19 Most Awkward Oscar Moments, From Cringey Speeches To Pin-Drop Silences

When Eminem whipped out a rendition of ‘Lose Yourself’ at the 2020 Oscars, we were into it but it looked like not all attendees were similarly enthused. At one point director Martin Scorsese appeared to either be sleeping or closing his eyes in deep contemplation.

Meanwhile others like Janelle Monáe, Kelly Marie Tran and Hamilton’s Anthony Ramos sang along and bobbed their heads.

Our skin crawls when we remember this night. At the end of the ceremony, all eyes were on Faye Dunaway and Warren Beaty as they announced the winner of ‘Best Picture’. After opening the envelope, Beaty announced La La Land had won the gong, but moments later it turned out he’d made a mistake and the winner was, in fact, Moonlight.

While the mayhem that ensued on stage was a talking moment, our favourite memory was seeing Ryan Gosling giggling in the corner.

Keeping a smile on during the Oscars is no mean feat but when you’re criticised for the way you clap, well, what is a star to do?

During the 2017 Oscars, a camera panned across the audience and filmed Kidman clapping in a rather unusual way. After numerous memes were created of the clapping moment, Kidman explained that the clap came as a result of attempting not to damage the rings she was wearing.

‘It was really awkward! I was like “gosh, I want to clap, I don’t want to not be clapping”, which would be worse, right? “Why isn’t Nicole clapping?”’ she recalled viewers thinking at the time during an interview on Australian Radio show KISS FM’s Kyle and Jackie O.

‘So therefore I’m clapping but it was really difficult because I had a huge ring on that was not my own, but it was absolutely gorgeous, and I was terrified of damaging it!’

The rings in question were believed to be Harry Winston designs which were made of 13.58 carats, so we’re not surprised Kidman clapped like this!

This is a wicked moment, if we do say so ourselves.

When Travolta took to the stage in 2014 to introduce the Frozen actor he accidentally pronounced her name as ‘Adele Dazeem’, much to the confusion of viewers at home. We’re still not sure if it’s the enthusiastic description of the singer as ‘wickedly talented’ or the name mishap which makes us laugh more.

A year later, Menzel served Travolta some payback when she pronounced his name at the awards ceremony: ‘Glom Gazingo.’ Well played, Menzel.

Moments after actor Jean Dujardin called her name for ‘Best Actress’ for her role in Silver Lining’s Playbook, the actor fell on the stage’s stairs, prompting her to hang her head in embarrassment for just a brief second before styling the fall out like a pro.

In an interview with W Magazine she explained how the fall came about. ‘I was at the Oscars, waiting to hear if my name was called, and I kept thinking, cakewalk, cakewalk, cakewalk. I thought, Why is “cakewalk” stuck in my head? And then, as I started to walk up the stairs and the fabric from my dress tucked under my feet, I realised my stylist had told me, “Kick, walk, kick, walk”. You are supposed to kick the dress out while you walk, and I totally forgot because I was thinking about cake! And that's why I fell.’

The nail-biting moment happened on the red carpet when the TV presenter questioned the actor about his outfit. At one point The Dictator star – who appeared in character as Admiral General Aladeen at the time – poured a golden urn of ‘ashes’ all over Seacrest’s tuxedo. The presenter surprisingly took the incident quite well.

We don’t know where to begin with this one, given the whole thing - from the jokes to the enthusiasm - was rather eyebrow-raising.

At one point the pair ‘swapped’ clothes, with Hathaway wearing a tuxedo and Franco dressed in a pink satin dress with elbow-length gloves and a blonde wig.

We don’t know what it is about kissing at the Oscars but it doesn’t half make us feel awkward when watching the moments back-to-back.

After Brody won the ‘Best Actor’ aware for his scene-stealing performance in The Pianist, he awkwardly kissed Berry. In 2017, the actor – who won her own Oscar the year before - opened up about the moment on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen and revealed she was thinking ‘What the f*ck in happening’ at the time. When asked if it was a good kiss, she replied: ‘I don’t know. I was too focused on ‘What the f*ck is going on right now?”’

How did we forget this one? While walking the red carpet dressed in all-black ensembles, Jolie was seen kissing her brother, James, on the lips, much to the shock of onlookers.

When she went to collect the award for ‘Best Supporting Actress’ in Girl, Interrupted she told the attendees: ‘I'm in shock, and I'm so in love with my brother right now. He just held me and said he loved me and I know he's so happy for me.’

If you thought Tom Cruise’s sofa jumping moment with Oprah Winfrey was awkward, cast your mind back to the Nineties when Italian actor and director Benigni won the Oscar for ‘Best Foreign Film’. On hearing the film’s title read out on stage, the star stood up and walked across the back of attendees’ seats, resulting in some seriously shocked faces for the oh so dramatic response.

When the famous director won the gong for ‘Best Director’ in 1998 for his epic film Titanic, the star took the opportunity to quote a line directly from his own script. ‘I’m the king of the world,’ he said at the end of the speech. *Tumble weed*

Back in the Eighties, West Wing star Rob Lowe took to the stage to perform an 11-minute song with Disney princess Snow White which, yes, is as weird as it sounds. In 1992, the star discussed the awkward moment – which involved a rendition of ‘Proud Mary’ with the New York Times and admitted: ‘Look, the academy asked me to take that role so I was a good soldier and did it. You can’t be your own manager and agent and soothsayer—you have to take risks. And on that one I got shot in the foot.

This one has gone down in history as one of the most awkward speeches at the Oscars. During her acceptance speech for Places In The Heart, she has been widely quoted as saying: ‘You like me, you really like me.’ However, it turns out that what she actually said was ‘I can’t deny that you like me, right now, you like me!’