The Academy Awards are meant to celebrate the best that cinema has to offer, but let’s be honest, not every Best Picture nominee is a worthy contender. Hell, sometimes even the winners weren’t worthy of receiving a nom. Over the years, some films have earned a spot on the list despite being mediocre, overrated, or just plain awful. Whether due to aggressive Oscar campaigns, industry favoritism, or just a weak year for movies, these nominees left audiences scratching their heads and questioning the Academy’s judgment.
While some of these films may have their defenders, they’ve largely faded from public memory or become infamous for all the wrong reasons. Whether they were bloated epics, misguided prestige dramas, or popcorn blockbusters, they stand out as some of the least deserving Best Picture nominees of the 21st century. Here’s a look back at the ones that made us wonder: How and why did this get nominated? Here are the 20 Worst Oscar Best Picture Nominees Since 2000.
20. Black Panther (2018)
Black Panther did a lot for representation, especially in the modern superhero genre. It was bolstered by strong performances from Chadwick Boseman (RIP) and Michael B. Jordan. T’Chala and Killmonger instantly became two of the best characters in the MCU while the film delivered a visually stunning and culturally rich superhero experience.
However, it did not necessarily reach the artistic heights expected of film up for the Best Picture category. The story followed a fairly standard superhero formula, and its visual effects, particularly in the final act, were inconsistent. Compared to other Best Picture winners known for their deep storytelling and innovative filmmaking, Black Panther felt more like a well-executed blockbuster rather than a truly transcendent cinematic achievement. Its representation and diversity are important of course, but it takes more than that for it to be Oscar-worthy. Or at least it should. Plus, it wasn’t even the best MCU movie released that year. That goes to Infinity War.
–Vincent Kane
19. Top Gun: Maverick (2022)
I was never that big of a fan of the original Top Gun. If you want my feelings on it you can hunt down Quentin Tarantino’s breakdown of the film from the 1994 movie Sleep with Me. So it’s easy to say that I wasn’t really looking forward to the sequel over 20 years later, however, I have to admit I was thoroughly entertained and it’s one of the best legacy sequels out there. The film was a great mix of nostalgia, emotional depth, and high-stakes action making it one of the most entertaining films of the year. Sadly, being a crowd-pleaser shouldn’t be enough to make it an Oscar-worthy Best Picture nominee. It’s a basic action movie with a predictable structure and conventional tropes that ended up being nothing more than a fun popcorn flick. There’s nothing wrong with that, it just isn’t what the standard should be for the Best Picture of the Year by the Academy.
–Vincent Kane
18. Finding Neverland (2004)
The Oscars love a good biopic. Did you notice I said good, not great? That’s because the Academy cannot get enough of an actor playing a real-life figure. It’s an issue that many cinephiles have voiced their displeasure at in recent years, as better performances are overlooked for actors doing their best impression of an important living or deceased individual. Now, all of this does not mean that I do not enjoy Finding Neverland. It’s a charming biopic about the creator of Peter Pan and I think Johnny Depp does an admirable job bringing him to life on the big screen. However, Finding Neverland isn’t anything special. It’s a run-of-the-mill biopic that is as charming as it is forgettable. It certainly shouldn’t have received seven nominations, including one for Best Picture. It’s not a movie I’d recommend needs to be on any burgeoning cinephile’s watch list and it’s certainly not something that should have past muster for the Academy.
–Marmaduke Karlston
17. Joker (2019)
I remember when everyone was worried about the very real possibility of Joker winning Best Picture that year over Parasite. Thankfully, the Academy showed that it hasn’t completely lost all of its credibility, although Joker being nominated to begin with is a head-scratcher for the books. The issue that I think a lot of the movies on this list have is that the Academy is elevating an entire movie to Best Picture status based on one or two great performances. Joaquin Phoenix makes the movie watchable. Now, could someone like Willem Dafoe have done just as good, if not better, of a job? Absolutely. But Phoenix is mesmerizing on screen as Arthur Fleck and he deserved the nomination. Joker is one of those cases of the Academy trying to be hip and relevant again (insert that Steve Buscemi meme) so they nominate a movie that not even a majority of critics could agree was good in the hopes of increasing its ceremony’s viewership. The only problem is that the Joker was cool for about five minutes and then everybody stopped caring about the viral stair dancing scene. I know people complain about the Academy snubbing awards-worthy comic book movies, but damn, if they’re going to overlook actual movies for some schlep like Joker, I’d rather we never see another comic book movie nominated again.
–Marmaduke Karlston
16. Les Misérables (2012)
Look, let’s get one thing out of the way: the music of the Broadway musical Les Misérables is very good. Schönberg’s powerful and moving French musical was translated into English and performed in 1985 on London’s West End and has been moving people to tears ever since. I mention this because this music is the best part of this movie, and tricks a lot of people into thinking the movie itself is good. Unfortunately, Les Misérables is a shell of its on-stage counterpart. It’s a nightmare slog through a metronome-less score by singers who vary greatly in experience. It’s already a sad and lengthy production on its own, but Tom Hooper makes this even worse by allowing his singers to veer off and sing whatever they want, regardless of what’s written in the score. It’s the reason every song in this movie feels 100 years long. To be fair to some of the better singers in the project (particularly Aaron Tveit and Samantha Barks), some moments are good and maybe even great. There’s just too much that’s flat and unremarkable for the movie’s better scenes to make up for. It’s a huge bummer because the show is phenomenal, but the movie simply doesn’t do it justice. Leave it in the Walmart bargain bin where it belongs.
–Valerie Morreale
15. Up in the Air (2009)
2009 was a tough year for movies. So tough that you’ll be seeing another movie from this year make this list’s top 10. That, however, does not excuse the ridiculous inclusion of Up in the Air’s in that year’s Best Picture nominees. Academy voters are apparently often duped into thinking that the shallowest of movies deserve some sort of recognition just because they loudly pronounce that they are indeed profound. There is nothing remotely insightful or interesting about Up in the Air in either its construction or content. Not even George Clooney’s general ability to charm can save his character from being one of the most unbearable protagonists to spend a film with. It’s a great example of uninspired and misguided filmmaking that somehow stumbles ass-backward into recognition from the Academy.
–Raf Stitt
14. Chicago (2002)
What I can give Chicago is that unlike many on this list, it’s at least a good time. Yes, it’s soapy, over the top, and downright laughable at moments, but it is fun! Best picture worthy? Not at all. The fact that this beat out Gangs of New York, The Pianist, and The Two Towers in 2002 does kind of make me want to die. That being said, compared to the other movie musicals on this list, I’d argue it’s the best one. Maybe I just have a soft spot for Catherine Zeta-Jones (who kills it in every scene) but I think this movie has some redeeming qualities. It has a great score, some good singing and bombastic costumes and sets that make it really feel like an unapologetic movie musical. The story though, is mid even by the low standards of the movie musical. Some of the singing is not great and definitely at a corner bar karaoke level of singing, but again, there’s nothing egregious here. In a perfect world, this would be a fun musical to put on after a couple of drinks and thoroughly enjoyed by niche groups of theater kids. But alas, we don’t live in a perfect world, so this is a Best Picture winner.
–Valerie Morreale
13. Elvis (2022)
Welcome back to another edition of “Great Performance, Otherwise Mid Movie” with Karlston! Austin Butler gave a star-making performance as Elvis Presley. That’s about the only great thing worth mentioning about Elvis, which shines on Butler and Butler alone. Tom Hanks is caked in makeup and cartoony as hell in this biopic that never really digs deep into its titular beloved artist due to it spanning Presley’s entire life instead of a specific moment in time. I know people who have watched and rewatched Elvis more times than I count but once was enough for me.
–Marmaduke Karlston
12. Moulin Rouge! (2001)
As a rule, I don’t care for a jukebox musical but to me, Moulin Rouge is the worst one. Watching it again, I kept reminding myself this was nominated for best picture because it’s just a mess. Throwing everything from Rodgers & Hammerstein to Queen in a blender and making that your soundtrack is a lot to begin with, but having non-professional singers do a majority of the vocals really cements the poor quality. I don’t really enjoy Baz Luhrman’s odd stylization either (it’s particularly jarring here with the 2001 CGI), but I believe a musical is made or broken by its soundtrack, and this one sucks. It’s truly unlistenable, like lyrics were considered first for plot relevance and the overall style and musicality second. The more I watched it, the more the drastic record-scratch moments jumping from song to song just made me mad. Even though the two leads are more than decent, they can’t save this movie from a terrible script and some of the worst music I’ve ever heard.
–Valerie Morreale
11. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button should really be titled The Curious Case Study on Not Knowing What to Do With an Excellent Premise. If you’ve read F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short story that inspired the movie, you’ll know that it offers up a far more interesting and thrilling life for Benjamin than the movie gives him. You have Brad Pitt aging in reverse and the best you can really do for him is give him a semi-doomed romance? C’mon, David Fincher! I was quite excited to watch Benjamin Button the first time I hit play on it, but by the halfway point I was begging for the credits. An excellent premise ruined with a boring storyline that of course made every Academy member salivate. It won the Oscars it should have won (Art Direction, Makeup, Visual Effects), but that’s all it should have been nominated for, to begin with.
–Marmaduke Karlston
10. Philomena (2013)
Does anyone even remember that this movie was made or even released? I don’t think director Stephen Fears does either. Nothing worse than a forgettable film especially when that forgettable film also receives an Oscar Best Picture nom. I’m falling asleep just writing about this movie.
–Vincent Kane
9. Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)
This is obviously the prime example of the awful music biopic. Sure, there are some good examples out there, but most are boring as hell cookie-cutter movies with no inner life. Bohemian Rhapsody at least dares to test the limits of just how bad one of these movies can actually be. Rami Malek’s performance is laughable. The Freddie Mercury character is reduced to a set of cheap characteristics, instead of a truly compelling figure. The pacing of the story is baffling and the editing within given scenes is head-spinning. The entire exercise becomes an exploitative excuse to needle-drop Queen songs that we all love, but the movie is so sloppily thrown together it becomes nearly impossible to even enjoy those moments. There’s no character, or energy, or vibrance – all things that a movie about this subject matter should include. At least it lost the Best Picture race to a better movie…..oh wait.
–Raf Stitt
8. Avatar (2009) & Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)
To this day, James Cameron’s Avatar remains one of the most over-hyped movies ever released. If it had not featured breakthrough motion-capture CGI work and been released at the height of 3D theatrical viewing, I honestly don’t think Avatar would have become the cultural juggernaut that it ended up becoming. Worthy only of its Best Visual Effects win, we live in a world where Avatar, arguably Cameron’s worst film outside Piranha II, has a Best Picture nomination and The Terminator and Aliens do not. Avatar is a bloated, boring blockbuster that only received all its awards attention because it became the highest-grossing movie ever made. If the Na’vi were brought to life with practical effects and makeup instead of motion-capture CGI, Avatar would not have grossed anywhere close to $2.9 billion. So, just because you revolutionize a technology that had previously been used sparingly (and arguably more successfully, looking at your Jurassic Park, Pirates of the Caribbean‘s Davy Jones, and Peter Jackson’s King Kong), doesn’t mean that you’re Best Picture worthy.
As for Avatar: The Way of Water, while I find it to be leaps and bounds better than the 2009 original, it’s still not Best Picture-worthy. The Way of Water is on par with the best of the Marvel movies and you don’t see those getting attention at the Oscars. Here’s hoping the forthcoming third installment in Cameron’s five-film saga, Avatar: Fire and Ash, finally breaks the cycle and stops getting nominated for anything other than Best Visual Effects.
–Marmaduke Karlston
7. Crash (2004)
Look, Crash is not as bad as the hate it has received for the past twenty years. I know that’s not a popular opinion but I have never understood the vitriol toward it. It is a fine film with a talented cast that dealt with some heavy issues. However, despite its noble intentions, it lacked the depth and nuance expected of a Best Picture winner. The film often relied on heavy-handed storytelling, forced coincidences, and oversimplified portrayals of racism that felt more like a lecture than an organic exploration of the subject. Its Best Picture win remains one of the Academy’s most controversial decisions, as many critics and cinephiles argue that it was awarded more for its message than for its actual artistic merit.
–Vincent Kane
6. Nightmare Alley (2021)
This one bummed me out when I saw it, because my dumb ass expected it to be good. Directed by Guillermo Del Toro, the story follows Bradley Cooper’s Stanton Carlisle as he begins working at a traveling carnival. I think my main issue with this movie is that it’s super long and the plot can best be described as “a lot of stuff happens.” The movie becomes more and more incoherent as it moves through the story, and I found myself just getting irritated because absolutely none of it was interesting or developed the characters in a compelling way. The stacked cast is wasted on this script, which just meanders from scene to scene. When it ended, I found myself feeling nothing except for relief that it was finally over. I know what this movie was trying to say, but it’s just too long and loses the plot. Not a fun time, and no surprise that most people already forgot about it.
–Valerie Morreale
5. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011)
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close commits a lot of cinematic sins. Chief among them is a fundamental lack of understanding of New York City. The greatest city in the world deserves all of the respect from any filmmaker attempting to make a movie about it. Unfortunately, Stephen Daldry misses the mark spectacularly. To make matters worse, the film is not only attempting to capture the essence of New York City, but to also understand the city’s fallout from the September 11 attacks. Really tough subject matter to tackle. If you’re going to do it, you really need to knock it out of the park. Instead, this movie meanders through a lackluster script about an unfortunately unsympathetic main character, leaving you absolutely puzzled about what the point of the previous hour and forty-five minutes was. I wish I could understand how Academy voters saw this and thought it was worthy of a Best Picture nomination.
–Raf Stitt
4. The Blind Side (2009)
Before we proceed, let’s all stop the “but at least Sandra Bullock was good” lie. I love Sandra as much as the next guy, but this performance leaves much to be desired. It’s mostly not her fault, John Lee Hancock writes an extremely flat character, leaving his lead actress no room to deliver a memorable performance outside of her funny southern accent. Now with that out of the way, we can get the atrocity that is the rest of this movie. It obviously stands in as the patron saint of “white savior” cinema (I don’t think we need to get into why that sucks). Beyond that, it exists as one of the most rudimentary and vapid movies to ever be nominated for Best Picture. Based on Michael Lewis’ book of the same name, The Blind Side manages to scrub away any of the nuance of Oher’s story or his relationship to the Touhy family and zaps away everything that could have at least made this a decent sports movie. It’s a lazy excuse for filmmaking that barely deserved a budget to be made let alone a nomination for Best Picture.
–Raf Stitt
3. Green Book (2018)
Green Book isn’t the most offensively bad movie to be nominated for Best Picture, but it is certainly one of the worst to actually WIN Best Picture. One of the most upsetting things about this movie’s nomination and win is that a movie like If Beale Street Could Talk was sitting right there for the Academy to recognize. Where Beale Street is an emotionally rich, cinematically gorgeous tale about the Black American experience in years prior, Green Book offers zero revelatory capabilities – either as a story or filming experience. Everything here is so flat and played out. Nothing here is exciting or new or even remotely interesting. The problem with movies like Green Book is they’re so assured in their own significance they never stop to make sure their arrogance is earned. Instead, they get rewarded with Hollywood’s top honor.
–Raf Stitt
2. Don’t Look Up (2021)
This was eye-roll-inducing before the movie even came out. The last thing we needed, especially in the middle of a pandemic, was more Hollywood elites lecturing us about climate change, media distraction, and government incompetence when they themselves are part of the problem. Adam McKay’s Don’t Look Up wants to be a sharp, scathing satire, but instead, it’s a bloated, self-congratulatory mess that spends over two hours talking down to its audience while Hollywood elites smugly pat themselves on the back for “raising awareness.”
The irony of celebrities preaching about impending catastrophe while they continue to live in luxury is impossible to ignore. It’s hard to take DiCaprio seriously when he’s spent years lecturing about climate change while flying on private jets and yachting with billionaires. McKay’s attempts to frame the media and government as the biggest villains ignore the fact that Hollywood itself thrives on the same superficiality and distraction it claims to criticize. Oh yeah, this movie sucked and shouldn’t have been anywhere near the Oscars but since the Academy is just as pathetic as Don’t Look Up, I guess it makes sense for it to receive a Best Picture nom.
–Vincent Kane
1. Emilia Perez (2024)
Well I already wrote a whole piece about this one, but you should know that I was actually trying to be kind. This movie is a miserable time. The only other nominee I could compare it to on this list is Don’t Look Up, just because of the sheer audacity and pathetic failure of everything it is trying to do. If you haven’t seen it, just know that the viral vaginoplasty song is not even the worst song in the movie.
The movie is a disaster, its characters just going from scene to scene because the plot needs them to. The performances are bad, the script is laughable and the music is just a tragedy. I don’t even feel right calling this a musical, because I’ve actually looked at the score for one of the songs and the best I can conclude is that Camille and Clément Ducol don’t know how to write music at all. Every song is the equivalent of someone awkwardly being shoved in front of a piano and forced to make up a song on the spot, mumble singing from one note to the next. It’s genuinely embarrassing and the fact that this musical beat out Jon Chu’s production of Stephen Schwartz’s Wicked for Best Picture at the Golden Globes is clear-cut evidence of corruption.
This is not even mentioning that the movie’s Spanish is so bad that actual Spanish speakers have allegedly been struggling to understand scenes without subtitles. This film also proceeded to piss off both transgender and anti-LGBTQ communities alike with its representation. It’s horrible, bad in every way a movie can be bad. Don’t watch it, just ignore it. Let Jacques Audiard’s sad vanity project die in obscurity.
–Valerie Morreale
Do you agree that these are some of the worst Best Picture Noms? Are there any movies you think should have made the list?