Top 10 Times Award Shows Got it Wrong

We’re all adult enough to admit that we jammed out to Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’ “Thrift Shop” in the early 2010s. But we’re also adult enough to admit that it didn’t exactly deserve more hype than anything by Kendrick Lamar. At the 56th Grammy Awards in 2014, Lamar lost to the hip-hop duo at almost every turn. Not only did Macklemore and Ryan Lewis win Best New Artist over the rap God, but “The Heist” also beat out “good kid, m.A.A.d city” for Best Rap Album. To make matters worse, “Thrift Shop” won Best Rap Performance over “Swimming Pools (Drank).” This turn of events wasn’t received well at the time, and many feel it continues to age poorly.

Looking back at the Oscars’ Best Actor race through the years, 2018 was an especially stacked group. You had two young bucks in Timothée Chalamet for “Call Me by Your Name” and Daniel Kaluuya in “Get Out.” You also had two veterans giving wonderful performances with Daniel Day-Lewis in “Phantom Thread” and Denzel Washington in “Roman J. Israel, Esq.” Yet Gary Oldman won that year for his performance as Winston Churchill in “Darkest Hour.” Oldman is definitely good in the movie, but you could say that his hair and makeup arguably do lots of the work for him. Considering the amazing group of actors he was up against, many felt the Academy just got it wrong this time around.

When you think of hard rock or metal, you think of AC/DC, Metallica, and … Jethro Tull? That’s probably not the first band that comes to mind now, but in 1989, it was for Grammy voters. This year marked the first time the Grammys gave an award for Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance, and everyone pretty much expected Metallica to snag the prize. But in a last minute surprise, British band Jethro Tull took home the award for their “Crest of a Knave” album. Looking back now, there’s just no way most people would put them in the same genre category as a band like Metallica. It’s like comparing apples and oranges.

Going into the 35th Grammy Awards, there was a lot of good will for British artist Eric Clapton. His son had died two years prior, and his touching song "Tears in Heaven" deservedly took home a bunch of awards. However, many were skeptical about his win in one category in particular. Clapton’s tune “Layla” was named Best Rock Song. Maybe it was a little strange for him to win for an acoustic recording of a song that originally came out more than two decades earlier. But beyond that, he also beat a very important tune in the history of rock ‘n’ roll. That’s right, Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” was nominated. That’s probably not the best look, Grammys.

When Martin Scorsese finally won his Best Directing Oscar for “The Departed” in 2007, the film community breathed a huge sigh of relief. While it might not be the movie that he should have won for, pretty much everyone agreed that he deserved a Best Director trophy. Plus, he had been slighted before, most notably in 1991. “Goodfellas” is one of the greatest films of the ‘90s, and possibly of any decade. Scorsese went hard. But apparently, it couldn’t compete with the cultural sway of “Dances with Wolves,” starring and directed by Kevin Costner. Coster won the award at the 1991 ceremony, meaning he had a Best Directing Oscar before Marty. Let that sink in.

These days, it’s largely understood that Stanley Kubrick was one of the great American filmmakers. Yet he never won an Academy Award for Best Director. How can that be, you might ask? What about “2001: A Space Odyssey”? Well, what’s now considered one of the most influential movies of all time wasn’t enough to win Kubrick a Directing Oscar. He was nominated, but beaten out by Carol Reed, the director of the movie adaptation of “Oliver!” Listen, we love musicals as much as the next YouTube channel, and “Oliver!” is a fun film! But hindsight is 20/20, and it blows our (and many peoples’) minds that Kubrick didn’t win.

In the year 2012, a little film called “The Artist” won the Academy Award for Best Picture. In fact, it didn’t just snag the big Oscar. It won five. Now, we’re not saying it’s a bad film. But as it fades out of popular favor, numerous critics and movie fans alike look back on this outcome and wonder how it came to be. 2011 wasn’t necessarily the strongest film year in recent history, but it did include a little picture called “Moneyball” and another called “The Tree of Life.” Many would’ve loved to see “Moneyball” take home the main prize, or Terrence Malick be named Best Director. Instead, all of those awards and more went to “The Artist.”

“Saving Private Ryan” is widely regarded as one of Steven Spielberg’s greatest films, and one of the best war films, period. So you might be surprised to realize that it didn’t actually win Best Picture at the 1999 Oscars. Instead, a movie called “Shakespeare in Love” was awarded the coveted prize. If you ask around however, a solid number of people will tell you that “Saving Private Ryan” was the superior movie, and undoubtedly deserved that honor. We like “Shakespeare in Love” a lot, but we can’t say we disagree with that assessment. As far as upsets go, this was a huge one, and it still weighs heavy on many hearts! We don’t know if the Academy will ever live it down.

An outcome so controversial, even the winner wanted to apologize. Listen, we adore Adele, and her album “25” is one of her greatest achievements. Any other year, we, like most folks, would have been down for her to win big at the Grammys. But in 2016, something unprecedented happened. “Lemonade” by Beyoncé overtook the world, sonically and visually. It was such an undeniable body of work that even Adele seemed flabbergasted by her Album of the Year win. During her speech, she said she couldn’t accept the award and took a moment to recognize Beyoncé’s incredible achievement. It was, as you might expect, a sweet sight.

Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.

“Forrest Gump” Wins Best Picture, “67th Academy Awards” (1995)
Better Than “Pulp Fiction” & “The Shawshank Redemption”? That’s Debatable

“The Golden Compass” Wins Best Visual Effects, “80th Academy Awards” (2008)
Not Everyone Was Happy That This Beat Out “Transformers”

“How Green Was My Valley” Wins Best Picture, “14th Academy Awards” (1942)
We Guess “Citizen Kane” Is Just for Chumps, Huh?

“The Practice” Wins Outstanding Drama Series, “51st Primetime Emmy Awards” (1999)
Many Felt That Anything Beating “The Sopranos” This Year Was Just Wrong

“24” Wins Outstanding Drama Series, “58th Primetime Emmy Awards” (2006)
The Show Was Widely Considered to Be Past Its Prime When it Won This Year

Al Pacino is no doubt one of the greatest actors the world has ever seen. There are plenty of performances he should have won a Best Actor Oscar for. “The Godfather Part II,” “Serpico,” “Dog Day Afternoon” — we could go on. But in 1993, when he got the award for portraying Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade in “Scent of a Woman,” there was someone many felt deserved it more. That year, none other than Denzel Washington was nominated for the titular role in the Spike Lee movie “Malcolm X.” Once again, absolutely no shade to Pacino. But this performance from Washington is outstanding, and deserved way more recognition than it got.