10 Horror Films That Beat Genre Prejudice To Win Oscars

4. Black Swan (2010) - Best Actress

While the various awards for Pan's Labyrinth were an impressive haul for a foreign language fantasy horror picture, the only horror to win one of the major Oscars this century has been Black Swan. Like del Toro's film, Black Swan is a horror spin on a fairy tale, where the protagonist's inability to cope with the harshness of the real world causes her to retreat into her own fantasies that are just as dark and more disturbing.

Nominated for Best Picture, Director, Cinematography and Editing, Darren Aronofsky's dark ballet film won just one Oscar - for Natalie Portman's performance as repressed yet ambitious dancer Nina Sayers in the midst of completely cracking up.

Did It Deserve To Win?

Probably. Portman really throws herself into the role of Nina and the overlapping role of the Swan Queen, delivering a performance of a character confused, damaged, but with a strong ruthless streak. Whether in the actual ballet dancing, feather sprouting body horror or girl-on-girl kisses, Portman embraced every aspect of Black Swan's physical performance and the finished film has her at her best since her breakthrough role as a child assassin in Leon.

Fellow nominees Michelle Williams, Nicole Kidman and Annette Bening are reliably good performers, but their roles did not push them as far as Portman's did. A previously unknown Jennifer Lawrence, however, may have deserved an award for Winter's Bone more than her eventual win for Silver Linings Playbook... or a possible supporting actress prize at this year's ceremony.