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.
A winner of two Oscars for costume design and art direction, and the recipient of eight nominations overall, Baz Luhrmann's 2001 fever dream of a musical dazzled most critics, but left a good chunk wrung out. The New York Times' A.O. Scott arguably summed up both sides when he wrote Moulin Rouge! was "simultaneously stirring and dispiriting."
“Never boring, often excruciating and occasionally transcendent.” —Maitland McDonagh, TV Guide Magazine
| Stream On |
|
| Stream On |
|
| Stream On |
|
| Buy on |
|
| Stream On |
|
| Stream On |
|
| Stream On |
|
| Stream On |
|