10 Most Outrageous Oscar Snubs

Roberto Benigni is a strange, small Italian man who acts in and directs films. In 1997 he made a film called Life Is Beautiful, in which he plays a strange, small Italian man who gets sent to a Nazi death camp with his young son, whereupon he endeavours to keep his son from discovering the truth of their plight through a series of clown-like antics. Bizarrely, for this he won an Oscar.

Life Is Beautiful isn't a bad film necessarily, but elements of it are more than a little off putting. It lurches violently between overwhelmingly mawkishness, holocaust-themed misery, and sudden bursts of at times painful comedy from its star. Benigni, a sensation in his native Italy, just doesn't seem to play to an English audience – he's otherworldly and hard to get on board with. His directorial followup, an adaptation of Pinocchio (with Benigni in the title role, naturally) was widely panned, and you rarely see him these days.

Benigni famously celebrated his win by clambering over rows of audience members to the stage, bounding around like a maniac. It was either a charming or infuriating moment depending on how you look at it. In fairness, his competition was less than stiff, and if you find your heart warmed by Benigni's Auschwitz-based mucking around, then maybe it'll be for you. But the odds are, age has done no favours to Life Is Beautiful.