The top 5 most controversial Oscars wins of the last 50 years

Ahead of the 97th Academy Awards ceremony, UNILAD RANKED brings you five of the most controversial Oscars wins.

On Sunday (March 3), the 2025 Oscars are set to take place with heated debate already taking place online as to which movies released in the year have seemingly been snubbed.

But what about some of the most controversial Academy Award wins in history? Well, this week's UNILAD RANKED presents five wins which faced the most backlash - in order of oldest to most recent.

5) 1973 - Marlon Brando declines Best Actor for The Godfather

Brando won the Academy Award for Best Actor at the 45th Academy Awards in 1973 for his portrayal of Vito Corleone in The Godfather however, he didn't attend the ceremony, instead sending a woman named Sacheen Littlefeather in his place to accept - or rather, decline - the award.

Littlefeather - a member of the Indigenous American group the Apache and president of the National Native American Affirmative Image Committee - explained Brando was 'regretfully' turning down the award in protest of 'the treatment of American Indians today by the film industry and on television in movie reruns and also with recent happenings at Wounded Knee'.

The Wounded Knee Massacre - also known as the Battle of of Wounded Knee - took place in 1890 and saw around three hundred Lakota - Native American - people killed by US Army soldiers.

Littlefeather's speech concluded: "I beg at this time that I have not intruded upon this evening and that we will in the future our hearts and our understandings will meet with love and generosity. Thank you on behalf of Marlon Brando."

4) 1995 - Pulp Fiction losing Best Picture to Forrest Gump

Four Weddings and as Funeral, The Shawshank Redemption, Quiz Show, Forrest Gump and Pulp Fiction were nominated for Best Picture at the 67th Academy Awards, but the award was ultimately taken home by Forrest Gump - directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring none other than Tom Hanks.

The win was divisive as many considered Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction bolder and more modern, the film receiving the Palme d'Or and critical acclaim.

On the other hand, despite being considered more mainstream, Forrest Gump was a bigger hit in the box office.

One Twitter user wrote: "I am always amazed when anybody takes the Oscars seriously, for any reason. Forrest Gump beat Pulp Fiction. That's all you need to know."

"It’s not hard to see why Forrest Gump captivated audiences and Oscars in 1995. But “Pulp Fiction” is one of the best written and most revolutionary movies in cinematic history. Maybe Forrest Gump fit the Academy mold. But Pulp Fiction is the true classic," another argued.

Hanks even addressed the controversy, telling The New York Times in 2022 while Pulp Fiction is 'a masterpiece without a doubt,' Forrest Gump's 'magic legs' scene acts as 'a moment of undeniable heartbreaking humanity', defending the film as 'not just running along to Duane Eddy's 'Rebel Rouser'."

Pulp Fiction fans coming for Forrest Gump (Miramax Films)

3) 2006 - Crash winning Best Picture over Brokeback Mountain

The 78th Academy Awards saw Munich, Good Night, and Good Luck, Capote, Brokeback Mountain and Crash nominated for Best Picture.

Adapted from the 1997 short story by Annie Proulx, Brokeback Mountain stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger as Jack Twist and Ennis Del Mar who're hired as sheep herders and end up falling in love.

Their love affair is ultimately made torturous due to the pair being forced to keep their relationship a secret as a result of the intense homophobia present at the time and both marrying their girlfriends.

Despite Lee telling Indie Wire he was told by the stage manager to stick around in the wings - insinuating the film would win the award - Best Picture was ultimately won by Paul Haggis' Crash.

And while Brokeback Mountain may've secured awards for Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Original Score at the Academy Awards, many were outraged over it not also taking home Best Picture - Lee saying he 'thinks' it lost out as a result of its centring around a gay love story, as quoted by The Hollywood Reporter.

A Facebook user called Every Oscar Ever wrote: "The fact that Crash beat Brokeback Mountain for Best Picture at the 78th Academy Awards will always go down for me as one of the most inexplicable moments in The Academy's history."

Another commented: "WRONGED by a mile...a stolen Oscar was absolutely the truth. The movie was spellbinding, touching and so loving. It was shocking to be topped by Crash. But it did win Oscars for Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score. They just didn't have the guts to honor it as Best Picture - though it surely was!"

Many argued Brokeback Mountain should've won Best Picture too (Focus Features)

2) 2013 - Life of Pi winning Best Cinematography and Best Visual Effects

Life of Pi really shook up the 85th Academy Awards and in more ways than one. In a more positive sense, it won a staggering number of awards, however, not just one but two proved controversial.

VFX supervisor Bill Westenhofer's acceptance speech for the film's Best Visual Effects award was cut short preventing him from fully addressing the issues within the industry and precarious nature of the job - issues of which only further emphasized when the VFX studio responsible for the film's visual effects named Rhythm & Hues filed for bankruptcy shortly after the Oscars.

The awarding of Best Cinematography to the film also led to backlash given the film was so largely constructed of digital effects, cinematographer Christopher Doyle telling Blouin News: "I’m trying to work out how to say this most politely, and no offense to – I don’t know [director Ang Lee] personally - but what a total f**king piece of s**t."

Doyle slammed the film winning the award as 'a f**king insult to cinematography', arguing: "What it says to the real world is it’s all about us, we have the money, we put the money in, and we control the image. "

He resolved: "That’s not cinematography [...] You’ve lost cinema. This is not cinema and it’s not cinematography."

Heaven forbid the fallout if - or when - a film which heavily uses AI ends up winning the category...

Life of Pi was released in 2012 (20th Century Fox)

1) 2017 - La La Land mistakenly announced as winner of Best Picture over Moonlight

The 89th Academy Awards proved controversial not necessarily because of the film which won the award, but as a result of the wrong film being announced as the winner.

Presenter Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway were mistakenly given the envelope for Best Actress instead of Best Picture leading Beatty to announce La La Land as the winner when the correct recipient was actually Moonlight.

Moonlight producer Jordan Horowitz quickly hopped on stage to clear up the confusion, but it didn't stop the incident becoming known as 'envelopgate'.

As one Twitter user resolved: "The most exciting oscars moment that wasn’t will smith’s slap."

Other controversial moments include Bradley Cooper losing the Best Actor Oscar to Rami Malek, Shakespeare in Love winning over Saving Private Ryan in 1999 and Chariots of Fire winning Best Picture in 1982.

What do you think is going to happen this year?

UNILAD RANKED is a weekly series with a new article released every Friday.