The Oscars are over for the year and the night will be remembered for the late-show mistake that saw "La La Land" named and then retracted as the winner of the Best Picture award. "Moonlight" was the actual winner in what was only a small upset by betting odds. In total, seven categories were won by secondary or further favorites while most of the winners of the awards were the people or films that were expected to win before the show aired (all betting odds as per Bet365's pre-show favorites).
Minor upsets at the 2017 Oscars
What differentiates a minor upset from a major one is something that could be debated.
In this article, I'll use 10 to 1 as the cutoff point. Upsets with odds shorter than that will be deemed mild while longer odds will be considered major upsets. These are the films and categories that saw a minor upset on Sunday night:
- "Moonlight" for Best Picture at 5 to 1 beating favored "La La Land."
- "Hacksaw Ridge" for Best Film Editing at 5 to 1 beating favored "La La Land."
- "Sing" for Best Live Action Short Film at 33 to 10 beating favored "Ennemis Interieurs" and second-favorite "Timecode"
- "Arrival" for Best Sound Editing at 4 to 1 beating favored "Hacksaw Ridge" and second-favorite "La La Land."
- Suicide Squad for Best Makeup at 9 to 2 beating favored "Star Trek Beyond."
Major Upsets from the awards
There were only two major upsets on the night.
However, one of them was quite large. The smaller of the major upsets saw "Hacksaw Ridge" win Best Sound Mixing at 11 to 1 (Robert Mackenzie, Peter Grace, and Andy Wright). The film was the third favorite in the category behind both "La La Land" and "Arrival."
The biggest upset of the night came in the Best Costume Design category where Colleen Atwood won for "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" at 33 to 1.
That means that a one-unit bet would return 33 units of profit for anyone that had that pick. The upset marked the only one of the night where a fourth favorite won as the film was behind all of "La La Land," "Jackie," and "Florence Foster Jenkins" heading into the evening. There was no occasion on the night at the Oscars where the fifth favorite (i.e.,. the last favorite) won in any category.
