20 of the worst Oscar winners in history

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Tom Huddleston sorts the least deserving Academy Award winners

It’s Oscar season once again – and while Academy members scratch their heads trying to decide which of this year’s crop of worthy titles deserves to take home the big prize, we trawl the archives to uncover the worst Oscar offences of all time. From the film that beat ‘Citizen Kane’ to Best Picture to the time ‘Harry and the Hendersons’ walked away with a handful of gold, here are all the Academy’s biggest blunders in one handy list.

This is by no means a definitive rundown of all of Oscar’s shoddy decisions – we didn’t even have room to mention Celine Dion or ’Chicago’ – so if you really, really hate ‘Titanic’ or really, really love ‘Forrest Gump’, tell us about it in the comments box below.

1. Victor Fleming for ‘Gone with the Wind’ (1939)

Best Director, 12th Academy Awards, 1939

A problematic win on two counts: firstly, because Fleming wasn’t the only director on the film (George Cukor was replaced three weeks in, while studio employee Sam Wood occupied the chair when Fleming temporarily stormed off) and secondly because this sweeping adaptation of Margaret Mitchell’s arguably racist novel doesn’t really stand up to modern scrutiny.

It could’ve been: John Ford for ‘Stagecoach’, Frank Capra for ‘Mr Smith Goes to Washington’, William Wyler for ‘Wuthering Heights’.

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