5 Oscar-Winning Movies That Were Even Worse Than Emilia Pérez

Winter in Hollywood is Oscar season, a time of discussion, evaluation, and anticipation of the awards. This year, we kick off the season with the cases in which the Academy clearly made a mistake in awarding its top prize – the Oscar for Best Picture.

Outraged that Denis Villeneuve was not nominated for Best Director for Dune: Part Two, Challengers did not receive a single nomination, but Emilia Pérez will compete in 13 nominations at once? These five cases may be even more unfair.

1. A Beautiful Mind, 2001

The Academy waited three years before showering the final Lord of the Rings movie with statuettes. Was it really not clear in 2001 that Peter Jackson had made a sensational film worthy of admiration?

And if the Academy wanted to wait until Frodo got to Orodruin, they shouldn't have given the top statuette to a biopic that changed the real life of mathematician John Nash beyond recognition.

Instead of A Beautiful Mind, Robert Altman's Gosford Park or Christopher Nolan 's Memento should have won. An amazing movie, yes, but does anyone remember and love it quite like the Lord of the Rings finale?

2. Out of Africa, 1985

In Out of Africa, Sydney Pollack did what seemed to be impossible. He hired the most charismatic actors – Robert Redford and Meryl Streep – and made a boring movie with them.

The Academy was so amazed by this achievement that they named Out of Africa the best picture of the year. But the award should have gone to Terry Gilliam's Brazil or Steven Spielberg 's The Color Purple.

3. The English Patient, 1996

Anthony Minghella's The English Patient is one of the first films that comes to mind when thinking about the unfair distribution of Oscars. This large-scale but impassible period romance took home ten statuettes, while the brilliant Fargo and the excellent Shine got just two and one, respectively.

And then there were such potential contenders as Lars von Trier's Breaking the Waves and Trainspotting, both of which are now held in much higher esteem than The English Patient by both critics and audiences.

4. Forrest Gump, 1994

This movie about a guy from Alabama was a big event in many ways – it gave us several popular quotes, and it also made investors an incredible amount of money for a film of this genre.

But now even the creators of Forrest Gump would admit that 1994 was the year of Pulp Fiction. If the academics wanted to point out something kinder, they had The Shawshank Redemption, which is now often listed as the best Hollywood film.

5. Shakespeare in Love, 1998

There are mistakes, there are snubs, and there are outright slaps in the face. This is the "award" that Saving Private Ryan received in 1999.

Yes, Spielberg won an Oscar for directing, but the best movie of the year was not Elizabeth, not The Thin Red Line, not Life is Beautiful, not The Truman Show, but a postmodern reworking of Shakespeare's tragedy - at least that's what fans believe. Although John Madden's movie is not that bad – just not Oscar-level.