This Was the Oscars’ Craziest Best Picture Upset Year

Often, the Academy Awards will opt for a surprise winner for the Best Picture category which garners all kinds of controversy and resentment from the general public. After one particular envelope gets opened, a single feature film instantly becomes a pariah for all of time thanks to it crowding out other movies perceived as more “deserving” of the award. Throughout the ages, several movies have secured this kind of reputation, including Crash, Shakespeare in Love, Around the World in 80 Days, and so many more. An award meant to solidify prestige can instead doom a movie in many ways. However, one Best Picture upset stands heads and shoulders above all others as the most insane to ever transpire.

Forever and a day, this movie will be the poster child for Best Picture Oscar winners who became more famous for all the features it beat out rather than any of its artistic merits. That “honor” goes to Driving Miss Daisy, which caused untold chaos back at the 62nd Academy Awards with its Best Picture Oscar victory.

Why Did Driving Miss Daisy Garner Oscars Controversy?

Driving Miss Daisy went into the 62nd Academy Awards with a whopping nine Oscar nominations, the most of any film that year (Born on the Fourth of July was right behind with eight nominations). Still, Daisy had some hefty competition for the Best Picture Oscar thanks to its competition being Born on the Fourth of July, Dead Poets Society, My Left Foot, and Field of Dreams. There was also a glimmer of hope that Daisy would lose the Best Picture Oscar to one of those four competing films since (despite its nine overall nominations) it didn’t have a Best Director nomination.

It had been 57 years since a Best Picture Oscar winner (Grand Hotel) had emerged without scoring a Best Director nod. That was a positive sign for July, Society, and Foot, all three of which had Best Director nominations. Additionally, historical hindsight makes it seemingly obvious that Daisy would lose to these four films. Quotes from Society and Dreams are still part of everyday people’s vocabulary. Go up to somebody and say “seize the day” or “if you build it, they will come” and everybody knows what movies you’re talking about. John Mulaney even extensively recounted a portion of Field of Dreams as part of an unforgettably hysterical 96th Academy Awards bit. Born on the Fourth of July also still has an ardent fanbase while My Left Foot is seen as the start of the incredible Daniel Day-Lewis leading man era.

Driving Miss Daisy, meanwhile, was a film that didn’t do much revolutionary either thematically or visually. Even back when it was released, there was criticism over its racial politics and handling of Black characters. There was also blowback against nominating Daisy for Best Picture instead of Do the Right Thing, which justifiably endures to this day. Having Daisy actually win was seen as an insult on many levels, with the film immediately becoming a post-Oscars punchline.

[RELATED: The 7 Biggest Modern Best Picture Oscar Winners at the Box Office Will Shock You]

For many, Driving Miss Daisy encapsulated the breezy, schmaltzy American cinema that the Oscars rewarded by default. In the years since, Daisy’s reputation hasn’t improved, with the title often coming in as one of the lowest-rating features in rankings of Best Picture winners. These critics of the movie would’ve existed under any circumstances, but it scoring the craziest Best Picture upset in history exacerbated these qualms. Daisy’s flaws were especially inexcusable considering it beat out the likes of Society and Dreams.

Green Book Echoed the Driving Miss Daisy Win Decades Later

Driving Miss Daisy’s infamous status has only endured in the years since modern Best Picture Oscar upsets have evoked this 62nd Academy Awards tragedy. Most notably, Green Book, at the 91st Academy Awards, scored a Best Picture Oscar win with another sappy feel-good story about Black and white Americans bonding on the road in a period-era setting. Like Daisy, Green Book was also criticized for its shallow approach to race. Also like Daisy, Green Book won the Best Picture Oscar without a Best Director Oscar nomination.

In an eerie level of historical parallels, Green Book also beat out a Spike Lee directorial effort for that year’s Best Picture Oscar, though at least Lee’s 2018 film BlacKkKlansman was nominated for Best Picture that year. Green Book that year beat out not only BlacKkKlansman but also fellow more acclaimed Best Picture nominees Black Panther, Roma, and The Favourite, not to mention standout 2018 films not even nominated for Best Picture like Shoplifters, If Beale Street Could Talk, Leave No Trace, Burning, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and countless others. Once again, the Oscars had chosen the safe and conventional over more challenging, universally acclaimed works that would stand the test of time.

Even with Green Book being fresher in people’s memories, Driving Miss Daisy unquestionably stands out as the biggest and craziest Best Picture upset. Part of that is a movie securing Best Picture win without a Best Director nomination wasn’t as ludicrous in 2019 compared to 1990 (Argo did that hat trick just six years before Green Book). More importantly, though, Driving Miss Daisy, in historical hindsight, seems like the quintessential Oscars maneuver that Green Book’s win was patterned on. It’s a microcosm of troubling Oscar winner trends.

Plus, Green Book winning major awards like the Grolsch People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival for months before its Oscars victory prepared people for its Oscar win. Driving Miss Daisy won a lot of Oscar precursor awards, but it registered as a slightly more shocking win, especially given how it’d been decades since a Best Picture Oscar winner had appeared that didn’t also score a Best Director Oscar nod. Barring a surprise Emilia Perez win, it’s doubtful any 97th Academy Awards Best Picture victor will come anywhere close to challenging Driving Miss Daisy for the title of craziest Best Picture Oscar winner in history.

What do you think is the most surprising Oscar win for Best Picture? Let us know in the comments below!