I think the Oscar's do that quite a bit. Now it is for far more political reasons other than artistic but in the past it was using the award to recognize careers at the expense of the best performance of the year...righting past wrongs so to speak. I am thinking of Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman, Paul Newman, Henry Fonda etc. Not that their performance wasn't necessarily worthy but the were beaten before and the overall career deemed winning one a priority for the voters.