30 Most Memorable Oscar Moments From The Last 30 Years

15. The Lord Of The Rings: Return Of The King Has Biggest Clean Sweep In Oscar History (2004)

The Lord Of The Rings The Return Of The King Frodo Baggins Elijah Wood
Warner Bros. Pictures

It's still absolutely shocking that the climactic entry into The Lord of the Rings franchise won the Best Picture Oscar, considering the Academy's well-noted bias against genre films, especially horror, sci-fi and fantasy.

With the two previous films also nominated for Best Picture, it's widely accepted that Return of the King's victory was effectively an award for the entire trilogy, cemented by the fact that the film went on to win every single one of its 11 Oscar nominations (including Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay).

This gave Return of the King the biggest clean sweep in Oscar history, because while Ben-Hur and Titanic also have 11 Oscar wins each, they were nominated for 12 and 14 awards respectively.

Given that the Academy has trended towards spreading the love around in recent years, don't expect this success to be repeated anytime soon.

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Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.