Remember iconic Oscar controversies, like the 2022 slap

Oscar snubs and losses can generate controversy

Comedian Bruce Vilanch's podcast "The Oscars: What Were They Thinking?" takes listeners behind the scenes at the Academy Awards to get the inside scoop on everything from the nominating process to the celebrity spats backstage. For example, "This One Hurts!" is about the 2010 Oscars battle for best picture between "The Hurt Locker" (directed by Kathryn Bigelow) and "Avatar" (directed by James Cameron, her ex-husband).

Unpacking the controversy surrounding race and the Oscars

In 2015, #OscarSoWhite went viral on social media, highlighting the disproportionately low number of nominees of color compared to their white colleagues. Data also shows divisions when it comes to age, gender, and nationality.

There are several theories for how the Oscar got its name

Several different people claim to have bestowed the famous nickname, including a librarian who thought the knight resembled her uncle Oscar and a gossip columnist who was poking fun at a local theater owner.

The youngest Oscar winners in history

The awards often go to veterans who have paid their dues, but sometimes the bright young stars manage to break through. That was the case with these 14 Oscar winners (like Adrien Brody, Prince, and Markéta Irglová) who earned accolades despite their relatively green status.

Every best picture Oscar award winner since 1929

See the title and short clips from every film that's taken the top prize at the Oscars since its inception in 1929 in this 15-minute video.

A round up of the best Oscar-snubbed films of 2026

This year's snubs include Eva Victor's "Sorry, Baby", Bong Joon Ho's "Mickey 17," and Richard Linklater's "Blue Moon", all without nominations despite strong critical recognition and awards-circuit momentum. At the time of writing, these were also available to stream.

Plenty of groundbreaking films never won an Oscar

The Academy Awards may look to celebrate the best films in a given year, but they sometimes miss the mark. This list breaks down 15 important movies that didn't win a single Oscar, including early classics like "Frankenstein" and "Double Indemnity," New Hollywood landmarks like "Easy Rider" and "Taxi Driver," and pop culture phenoms like "The Shawshank Redemption" and "Reservoir Dogs."

Who gets thanked the most in Oscar speeches?

This resource analyzes nearly 2,000 Oscar acceptance speeches. It shows the average number of words spoken, the themes discussed, and how these trends have changed over the years. Scroll through the results and see if Harvey Weinstein was thanked more often than God in past years.

Hollywood’s best scandals

With all the money, power, and beautiful people in Hollywood, it’s no wonder there’s no shortage of scandals. This list highlights 10 of the most salacious ones, from Marilyn Monroe’s affair with then-president John F. Kennedy, to the mysterious death of starlet Natalie Wood in 1981.

Oscar voters are now required to watch all movies in a category before voting

This rule, introduced for the 2026 Academy Awards, is based on the honor system. A handful of voters afterwards admitted to not watching all the films in their category.

The most controversial moments in ‘Saturday Night Live’ history

This list ranks the show’s biggest controversies over five decades, including Sinead O’Connor’s infamous shredding of the Pope, Elvis Costello’s abrupt set change, and Fear trashing Studio 8H.

The 2022 best picture winner, 'CODA,' was an Apple+ original

Streaming has changed more than how we watch movies—it's changed the way we recognize them during awards season. When movie theaters shut down during the early days of the pandemic, studios had no choice but to release their films on streaming. Once the shift occurred, there was no going back.

The 25 most important stunt scenes of the 21st Century

The Academy Awards will finally recognize stunt design at its 2028 ceremony, leading one writer to gather the best stunt sequences from the century, highlighting jaw-dropping scenes from "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," "The Matrix," and more.

A brief history of Cannes controversies

Cannes is one of the most prestigious festivals in the world, but that hasn’t shielded it from controversies, including inflammatory statements, political protests, and booing audiences.

Marlon Brando used his 1973 Oscar win to protest the US government's treatment of Native Americans

Brando declined his best actor award at the Academy Awards, sending Chiricahua Apache activist Sacheen Littlefeather in his place to read a statement protesting Hollywood's depiction of Native people and the federal siege underway at Wounded Knee, South Dakota.

Try your hand at Tonys trivia

Wondering which musical was nominated for the most Tony Awards, or which theatrical families have seen multiple members nominated in the same year? This collection of statistics and trivia about the awards will satisfy your curiosity. There's even a section for people who have won Oscars and Tonys for the same role—also known as "overachievers."

J Lo's infamous green dress at the 2000 Grammy Awards led to Google Images

Marie Claire rounded up some of the wildest, most infamous Grammys controversies, ranging from wardrobe malfunctions to ill-gotten awards. See events like Kanye and Taylor reconciling, Adele having mic issues, shocking wins, and other historic moments.

Major scandals have undermined the reputation of the Olympics

With billions in public money in play and the high stakes of winning gold for one's country, the Olympics have had their fair share of scandals. This Global Investigative Journalism Network list highlights eight groundbreaking investigations by journalists about the Olympics. It includes the 2014 Russian doping scandal, venue corruption in Rio, and the decadeslong cycle of sexual abuse by an Olympic doctor.

‘The Substance’ is a great food film

"The Substance" has received numerous accolades, including five Academy Award nominations, for its satirical horror story about celebrity. This writer argues that it's also one of the best food movies in recent memory.

The James Beard Awards invited controversy by evaluating character

When the foundation initially asked judges to start considering chefs’ personal conduct in 2018, there was little pushback. By the time the 2023 awards rolled around, that was no longer the case. A chef’s nomination was pulled due to allegations of bullying, causing several previous winners to renounce their awards.

See 33 images that became central to huge scandals, including a young Charles and Camilla, Michael Jackson's baby on a hotel balcony, and Hugh Grant's mugshot.

The Oscars considered the use of computer-assisted special effects in 'Tron' unfair

The 1982 film relied heavily on computer animation, so much so that the Academy Awards disqualified the film from its special effects category because they considered the computer-assisted graphics "cheating."

Liza Minnelli is currently the only REGOT winner

The star is one of the few to have obtained all of the most prestigious entertainment awards. However, as of 2026, she is also the only EGOT actor to have also won a Razzie for Worst Actress after starring in the films "Arthur 2: On the Rocks" and "Rent-A-Cop."

Filmmaker Martin Scorsese is a Hitchcock superfan

Famed director Martin Scorsese breaks down what makes four Hitchcock films (“Dial M for Murder,” “Rear Window,” “Vertigo,” and “Psycho”) so remarkable and discusses how Hitchcock’s style influenced his own work, including his 1980 film, “Raging Bull.”

'Streets of Philadelphia' won an Academy Award in 1994

The song was written for “Philadelphia,” a 1993 film starring Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington, and narrates the emotional journey of Hanks’ character, a gay man who’s fired after his employer learns that he has AIDS. The song won the Oscar for best original song the following year.

Read about the nine depictions of Nikola Tesla in media through 2020

Portrayals include comedic takes, like John C. Reilly's performance in Comedy Central's "Drunk History" series, and more serious interpretations, like Nicholas Hoult's performance in Alfonso Gomez-Rejon’s historical drama, "The Current War."

Exploring the Larry Bird punch that almost changed March Madness

Netflix profits when you're not watching, and its movies are designed that way—read a detail-rich critical essay exposing lesser-known Netflix takes

The distributor behind 'Rocky Horror' pulled the film from its scheduled national release, believing it would be a failure, though it eventually amassed a dedicated fanbase through midnight showings, a trend that continues over 50 years later.

Comedy legend Catherine O'Hara, star of 'Schitt's Creek' and 'Home Alone,' quit 'Saturday Night Live' after just one week to return to her old job.

'Saturday Night Fever,' the 1977 film that introduced disco to the mainstream, was based on a fabricated magazine story.

The Mona Lisa's celebrity status and repeated restorations have obscured what made the painting so revolutionary for its time

Dorothy's famous entrance into Oz in 'The Wizard of Oz' relied on analog tricks, including a body double and sepia-toned paint, as much as it did on technology

American short story writer Flannery O'Connor raised 40 peacocks, which became potent symbols for her fiction's elegant violence

Brandi Chastain, the star of the 1999 US victory over China in the 1999 Women's World Cup, was a last-second choice to take the penalty kick that sealed the victory.

Browse a detailed visual analysis of over 200,000 similes—comparisons that often use 'like' or 'as'—from popular fiction to see how frequently writers the same idiomatic expressions.

The story of Dollree Mapp, whose legal challenge over her 1957 conviction for possessing "obscene material" led to a major strengthening of the Fourth Amendment

Dozens of S&P 500 stocks, including Coca-Cola and Walmart—known as the dividend aristocrats—have increased dividends every year for 25 years

The most expensive ad of all time was for Chanel No. 5 perfume and cost roughly $33M to produce in 2004—about $57M in today's dollars.

Watch a 1934 short film starring jazz legend Cab Calloway, a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance's music scene

Mark Twain spent decades feuding with the US Postal Service, convinced its costs and regulations were bureaucratic overreach.

As of 2025, the most cited papers in science include a review of graphene, methods to improve image recognition, streamlining electron density calculations, and optimizing protein studies.

A researcher recently discovered an interview from 1967 between groundbreaking journalist Joan Didion and the Grateful Dead, years before the band became an institution.

Apollo astronauts left items in the moon's 'toss zone,' including golf balls, family photos, and bags of human waste, to make room for lunar rocks.

See a ranking of the best (and worst) Federal Reserve Chairs since 1914 out of the 16 men and women who have held the office since.

Explore a list of the 100 best novels of all time, compiled by some of the world's best living writers, including Salman Rushdie, Stephen King, and Jennifer Egan.

The United States has had a tumultuous relationship with Cuba since its 1959 revolution, highlighted by a nuclear crisis and a decades-long trade embargo.

Hotels in Cannes, the glamorous city on the French Riviera, hire hawks to ward off seagulls during the city's famous film festival.

The hormonal disorder PCOS was renamed PMOS in 2026, a move designed to improve care and research by shifting the focus to the hormonal causes of this condition that affects 1 in 8 women.

Poison ivy is in the same family as mangoes, cashews, and pistachios—and they all produce oily urushiol in their raw, unprocessed state—but they are typically prepared in ways to avoid causing human discomfort.