The Oscar is the most sought after award ceremony in the film industry and everyone associated with this film industry looks forward for it! Being awarded by Oscar is dream come true for the players of this film industry as the best is always crowned and even nomination in Oscar is considered to be a big achievement and what to say if someone wins!! The best of the best are supposed to be the ones who get these little statues.

But lately people around the world are concerned about the fact that what are the parameters for giving an award in this scintillating ceremony, as there were many moments which left people perturbed and forcing them to just speculate : Do the most deserving always get the awards or is Oscar nothing more than a popularity contest? While we will in no way attempt to answer that question, since it could never really be proved, we are going to take a look at some of Oscar's more dubious moments that left people wondering if this award is really nothing more than a poorly disguised popularity contest.

This past years ceremony when Brokeback Mountain was the awesome favorite to win the award for best movie. Everybody was sure and almost settled collectively that it was the best movie of the year except for the fact that controversies constantly was associated with the film which focused on homosexual cowboys, that of Plenty of people, especially in the Mid West were up against it! And finally on the D-day best picture award went to a movie called "Crash" that most people never even heard of. Is it not strange to cajole ourselves with the fact that Brokeback Mountain lost because of the controversy surrounding it.

"Saving Private Ryan"-which was an anti-war movie released in 1998, penetrated deep in viewers heart within the first 15 minutes of the film so much so that people had started complimenting the film by saying that if it didn't make a lasting impression on anyone seeing it then they were either brain dead or without feeling. People felt that certainly this is going to be winning that year's award, except for one trouble. The movie was exceptionally aggressive and depicted war as it really is, ugly and disgusting. One needed a strong stomach to be able to watch this powerful film without getting sick. To cut a long story short, when Oscar time came, the winner for best picture went to an unheard film by the name of "Shakespeare In Love" which was enough to instill a wave of doubt among people.

Action movie lovers felt ditched when in 1981 one of the greatest action movies of all time was released by the name "Raiders of the Lost Ark". This movie was the appropriate choice for winning the Oscar for best picture. But that same year, a sentimental movie by the name of "Chariots of Fire" came out and certainly there was no comparison between the two but the sentimental theme made it very "popular" with the academy and it ultimately won for best picture. Again, people were left wondering what happened.

If you ponder all throughout the history of the Oscars, disappointments like these are not uncommon either because one movie was contentious or another movie tugged on some heart strings without considering its technical aspect.

Answer to the question whether Oscar really nothing more than a politically correct popularity contest will always remain debatable!