15 Most Shocking Oscar Injustices Of All Time

9. Gladiator Beats Traffic

As evinced by Forrest Gump's unjust triumph over Pulp Fiction, the Academy would usually prefer to play it safe and vote for a tried-and-tested, seeping-with-sentimentality formula film than something non-linear, challenging and violent. It wasn't much of a surprise, then, when Ridley Scott's historical epic Gladiator beat Steven Soderbergh's gritty crime drama Traffic for the Best Picture Oscar. The Academy has has a love affair with historical epics dating back to the 1940s. Along with musicals, there was no other genre so well-represented during the awards for many years. But by the early 2000s, film had changed. The audience had changed, too. The Academy had not. Traffic was a film that took an in-depth look at the war on drugs. It showed how narcotics effected everyone from DEA officials, to Mexican cartels, to pampered suburban teens to respectable businessman and housewives. It was a rich tapestry of a film, with each of its stories shot using different film stock. Gladiator had Russell Crowe fighting a couple of tigers, wearing chainmail and doing his best super-serious acting voice. Crowe, quite astonishingly, took home Best Actor despite being the weakest nominee that year, with his film getting the big prize. As much of a crowd-pleaser as Gladiator was, Traffic is a stone-cold classic and should have really walked away with the big one. Steven Soderbergh can take some solace in his Best Director win, at least.