Oscar bait is like a peacock showing off its glittery, proud, and desperate for attention. Every awards season, Hollywood rolls out a parade of prestige films, hoping to snag that golden statuette. Sometimes it works. Other times… it crashes spectacularly. Here’s a countdown of 10 Oscar-aimed films that aimed for glory and ended up as cautionary tales.
10. The Son (2022)
Florian Zeller’s follow-up to The Father seemed set up for success: Hugh Jackman, Laura Dern, Vanessa Kirby, and a heavy-hitting topic: teen depression. Instead, The Son felt like a melodramatic slog. The attempts at emotional weight landed flat, and the characters’ decisions made it hard to connect. Critics called it “mawkish and melodramatic,” and the Oscars ignored it.
9. The Soloist (2009)
A true story about a homeless musical genius, with Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr., what could go wrong? The Soloist played it far too safe, delivering a paint-by-numbers inspirational drama. Joe Wright, normally a stellar director, wobbled here, and the story never dug deep enough. The film flopped at the box office, and the Academy barely noticed.
8. J. Edgar (2011)
Clint Eastwood directing Leonardo DiCaprio as J. Edgar Hoover sounded like a recipe for gold. But the nonlinear structure muddled the narrative, and even DiCaprio couldn’t fully illuminate the enigmatic FBI chief. Distracting makeup and a lack of insight left audiences yawning. Oscar voters? They moved on.
7. The Goldfinch (2019)
Pulitzer Prize-winning novels usually promise cinematic triumph, but not here. Despite a star-studded cast and gorgeous visuals, The Goldfinch was a disjointed, hollow adaptation. Author Donna Tartt even fired her agent in disappointment. Critics noted it was “surface-level” and emotionally flat. The film never soared.
6. Welcome to Marwen (2018)
Robert Zemeckis tried to mix trauma and whimsy in this true story of a man coping with assault by building a miniature WWII village. The idea was fascinating, but the execution stumbled. Steve Carell gave it his all, but clumsy plotting and an awkward blend of fantasy and reality kept the film grounded in the wrong way.
5. Amsterdam (2022)
David O. Russell gathered a superstar cast, Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, and John David Washington, but couldn’t make the story sing. Lavish sets and costumes couldn’t save a convoluted plot and flat dialogue. Critics agreed: “The supporting cast is bursting at the seams… but nothing clicks.” The film bombed, Oscar nods nowhere in sight.
4. Collateral Beauty (2016)
Will Smith writes letters to Love, Time, and Death, and they respond. A potentially moving meditation on grief became a humorless, overly self-serious fantasy. Critics found the dialogue painfully saccharine, with only Helen Mirren seeming to enjoy herself. The Academy skipped it, wisely.
3. Amelia (2009)
Hilary Swank as Amelia Earhart should have soared, but the biopic barely got off the runway. Safe and formulaic, it felt more like a dry history lesson than a compelling drama. Swank tried her best, but the tension-free script grounded the film. No Oscar love, and audiences quickly forgot it existed.
2. Diana (2013)
Naomi Watts tackled Princess Diana, but the result was plodding, exploitative, and cheaply made. Watts’s performance was praised for its sincerity, but the script gave her little to work with. The People’s Princess deserved better.
1. Cats (2019)
No list of failed Oscar bait is complete without Cats. Tom Hooper attempted to turn Andrew Lloyd Webber’s legendary musical into a CGI spectacle, resulting in unnerving cat-human hybrids and a barely coherent plot. Memes erupted overnight, the film swept the Razzies, and audiences were left asking, “What did I just watch?”
Oscar bait is a risky game, and these films prove it. Sometimes chasing the gold leads to cinematic brilliance… and sometimes it leads straight to infamy.