Undeserving Best Picture Winners: Which Was The Biggest Oscar Upset? (PHOTOS)

Most of the Oscar best picture buzz has focused on an ex-spouse face-off between 'Avatar' and 'The Hurt Locker,' but the instant runoff system that will decide the winner among this year's nominees could make way for a surprise 'Inglourious Basterds' win.

It wouldn't be the first time the Academy awarded a 'best picture' that wasn't widely considered the best. Here are some of the bigger "Best Picture" upsets in Oscar history. Vote on if they were worthy winners or should have stayed in their seats.

Check the captions to read the movies these winners beat - like how "Rocky" beat "Taxi Driver" and "Crash" beat "Brokeback Mountain."

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'Rocky,' 1977

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A great movie, but up against the possibly greater 'Taxi Driver.'

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A great movie, but up against the possibly greater 'Taxi Driver.'

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This Oscar Winner

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Top 5 Most Undeserving Best Pictures

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Top 5 Most Undeserving Best Pictures

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Comments

[FB40Glazyrin]

08:33 PM on 04/06/2010

Forrest Gump one of the my favorite movies.

[FB40Glazyrin]

08:27 PM on 04/06/2010

Rocky is my best hero

[ChrisDWard]

02:56 PM on 03/20/2010

I thought "No Country for Old Men" was a good movie, but didn't think it should win best picture. "How Green Was My Valley" was a wonderful movie. I'm also one of those who doesn't believe "Citizen Kane" was the greatest movie ever made. It was good, and innovative for sure, but not best of all time.

[RealCalGal]

12:46 AM on 03/06/2010

I thought Breaking Away DID win an Oscar.

[RealCalGal]

01:28 AM on 03/06/2010

My bad, I guess. I could have SWORN ... I REMEMBER it as the little indie that did.

What a shock.

[RealCalGal]

12:40 AM on 03/06/2010

Titanic. James Cameron is "king of the world."

A tough year, no doubt. Like Avatar, Titanic was a wonderful imagination by James Cameron. In Titantic, he imagined the boat; in Avatar he imagined the planet.

Trouble is, he couldn't care less about acting, character, story ...

So this was an upset, and so it will be on Sunday if Avatar takes home the statue.

[Michael A929]

01:30 PM on 03/05/2010

Hey, I didn't flip through all the pages, but has anyone mentioned Deer Hunter? I defy anybody to sit through that again without having his brains leak out his earholes . . .

[RealCalGal]

12:44 AM on 03/06/2010

Loved Deer Hunter. Actually did. Maybe it was because of the emotional turmoil I was put into because of the War in Vietnam, but was really moved by it. (Love may not be the right word.) Have seen it since and still find it very, very good. What a cast! What acting! What a particular time and place! How American!

[retrorio]

04:14 AM on 03/03/2010

This is a good list of films which should not have won. But the Academy Awards history is full of this kind of injustice, which is why I don't bother to watch any more. Some great actors and actresses never won for an actual role: Cary Grant, Barbara Stanwyck, Carole Lombard, Montgomery Clift, Greta Garbo, Buster Keaton, and so many others. Great directors like Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles, Howard Hawks, Charlie Chaplin, Stanley Kubrick never won...the list goes on. It's almost a badge of honor NOT to win. Look at Martin Scorsese: how long did it take them to finally honor him when he should have won for "Taxi Driver" or "Raging Bull"?

[Rand]

01:55 PM on 03/05/2010

Peter O'Toole - Seven nominations!

[slobone]

09:34 PM on 03/02/2010

Technically the biggest upset was Driving Miss Daisy, because it was the only BP winner since 1932 not to even have been nominated for Best Director.

[foreignobserver]

08:58 AM on 03/02/2010

Saving Private Ryan has a fantastic beach landing scene....... then it wanters away into an unbelievable and pointless walk through the countryside. Not even close to a best film

[Lucky90503]

03:08 AM on 03/02/2010

Nice try, guys, but Miramax bought the Award Formerly Known As Best Picture for Shakespeare in Love that year along with the Best Acting Awards for Gwyneth Paltrow and Roberto Begnini, and the Best Supporting Actress Award for Judy Dench, for their performances in Miramax product. None of these awards were earned, deserved, or credible, not then and not now.

[phantom65]

02:29 AM on 03/02/2010

I didn't like the English Patient when I saw it in the theatre but I saw it on a sale bin for $3 and bought it. I've watched it about 6 times. It's a gorgeous movie, great cinematography and acting. I also loved Out of Africa and Ghandi. I like slow movies that spin a tale and focus on the characters.

[Zombeaver]

01:21 AM on 03/02/2010

I have a question for you: why are they re-making Death at a Funeral? The 2007 Frank Oz film was nearly perfect and quite possibly took ten years off of my life from laughing so hard. Instead of paying 10 bucks to see the re-tread in the theatre, rent the original for a buck.

I suppose if you haven't a creative bone in your body, a remake is all you can produce.

[Lucky90503]

04:47 PM on 03/01/2010

Is someone under the mistaken impression that the purpose of the Avademy Awards is to reward excellence in filmaking? Much like the Golden Globes party, the purpose of the Academy Awards is to promote Studio product. And when the Award Formey Known As Best Picture was given to Shakespere in Love over Saving Private Ryan, the Academy Awards lost their ability to be taken seriously.

[MC in LV]

04:27 PM on 03/01/2010

Shakespeare in Love was in no way, shape or form deserving of a win against Saving Private Ryan. Why do people have a fixation with the glorified, sanitized version of what they think jolly old England was like. People love their chick flicks in period costumes I guess. Gweneth still thinks she's a pom (and they can have her!)

That's what happens when the members of the academy let their teenage daughters cast their vote for them.

[granamica]

10:11 PM on 03/01/2010

Likewise, why is a film about the horrors of war an automatic shoe in? The first twenty minutes were staggering but then it was like a lot of other good but not great war films. Paths of Glory is my favorite of the genre. That was amazing...but no Oscar either.

[mkjohn1]

10:32 PM on 03/01/2010

I know, I think the first twenty minutes must have blown people away so much that they couldn't really concentrate on the rest of the movie...which was average, in my opinion.

Shakespeare in Love was a light, quirky, literate, romp with beautiful language and a fantastic story. It deserved the Oscar. All great movies must not be dark.

[Zombeaver]

01:13 AM on 03/02/2010

Both were good movies. The difference is that Saving Private Ryan was predictable and lacked imagination, like most of Spielberg's recent movies. It wasn't Jaws or Raiders or ET.

[stepper]

03:00 PM on 03/01/2010

The caption for "How Green Was My Valley" suggests what I've always suspected - many self-proclaimed "cinephiles" who are outraged that the film beat "Citizen Kane" never saw the movie.

[DR2]

01:05 AM on 03/02/2010

No, I disagree and I saw both films. Both were excellent, but in my view "Citizen Kane" was slightly better.
It would be interesting to have a film seminar discussing the question after everyone had seen both films. I'm sure it would be a spirited discussion.

[stepper]

10:20 AM on 03/05/2010

You disagree with what? I didn't say HGWMV was better, only that many who disparage it never saw it. I AGREE with your summation that both are excellent but CK is better. I do not consider the awarding of the best picture to HGWMV a travesty, like some listed above, and a couple that weren't (Rocky over Network, Shakespeare over Life is Beautiful).

[Rand]

01:58 PM on 03/05/2010

I've seen it, like it and own a copy

"Citizen Kane" is, in my opinion, a MUCH better movie

But ANY choice in ANY year is going to upset SOME movie lovers