The first Academy Awards were held in 1929 at a private dinner function with an audience of around 270 people. Cut to 93 years later, and the awards have become the most prestigious in the international entertainment industry, watched by millions of people eager to see the best films of the year be recognized for their merits.

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Audiences don't always agree with the Academy's verdicts, though. Sometimes, voters honor films that the public isn't too fond of for one reason or another. A short journey through IMDb will show you that some controversial Best Picture Oscar winners, like Shakespeare in Love or Around the World in 80 Days, haven't stood the test of time.

10) 'Shakespeare in Love' (1998)

Shakespeare kissing his lover's forehead in "Shakespeare In Love"

Shakespeare in Love sees a young William Shakespeare, out of both ideas and money, meeting the woman of his dreams, in whom he finds inspiration to write Romeo and Juliet. It's a sweet and accessible period piece, which earned it 7 Oscar wins, including Best Picture.

The movie has a rating of 7.1 on IMDb, which is quite respectable. But compare that with the 8.6 rating of 1999's other frontrunner, Saving Private Ryan, and you'll understand why this was such a controversial win. The victory is generally attributed to infamous producer Harvey Weinstein's aggressive Oscar campaign, which has made it age even worse.

9) 'Going My Way' (1944)

man sitting on a table, pointing at man in chair in "Going My Way"
Image via Paramount

This classic low-key comedy has a decent score of 7.0 on IMDb. In it, youthful Father Chuck O'Malley (Bing Crosby) is appointed to a dwindling New York parish, where his street smarts help him bond with a directionless gang of boys.

Going My Way is simple, amusing, and pleasant. It's an entirely harmless good time, but not exactly something that IMDb users consider Oscar-worthy. Especially not in a year where the timeless and much better-known film-noir landmarks Double Indemnity and Gaslight were also Best Picture contenders.

8) 'The Great Ziegfield' (1936)

Ziegfield and one of his stars in a theater in "The Great Ziegfield"

The Great Ziegfield is the fancy biopic of an equally fancy man: Florenz Ziegfield Jr. (played here by William Powell), a famous producer who became the biggest starmaker on Broadway.

Clocking in at 3 hours, the film is generally considered annoyingly overlong and self-indulgent, with plot points that go nowhere and an uneventful first half. Audiences also don't like how Ziegfield is painted in quite a positive light despite having been an infamously manipulative figure. The film's 6.7 rating on IMDb isn't terrible, but it certainly isn't great either.

7) 'Gigi' (1958)

Gigi and her man in a party in the movie "Gigi"

This old-fashioned musical comedy (which won 8 other Oscars along with its Best Picture victory) tells the story of Gigi (Leslie Caron), a glamorous high-society girl yearning for one of the few things that money can't buy: love.

All of the other nominees from that year have a higher rating on IMDb than Gigi, which holds a 6.7. Most users find it a very average musical, not to mention the hatred of its creepy pedophilic and misogynistic undertones: there is literally a song about little girls growing up to become mistresses of wealthy older men.

6) 'Around the World in 80 Days' (1956)

Phileas and his companions from "Around the World in 80 Days"

In this comedic adaptation of Jules Verne's classic book, nearly three hours long, a Victorian Englishman played by David Niven makes a bet that he can traverse the globe in the short period of eighty days.

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IMDb users criticize the film's blandness, lack of urgency, and extremely exaggerated length, giving it an overall rating of 6.7. With classics like Giant (starring James Dean) and Cecil B. DeMille's Biblical epic The Ten Commandments also in contention, not to mention the snub of legendary films like John Ford's The Searchers or Stanley Kubrick's The Killing, it's no wonder why this isn't one of the Academy's most well-received decisions.

5) 'The Greatest Show on Earth' (1952)

clowns in a circus performance from "The Greatest Show on Earth"

With a score of 6.6 on IMDb, audiences think that The Greatest Show on Earth is not very fittingly named. This two-and-a-half-hour drama shows the life of trapeze artists, a clown, and an elephant trainer against the backdrop of a circus spectacle.

Users don't like how director Cecil B. DeMille favors sheer spectacle over a compelling story or rich character writing. They find the plot devoid of any interesting conflict and the overall film to be nothing more than boring. With a competitor like High Noon, widely considered one of the best Westerns of all time, the upset is all the more painful.

4) 'Tom Jones' (1963)

character Tom Jones in the movie of the same name, laughing while lying on the grass

In the midst of one of the most fascinating decades in the history of American cinema, the victory of this comedy about the romantic adventures of an 18th-century man isn't held in high esteem by IMDb users, who gave it a rating of 6.4.

Though audiences praise the film's costumes and sets, that's about as far as it goes. The trite story is considered witless and shallow, Tony Richardson's directing as strange and ugly, and the overall movie as boring and unfunny. With the historical epic Cleopatra and the classic Western How the West Was Won also competing for the Academy's top honor, it's not like there weren't any more deserving films that year.

3) 'Cavalcade' (1933)

man and wife from movie "Cavalcade" in an elegant attire

This early-Hollywood drama portrays the ups and downs of two English families, one upper-class and the other working-class. Their lives are touched by events like the death of Queen Victoria, the sinking of the Titanic, and World War I.

Cavalcade is a somewhat experimental movie, but IMDb users in general (having given it a rather poor score of 5.9) don't seem to think it was a very successful experiment. The film is condemned for its ludicrous plot twists, dull and uninteresting characters, and boring domestic drama.

2) 'Cimarron' (1931)

Irene Dunne as Sabra and Richard Dix as Yancey in Cimarron (1931)
Image via RKO Radio Pictures

The Western drama Cimarron tells the story of a newspaper editor who moves to an Oklahoma boom town with his unwilling wife near the end of the 19th century.

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Although its technical robustness and epic scope are lauded, that didn't stop the film from getting a 5.9 on IMDb. Users criticize its cliched dialogue, uninteresting storylines, and especially its harmful abundance of racist stereotypes. Although there wasn't particularly strong competition that year, many feel that anything not as emotionless as this would have been a better choice.

1) 'The Broadway Melody' (1929)

an ornamented musical number in "The Broadway Melody"

The first Best Picture Oscar winner was the silent drama Wings (1927), which still holds up quite well. Its successor was The Broadway Melody, which, with a rating of 5.6 on IMDb, hasn't aged quite as nicely. It's about two sisters from the vaudeville circuit trying to make it big on Broadway, but their heart gets in the way.

IMDb audiences generally dislike the Broadway Melody for a multitude of reasons. They say that it's silly, tedious, and awkward and that it has bad acting, forgettable songs, unappealing camerawork, and extremely distasteful jokes that belittle women. Thankfully, its controversial win would be followed by All Quiet on the Western Front, considered one of the best anti-war films ever made.

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