Outside of the Cannes Film Festival, The Academy Awards is as prestigious as it gets when it comes to movie accolades. There's a reason why movie trailers try to sell the film by stating things like, "starring Academy Award winner...," and that's because The Oscars represent the best of the best.
However, every now and then, some of the Academy's picks can come as a huge surprise. Whether it's Batman Forever being nominated for Best Cinematography or Crocodile Dundee's nod for Best Original Screenplay, the Academy has made some head-scratching decisions in the past.
Crocodile Dundee (1986)
Crocodile Dundee is one of the funniest fish-out-of-water movies, as it sees an Australian crocodile hunter move to New York. But as funny as it is, the by the numbers rom-com doesn't do anything out of the ordinary, yet it somehow managed to earn a Best Screenplay nod.
Not only was it a surprise that the comedy was nominated for Best Screenplay at the Academy Awards, but it was a shock that Crocodile Dundee found an audience outside of Australia. The movie had a fairly small budget of less than $10 million, and no one anticipated that it would even do well beyond its home country, according to On the Set of New York.
Con Air (1997)
It's corny, it's ridiculous, and it makes no sense, but Con Air is still one of the most fun movies of the 1990s, as it's basically Die Hard but perhaps even better. The movie sees Nicolas Cage at his most uncaged, and though it would have been amazing to see him nominated for Best Actor, to see the film nominated for anything is staggering.
The action flick is the most unpretentious movie possible and it's the very epitome of what the Academy stands against, but it still ended up being nominated for Best Sound Editing. Though that might be a technical award and not one that many people are interested in, the film was also nominated for Best Original Song, as "How Do I Live" by Trisha Yearwood was made for the movie.
Fifty Shades Of Grey
Fifty Shades of Grey is a fascinating movie when it comes to its reception. Not only was it hated by critics, but even though it made $550 million worldwide, it's still hated by audiences based on its IMDb score of 4.1. Because of this, it's one of the few movies to be nominated for both an Academy Award and a Golden Raspberry at the Razzies, which is essentially the opposite of the Oscars.
However, where it was nominated for a Golden Raspberry for Worst Director, its Oscar accolade is understandably completely unrelated to the direction or the performances. Instead, the movie was nominated for Best Original Song, as The Weeknd recorded "Earned It" for the 2015 adaptation.
How The Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)
When How The Grinch Stole Christmas was first released 21 years ago, it was a smash hit with general audiences, and its legacy only grows with each passing holiday season. But despite the movie playing to Jim Carrey's strengths with all the slapstick comedy and goofiness, and being one of the best holiday movies of the 2000s, it was critically derided.
The thought of the movie being nominated for anything was unbelievable. However, the movie wasn't just nominated for three Oscars, it won one of them, which was for Best Makeup.
Bad Grandpa (2013)
As the 2013 film, one of the funniest hidden camera movies, is part of the Jackass franchise, being nominated for an Oscar is almost as much of an incredible feat as the stunts performed in the series.
Though the 2013 movie breaks the Jackass mold by tieing all of the stunts and hidden camera pranks together with a proper narrative, Bad Grandpa, unsurprisingly, wasn't nominated for Best Screenplay. It was, however, nominated for Best Makeup And Hairstyling. It's hilarious to think that the Academy watched the movie, saw Irving Zisman's eyebrow-raising wardrobe malfunction, and thought, "Now, that's Oscar-worthy."
Batman Forever (1995)
Batman Forever was nominated for a couple of technical awards: Best Sound and Best Sound Effects Editing. But most interestingly, the film was also nominated for Best Cinematography. Granted, the movie came before the infamous Batnipples in Batman & Robin, but it was still widely negatively received for feeling more like a toy commercial than anything.
However, being nominated for Best Cinematography is a testament to why fans should get the forever-talked-about director's cut of Batman Forever. Legend has it that the Schumacher cut is much darker, and there are loads of mind-blowing leaked deleted scenes.
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)
The Phantom Menace was polarizing upon its release, and it still is today, as fans still debate its quality. However, the movie was nominated for Best Sound Effects Editing, Best Visual Effects, and Best Sound. Interestingly, The Phantom Menace lost in every category to The Matrix, which was so envelope-pushing and ahead of its time, much like the original Star Wars back in 1977.
What is most surprising is that out of all the categories the film was nominated for, it didn't receive a Best Original Score nomination. For fans, this is almost blasphemy, as the movie features "Duel of the Fates," arguably one of the greatest compositions in any of the Star Wars movies.
Death Becomes Her (1992)
Though it has a strong cult following and is loved by the LGBTQ+ community (as reported by Vanity Fair), and was even the center of an episode of RuPaul's Drag Race, Death Becomes Her was critically scathed when it was first released. It was seen as a schlocky comedy, but it was also a pioneer in the use of computer-generated effects. The Academy recognized this, as it was not only nominated for Best Visual Effects, but it took the award home.
Regardless of the quality of the movie and even the acting, it's actually somewhat of a surprise that Meryl Streep wasn't nominated for an acting award, as she is seemingly nominated for everything and has an astounding 21 Academy Award nominations to her name.
Beverly Hills Cop (1984)
There have been several comedies that earned Academy Award nominations, but one that often goes overlooked is this 1984 Eddie Murphy comedy. And just like Crocodile Dundee, Beverly Hills Cop is another action-comedy that was nominated for Best Original Screenplay.
Not only that, but it seems like the Academy has a specific preference when it comes to comedies, as the film is again a fish-out-of-water movie that sees a Detroit cop in Beverly Hills. It isn't the only time a Murphy-driven comedy has been surprisingly nominated for an Oscar, as both Norbit and The Nutty Professor were nominated too.
Transformers (2007)
Though the Transformers series gets a bad reputation, as each consecutive movie tends to be worse than the last, there's still a lot to like about the first in the series. However, whether or not it deserved a nod from the Academy is another question entirely.
It may come as a surprise that the movie was nominated for Best Visual Effects, as one of its biggest criticisms is that there is so much CGI taking up the screen that it's hard to tell what's going on. But there's no denying that the way the vehicles transform into robots is hugely impressive. It isn't the only Transformers movie to be nominated either, as the third film in the series, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, was nominated in the same category.