The Academy Awards (or the Oscars, as they shall now forever be known) have always struck one as an insidious cabal that has been hellbent on promoting mediocrity; to put in another way, they are like a bad sports team owner. Instead of picking Magic Johnson, Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan, the Academy seems to pick Danny Ferry, Sun Mingming and Tony Parker. Many great films have been snubbed due to the poor choices of the Academy, however there have also been incredibly strange nominations for "Best Picture" throughout the history of the Oscars. In fact, these choices are so odd, it is necessary to give a short overview of the top 10 egregiously strange nominations in no particular ranking (since they all are deserving of being number 1 for a myriad of reasons)...
10. Trader Horn (1931)
Based on the real life escapes of Alfred Aloysius "Trader" Horn and his memoirs this film was part of the wave of films and books that fetishized the African continent. It was nominated in 1931 and lost to Cimarron, a RKO production. Simply the fact that it lost to Cimarron, which is one of the worst Best Picture films ever speaks volumes about this film's quality; nonetheless both were in fact nominated for "Outstanding Production" an oxymoron if there ever was one. Trader Horn is on this list because wild animals in Africa killed members of the film set, and the footage was apparently used in the film. What is astounding is the fact that it one of the earliest talking pictures and was filmed in Africa, despite the depression being in full swing. Furthermore, the studio, MGM, bypassed American laws regarding the ethical treatment of animals by sending a crew to Mexico to starve lions so they would eat other animals more voraciously. Edwina Booth the leading actress, in the role of White Goddess, contracted malaria and had health problems many years after and sued MGM. Strangely enough this film was remade in 1973 with Rod Taylor in the lead role.