10 Most Surprising Underdog Oscar Victories

Comedy-drama and the Holocaust might not seem a likely pair yet Italian actor and director Roberto Benigni’s Life Is Beautiful proved it’s possible to infuse comedy, albeit of the bittersweet and black variety, into even the darkest of subject matter.

The film was rewarded with a number of best film and best foreign film nods from the likes of the Cesar Awards and the European Film Awards and won the Grand Prix at Cannes Film Festival. It’s not unusual for a film from the continent to do well on the European awards circuit, but Benigni’s success at the Oscars certainly came as a surprise.

Life is Beautiful took not only the awards for Best Foreign Film and Best Original Dramatic Score, but earned Benigni the Best Actor Oscar too even when up against fierce competition including Ian McKellen’s performance as troubled Frankenstein director James Whale in Gods and Monsters and Edward Norton’s role as a reformed neo-Nazi in American History X.

Perhaps Benigni’s most memorable moment of the evening, however, was when he climbed over the backs of chairs and other audience members’ heads when making his way to the stage to accept the Best Foreign Film award in quite possibly the most enthusiastic victory walk in Academy Award history.