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The Biggest Oscar Bait Films of All Time

Updated July 27, 2020 8.5k votes 726 voters 15.6k views47 items

List RulesDramas that were released late in the year (Oct-Dec) and seem obviously catered toward Oscar voters. Can be from any year.

There are a number of ways in which a film could be classified as "Oscar bait," and not all Oscar bait movies are the same, but there are some qualities that you can plainly see are tailor-made for film's highest awards. For starters, Oscar bait movies are released in the winter, which is the season where the nominating committee will decide what earns a nomination (so they're fresh in the committee members' minds). With this list of Oscar bait films, you'll find plenty of movies - both good and bad - that are specifically trying to bait the committee and voters into picking them.

What many consider to be the "original" Oscar bait movie, The Deer Hunter, used the Academy Awards as a way to market the movie. They were having a difficult time getting people to watch, but they found that, after getting an award nomination, the average moviegoer was more inclined to come to the movie in a more open frame of mind. This practice has now become standard business practice for films like Shakespeare in Love and Seven Pounds, which had differing levels of success. Of course, some Oscar bait movies utterly fail to bait any Oscars.

So take a look at this list of films that were (probably) made just to win someone an Oscar and upvote the most blatant Academy Awards bait offenders, whether you liked the movie or not.

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American Hustle
2013
Actors: Jennifer Lawrence, Amy Adams, Robert De Niro, Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper
Directed by: David O. Russell
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Call Me by Your Name
2017
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Directed by: Luca Guadagnino
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Moonlight
2016
Actors: Trevante Rhodes, André Holland, Janelle Monáe, Ashton Sanders, Jharrel Jerome
Directed by: Barry Jenkins
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The King's Speech
September 6, 2010
Actors: Helena Bonham Carter, Colin Firth, Guy Pearce, Michael Gambon, Geoffrey Rush
Directed by: Tom Hooper
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12 Years a Slave
2013
Actors: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Dano, Paul Giamatti
Directed by: Steve McQueen
Based on real events, biography of a persecuted minority person, features themes of racism.

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Gone with the Wind
December 15, 1939
Actors: Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Olivia de Havilland, Hattie McDaniel, George Reeves
Directed by: Sam Wood, George Cukor, Victor Fleming
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Selma
2014
Actors: Oprah Winfrey, Common, Cuba Gooding Jr., Tim Roth, Tom Wilkinson
Directed by: Ava DuVernay
Based on real events, biography of a popular minority rights activist, features themes of racism.

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Schindler's List
December 15, 1993
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Directed by: Steven Spielberg
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The Danish Girl
2015
Actors: Eddie Redmayne, Alicia Vikander, Amber Heard
Directed by: Tom Hooper
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166
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Brokeback Mountain
December 9, 2005
Actors: Anne Hathaway, Jake Gyllenhaal, Kate Mara, Anna Faris, Michelle Williams
Directed by: Ang Lee
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American Sniper
2014
Actors: Bradley Cooper, Sienna Miller, Jonathan Groff, Kyle Gallner, Leonard Roberts
Directed by: Clint Eastwood
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Birdman
2014
Actors: Emma Stone, Naomi Watts, Edward Norton, Michael Keaton, Zach Galifianakis
Directed by: Alejandro González Iñárritu
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Hidden Figures
2016
Actors: Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monáe, Kevin Costner, Kirsten Dunst
Directed by: Theodore Melfi
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The Imitation Game
2014
Actors: Keira Knightley, Benedict Cumberbatch, Mark Strong, Charles Dance, Matthew Goode
Directed by: Morten Tyldum
Based on real events, biography of a popular person, protagonist is persecuted for being gay.

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The Shape of Water
2017
Actors: Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins
Directed by: Guillermo del Toro
The protagonist is handicapped, the antagonist is sexist, racist and conservative. Features POC and gay characters, themes of xenophobia, homophobia and racism. Also, evil Russians.

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The Aviator
December 25, 2004
Actors: Kate Beckinsale, Leonardo DiCaprio, Gwen Stefani, Cate Blanchett, Alec Baldwin
Directed by: Martin Scorsese
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The Theory of Everything
2014
Actors: Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones, Harry Lloyd, Emily Watson, David Thewlis
Directed by: James Marsh
Based on real events, biography of a popular person, protagonist is handicapped.

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The Big Short
2015
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Directed by: Adam McKay
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The Tree of Life
2011
Actors: Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, Jessica Chastain, Fiona Shaw, Tye Sheridan
Directed by: Terrence Malick
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The Revenant
December 25, 2015
Actors: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Domhnall Gleeson, Will Poulter
Directed by: Alejandro G. Iñárritu
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Spotlight
2015
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Directed by: Tom McCarthy
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Terms of Endearment
December 9, 1983
Actors: Jack Nicholson, Danny DeVito, John Lithgow, Shirley MacLaine, Jeff Daniels
Directed by: James L. Brooks
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The Deer Hunter
December 8, 1978
Actors: Meryl Streep, Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, John Cazale, John Savage
Directed by: Michael Cimino
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Chicago
December 10, 2002
Actors: Catherine Zeta-Jones, Lucy Liu, Renée Zellweger, Queen Latifah, Richard Gere
Directed by: Rob Marshall
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Lincoln
November 9, 2012
Actors: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, Tommy Lee Jones, James Spader
Directed by: Steven Spielberg
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The Danish Girl