The decision for the Best Picture accolade at the Oscars is always controversial. There are far too many different opinions, critics and fans to always make a good choice.
But if you look at a few old Oscar winners in preparation for and celebration of the 2025 Oscars, some films show their age more than others.
Our society is evolving – and that's a good thing. Many things that might have been accepted by society in the past would no longer be said or even written into a script today. Moreover, a medium does not exist in a vacuum, and the behaviour of directors and actors also influences our view of films and series today.
Bow-dacious 🎀
These films are a product of their time – when they were made, many of them were not seen as problematic, perhaps because the cultural climate was different or certain actions of the actors and directors were not yet known. Nowadays, some statements or narratives would perhaps no longer be written into the script.
We have collected 11 Oscar-winning films that have a problematic aftertaste when you watch them again.
Few films were discussed as often as Gone with the Wind, which won ten Oscars in 1940. Among the winners was Hattie McDaniel, who became the first Black woman ever to win an Oscar. Now this may sound progressive for the time, but Hattie McDaniel was also confronted with racism and segregation during the Oscar ceremony. She was only allowed to attend the ceremony because the producers asked her to, and even then she had to sit at an extra table and not with her white co-stars.
Even when the film was released in cinemas in the late 1930s, it was criticised for its racist portrayal. This was forgotten for a long time, but protests against the film flared up again in 2020. Gone with the Wind was briefly taken down from Amazon Prime Video in Germany and only re-released with opening credits stating that the film depicts "racial and ethnic prejudices" that are "unfortunately commonplace in American society".
Woody Allen's film Annie Hall surprisingly won the Oscar for Best Picture in 1978. This was despite the fact that Star Wars – which was later renamed Star Wars Episode 4: A New Hope – was also in the running at the time. The Urban Neurotic is one of the few comedies to ever be selected for Best Picture – which some see as confirmation of how good the romantic comedy is. What's more, the film won four Oscars in 1978.
However, it was a turbulent few years for director Woody Allen. He was accused of sexual assault on his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow when she was only seven years old. He himself denies the allegations, but the 2021 documentary "Allen v Farrow" shows private footage that severely incriminates the director. In addition, he married his adopted daughter Soon-yi Previn – when they got together he was 56 and she was 21. A concept runs through his films that seems uncomfortable against this background.
In many of Woody Allen's films, an older, shy and modest guy (played by himself, among others) gets together with a young, beautiful woman, often portrayed as “innocent”, such as in The Urban Neurotic, Manhattan and Mighty Aphrodite. Such a repetition of this theme in many of his films just feels weird against the backdrop of the allegations. Hollywood stars such as Timothee Chalamet, Greta Gerwig and Selena Gomez have distanced themselves from Allen and donated their fees from his films to charitable causes.
Both Dead Poets Society and Field of Dreams were nominated at the 1990 Oscars, but Driving Miss Daisy surprised everyone by winning the Oscar for Best Picture.
The film is about an unusual friendship between a pensioner and her Black chauffeur, played by Morgan Freeman. Driving Miss Daisy has been criticised mainly for its over-simplified portrayal of racial issues in the mid-20th century and the stereotypical portrayal of Black men. Even lead actor Morgan Freeman, who won an Oscar for the film, regrets his role and the consequences of it, leading him to be put up for stereotypical roles of a Black, wise old man in the following years.
This film is difficult because it is not problematic in itself, only the reception of the subject matter is difficult. A controversy arose within the LGBTQIA+ community after the Oscars, in terms of the trans theme portrayed by the villain Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine). In today's social climate, such a portrayal of a trans* person would be less likely to be realised. In The Silence of the Lambs, Buffalo Bill is a serial killer who wears the skin of his female victims, keeps their clothes and dresses like them.
The movie itself explicitly mentions that Bill is not trans and that trans identity has nothing to do with violence. The director Jonathan Demme also explicitly stated that Bill should not be trans and apologises for not making it clearer in the direction. All of this is absolutely legitimate, but the intention of the authors is not necessarily decisive if it is received differently by a broad audience. At the 1992 Oscars, there were protests against the film, during which 10 queer activists were even arrested.
The truth is that statistically, trans women are far more often victims of violence than perpetrators of violence. Nevertheless, it is a common stylistic device to portray trans or at least characters who do not conform to gender norms as villains.
Forrest Gump, starring Tom Hanks, was voted Best Picture by the Academy in 1995 – even though Pulp Fiction was also nominated for an Oscar in the same year. The young Forrest Gump stumbles through iconic moments in 20th century American history. The comedy-drama has already been criticised several times by activists for its portrayal of people with disabilities, women's rights and veterans of the Vietnam War.
But what also stands out in 2025 is the portrayal of Jenny, played by Robin Wright, who is actually only used to further Forrest Gump's emotional development before she gives him a child and dies at the end. She portrays a stereotypical victimised woman who was first abused by her father and then goes on to date toxic men, work as a stripper and eventually die of AIDS.
The 1996 Oscar winner Braveheart may be a favourite film of many, but among critics it is seen as a big joke and one of the Academy's biggest mistakes. Even film critics at the time couldn't understand why the Scottish independence film made such an impression at the Oscars.
In the film, which is based on true events, Mel Gibson plays independence fighter William Wallace, who plans a campaign of revenge against the endlanders. However, Gibson has been criticised for his homophobic, racist and anti-Semitic remarks several times since his cinematic peak. Although the actor apologised several times on talk shows for his behaviour and cited his alcohol addiction as the cause of the hatred, his verbal attacks have been repeated since then.
In 1999, black comedy drama American Beauty won the Oscar for Best Picture and was considered one of the best films of the decade at the time. Since then, the film has been repeatedly criticised for its portrayal of male lust. The movie is about Lester, played by Kevin Spacey, who is going through a midlife crisis and is sexually frustrated, until one day he meets his daughter's 17-year-old girlfriend. He begins to fantasise about her and also approaches the teenager in real life.
Although the film does not judge this approach as morally correct, it does seem to argue that men cannot defend themselves against their fantasies and sexual acts. An argument that is more than just problematic, especially against the backdrop of the #MeToo movement. Kevin Spacey also fell into disrepute when allegations of sexual violence increased in 2017. After Anthony Rapp spoke out against Kevin Spacey that year, other men came forward claiming that Kevin Spacey had sexually abused them at a young age. Spacey denies any allegations.
Before The Pianist won the Oscar for Best Picture, the film's director Roman Polanski won the Oscar for Best Director. Unfortunately, Polanski was unable to accept his Oscar himself – if he had been on American soil, he would have been arrested. Even after Roman Polanski was found guilty of raping and sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl in 1977, many filmmakers continued to support him – even when he fled to London shortly after his early release to avoid extradition.
In the wake of the #MeToo and Time's Up movements, his works were re-examined and his successes questioned, especially in light of the fact that allegations of rape surfaced again in 2017 and 2019. In 2018, he was barred from membership by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
In 2005, Crash was widely celebrated by the Academy. The film earned a total of six nominations and three Oscars, including Best Picture. However, the win in 2005 was overshadowed by a major scandal: the queer cowboy love film Brokeback Mountain was nominated for an Oscar in the same year – and many assumed that the Academy did not want to give an Oscar to a queer film at the time.
Crash was described by some critics as "the worst film of the decade", and director Paul Haggis himself also felt that the film was not worthy of an Oscar. Various plot strands, which are presented à la Love Actually, each stand for a political theme and are all unoriginal and stereotypically realised. The drama has been criticised above all for its stereotypical portrayal of racism and racist themes and its over-simplified portrayal of multicultural relationships.
In 2013, the two leading actors of Dallas Buyers Club, Jared Leto and Matthew McConaughey, were particularly celebrated for their physical transformation for the film. Both starved themselves down to a few pounds to play characters with AIDS, and Jared Leto also played trans woman Rayon. Critics now point that a trans woman should have been cast for the part.
The drama is about the cowboy Ron (Matthew McConaughey), who sells unauthorised drugs to HIV/AIDS patients due to his own illness. One of the patients is Rayon, who holds up a mirror to the homophobic Ron. Unfortunately, this is her only role in the movie: she is supposed to make him a better person and stand as a negative example of how to deal with an AIDS diagnosis. Ron changes his lifestyle and survives, while Rayon continues to work as a prostitute and dies at the end. In addition, she is addressed with male pronouns throughout the film.
One of the most controversial Oscar winners in recent years is 2019's Green Book. The film was a commercial and critical success and also took the awards season by storm. But looking back, the film is hardly as progressive as it pretends to be.
The story of the movie is based on the true story of Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali) and his bodyguard Tony Lip (Viggo Mortensen). The family of the real Shirley strongly condemned the cinematic portrayal, whereas the executive producer of Green Book is the real son of Tony Lip.
Mahershala Ali portrayed a stereotypical Black man whose only task was to teach a white man a lesson. Furthermore, the film was criticised for its "white savior" narrative, in which a white man seemingly ends racism just by being there. Director of BlacKkKlansman Spike Lee tried to leave the hall in disgust after the announcement of Best Film.
This article was originally published on GLAMOUR Germany.
