You know the Academy Awards, aka the Oscars​.
Did you know that sometimes, the Academy gets it wrong?
Shocking, yes.
But it happens!
Here are a few times the presenters should have been given full leeway to take the Oscars
back and give them to other people.
Marisa Tomei for Best Supporting Actress
The 1993 field for best supporting actress mostly consisted of a gaggle of respected
veterans, nominated for nuanced performances: Judy Davis for Husbands and Wives, Vanessa
Redgrave for Howards End, Joan Plowright for Enchanted April, and Miranda Richardson for
Damage.
And then there was 29-year-old Marisa Tomei as the wisecracking girlfriend of Joe Pesci's
smart-aleck lawyer in My Cousin Vinny.
To call Tomei's win surprising would be an understatement.
It was so shocking that rumors immediately began to swirl that presenter Jack Palance
had read her name by mistake.
Tomei, who's since scored two more Oscar nominations, is certainly talented, and My Cousin Vinny
is a funny movie.
But if you think it deserved any Oscars, well, you're probably a lawyer.
Lawyers love that movie.
Dances with Wolves for Best Picture and Best Director
In the years since its 1990 release, Kevin Costner's Best Picture winner Dances With
Wolves has undergone a bit of a critical reappraisal, and not the favorable kind.
It's come to be seen as emblematic of one of cinema's most troublesome tropes: the White
Savior narrative.
The film is well-made, and Costner's heart was surely in the right place, but it's hard
not to detect some racism when watching it today.
But the early '90s were a simpler time, so nobody was too surprised at Costner's win;
that is, unless they had seen Goodfellas.
Martin Scorsese was in the middle of an astonishing run of brilliant films, but he didn't win
Best Director until 2006's The Departed, which some saw as a makeup victory for all the times
he lost, especially the time when Dances with Wolves beat out Goodfellas.
Crash for Best Picture
Director Paul Haggis' 2004 film Crash completely and permanently fixed race relations in America.
Obviously that didn't actually happen, but the film certainly seemed to aspire to that
goal in the most preachy, heavy-handed way possible.
When it took home the big prize, it was immediately called out as one of the worst best picture
winners of all time - not only because it's not very good, but because it was considered
a "safe" pick in a year when the more "dangerous" pick was infinitely more deserving.
That would be Ang Lee's masterful Brokeback Mountain, the love story about two gay cowboys
played unforgettably by Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger.
Its success was seen as a watershed moment in LGBTQ representation, and it was widely
considered the runaway favorite, right up until the moment when presenter Jack Nicholson
announced Crash as the winner.
The film has its fans, but not even its director thought it should've won.
Speaking with Hitfix, Haggis said,
"You shouldn't ask me what the best film of the year was because I wouldn't be voting
for Crash."
Dear Basketball for Best Animated Short
Kobe Bryant is a very good basketball man.
They generally don't dole out Oscars for that kind of thing, but in 2017, Bryant teamed
up with veteran Disney animator Glen Keane to produce the short film Dear Basketball,
a moving, heartfelt tribute to the sport that made Kobe famous.
The film may have been deserving of recognition, but in terms of bestowing any kind of honor
on Bryant, the timing absolutely could not have been worse.
That's because it came in the middle of the #MeToo movement, in which victims of sexual
abuse are encouraged to speak out about their experiences.
Bryant knows something about such accusations, as they were once leveled against him by a
then 19-year-old hotel employee in 2003.
The case was settled out of court when the alleged victim refused to testify, but it
has not been forgotten.
Plenty of people called out the questionable win, though Bryant has not responded to the
criticism.
Shakespeare in Love for Best Picture
The triumph of 1998's Shakespeare in Love as best picture is one of those things that
only makes sense with the benefit of hindsight.
Its victory over Saving Private Ryan shocked the entire Hollywood establishment, except
for the film's producer, Harvey Weinstein, who ran a campaign for his film befitting
the crude bully we now know him to be.
Weinstein has been accused of sexual harassment and assault by dozens of women, including
Shakespeare star Gwyneth Paltrow.
Weinstein strong-armed her and the rest of the film's stars into taking part in an unprecedented
marketing blitz promoting the film.
At the same time, he also reportedly trashed Saving Private Ryan to anybody who would listen.
Aware of the situation, director Steven Spielberg insisted that he did not want "to get down
in the mud with Harvey," a well-intentioned stance that allowed Weinstein to continue
his dirty tricks unchecked.
Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King for Best Picture
Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy is acclaimed and beloved by fans, but even
they have to admit they could have done without The Return of the King having about six different
fakeout endings.
Its Best Picture win constitutes a strong example of spectacle over substance.
Among the other nominees that year were Clint Eastwood's devastating Mystic River and Sofia
Coppola's Lost in Translation, both of which have come to be regarded as among the finest
films of the 2000's.
Meanwhile, Return can be seen as foreshadowing the bloated, meandering excess that would
permeate Jackson's much-maligned Hobbit trilogy.
It may not have been the Academy's biggest fumble, but if insane spectacle and making
heaps of money are all it takes to walk away with a best picture Oscar, then Michael Bay
should have more little gold men than anybody.