10 Greatest Ever Oscar Shocks

10. How Green Was My Valley Beats Citizen Kane

There are plenty of smaller films that have overcome the odds to beat cinematic behemoths - Annie Hall and Rocky winning in the years of Star Wars and Jaws, for example. Only How Green Was My Valley, though, has beaten what is often considered the greatest film of all time.

Orson Welles, one of the business’ true geniuses and innovators, won a grand total of one Oscar - best screenplay for 1941’s Citizen Kane.

The best picture gong went to How Green Was My Valley, the story of troubled times in a Welsh mining town. In fairness, this was hardly a no-name indie picture - it was directed by the great John Ford, and has serious studio heft behind it. From a modern perspective, though, it seems bizarre that the academy didn’t recognise something as genuinely game changing as Citizen Kane (along with the equally forward thinking Maltese Falcon).

In the end, Citizen Kane’s lack of academy recognition has only added to its mystique, a film outside of its own time. And as for Orson Welles, going home without a statuette for his directing prowess hardly did him any harm.