Borrowing a theme from another thread, what is a Best picture (or director) nominee or winner that in your opinion is bad ?
my votes : Shakespeare in Love, Thin Red Line
note that Shakespeare beat Saving Private Ryan
I’d say this proves that the Academy Awards involve a lot of Hollywood centered politics/ecosystem and frequently are based on agendas other that just what is “best”, such as things like
what might be best for my career, popularity contests, social agendas, paying homage, etc, and different opinions!

Although I remember liking
Shakespeare in Love, in no way should it have beaten
Saving Private Ryan, which is just one of many opinions.
Of interest, in a conversation I was recently involved with I picked on both
Out of Africa (1985) and
The English Patient (1996) as “artsy” with the undertone of stories that suffered because of it, but that qualifier is very subjective when other things in the film don’t click for the viewer. I was not surprised to find these 2 plus SIL listed in this top 10 Worst Best Pictures article.

However I will acknowledge that different stories appeal to different people, which is just an observation, not a knock against personal taste. These movies included some excellent qualities, other than the stories did not appeal to me. And I suppose I could be critiqued on the large quantity of movies based on comics I regularly consume as entertainment, lol.
Btw 1985, I would have given the award to
The Color Purple, not Out of Africa. For 1996, I would have picked
Fargo, which I though was an excellent black comedy.
The Oscars aspire to honor Hollywood's best, but it doesn't always work out that way. The 10 worst movies to win best picture at the Academy Awards.
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