Every year, the Academy Awards recognize the top films and performances of the year, making for an exciting awards ceremony. Sometimes, though, the outcomes can be quite a surprise. Here’s a look at some of the most shocking wins in Oscar history—and why each of them made such a lasting impression.
Shakespeare in Love – Best Picture Over Saving Private Ryan
The 1998 Academy Awards delivered a major shock. The acclaimed war film Saving Private Ryan was considered the frontrunner for the Best Picture award, while Shakespeare in Love, an upstart romantic comedy, was viewed as something of an underdog. Yet it was Shakespeare in Love that won the top prize of the night, leaving Saving Private Ryan empty-handed. The Academy went against the frontrunner and the audience’s expectations to award this lesser-known movie with the Best Picture prize, making it one of the most shocking Oscar wins of all time.
Marisa Tomei – Best Supporting Actress Over Vanessa Redgrave
Another surprise winner came at the 1993 Academy Awards. Marisa Tomei won a Best Supporting Actress award for her role in My Cousin Vinny, beating out fellow nominees Vanessa Redgrave and Joan Plowright. Tragically, Redgrave was the more acclaimed of the two, having won multiple accolades for her film Howards End. But it was Tomei who won the Oscar that night, making it the one of the divisive awards in the ceremony’s history.
Paul Haggis – Best Adapted Screenplay Over Brokeback Mountain
The 2006 Academy Awards should have belonged to Brokeback Mountain. The film was considered a frontrunner for several of that year’s awards, with Best Adapted Screenplay being one of them. Yet it was Paul Haggis, for his work on Crash, who won the prize instead. While many considered Haggis’ win to be a solid recognition of talent, a great deal of backlash followed, seeing as Crash was unlikely to win any other awards that night.
Geraldine Page – Best Actress Over Anna Magnani
Geraldine
Page was an incredible actress, but at the 1955 Academy Awards, her Best Actress win came as a complete shock. The popular frontrunner that night was acclaimed Italian actress Anna Magnani, who had famously starred in The Rose Tattoo. Yet the Oscar went to Page instead—making it one of the biggest shocks of that Oscars ceremony—and cementing one of the event’s most unprecedented wins.
Fernando Meirelles – Best Director over Peter Jackson
At the 2003 Academy Awards, Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers was considered the frontrunner for several awards, Best Director being one of them. But it was the Brazilian film City of God that won the prize, trumping Peter Jackson and making it one of the ceremony’s strangest wins. The reason for this win likely had to do with a desire to recognize the diversity of international films, but the sheer surprise of this outcome was hard to deny.
Oscars every year can be unpredictable, as these wins prove. While many of these triumphs undoubtedly stemmed from the raw talent of the winners, the shock factor of these wins is undeniable—and each of them became a part of Academy Awards history.
