Top 10 Most Unworthy Oscar Winners

Obviously, the Academy Awards are incredibly selective (not to mention subjective) and the movie or actor you thought was the absolute best will more than likely not walk away with the big prize. But sometimes there's such an egregious error in judgment, such a crime against the art of filmmaking that you can't help to raise your arms to the heavens and cry to those cinema snobs up in their ivory towers, "What were you thinking?!" Here are the Oscar winners we deem most unworthy.

Audrey Fox

Published: Feb 25, 2013 10:20 pm

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[h2]1. John Ford – How Green Was My Valley[/h2]

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John Ford was an acclaimed director of westerns and dramas in the 30s and 40s. Over the course of his career, he won four directing Oscars, one of which was for the schmaltzy melodrama How Green Was My Valley. In winning this award, he beat Orson Welles’ work on Citizen Kane. I’ll let that sink in for a moment.

While there is a perfectly valid school of thought that Citizen Kane is overrated, it is without dispute one of the best directed films of all time. It features innovative techniques bold enough to make a first year film student weep. The fact that Welles was never recognized by the Academy for his pioneering work in this film makes me a sad, sad panda.

Anything we missed? People that you think should be forced to return their Oscar, Milli Vanilli style? Sound off in the comments!

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Audrey Fox