The Lowest-Scoring Best Picture Nominees of the Past 30 Years
As history—and Metascores—show, Academy Award nominations reveal best picture contenders, but not necessarily the best pictures.
We've looked through the best picture Oscar fields of the last 30 years, from the 1989 nominees through the recently announced 2018 field, cross-checked the nominees' Metacritic scores, and ranked the 24 lowest-scoring films, from the bottom to the relative top. Four of these films went on to become best picture winners—but none boasts a Metascore higher than 69.
When it came to this 2011 Civil Rights-era drama, critics universally praised stars Octavia Spencer (who won the best supporting actress Oscar) and Viola Davis, but split on whether the film was "deeply touching" (Rolling Stone) or "more condescending than the prejudice it aims to remedy" (Boxoffice Magazine). Audiences made it a hit; the Academy nominated it for four awards overall.
“The Help is a high-functioning tearjerker, but the catharsis it offers feels glib and insufficient.” —Dana Stevens, Slate
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