Whether or not they admit it, critics – and most audiences – all typically feel the same way about the Academy Awards. That is: despite being a definitive declaration of what is the Best Picture of the year, they are no serious gauge what is actually best picture of the year, or even any kind of testament to a movie’s actual quality. Indeed, the notion of the Best Picture of any year is such a subjective argument that it calls the entire presumption of the critical authority of the Academy Awards into question.
Nonetheless, the Academy Awards are followed doggedly, and with no small degree of passion, by many of the very critics who decry them. For lovers of movies, the Awards are a combination Super Bowl/prom night, wherein we get to watch what Hollywood thinks about itself. It’s a sporting, playful event, wherein we’re given a gentle reminder of what movies we saw during the year. And we can gander at some nice outfits.
TriStar Pictures
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It’s commonly whinged about that so-called “genre” films are rarely nominated for Academy Awards. Best Picture nominees do tend to be “serious” dramas and studio-sanctioned prestige pictures that feature grand historical dramas, or make some sort of political comment that the Academy feels is particularly timely in whatever year they were released. We rarely see the adrenaline-inducing actioners, the bonkers, effects-driven sci-fi flicks, or, indeed, the big summer blockbusters in the Best Picture category (there are outliers like Inception and District 9, but I don’t think anyone expected any of those films to actually win, while Lord of the Rings was just a pat on the back for the project’s ambition). But such films often creep in the outsides, usually getting a mention when it comes to a technical category, like Best Visual Effects or Best Sound Mixing.
Actually, when one scours some of the minor categories throughout Oscar history, one begins to uncover numerous oddities lurking. Not only do you begin to find action-packed genre films, but also outright rotten comedies, off-the-wall kid flicks, and some truly baffling decisions made by Academy voters. Indeed, if one goes back far enough, you begin seeing titles that, well, most audiences – and even critics – have never heard of. The Academy may seek to find the Best Picture of the year, but in the moment, they tend to attach their enthusiasm to movies that do not stand the test of time, and even fade into obscurity quickly.
Heck, even some of the Best Picture winners are downright obscure in the modern age. Who amongst you, for instance, has seen Cavalcade from 1933? I’ve seen it, but it’s likely I would never have heard of it had it not won Best Picture. Indeed, some of the films it beat out are more familiar to me (42nd Street, Lady for a Day, A Farewell to Arms), but the other contenders are just as obscure as the winner. Only film junkies and Academy buffs now tend to bother with, say, Cimarron, The Great Ziegfeld, The Life of Emile Zola, How Green Was My Valley, The Gentleman’s Agreement, Gigi, Tom Jones, Ordinary People, Out of Africa, and several others.
20th Century Fox
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And when one begins to delve into the more obscure categories, we find even more obscure films, many of them lost to the realm of textbook footnotes. Actors and actresses and authors of movies that were once under consideration for the best film of the year, and are now never mentioned, not even in film classes. Are these films good or bad?
Predicting the Academy Awards is both easy and difficult. You can be sure of one or two shoo-ins (the Best Picture nominees can be more-or-less predicted), but then some just blindside you. Someone somewhere thought that certain films should be honored, but the films are so plain, so bad, so obscure, or just plain medoicre, that you wouldn’t think they would deserve any sort of recognition.
But recognized they are. We here at Crave has scoured our histories, and come up with some of the more oddball instances of the Oscars selecting unusual films to nominate. Looking over the following list, one can sense no predictable pattern. Se can say this for the Academy Awards: They keep us on our toes.
Ten Completely Baffling Academy Award Nominees
Witney Seibold is a contributor to CraveOnline and co-host of The B-Movies Podcast. You can follow him on “Twitter” at @WitneySeibold, where he is slowly losing his mind.
Ten Utterly Baffling Academy Award Nominees
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Norbit (Best Makeup, 2008)
Norbit was reviled by critics and audiences for being shrill and unfunny, as well as further proof that Eddie Murphy has lost his groove. Murphy played both lead roles in Norbit, thanks to some rather impressive makeup. Too bad that incredible fat-woman getup was in the service of such an awful film.
Image: Paramount
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Click (Best Makeup, 2007)
Click was an Adam Sandler film about a father who finds a magical remote control that lets him control reality; he can “pause” life, and fast-forward through undesirable sections. Sandler appears in old-age makeup in it. I guess that was enough in 2007 to get a nomination.
Image: Columbia
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The Time Machine (Best Makeup, 2003)
H.G. Wells' timeless time travel caper is a great novel, and has made for at least one great film. The 2003 version wasn't it, featuring, as it did, a white-faced S&M-flavored future monster played by Jeremy Irons. WTF?
Image: DreamWorks
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Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (Best Animated Feature, 2001)
2001 was the first year the Academy decided to enlist a Best Animated Feature award, and the three nominees were the mediocre Shrek, the pretty good Monsters, Inc., and this low-fi, totally middle-of-the-road kiddie comedy. Why Waking Life was not nominated is beyond me.
Image: Paramount
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The Godfather Part III (Best Picture, 1990)
I think after The Godfather and The Godfather Part II were both Oscar winners, the Academy felt obligated to at least nominate Part III.
Image: Paramount
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Doctor Dolittle (Best Picture, 1967)
I've seen this silly and fun musical about a man who can talk to animals. It's colorful, adventurous and enjoyable, and represents a boldly bright form of filmmaking one no longer sees. But Best Picture?
Image: 20th Century Fox
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Babe (Best Picture, 1995)
This one caught everyone off-guard. Babe was a live-action film about a talking pig who learns to herd sheep through his innate politeness. It was up against hefty dramas like Braveheart and Apollo 13. It's a sweet and innocent film that certainly deserved recognition. It's just odd that it did.
Image: Universal
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Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (Best Screenplay, 2006)
From what I understand, the bulk of Borat, a faux documentary comedy about a pidgin Kazakhstani man interacting with America's underbelly, was mostly improvised, and little was staged. Can improv be considered a great screenplay? I guess so.
Image: 20th Century Fox
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Hamlet (Best Adapted Screenplay, 1996)
My favorite screenwriter was William Shakespeare. Oh wait. He was a playwright. Kenneth Branagh got a nomination for, essentially, leaving everything in, and not altering any dialogue from the oldest known folio of Hamlet. Can I turn in my Folger edition of Macbeth and also get a nom?
Image: Columbia
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The Swarm (Best Costumes, 1978)
The Swarm is a lesser-known Irwin Allen disaster flick about killer bees. Few have seen it, and it's reported to be dumb. It also, evidently, has some amazing costumes!
Image: Warner Bros.
