10 Least Deserving Oscar Winners Ever

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences claims its main objective is to "recognise and uphold excellence in the motion picture arts and sciences, inspire imagination, and connect the world through the medium of motion pictures."

A noble intention that sadly falls through a lot of the time.

Year after year its selection of winners manage to dumbfound viewers, critics and performers alike. Mediocre, often sickly sweet, middlebrow dramas with supposedly inspirational plot points seem to be their favourite form of film. So much so that the term 'Oscar bait' has been prescribed to countless nominees everyone beyond the Academy were bored senseless by.

Another especially frustrating trait of the long-running ceremony is its penchant for snubbing great performers time and time again only to reward them for average work late into their careers. A bizarre habit that does the awards' prestige no favours, it has lead to a variety of questionable winners and unfair losses.

Conspiracies of studio meddling (especially from a certain disgraced, highly infamous producer) run afoot, as do questions of just how independent the voting really is. For all the times the Academy get it right, there's a boatload of questionable statue holders out there making them look like fools.

By the rules of the Academy, a studio can submit a movie for animation nomination provided 75% or more of the film's run time is animated. By that logic, Fox really should've submitted James Cameron's Avatar as an animated feature. The film takes place in a world composed of CGI, where actors use motion-capture technology to become computed generated characters.

With this in mind, the feature's Best Cinematography win is highly debatable. The film's Best Visual Effects win was perfectly justifiable. Cameron spent years developing new filming techniques and cameras to create the film, providing a visual extravaganza unlike anything that had come before it.

The question remains, however, of why it bags cinematography when everything on screen was a digital creation. Nominees such as Inglourious Basterds and The White Ribbon were considerably more deserving of the award. Beautifully filmed in more traditional, less high tech, settings, these films embodied what the category is meant to acknowledge.

First time nominee Mauro Fiore was no doubt overjoyed by his victory. All the same, the film's win ultimately raised the question of what cinematography does and does not entail. A controversial win for a film that really didn't belong in the category to begin with.