We're only minutes into this year's Academy Awards, and already, host Conan O'Brien has divided viewers.
Following a joint performance from Wicked actors Ariana Grande and Cynthia Eviro, the presenter appeared in a VT crawling out of the dishevelled body of Demi Moore - a scene made famous in Oscar-nominated horror The Substance.
Despite the gory moment, some viewers seemingly couldn't get enough.
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"Conan O'Brien walking out of Demi Moore's body is a stroke of old-school genius. I love everything," one gushed on social media.
Another continued: "Conan already killing it. #Oscars."
"What a perfect start from Conan lol," a third fan added.
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"Conan O’Brien coming out of Demi’s back in The Substance is god tier," another wrote.
As we say, however, the skit hasn't gone down too well with all viewers watching from home.
"The oscars did not need to introduce Conan that way," one wrote.
Another continued: "Conan coming out the back of Demi wtf lmao".
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In another lengthy response, one critic hit out: "Fingers crossed Conan is able to salvage this horrible opening to the Oscars.
"I hope you can wake the audience up before we all shut this off and just go to sleep."
The biggest Oscars snubs ever
Citizen Kane loses to How Green Was My Valley (1942)
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Orson Welles’ epic tale of the rise and fall of a media baron topped BFI’s Sight & Sound poll of the best films ever made for 40 years, but this apparently wasn’t enough to win an Academy Award.
The gong instead went to How Green Was My Valley, which it’s fair to say has not stood the test of time to quite the same extent.
To add insult to injury, Welles had a falling out with the Academy prior to the ceremony, and the audience booed every time his name was mentioned.
Citizen Kane was nominated for nine Academy Awards, but only took home the statuette for Best Original Screenplay.
E.T. loses to Gandhi (1983)
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Even Richard Attenborough, who ended up winning Best Picture for his biopic Gandhi, thought Steven Spielberg’s E.T. should have won.
He is quoted in Joseph McBride’s Steven Spielberg: A Biography as saying of the moment his win was announced: “I didn’t go to the podium, I went over to Spielberg. He got up, I put my arms round him, and I said, ‘This isn’t right, this should be yours'."
Spielberg’s tale of the bond between a lonely child and a horrifying looking alien remains one of the most beloved films of all time, absolutely dominating the box office following its 1982 release
The Shawshank Redemption loses to Forrest Gump (1995)
While both of these films are pretty much universally adored, The Shawshank Redemption still tops IMDb's 250 highest rated list and is regularly cited as one of the greatest movies of all time.
While in hindsight, the fact the film failed to win any of the seven Oscars it was nominated for is pretty odd, The Shawshank Redemption was a box office bomb, and in the year of its release was massively overshadowed by Forrest Gump and Pulp Fiction.
Nevertheless, one fan admitted they were ‘blown away to find out that the movie didn't win a single Academy Award’ on Reddit.
Saving Private Ryan loses to Shakespeare in Love (1999)
In yet another upset for Steven Spielberg, his epic World War Two drama lost out to romcom Shakespeare in Love.
This has since been chalked up to the sinister machinations of Harvey Weinstein, who Den of Geek reports started a ‘whisper campaign’ claiming the only good part of Saving Private Ryan was the first 20 minutes, with the rest being ‘sentimental hokum’.
DreamWorks marketer Terry Press recalls Spielberg telling him ‘I do not want to get down in the mud with Harvey’ when he was urged to fight back amid Weinstein’s bullish campaign tactics.
Brokeback Mountain loses to Crash (2000)
The following year saw another shock Best Picture upset, with the widely reviled Crash triumphing over Brokeback Mountain.
A Reddit user called it ‘truly the greatest robbery of all time’.
Director Ang Lee claimed in a 2024 Deadline interview that support for his tragic gay love story ‘had a ceiling’ amid the Academy of the time.
He even recalls being told to stay in the wings of the stage in-between his Best Director win and the announcement of Best Picture, being told by a stage manager: “Everybody assumes you will win.”
It’s clear this one still hurts for many cinephiles, with one calling Crash’s win ‘absolutely criminal’.
Topics: Celebrity, US News, Oscars, TV And Film
Rhianna Benson