In case you haven't heard, there are a lot of reasons to get angry at the Oscars. In general, awarding a statuette to someone who actually deserves it isn't one of them.
But sometimes, a deserving nominee gets passed over so many times that they finally end up winning an award for something that's not their best work, in what amounts to a kind of unofficial lifetime achievement award.
Digital Spy looks back at seven times the Academy gave out the right award for the wrong movie.
Martin Scorsese (The Departed)
For decades, Scorsese was the most glaring example of an undisputed great who was somehow yet to win an Oscar. Despite being nominated a total of six times, beginning with Raging Bull in 1981, Scorsese was the perpetual bridesmaid and never the bride (a dubious honour he's since passed on to regular collaborator Leonardo DiCaprio).
The seventh time turned out to be the charm for Marty in 2006, when he finally picked up the prize for crime remake The Departed â€" a handsome and intelligent thriller in its own right, but certainly no Goodfellas. Or Raging Bull. Or Casino. Or Taxi Driver. Not that the latter even earned Scorsese a nomination.
Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart)
Remember Bridges' performance as a down-and-out singer-songwriter in Scott Cooper's Crazy Heart? No? Us neither.
Okay, that's an exaggeration â€" it's an appealing and soulful turn from Bridges, but it's also the kind of performance we've seen him give before, with more interesting material. After four previous nominations, this 2010 win once again felt like a case of the Academy rewarding a beloved Hollywood mainstay for their body of work, rather than their individual performance.
Colin Firth (The King's Speech)
If Bridges hadn't won in 2010, the path would have been clear for Firth to get the Oscar he actually deserved for his heartbreaking work as a suicidal professor in Tom Ford's A Single Man.
