The Ten Oddest Academy Awards Nominations

Okay, it would be very easy to come up with a list of the oddest Academy Award nominations that included things like Rocky as Best Picture or Lee Marvin as Best Actor for Cat Ballou. But when I say odd I don't mean just in terms of bad taste, I mean really bizarre and off the wall choices for a solid reason. For the most part the Academy Awards don't usually make incredible left of center choices that defy reality, but there have been some that just leave you scratching your head.

10. Paul Zastupnevich, Best Costuming. The Swarm.

Here we have a 1978 movie that tells a contemporary story of a bee attack on everyday people. In other words, people wearing clothes that could be purchased in any Sears in America at the time. Or, for the abundance military figures in the film, any Army/Navy surplus store.

9. Tina Earbshaw, Greg Cannom, Simon Thompson, Best Makeup. Titanic.

Okay, well, we have an old woman playing Kate Winslet's character as an old woman, so it can't be because of that. And Kate looks like she just waltzed out of the makeup chair even in the scenes where she's supposedly been through the most famous sinking in history, so it can't be that. Where exactly was the extraordinary makeup application in this movie that was deserving of an Academy Award nomination again?

8. Best Sound Editing, 1980.

What's odd about this is that in 1980 no film was awarded an Academy Award n this category. This despite the fact that two of the most amazing uses of sound editing in film history occurred during this year. Firstly, there was the simply stunning sound editing in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, especially when Danny Torrance is riding his Big Wheel throughout the hotel and the sound is perfectly edited to match the Big Wheel's travel from wooden floor to carpeting. Even more amazing is the use of sound in the boxing scenes in Raging Bull. Listen closely and you can hear everything from the screeching of a jet plane to the roar of an animal. The fact that the Academy Awards didn't see fit to even nominate these two movies is proof enough of how meaningless they are. Lot of fun, though.

7. Bhanu Athaiya, John Mollo, Best Costuming. Gandhi.