5 Scandalous Oscar Winners That May or May Not Be Joined by Emilia Pérez in 2025

This year’s awards season has been a wild race so far, and the Oscars ceremony, now set to wrap it all up on March 2, might make history as one of the most scandal-inducing events throughout the Academy Awards entire existence.

Having kicked it off quite successfully at the Cannes Film Festival last year, Jacques Audiard’s criminal musical drama soon went into disgrace after being publicly slammed for giving a boost to the most vicious stereotypes about Mexico; the situation got even messier when the lead actress Karla Sofía Gascón’s offensive tweets were rediscovered years after being published.

Yes, this does seem like an exceptional outcome for an Oscar-nominated flick, but the Academy’s history is actually full of scandals related to the award’s big triumphs. Sadly, Emilia Pérez has all chances to become yet another winner like this.

Shakespeare in Love (1999)

Despite its charming and quite romantic story brought to an even higher level by the lead cast’s performances, Shakespeare in Love is still considered one of the most undeserving Oscar winners of all time.

Apart from Gwyneth Paltrow’s win in the Best Actress category, the movie got another major award under its belt, receiving the statuette for Best Picture at the end of the evening. The whole thing wouldn’t be so disappointing for many if it wasn’t for Steven Spielberg ’s epic masterpiece Saving Private Ryan that was expected to take the Best Picture award home.

Some still link Miramax co-founder Harvey Weinstein to what happened, since he was on board for Shakespeare in Love as a producer and, additionally, was infamous for turning the award ceremonies into bloody competition by trying to bring his projects forward.

A Beautiful Mind (2002)

The movie stars Russell Crowe as renowned mathematician and Nobel Laureate John Nash, and, as many biopics usually do, later on became one of the frontrunners for the major awards, including the Oscars.

Not long before A Beautiful Mind proceeded to receive those promised statuettes, the film got slammed for its artistic vision since the plot line deliberately ignored negative sides of Nash who has been long accused of antisemitism, homophobia and infidelity.

However, A Beautiful Mind was still a big winner at the 2002 ceremony, taking home the awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay.

Green Book (2019)

Despite its universal acclaim, Green Book is one of those movies where the real story behind its plot falls victim to modern filmmakers’ intention to dramatise the storyline as much as possible.

The film stars Mahershala Ali as Donald Shirley, a Black classical pianist, and Viggo Mortensen as Tony “Lip” Vallelonga, his goofy driver, as they travel across the US for Shirley’s concert tour sometime in the 1960s.

The movie is based on the real story, though, as Shirley’s family members claimed, many of its details were either altered or ignored completely, also stating that Green Book falsely portrayed Shirley as a man estranged from his family and Black community.

The scandalous outcome didn’t impede the movie to win statuettes for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor and Best Original Screenplay.

Citizen Kane (1942)

Orson Welles’ drama remains one of the greatest movies ever made, and though its acclaim is more than deserved, there was at least one person who wasn’t that happy about the flick. Directed by and starring Welles himself, Citizen Kane explores the ups and downs of the life of Charles Foster Kane, a newspaper tycoon whose death shakes the entire world.

However, Welles’ character isn’t just a product of fiction and was inspired by William Randolph Hearst, also a newspaper publisher who made several attempts to bring the movie into disgrace by prohibiting publishing anything positive about Citizen Kane in his own newspapers.

The movie eventually earned 9 Oscar nominations and took home one award for Best Original Screenplay.

Zero Dark Thirty (2013)

Kathryn Bigelow’s action thriller received universal acclaim and is still considered one of the best movies of the past couple of decades, though it still got swirled into political drama due to its storyline.

The movie follows a nearly decade-long hunt for Osama bin Laden after the 9/11 attacks and was caught in a suspicious act when its October premiere was moved to December, allegedly ahead of Barack Obama’s reelection campaign.

The movie received 5 Oscar nominations and eventually won only one for Best Sound Editing.