16 Biggest Oscar Upsets Of The 21st Century

The Rightful Winner: Lord Of The Rings The Two Towers

It's a well-known fact that the Academy held off giving Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings Trilogy the big win until its conclusion with Return of the King as an acknowledgement of the series' quality. The issue with this decision is that they didn't give the right instalment the credit it deserved.

The Two Towers was the Empire Strikes Back of Jackson's cinematic masterpiece and, as with Empire, is widely regarded as being the best movie in the series. The double blow of it not only missing out on the award but that it lost against Chicago is almost too much to bear.

There's nothing wrong with musicals and Chicago itself is proof of this. Full of well-performed, iconic numbers from the original stage show and not making the mistake of taking itself too seriously, there's plenty to like.

Does this mean that a glitzy tale of sex, celebrity and Richard Gere should have been crowned the best movie of 2003? Not a chance.

If you need a definitive reason to classify this as an upset, compare the jaw-dropping depiction of the Battle of Helm's Deep on screen with John C. Reilly's rendition of Mister Cellophane. It doesn't really have the same impact.