Any belief that the Oscars award the right films, directors and performances has faded over the years.
While every ceremony has a smattering of correct decisions – trophies handed to the right people for the right films – more often than not, the pervading feeling is one of pessimism caused by a deluge of undeserving recipients.
The Oscars are a far cry from what they claim to be – a celebration of the previous year’s cinematic offerings. But this does not stop people from trawling the internet the following morning in the hope that maybe, just maybe, the winners list impresses rather than disappoints.
With the 2025 ceremony taking place in March, we have highlighted 15 films that really should not have been awarded Oscars.
15. Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
How many did it win: Eight
This might be a controversial one, but it’s sometimes good to hold your hands up and admit that a film is nowhere near as good as you recall. Sadly, Best picture winner Slumdog Millionaire is one of those. While the Danny Boyle film’s win no doubt put smiles on the faces of commuters reading the morning papers the next day, the shine wears off its success with every rewatch. The rightful winner – The Dark Knight – wasn’t even nominated for Best Picture, an omission that led to the Academy increasing the number of nominees in that category.
14. The Imitation Game (2014)
How many did it win: One
There are many reasons why The Imitation Game is a bust. It plays at being a progressive film about “the father of theoretical computer science” Alan Turing, but the awful screenplay – which won! – has barely any interest in unpacking his queerness or social aloofness in any way that shows a smidgeon of nuance. The term “Oscar bait” gets bandied around incorrectly quite a lot, but it would be apt to describe The Imitation Game as a perfect example of being such. Its win for Adapted Screenplay, beating Inherent Vice and Whiplash, still feels like a prank.
13. Irma la Douce (1963)
How many did it win: One
In 1963, director Billy Wilder reunited with his Apartment stars Shirley MacLaine and Jack Lemmon, and boy does the result pale in comparison to their wondrous 1960 Best Picture winner. Irma la Douce might have its moments – Lemmon and MacLaine could make a recital of the alphabet entertaining – but the film, based on the 1956 French musical of the same name, would have been better off left on the stage. A must for Wilder, Lemmon or MacLaine completists and Wilder, Lemmon or MacLaine completists alone. Its win for André Previn’s score was the result of a weak year; Maurice Jarre’s emotive music for the bleak Sundays and Cybèle should have won.
12. Out of Africa (1985)
How many did it win: Seven
Sydney Pollack’s Best Picture-winning drama – unsurprisingly – boasts decent performances from Meryl Streep and Robert Redford, but much of its 161-minute runtime remains interminable. This isn’t helped by its rather outdated romanticisation of colonialism, told through the eyes of Streep’s Karen. Quite simply, you can do without it. However, if you do decide to plough on, John Barry’s score and the beautiful scenery save it from being a complete waste of time. But it’s a far cry from being the best film of 1985. We’d have opted for Peter Weir’s moving Witness.
11. In Old Arizona (1928)
How many did it win: One
It can be fun to pluck out a random Oscar-winning film you haven’t watched to see what all the fuss was about. Sometimes, you’ll finish the film and still be wondering. One such film is early victor In Old Arizona, which secured Warner Baxter a Best Actor win in the late 1920s. The performance is... fine, but the film surrounding it is monotonous and too reliant on uninspired dialogue. We’d recommend avoiding it.
10. Chariots of Fire (1981)
How many did it win: Four
While Chariots of Fire is precisely the type of film the Academy likes to take under its wing, the fact it won was a big surprise on the night; everybody present expected Warren Beatty’s Reds to take home Best Picture. It was a far more worthy candidate. Frankly, Chariots of Fire is as musty a winner as they come – and worth watching only for the electrifying Vangelis score, which also took home a trophy.
9. Green Book (2018)
How many did it win: Three
To those who don’t care about awards ceremonies, Green Book is a crowd pleaser that boasts decent performances from Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali. To everyone else, it’s the damp squib that somehow came out of nowhere to snatch Best Picture from under Roma’s nose.
8. How the West Was Won (1962)
How many did it win: Three
Making an Oscar win for How the West Was Won even more ridiculous is the fact that, should you go by Academy Award count, this would position it as one of the best Westerns of all time. It doesn’t even touch the top 10 of its three directors, Henry Hathaway, John Ford and George Marshall. The colourful epic might be a technical marvel (it won for Sound and Editing and somehow Original Screenplay) but it’s also a turgid slog and a far cry from the genre’s classics.
7. The Iron Lady (2011)
How many did it win: Two
Meryl Streep has won enough Oscars for the world to know she’s one of the finest actors who’ll ever live. Her win for The Iron Lady, though, was one Oscar too many. Although Viola Davis has since spoken out against the film she was nominated for that year – The Help – hers was easily the better performance. In an ideal world, biopic performances would have their own category. It would certainly mean that more interesting performances could win Academy Awards.
6. Suicide Squad (2016)
How many did it win: One
David Ayer’s Suicide Squad – a mashup of DC villains starring an out-of-his-depth Jared Leto – is as bad as you remember it, but our theory is that it kinda knows it is. While this actually helps the viewing experience, it still has no business being able to throw around the “Academy Award winner” label (it won for its makeup and hairstyling). But it’s amusing to think that a film featuring Jai Courtney as a beer-guzzling reprobate named Captain Boomerang has won an Oscar. Good for it, we guess.
5. Thunderball (1965)
How many did it win: One
Bond films usually win at the Oscars for their aural aspects – Goldfinger won Sound Editing, while Skyfall, Spectre and No Time to Die all won Original Song. But Thunderball, Sean Connery’s fourth and weakest 007 outing, took home the prize for Visual Effects. They look shoddy watched through a modern lens, but the effects are the least dated thing about Thunderball: Bond may not be known for his feminist attributes, but one scene, in which the spy tries to seduce a nurse, will leave you wincing.
4. Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)
How many did it win: Four
What a bore it was seeing Bohemian Rhapsody win a bunch of Oscars. The Queen film, overseen by Brian May, was a paint-by-numbers biopic that, in its closing stretch, evolved into a cheap jukebox musical – all part of Rami Malek’s (successful) campaign to win Best Actor. The film, for shame, was a terribly edited, watered-down exploration of the life of one of music’s most exciting frontmen. Mercury had more creativity in his little toe. It was admittedly a weak year for nominees, but Bradley Cooper’s tender turn in A Star is Born had far more integrity.
3. CODA (2021)
How many did it win: Three
The first half of CODA probably ranks as the worst 45 minutes of any film that has ever won Best Picture. It’s filled with frustrating characters who commit frustrating actions, and it makes for – you guessed it – an immensely frustrating watch. The final half improves, but it’s too little too late. CODA meant well, but it could have been so much more if it’d had a bit more clout to it. It was lucky to win over The Power of the Dog and Drive My Car.
2. Crash (2004)
How many did it win: Three
Viewers of the Oscars have grown accustomed to unexpected victories, but none was more famously ill-judged than when Paul Haggis’s drama Crash beat Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain to Best Picture. Crash – not to be confused with David Cronenberg’s seminal 1996 film of the same name – relied on stereotypes to combat racism in a rather unhelpful way. The fact it played white Academy members like a fiddle was emblematic of a diversity issue within the voting body, which was drastically shaken up after the #OscarsSoWhite controversy of 2015.
1. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016)
How many did it win: One
It’s no surprise that the Fantastic Beasts franchise doomed itself to oblivion with increasingly substandard films. However, the first instalment of the Harry Potter prequel spin-off inveigling its way onto that year’s Oscars win tally, even if it was for Costume Design, is a blot on the Academy’s record. The film is dreadful – the less said about those sequels the better – and makes Eddie Redmayne’s other questionable Oscar-winning vehicle, The Danish Girl, look like The Godfather in comparison.
