20 of the worst Oscar winners in history

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.

11. Rick Baker for ‘Harry and the Hendersons’ (1988)

Best Makeup, 60th Academy Awards, 1988

‘Academy Award winner “Harry and the Hendersons”’ must be one of the oddest accolades ever devised, but it’s nonetheless true. The make-up fraternity may simply have been rewarding FX legend Rick Baker for past achievements, but whatever their reasoning, this dire family monster-com had no right to be within sniffing distance of awards glory.

It could’ve been: Absolutely anything else.




Browse through our list of Oscar blunders

Victor Fleming for 'Gone with the Wind' (1939) 'How Green was My Valley' (1941) 'The Greatest Show on Earth' (1952) 'Around the World in 80 Days' (1956) Leon Shamroy for 'Cleopatra' (1963) 'The Sound of Music' (1965) 'Une Homme et une Femme' (1966) John G Avildsen for 'Rocky' (1977) 'I Just Called to Say I Love You' by Stevie Wonder (1985) 'Out of Africa' (1986) Rick Baker for 'Harry and the Hendersons' (1988) 'Driving Miss Daisy' (1990) Anthony Hopkins for ‘The Silence of the Lambs’, Al Pacino for ‘Scent of a Woman’ Three drippy ballads from Disney 'Forrest Gump' (1994) 'A Beautiful Mind' (2002) Renee Zellweger for ‘Cold Mountain’ (2003) 'Crash' (2006) 'The Secret in Their Eyes' (2010) Mauro Fiore for 'Avatar' (2010)

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