraw my name from the list of nominees. My request is in no way intended to denigrate my colleagues.”

‘Suicide Squad’ Wins an Oscar

On the list of Oscar winners with the worst reviews, David Ayer’s maligned comic book tentpole “Suicide Squad” might just be at the top. The movie won the makeup and hairstyling prize at the 89th Academy Awards, besting “A Man Called Ove” and “Star Trek Beyond.” The win was during a period when the Oscars only nominated three movies for the makeup prize. The academy was expanded to five nominees starting with the 92nd Academy Awards. No one would argue against “Suicide Squad” having strong makeup work (Margot Robbie’s comics-accurate Harley Quinn, specifically), but the fact that Ayer’s film could accurately be called “Oscar winner ‘Suicide Squad’” left many cinephiles riled up.

‘Spectre’ Wins Best Original Song

When Adele won the Oscar for original song with “Skyfall,” she became the first artist to take home the Academy Award in the category for a Bond movie. Adele apparently opened the door for Sam Smith to coast right through, as Smith’s Bond song “Writings on the Wall” from “Spectre” was awarded the Oscar for original song at the 88th Academy Awards despite being widely considered among Bond fans to be one of the franchise’s weakest tracks. The Weeknd’s “Fifty Shades of Grey” infectious pop song “Earned It” could have been a fresh change of pace for the Academy, while Lady Gaga’s powerful “Til It Happens to You” from the sexual assault documentary “The Hunting Grown” was considered another stronger option at the 2016 Oscars.

‘My Octopus Teacher’ Wins Best Documentary

When “My Octopus Teacher” won the documentary prize at the 93rd Academy Awards, many pundits deduced that it won not for being the best non-fiction feature in contention but for being the most widely-seen one. “My Octopus Teacher” had Netflix in its corner, which made it more widely accessible for a longer period of time than fellow nominees like “Time” and “The Mole Agent.” Critics were on “Time’s” side. Garrett Bradley’s astonishing documentary was named one of the best films of the year by several publications, but all of the film’s artistic flares were no match for the straightforward approach of “My Octopus Teacher.”