Oscar Is Wrong More Often Than Right When Handing Out Best Picture

As we approach the 93rd Academy Awards on Sunday, it’s time to look at the past 40 Best Picture winners and point out where I think the Academy got it wrong.

1981 – Reds should have won instead of the pedestrian Chariots Of Fire.

1985 – Give me Prizzi’s Honor over Out Of Africa.

1989 – Oscar really messed this up. My Left Foot, Born On The 4th Of July, and Do The Right Thing were miles and miles better than Driving Miss Daisy.

1994 – Quiz Show, Pulp Fiction and The Shawshank Redemption were all superior to Forrest Gump.

1995 – Not a great year, but I would take Apollo 13 and SAFE over Braveheart.

1997– Titanic sunk the more deserving masterpiece, The Sweet Hereafter.

2000 – Almost Famous is simply better than winner Gladiator.

2002 – Chicago blew away two superior films: About Schmidt, and Far From Heaven.

2003 – Mystic River is more of my taste over mega-winner, Lord Of The Rings.

2005 – This is not an oxymoron, but the worst Best Picture in Oscar history is Crash. Munich and Brokeback Mountain were both in a different stratosphere.

2010 – Black Swan and The Social Network were better than The King’s Speech.

2011 – While I thoroughly enjoyed The Artist, Terrence Malick’s monumental masterpiece, The Tree Of Life was superior.

2012 – Argo won. Lincoln should have.

2014– Whiplash would have been my choice over Birdman.

2016 – La La Land won Best Picture … for 30 seconds before Moonlight was awarded the statue. The powerful Manchester By The Sea is better than both of these excellent, but not great, films.

We will see on Sunday night if they Do The Right Thing.

Enjoy the show.

John Sapochetti is co-host of three podcasts heard on Full Press Radio:
-The Pick & Roll NBA Podcast With Jet & Sap
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