Since 1929, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has been giving out the Oscars. Today, these awards have become the most prestigious honor in the film industry, and winning one can potentially alter the actor’s career for good. However, every now and then—in fact, one might even say often—general audiences universally agree that the Academy got something wrong.
Whether it’s a bad movie winning Best Picture, an actor winning an acting award over a much more deserving peer, or the trashiest film winning a random Best Makeup Oscar, there have been plenty of occasions over the years when people have agreed that the Academy messed up.These are the most unpopular Oscar wins(including some of the most hated Oscar winners), ranked from “some people might defend this” to what is nothing short of a stain on the Academy’s reputation.
15’The King’s Speech' (2010)
Award: Best Picture
It’s only occasionally that the film that the public consensus agrees is the best among the Best Picture nominees actually goes on to win Best Picture.In a year as stacked with exceptional nominees as 2010—likeThe Social Network,Black Swan, andInception, to mention but a few—it came as all the more of a disappointment whenThe King’s Speechwas the film that took home the big award of the night.
It’s a fine period drama with some excellent performances and solid production qualities. It’s not because it’s a bad film thatits Oscar win has aged poorly, but rather because it’s such a tonally dull and artistically flat movie that beat out such adventurous, ambitious films. People sometimes give it more hate than it deserves, but it’s nevertheless undeniable: This is one of the most unpopular Best Picture wins of the 21st century.
The King’s Speech
14’Emilia Pérez' (2024)
Award: Best Original Song for “El Mal”
Widely considered one ofthe worst Oscar-nominated movies of all time,Emilia Pérez’s 13 record nominations (which made it tied as the 2nd most nominated film in the awards' history) were touted as one of the biggest fiascos in recent Oscars memory. It was inevitable that it would winsomething. Indeed, it won two awards.
One of those awards was a Best Original Song victory that went toClémont Ducol,Camille, and director-screenwriterJacques Audiardfor “El Mal,” one ofthe least catchy, most nonsensical, most poorly sung tracksthat have ever won the award. It was very evident that voters just went with the momentum that the song had garnered throughout awards season; because, had they actually listened closely (and read the bizarre lyrics on Google Translate, perhaps), they would have noticed that “El Mal” is a song that makes next to zero sense. Needless to say, the public wasn’t happy.
Emilia Pérez
Emilia Pérez follows Rita, an underestimated lawyer working at a prominent law firm focused on freeing criminals rather than pursuing justice. She is recruited by the leader of a criminal organization, prompting a complex journey that challenges her principles as she navigates the morally ambiguous world of her new employer.
13’Everything Everywhere All at Once' (2022)
Award: Best Supporting Actress for Jamie Lee Curtis
More often than one might like, Oscar voters grant an actor an award not really because they delivered the best performance of the year in their respective category, but rather as a celebration of their career and trajectory. Such wins are typically monikered “legacy Oscars” or “career wins,” andJamie Lee Curtis' victory forEverything Everywhere All at Onceundeniably fits the bill.
Everything Everywhereis one ofthe greatest Best Picture winners of the 21st century, but Curtis isn’t even the best supporting actress of the film itself—that title would have to go toStephanie Hsu, who was also nominated for her work. The public consensus on her victory immediately after he won seemed to be that her peers had just decided to reward her for her lifetime achievements, rather than praise the actual performance itself. Just a few years after the event,Academy voters are reportedlyalready regretting their decision, apparently mocking each other with “remember how you voted for Jamie Lee Curtis?”
Everything Everywhere All at Once
12’Harry and Tonto' (1974)
Award: Best Leading Actor for Art Carney
Art Carneywas a phenomenal star, butspeaking of legacy Oscars, there are very few more noteworthy or infamous than Carney’s victory forHarry and Tontoon the same year thatJack NicholsonandAl Pacinowere nominated forChinatownandThe Godfather Part II, respectively.
Although it’s sometimes unjustly maligned, since it’s undoubtedlya phenomenally powerful performance full of subtle emotion, it also can’t be denied that Nicholson or Pacino would have been far more deserving and timeless wins. It’s true that Carney’s victory should perhaps not be as unpopular as it is, but it’s also true that saying he shouldn’t have won that year isn’t exactly an unfair sentiment.
Harry and Tonto
11’King Richard' (2021)
Award: Best Leading Actor for Will Smith
Every year, more than a few movies come out that are very obvious Oscar bait; sometimes, they are actually pretty good. Such is the case ofKing Richard, a biopic aboutRichard Williams, who coached his daughtersVenusandSerenainto tennis superstardom. From the get-go, it was clear that this was an Oscar vehicle forWill Smith, who had been trying to get on that Dolby Theatre stage for years.
Unfortunately, the first time that Smith did step on that stage was when he infamously slappedChris Rockfor having told a joke aboutJada Pinkett Smith. Later in the night, he won that coveted Oscar and even got a standing ovation, buta moment that should have felt triumphant and cathartic instead felt all too sour.King Richardis one ofthe best sports movies of the 2020s, and Smith’s performance in it is admittedly phenomenal, but because his win will forever be tied with his baffling public display of violence, it’s a victory that immediately became one of the most unpopular in the Academy’s history.
King Richard
10’The Broadway Melody' (1929)
The Broadway Melodyis the lowest-rated Best Picture Oscar winner on both IMDb (where it has a 5.6 out of 10) and Letterboxd (where it has 2.4 out of 5 stars), so it’s no shocker that it’s aged asone of the worst-ever recipients of the prestigious award. It follows a pair of sisters from the vaudeville circuit trying to make it big on Broadway, but matters of the heart complicate their ambitions.
This movie is a valuable historical artifact, being one of the first musicals ever made (The Jazz Singer, the first-ever talkie, had only come out less than a couple of years prior). Alas, historical value does not a good movie make.The Broadway Melodyis one ofthe worst movie musicals in history, with a nonsensical story and lousy dialogue joining together musical numbers that are only semi-entertaining.
The Broadway Melody
9’The Nutty Professor' (1996)
Award: Best Makeup
It feels wild to apply the term “Oscar-winning” to a movie likeThe Nutty Professor, but here we are. It’s not the worst ofEddie Murphybombs, but this slapstick comedy about an overweight and good-hearted professor taking a chemical that turns him slim but obnoxious is definitely no masterpiece.Murphy plays multiple characters in it, and that’s pretty much all it has going for it.
It sometimes feels that a Best Makeup Oscar nod (or even win, as in this case) is where bad Oscar-nominated films go to die. Indeed, this is pretty much universally agreed to be one of the worst movies that have ever won an Oscar, and as such, its Makeup victory isn’t exactly a cause for joy for pretty much anyone. It’s not like it didn’t have any competition, either, withStar Trek: First Contactalso being in contention that year.
The Nutty Professor
8’Cimarron' (1931)
Since the Oscars were just beginning to find their footing in the 1930s, the Academy rewarded plenty of duds during that decade. But while many of those wins have been forgotten, there’s one that sticks out like a sore thumb as theabsolute worst Best Picture winner of the ’30s.Cimarronis a Western about a newspaper editor settling in an Oklahoma boom town with his reluctant wife at the end of the nineteenth century.
Even setting aside its blatant misogyny and racism,Cimarronwould still bean awfully boring movie with stilted dialogue and unappealing characters. It’s hard to ignore its offensive stereotypes, though, so all of its bad qualities come together to form a pretty terrible flop whose Best Picture win is baffling, even considering what kinds of so-so movies won the award throughout the 1930s.
Award: Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling
As is the case withThe Nutty Professor—arguably even more so—it’s beyond stupefying that the term “Oscar winner” applies toSuicide Squad, one of the DCEU’s most embarrassing flops and one ofthe worst superhero movies of the 2010s. It’s about a secret government agency that recruits some of the world’s most dangerous incarcerated supervillains to form a defensive task force, whose first mission becomes to save the world from the apocalypse.
Suicide Squadis pretty terrible in every sense imaginable. If there’s one thing about it that’s sort of redeemable, however, it’s the makeup work. It was precisely this element that earned the movie a Best Makeup Oscar, even ifStar Trek Beyondwas arguably a far more deserving winner. Moreover, the mere fact of awarding a movie like this with one of the most prestigious awards in the industry should feel icky to any movie fan.
6’Emilia Pérez' (2024)
Award: Best Supporting Actress for Zoe Saldaña
IfEmilia Pérez’s Original Song win is unpopular, thenZoe Saldaña’s Best Supporting Actress win for the film is borderline inflammatory. Saldaña is an incredibly talented actress, the only person who stars in all three of the highest-grossing movies of all time, which is precisely the reason why she deserved better than the atrociously written material that Jacques Audiard and his co-writers gave her.
Firstly, this is clear category fraud, as anyone who has actually subjected themselves toEmilia Pérezwill know that Saldaña is very clearly the film’s lead. Secondly,as solid of a performance as it is, it’s not really Oscar-worthy material, particularly when a nominee as strong asAriana Grande’s work inWickedwas right there. Saldaña was also unable to steer clear of the movie’s many controversies in the end, asher offensively tone-deaf backstage commentsafter her victory prove. Because of all that, this isthe worst Supporting Actress win of the 2020sso far, and it isn’t really a competition.
