15 Worst Movies That Somehow Won Oscars

14. Earthquake (1974)

Won For: Best Sound Mixing, Special Achievement Academy Award for Visual Effects

Earthquake winning an Oscar (actually two, since it got its own special acknowledgement for Visual Effects) in 1974 is the equivalent of someone like Michael Bay or Roland Emmerich picking one up now for exactly the same sort of fare. It just wouldn't happen, barring some truly exceptional practical or special effects - and even then, disaster movies are so far out of fashion, it'd be a stretch.

In actuality, Earthquake makes Emmerich's work look vastly superior, because of its curious decision to focus on entirely the wrong thing. Where modern disaster movie makers would go for straight disaster porn, director Mark Robson instead went hard on the melodrama and tried to squeeze empathy from the audience for his horrible troupe of characters.

So even as a disaster movie, it failed: it's removed from the mindless, popcorn spectacle any fan of the genre would want, and the more human focus just showed up Robson's flaws as a story-teller. Still, at least the effects did look impressive.