The Top 5 Oscar Upsets (MSN)

[Brian Damage]

“Shakespeare in Love”
Harvey Weinstein proved a more formidable foe for “Saving Private Ryan” than the Germans on the beaches of Normandy. The film lost out in the best picture race to “Shakespeare” and many “Ryan” backers will declare this was the year where the top award was bought, not earned. Weinstein, the topper at Miramax, paid millions of dollars to flood trade newspapers, magazines and the airwaves with ads touting the greatness of “Shakespeare.” Dreamworks (or more specifically Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg) had to fight the good fight with a ton of ads themselves, but it proved to be a futile effort.

[Brian Damage]

Marisa Tomei, “My Cousin Vinny”
There was plenty of global nobility in the 1993 supporting actress race: Brits Vanessa Redgrave, Joan Plowright and Miranda Richardson, along with Australian native Judy Davis. Yet, somehow, some way, the Academy selected Tomei — as a hardscrabbled, New Yawk fiancee of Joe Pesci — as the cream of this royal crop. No knock against her, as she’s had some very nice roles since (including “In the Bedroom”), but when aliens arrive on Earth and view the time capsule with all the Oscar winners on it, trying to understand what it meant to be the best, Tomei’s entry will be one that even super-intelligent life in outer space will never quite understand.

[Brian Damage]

“Braveheart”
“Apollo 13” producer and Hollywood power player Brian Grazer still tells the story about how he was sitting in the audience of the 1995 Oscars when they announced the best picture winner. As he heard the “Br ...” he was sure it was his name about to be called and his movie the winner. But just as he literally got out of his seat to head toward the stage to celebrate and read his speech, he quickly realized it was actually Mel Gibson’s “Braveheart” that won, not the Ron Howard-directed drama about the doomed space mission to the moon. “Braveheart” hadn’t won nearly anything on the awards circuit prior to the Oscars, while “Apollo 13” had cleaned up, so this one was a real shocker. Of course, Grazer and Howard would get their gold six years later with “A Beautiful Mind.”

[Brian Damage]

Daniel Day-Lewis, “My Left Foot”
Although he had been acting for 10 years previously, no one really knew how powerful an actor Day-Lewis was before “My Left Foot” came out in 1989. Tom Cruise — back when he was still considered a serious actor before bouncing on couches to get attention — was the favorite going into the best actor race, starring as a paralyzed Vietnam War vet in Oliver Stone’s “Born on the Fourth of July.” And the raucous, standing-ovation applause that greeted Day-Lewis as his name was called was proof that while Cruise might’ve been the calculated choice, it was the Irishman who was much more deserving.

[Brian Damage]

“Chariots of Fire”
Name one actor from this 1981 best picture winner and consider yourself a true cinephile. The film beat out what may be Warren Beatty’s greatest accomplishment, “Reds”; Henry Fonda’s swan song, “On Golden Pond”; and one of the greatest crowd-pleasers of all time, “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” There’s lots of running going on and some tea drinking by a handful of scholarly types — it is British after all — but what probably pushed this one to the top was the musical score by Vangelis, accompanied by the slow-motion athletic competition. Is it too late to have a recount?

[¤Graced¤]

No "Ordinary People" winning best pic over "Raging Bull"?

[TJL]

“Shakespeare in Love”
Harvey Weinstein proved a more formidable foe for “Saving Private Ryan” than the Germans on the beaches of Normandy. The film lost out in the best picture race to “Shakespeare” and many “Ryan” backers will declare this was the year where the top award was bought, not earned. Weinstein, the topper at Miramax, paid millions of dollars to flood trade newspapers, magazines and the airwaves with ads touting the greatness of “Shakespeare.” Dreamworks (or more specifically Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg) had to fight the good fight with a ton of ads themselves, but it proved to be a futile effort.

Yeah, what a joke that was.