5 Most Controversial Oscar Winners of All Time

Controversy is every-where.Then why Controversy is not in Oscar.Today I am going to tell you about 5 Most Controversial Oscar Winners of All Time.

5. THE PIANIST (2002) – BEST ACTOR

It was no surprise when Roman Polanski’s 2002 biographical drama film , The Pianist, garnered multiple Oscar nominations, given that it was a war time drama with all of the soulful camera angles and tormented performances that the Academy loves so much. Even so, Adrien Brody’s Best Actor win surprised audiences because audience were expecting a different winner; other big names like Jack Nicholson and Daniel-Day Lewis were in the running, after all. A few even remarked that it was the role, not the actor, who truly won the award. Brody’s performance has remained somewhat divisive, though The Pianist itself continues to be remembered fondly — and maybe sometimes, the role is only as good as the surrounding film.

4. SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE (2008) – BEST PICTURE, BEST SONG

Most people would know Slumdog Millionaire as the movie that served as star Dev Patel’s coming out party and a big Bollywood dance at the end. It ended up winning quite a few awards across the board (though notably none in the acting sector); quite an achievement for a movie where half the dialogue is in Hindi language. The controversy mostly stems from either the lacking nuances typically seen in Oscar winners — it was up against favorites such as The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Milk — or from the divided opinion of the plot. It was touted as a ‘feel-good’ film, but some found it hard to feel any sense of goodness when the entire thing hinged on a set of coincidences and revolved around a shaky love story. “Jaiho” also received criticism for not quite being up to scratch, and snagging a Best Song award (supposedly) based on the success of the rest of the movie.

3. AS GOOD AS IT GETS (1997) – BEST ACTOR

Properly portraying a person with either a physically handicap or mentally illness can be a huge challenge, so when it is done right, Oscar nominations often follow. This was the case for Jack Nicholson in As Good as It Gets, who gave a solid performance as a man with severe Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and a host of other problems. While not a poor performance by any means, critics were quick to point out that Nicholson had won the Best Actor Oscar in the past, and may be a relatively standard Jack Nicholson-esque performance as a man with strange mental issues did not quite qualify as monumental enough for repeat award, particularly since many of his character’s behaviors did not correspond with true OCD. Regardless, this was the year of James Cameron’s Titanic; while its performances were nothing to be ashamed of, its sweep of the Oscar board fortunately did not include an undeserved Best Actor/Actress trophy.

2. SCENT OF A WOMAN (1992) – BEST ACTOR

Al Pacino’s win for Scent of a Woman was his first since he was nominated two decades beforehand, and in one sense, it wasn’t a bad performance.Al Pacino was up against big names such as Denzel Washington and Clint Eastwood, but their respective films just did not carry the necessary seriousness. And yet, as critics have pointed out, Pacino’s performance was fairly obvious Oscar-bait: a disabled character (blind, in this case) in an intentionally-overacted performance filled with a recurring series of melodramatic moments for the benefit of the Academy. Still others have said that Pacino’s performance in Scent pales in comparison to what he’d accomplished with his work in The Godfather trilogy. Regardless of whether this was his best performance to date, Pacino fans (along with the man himself) were mostly just glad to see him break the dry spell.

1. LIFE OF PI (2012) – BEST DIRECTOR

Life of Pi managed to nab itself four very important Oscars,it including Best Director for Ang Lee. The notable controversy here was the fantasy adventure’s failure to nab the Best Picture award, which instead went to Ben Affleck’s Argo. While these two awards do not always go hand in hand, it caused a bit of a stir, particularly since Argo was the more typical choice for directing accolades, while Life of Pi was more likely to garner awards for cinematography, visual and special effects, thanks to its spectacular use of 3D. Life of Pi also failed to impress in the acting sector. A relative newcomer in the lead role combined with the general feeling that the film was overly reliant on visual effects (rather than its human element) was likely to blame. Up against it in the Oscars race was Steven Spielberg’s historical drama Lincoln, which certainly got these aspects right and was a strong contender for Best Picture. Nevertheless, stiff competition saw Spielberg’s Civil War-era biographical movie garner only two wins: Best Actor (for star Daniel Day-Lewis) and Best Production Design. Sometimes, a film is just made in the wrong year.