The 10 Most Controversial Oscar-Winning Movies Of All Time

You don't need to be an awards journalist to know that just because a movie takes home an Oscar, doesn't mean that it's, you know, good. Often the stereotype of the Academy Award winner is a safe, sleepy film that doesn't offend anyone and is palatable to the average Oscar voter, but you might be surprised to learn that plenty of movies showered with plaudits were actually quite controversial. 

Over the years, the Oscars have awarded films that came under fire for everything from racism and child abuse to transphobia and white savior narratives. While some of these controversies only emerged years later as the views of society have changed around them, others drew ire and the dreaded d-word (discourse) almost immediately upon their initial release. The issues with each of these films are certainly valid, everyone has to make up their own mind about whether or not the flaws outweigh the high points. For some of them, the answer may be an unmitigated "yes," but other audiences may find a bit more complicated.

Here are some of the most controversial Oscar-winning movies of all time.

In "The Tin Drum," a young boy does the only logical thing in the face of the endless cruelty of World War II: He resists becoming an adult, halting his own physical aging process and staying a child (with a, yes, admittedly very annoying drum in tow) forever. The big problem with this? Its magical realism storyline involved hiring an 11-year-old actor who eventually had to play a physically stunted 16-year-old, putting the young performer (David Bennent) in some decidedly adult situations. 

Like, for example, when Oskar (Bennent) licks sherbet powder out of the belly button of his love interest Maria, who was played by the 24-year-old Katharina Thalbach — which is, well, obviously not great. Although "The Tin Drum" took home the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, it was also met with almost immediate criticism and censure. Accusations of it being child pornography abounded, and it was banned in several different cities, states, and countries around the world.

"Boys Don't Cry" has a lot going for it. In bringing to life the tragic true story of Brandon Teena, a trans man who was brutally assaulted and ultimately murdered, it shines a light on violence towards trans individuals, which is too often made invisible. It features a talented young cast of soon-to-be stars, including Hilary Swank in the lead role (for which she won Best Actress and famously forgot to thank her then-husband Chad Lowe), Peter Sarsgaard, and Chloe Sevigny. 

But here's the thing: It's also complicated, and generates complicated feelings. We can have the conversation about what is lost in "Boys Don't Cry" by having the lead role played by a cisgender woman. Or whether or not the depiction of Teena's violent death veers too far into exploitative territory. And there's also the matter of the fact that many of the real-life figures featured in the film vociferously objected to their portrayal — which should be taken with a grain of salt, since almost no one likes the way they're written on film, but nonetheless ruffled feathers at the time of its release.

Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers had a pretty consistent standard of quality, and "Swing Time" is no exception. In it, Astaire (who never enjoyed watching his own movies) plays Lucky, who's trying to save up enough money to respectably marry Margaret (Betty Furness) when he ends up meeting and falling in love with dance instructor Penny (Ginger Rogers). Their trademark chemistry and formidable dancing skills are on full display throughout the film, and it was rewarded accordingly with an Academy Award for Best Original Song for "The Way You Look Tonight." 

"Swing Time" was also nominated for the choreography in its now famous — or shall we say infamous — "Bojangles of Harlem" musical number, which pays tribute to Bill "Bojangles" Robinson. What's the problem with that, you may ask? Well, this was 1936, so Fred Astaire paying tribute to a Black performer unfortunately involved a considerable amount of blackface. The ill-judged and insensitive musical number may be a product of its time, but it also mars an otherwise charming film. 

"The Blind Spot" tells the true (well, sort of) story of Michael Oher, a professional football player who was taken in by a white family and encouraged in his athletic endeavors, allowing him to be the successful NFL alum he eventually became. But there are a few problems with this. First of all, it plays fast and loose with the truth. And not in a "well, we had to condense these parts of the story for time" kind of way. Instead, we're expected to believe that Michael Oher — a talented athlete — didn't understand rudimentary concepts of football until his white foster mother (Sandra Bullock) explained them to him in terms he could wrap his head around. 

The white savior narrative is strong, sending the message that Black people can only succeed by the grace of white benefactors. It may have won Sandra Bullock a Best Actress Academy Award, but it also earned a mountain of criticism, not least of which came from Michael Oher himself. Public figures are often dissatisfied with the way that they're portrayed in biopics, but in the case of Oher, the changes to his character are too racially tinged to ignore. He claimed that the film made him look dumb rather than academically disenfranchised and white-washed his relationship with his foster family, who never formally adopted him and allegedly took financial advantage of him once his football career took off. So much for an inspirational sports story.

Let's face it: The minute it was announced that Netflix was releasing a musical about the drug lord Manitas (Karla Sofía Gascón), who makes the decision to transition and receive gender affirmation surgery to start a whole new life as Emilia, people were sort of waiting for the other shoe to drop. From the very beginning, it seemed incredibly unlikely that this whole production — which includes entire musical comedy numbers where Rita (Zoe Saldana), the lawyer who Manitas tasks with arranging these procedurals, tours the overseas facilities where they could potentially take place — would deal with the issues it explores sensitively.

Although "Emilia Perez" received 13 Academy Award nominations and earned two wins — for Saldana in Best Supporting Actress and "El Mal" for Best Original Song, respectively — the film drew fire from all sides. Many Latino audiences criticized it for its stereotypical depiction of Mexico as a haven for drug cartels, in addition to the fact that the production seems almost to have gone out of its way to avoid casting Mexicans in many of the lead roles. At the same time, LGBTQ audiences bemoaned its outdated and inauthentic depiction of trans identity. To make matters worse, in the midst of the film's Oscar campaign, several bigoted tweets from star Karla Sofía Gascón emerged espousing offensive opinions on everything under the sun, which were promptly deleted.

Remember "Driving Miss Daisy" from 1989? "Green Book" is kind of like that but in reverse, where the brash Italian-American bouncer Frank Vallelonga (Viggo Mortensen) gets a job as a chauffeur for the acclaimed Black pianist Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali) as he embarks on a concert tour in the early-1960s South. (The title "Green Book" refers to a helpful little guide that indicated to Black travelers through the South where it was safe to stop along the way.) Although Frank is initially pretty darn racist, through his time with Shirley, he comes to understand that Black people are people too. Honestly, it's kind of insane that this is the level of insight into racial politics we can expect from a film in 2018 that is willingly choosing to wade into the topic. 

Mahershala Ali won his second Oscar for his performance as Don Shirley, which is fine, because he actually does a great job capturing the internal struggle of a queer Black man who doesn't feel as though he belongs anywhere (even though Shirley's family claimed that the film took a lot of liberties with his character). But unfortunately, the controversial legacy of "Green Book" will probably be as one of the most unearned and cynical Best Picture wins in Oscar history.

It's hardly a secret that "Pocahontas" wasn't the mega-hit that Disney was perhaps hoping for, coming on the heels of "The Lion King," "Aladdin," and "Beauty and the Beast." The story of a forbidden love that grows between a young Native American woman, Pocahontas, and the white colonizer who lands on her shores, John Smith, was enough to earn the film two Academy Awards for Best Original Song and Best Original Score. But its awards didn't save it from facing a fair amount of criticism. 

Although "Pocahontas" deserves some credit for the fact that it centers indigenous characters in a story about early America, and it has no compunction about casting its crew of English settlers as the real villains of the piece, we also have to acknowledge the issues inherent in the relationship between Pocahontas and John. Namely, the fact that although Pocahontas did marry an English settler, John Rolfe, she was only a child at the time of his arrival. What's more, she was kidnapped, "encouraged" to convert, and married off to Rolfe when she was just 17 years old, before being taken to England and dying of smallpox by 20. Not exactly the fairy tale ending we want to see for a Disney princess.

Although "Slumdog Millionaire" is one of Danny Boyle's most inspirational and crowd-pleasing movies — as evinced by the fact that it was nominated for 10 Academy Awards and took home an impressive eight, including Best Picture and Best Director — it was mired in controversy from the very beginning. The film is a coming-of-age tale about a young Indian boy named Jamal (played by Dev Patel as an adult) as he grows from childhood to adulthood amidst the slums of Mumbai, all while pursuing the love of his life, Latika (Frieda Pinto). Jamal's early life is dominated by cruelty and suffering, which led many critics — especially from India — to level accusations of it being "poverty porn" luxuriating in the pain of its characters. 

Since the film begins with its main trio of characters (Jamal, his older brother Samir, and Latika) as children and teens, questions were asked about whether or not "Slumdog Millionaire" had exploited its young performers. Were they being plucked from the slums of Mumbai for a brief moment in the spotlight, and then tossed back when the filmmakers were done with them? Although director Danny Boyle claimed to have made provisions for his young stars to help them avoid returning to the slums, it's unclear if it was enough to help them break the cycle of poverty.

"Memoirs of a Geisha," a historical drama based on the novel by Arthur Golden about a young Japanese girl who is sold to a geisha house, may have faced vague criticisms in the West for its inaccuracies in depicting Japanese culture, but it set off a firestorm in Asia. The biggest issue is that the filmmakers, ignoring the implications of very sensitive geopolitical relationships, cast three Chinese actors in the main roles. And while Japanese audiences were perhaps not thrilled to see Chinese actresses playing geishas, a traditional component of Japanese culture, that was nothing compared to how Chinese audiences felt about it. 

(There are still a lot of ... shall we say complicated feelings between China and Japan, largely resulting from war crimes during World War II, but dating back further than that as well. And It doesn't help that "Memoirs of a Geisha" was partially set during World War II, which stirred up memories of Chinese and Korean "comfort women" forced into sexual servitude by invading Japanese forces.) 

"Memoirs of a Geisha" was banned from appearing in cinemas in China, while the Chinese government declared star Zhang Ziyi an "embarrassment to China" for agreeing to appear in the film.

In "Get Out Your Handkerchiefs," Solange (Carole Laure) is caught up in the menage a trois with Raoul (Gerard Depardieu) and Stephane (Patrick Dewaere), neither of whom are able to satisfied, sexually or intellectually. But that's not the controversial part. "Get Out Your Handkerchiefs" goes into questionable territory when Solange falls in love with a math prodigy, Christian (Riton Liebman), who just happens to be a 13-year-old boy. Yes, they have sex, yes, she gets pregnant, and yes, this movie is very, very French. 

Despite the movie's issues surrounding the depiction of sex with a minor, it was nonetheless awarded the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar the year it came out. And interestingly enough, although nowadays we look back at this illicit relationship as the major problem with the film, when it was first released, audiences were much more up in arms about the treatment of Solange, who is heavily sexualized in "Get Out Your Handkerchiefs" to the point that there were complaints about her being regarded as little more than a sex object.