9. It's Too Sentimental
The Academy are a rose-tinted ol' bunch; they love nothing more than to reward their aging, hugely-respected talents, yet they so often do so for a film that isn't even their best work, or even the best performance of the year, but the overwhelming love for said actor or director completely supersedes this. Some of the more infamous consolatory Oscars include Al Pacino for Scent of a Woman, incredulously beating out Denzel Washington for Malcolm X because the Academy felt bad for not previously awarding Pacino for the countless brilliant performances he has given. Denzel, in domino-like fashion, eventually got the Best Actor gong for Training Day, when had the Academy used their brains rather than their hearts, he would have won it back in 1993. The most recent example is Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart; the guy gave a solid performance, but was it really better than Colin Firth in A Single Man or George Clooney in Up in the Air? Absolutely not. Oscar-worthy actor? Totally.