Oscars: 9 surprising winners through the years

As the Oscars roll around again, it's inevitable that we look back at Academy Award wins and losses past. For the most part, award winners are expected, or at least unsurprising. After all, the term "Oscar bait" – sometimes used to refer to prestige movies that tick all the boxes in terms of what the Academy likes – doesn't come from nowhere.

The awards ceremonies themselves often have surprises of their own – for instance, in 2017, Warren Beatty wrongly announced that Damien Chazelle's musical drama La La Land had won Best Picture instead of Barry Jenkins' coming of age movie Moonlight. But, in the below list, we're more interested in the winning movies and actors that took the world by surprise. We've compiled a list of the most unexpected Oscar wins in recent history, from Rocky to Wallace & Gromit. As for this year's Oscars, we'll have to wait and see if there are any surprises on the night.

By Emily Garbutt