Oscars Breakdown: Best Picture

I’m been making use of my COVID-19 quarantine the best way I know how, by watching a ton of movies and writing about them.

When I was a teenager, I watched every movie that won the Oscar for Best Picture, and when the pandemic hit, I figured I’d try to watch as many additional Oscar movies as possible, just for the hell. Below are thoughts on every Best Picture winner, along with tons of fun trivia. Other category breakdowns will follow soon!

1927/1928 – Wings

Nominees: The Racket, Seventh Heaven
Thoughts: Wings is an impressive achievement, and it makes sense that it’s the first Best Picture winner. Two Arabian Knights should’ve been nominated, but oh well.
Fun Fact: The first Academy Awards took place on May 16, 1929, at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles. Tickets to the event cost $5, and the ceremony lasted 15 minutes.

1928/1929 – The Broadway Melody

Nominees: Alibi, The Hollywood Revue of 1929, In Old Arizona, The Patriot
Thoughts: The Divine Lady, which won Best Director this year, is better than The Broadway Melody, but it wasn’t even nominated.

1929/1930 – All Quiet on the Western Front

Nominees: The Big House, Disraeli, The Divorcee, The Love Parade
Thoughts: Definitely the right call here. All Quiet on the Western Front is an incredible achievement for its time. See it if you can.

1930/1931 – Cimarron

Nominees: East Lynne, The Front Page, Skippy, Trader Horn
Fun Fact: Cimarron was the last western to win Best Picture until Unforgiven in 1992.

1931/1932 – Grand Hotel

Nominees: Arrowsmith, Bad Girl, The Champ, Five Star Final, One Hour with You, Shanghai Express, The Smiling Lieutenant
Thoughts: Bad Girl is a fun movie (it won Best Director), but the winner should have been The Champ. The last five minutes of that movie still hit so hard.

1932/1933 – Cavalcade

Nominees: A Farewell to Arms, 42nd Street, I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, Lady for a Day, Little Women, The Private Life of Henry VIII, She Done Him Wrong, Smilin’ Through, State Fair
Thoughts: Pretty weak year. Of the nominees, The Private Life of Henry VIII is the best film I’ve seen (it ends with a great moment of Charles Laughton breaking the fourth wall). Morning Glory, which Katharine Hepburn won her first Oscar for, should’ve been nominated.

1934 – It Happened One Night

Nominees: The Barretts of Wimpole Street, Cleopatra, Flirtation Walk, The Gay Divorcee, Here Comes the Navy, The House of Rothschild, Imitation of Life, One Night of Love, The Thin Man, Viva Villa!, The White Parade
Thoughts: Yep, right call here. It Happened One Night is still my favorite Frank Capra film.
Fun Fact: In Happened One Night was the first of three movies to win the Big Five Oscars (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay). The others are One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975), and The Silence of the Lambs (1991). No film has done it for 28 years and running.

1935 – Mutiny on the Bounty

Nominees: Alice Adams, Broadway Melody of 1936, Captain Blood, David Copperfield, The Informer, The Lives of a Bengal Lancer, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Les Misérables, Naughty Marietta, Ruggles of Red Gap, Top Hat
Thoughts: I’m not surprised the Academy awarded the large scope of Mutiny on the Bounty, but I prefer The Informer and Top Hat.

1936 – The Great Ziegfeld

Nominees: Anthony Adverse, Dodsworth, Libeled Lady, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Romeo and Juliet, San Francisco, The Story of Louis Pasteur, A Tale of Two Cities, Three Smart Girls
Thoughts: I like Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (which won Frank Capra his second Oscar for Best Director) but the Academy has always been fond of large scope movies like The Great Ziegfeld.

1937 – The Life of Emile Zola

Nominees: The Awful Truth, Captains Courageous, Dead End, The Good Earth, Lost Horizon, In Old Chicago, One Hundred Men and a Girl, Stage Door, A Star is Born
Thoughts: It’s a bit hard to tell The Life of Emile Zola apart from the other 1930s Hollywood biopics; certainly, The Awful Truth, In Old Chicago, and the first A Star is Born are better films.
Fun Fact: A Star is Born was the first color movie nominated for Best Picture.

1938 – You Can’t Take It with You

Nominees: The Adventures of Robin Hood, Alexander’s Ragtime Band, Boys Town, The Citadel, Four Daughters, Grand Illusion, Jezebel, Pygmalion, Test Pilot
Thoughts: By this point, Capra’s films had been awarded plenty. Grand Illusion would get my vote, followed by Robin Hood, and Boys Town, which features a charming performance from Spencer Tracy.
Fun Fact: Grand Illusion was the first foreign-language film nominated for Best Picture.

1939 – Gone with the Wind

Nominees: Dark Victory, Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Love Affair, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Ninotchka, Of Mice and Men, Stagecoach, The Wizard of Oz, Wuthering Heights
Thoughts: One of the most influential years in movie history, appropriately capped by awarding one of the grandest films of all time.

1940 – Rebecca

Nominees: All This, and Heaven Too, Foreign Correspondent, The Grapes of Wrath, The Great Dictator, Kitty Foyle, The Letter, The Long Voyage Home, Our Town, The Philadelphia Story
Thoughts: Despite strong competition, Rebecca is the right call here. Shame it was the only Alfred Hitchcock film to win Best Picture.
Fun Fact: Producer David O. Selznick, wanting to repeat the success he had producing Gone with the Wind a year earlier, campaigned hard for Rebecca to win the Oscar. It’s hilarious to me that Oscar campaigning has been around since the beginning.

1941 – How Green Was My Valley

Nominees: Blossoms in the Dust, Citizen Kane, Here Comes Mr. Jordan, Hold Back the Dawn, The Little Foxes, The Maltese Falcon, One Foot in Heaven, Sergeant York, Suspicion
Thoughts: How Green Was My Valley winning Best Picture over Citizen Kane obviously hasn’t aged well, but it makes sense. Citizen Kane was far too radical at the time to be awarded so highly. Still, if it was going to lose, it would have been nice if it lost to The Maltese Falcon, Sergeant York, or Suspicion.

1942 – Mrs. Miniver

Nominees: Kings Row, 49th Parallel, The Magnificent Ambersons, The Pied Piper, The Pride of the Yankees, Random Harvest, The Talk of the Town, Wake Island, Yankee Doodle Dandy
Thoughts: Not the strongest of years, which makes sense as the world was engaged in a world war, but awarding the romantic WWII movie, Mrs. Miniver, feels right.

1943 – Casablanca

Nominees: For Whom the Bell Tolls, Heaven Can Wait, The Human Comedy, In Which We Serve, Madame Curie, The More the Merrier, The Ox-Bow Incident, The Song of Bernadette, Watch on the Rhine
Thoughts: While I absolutely adore George Stevens’ The More the Merrier, nothing deserves to beat Casablanca, one of the great romance films.

1944 – Going My Way

Nominees: Double Indemnity, Gaslight, Since You Went Away, Wilson
Thoughts: Going My Way is the feel-good film the country presumably needed at the time, but I much prefer the two nominated classic noirs, Double Indemnity, and Gaslight.
Fun Fact: This was the first year the Academy began nominated five films for Best Picture. If only it were still that way.

1945 – The Lost Weekend

Nominees: Anchors Aweigh, The Bells of St. Mary’s, Mildred Pierce, Spellbound
Thoughts: The Lost Weekend is one of my favorite films of all time; a truly unflinching portrayal of alcoholism. I cannot believe the Academy awarded such an audacious movie in 1945.
Fun Fact: Only three movies have won Best Picture and the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or: The Lost Weekend, Marty (1955), and Parasite (2019). Pretty cool.

1946 – The Best Years of Our Lives

Nominees: Henry V, It’s a Wonderful Life, The Razor’s Edge, The Yearling
Thoughts: This is one of the Oscars’ most appropriately timed Best Picture wins. The Best Years of Our Lives is about damaged men coming home from war and learning how to endure at home. America needed a movie like this at the time, and William Wyler absolutely delivered.

1947 – Gentleman’s Agreement

Nominees: The Bishop’s Wife, Crossfire, Great Expectations, Miracle on 34th Street
Thoughts: Another really bold win. People don’t talk about Gentleman’s Agreement enough among Elia Kazan’s body of work, but it’s a great film.

1948 – Hamlet

Nominees: Johnny Belinda, The Red Shoes, The Snake Pit, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Thoughts: I’ve never been able to get on board with this win. Hamlet is the fifth-best film here, with The Treasure of the Sierra Madre in front, followed by The Red Shoes.
Fun Fact: Hamlet’s win was the first time a non-Hollywood movie won Best Picture.

1949 – All the King’s Men

Nominees: Battleground, The Heiress, A Letter to Three Wives, Twelve O’Clock High
Thoughts: A Letter to Three Wives is easily my favorite film here (I love that movie), but All the King’s Men has a power to it that still holds up.
Fun Facts: (1) All the King’s Men and Gone with the Wind (1939) are the only novels that were made into films that won both the Pulitzer Prize and the Best Picture Oscar. (2) This was the last year that every movie nominated for Best Picture was in black and white.

1950 – All About Eve

Nominees: Born Yesterday, Father of the Bride, King Solomon’s Mines, Sunset Boulevard
Thoughts: All About Eve vs. Sunset Boulevard is a tough call. I’ve seen Sunset Boulevard more, and I do prefer it, but I’m happy with All About Eve’s win.
Fun Fact: Two films hold the record for the most Oscar nominations (14): All About Eve and Titanic (1997).

1951 – An American in Paris

Nominees: Decision Before Dawn, A Place in the Sun, Quo Vadis, A Streetcar Named Desire
Thoughts: This was an important year, as it helped promote the established trend of giving Best Picture to a bigger, happier, more musically themed film, and Best Director to a smaller, more daring film (in this case, George Stevens won for A Place in the Sun). A Place in the Sun is in my top 10 of all time, and it absolutely deserved to win over An American in Paris. As did A Streetcar Named Desire, almost equally.

1952 – The Greatest Show on Earth

Nominees: High Noon, Ivanhoe, Moulin Rouge, The Quiet Man
Thoughts: High Noon and The Quiet Man are the two nominees I like here. I would have preferred if The Bad and the Beautiful, Five Fingers, and Come Back, Little Sheba, occupied the other three spots.
Fun Fact: According to Oscar lore, it was a major upset that The Greatest Show on Earth won over the heavily favored High Noon. Maybe that’s one of the reasons The Greatest Show on Earth is widely considered one of the least deserving of all Best Picture winners.

1953 – From Here to Eternity

Nominees: Julius Caesar, The Robe, Roman Holiday, Shane
Thoughts: From Here to Eternity is one of the great American romances, so the right call was made here, despite strong contenders.

1954 – On the Waterfront

Nominees: The Caine Mutiny, The Country Girl, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Three Coins in the Fountain
Thoughts: Despite director Elia Kazan's controversial testimony before the House Committee on Un-American Activities just two years earlier, his masterpiece justly won the Best Picture Oscar. Weird that Rear Window and Sabrina weren’t among the nominees.

1955 – Marty

Nominees: Love is a Many-Splendored Thing, Mister Roberts, Picnic, The Rose Tattoo
Thoughts: Marty is the kind of small-scale character study that the Oscars don’t typically award so highly, but it was so appropriate here. However, no Best Picture nominations for East of Eden or Rebel Without a Cause?
Fun Fact: At 91 minutes long, Marty is the shortest Best Picture winner ever.

1956 – Around the World in 80 Days

Nominees: Friendly Persuasion, Giant, The King and I, The Ten Commandments
Thoughts: These are five epic nominees, and Giant is by long and far the finest achievement among them. At least George Stevens won Best Director for it.
Fun Fact: Just an observation here, but, weirdly, John Ford’s The Searchers didn’t receive a single Oscar nomination, let alone a Best Picture nom.

1957 – The Bridge on the River Kwai

Nominees: Peyton Place, Sayonara, 12 Angry Men, Witness for the Prosecution
Thoughts: This is a really tough call. 12 Angry Men is one of my favorite films, but it just feels right that The Bridge on the River Kwai won. And it helps that Kwai still holds up damn well today.
Fun Fact: This was the first year that the nominations for Best Picture and Best Director were the same.

1958 – Gigi

Nominees: Auntie Mame, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Defiant Ones, Separate Tables
Thoughts: Really weird year for me. I’ve never understood the lavish praise for Gigi. At the time, it became the most awarded film in Oscar history, winning all of its nine categories. Among the nominations, The Defiant Ones would get my vote, but this was a pretty weak showing. Vertigo (which admittedly wasn’t well-liked at the time), Touch of Evil, and A Night to Remember all should’ve been here.

1959 – Ben-Hur

Nominees: Anatomy of a Murder, The Diary of Anne Frank, The Nun’s Story, Room at the Top
Thoughts: The fact that Some Like It Hot wasn’t nominated is bizarre. And it’s strange how the Academy was on board with second-tier Hitchcock (Foreign Correspondent, Suspicion, and Spellbound were all nominated for Best Picture), but never nominated his most well known works, such as North by Northwest this year. Still, Ben-Hur was the obvious and inevitable win here.
Fun Fact: Three movies are tied for the most Oscar wins (11): Ben-Hur, Titanic (1997), and The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (2003).

1960 – The Apartment

Nominees: The Alamo, Elmer Gantry, Sons of Lovers, The Sundowners
Thoughts: I only think one film deserves to be here, and it thankfully won. Psycho is the most glaring exclusion, and it would have been great for some iconic foreign films from the year (namely The Virgin Spring, Breathless, L’Avventura, and Shoot the Piano Player) to be recognized.
Fun Fact: The Apartment was the last black and white film to win Best Picture until Schindler’s List (1993).

1961 – West Side Story

Nominees: Fanny, The Guns of Navarone, The Hustler, Judgment at Nuremberg
Thoughts: Not exactly the strongest year, though nothing was going to beat West Side Story. It would’ve been great for John Huston’s The Misfits to land a nomination.

1962 – Lawrence of Arabia

Nominees: The Longest Day, The Music Man, Mutiny on the Bounty, To Kill a Mockingbird
Thoughts: Some movies feel like they were made to deservedly win Best Picture, and Lawrence of Arabia is one such film. Though a damn nomination for Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? would’ve been nice.
Fun Fact: If counting the runtime of just the film itself (excluding the Overture, Intermission, and Walkout Music), Lawrence of Arabia is the longest Best Picture winner. (If we include all of those music components, Gone with the Wind is technically the longest film to win.)

1963 – Tom Jones

Nominees: America, America, Cleopatra, How the West Was Won, Lilies of the Field
Thoughts: I’m going out on a limb here and saying that I genuinely would’ve voted for Cleopatra. It’s big, it’s long, it’s certainly flawed, but I’m undeniably drawn to it. Plus, it’s better than other epics that have won, so why not? Hud should’ve been nominated though, along with 8 ½.

1964 – My Fair Lady

Nominees: Becket, Dr. Strangelove, Mary Poppins, Zorba the Greek
Thoughts: The 1960s were a weird time for the Oscars. They kept awarding traditional films while nominating emerging talent. I’d argue that Dr. Strangelove is the more significant film than My Fair Lady, but it’s no surprise My Fair Lady won.

1965 – The Sound of Music

Nominees: Darling, Doctor Zhivago, Ship of Fools, A Thousand Clowns
Thoughts: The musical streak continues, and no surprises are found. Not the strongest of years, but A Thousand Clowns would’ve gotten my vote. I really like that movie.

1966 – A Man for All Seasons

Nominees: Alfie, The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming, The Sand Pebbles, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Thoughts: I adore Fred Zinnemann, but A Man for All Seasons is one of his weakest films, and the Academy’s embrace of it has always been odd to me, especially when they had something as special as Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? to vote for. This is what I mean about the 1960s Oscars: the old guard was still standing firm, but new voices were desperate to announce themselves. (Which is a dichotomy still in effect today.)

1967 – In the Heat of the Night

Nominees: Bonnie and Clyde, Doctor Dolittle, The Graduate, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner
Thoughts: Except Doctor Dolittle, these films represent one of the strongest showings for Best Picture in Oscar history. They were four important, groundbreaking works that all could have won. I can’t be mad at In the Heat of the Night winning, but The Graduate gets my vote here. And while we’re on the subject, couldn’t Doctor Dolittle have been replaced by Cool Hand Luke?

1968 – Oliver!

Nominees: Funny Girl, The Lion in Winter, Rachel, Rachel, Romeo and Juliet
Thoughts: I can’t get behind any of these movies, especially considering that 2001: A Space Odyssey, one of the most groundbreaking and influential of all films, wasn’t nominated. Basically, 1968 was one of those good movie years that was not represented well by the Academy. In addition to 2001, nominations for Rosemary’s Baby, The Odd Couple, The Battle of Algiers, and Once Upon a Time in the West may have aged better.

1969 – Midnight Cowboy

Nominees: Anne of the Thousand Days, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Hello, Dolly!, Z
Thoughts: After the prohibitive Motion Picture Production Code was stopped, movies changed for the better. They became more daring and controversial. Some of the best evidence of this cultural shift can be found in Midnight Cowboy’s Best Picture win. This movie was so unlike anything American audiences had seen before, and the Academy had certainly never awarded something so radical for Best Picture. With this win, the new regime of talent had officially arrived.
Fun Fact: Midnight Cowboy was the first rated-X movie to win Best Picture.

1970 – Patton

Nominees: Airport, Five Easy Pieces, Love Story, M*A*S*H
Thoughts: The “new regime” stepped aside for a year while the traditional war epic, Patton, was given Best Picture. No argument or surprise from me. Five Easy Pieces is my favorite among the nominees, but Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Conformist was my favorite movie released that year.

1971 – The French Connection

Nominees: A Clockwork Orange, Fiddler on the Roof, The Last Picture Show, Nicholas and Alexandra
Thoughts: Strong and bold showing with The French Connection, A Clockwork Orange, and The Last Picture Show (my other two nominees: Carnal Knowledge, and Klute). A Clockwork Orange will live forever, but I think the right call was made here.

1972 – The Godfather

Nominees: Cabaret, Deliverance, The Emigrants, Sounder
Thoughts: I’ve always wondered if Cabaret came close to winning this. It seems inconceivable that any film would beat The Godfather, but Cabaret won far more Oscars than The Godfather (including Best Director). I’m glad it went the way it did, but I bet this race was closer than people think.
Fun Fact: Cabaret holds the record for winning the most Oscars without winning Best Picture. Cabaret won eight; The Godfather won three.

1973 – The Sting

Nominees: American Graffiti, Cries and Whispers, The Exorcist, A Touch of Class
Thoughts: We’re venturing into some of the strongest Best Picture races the Oscars ever saw. This was a damn good year (I’d replace A Touch of Class with Last Tango in Paris, The Last Detail, The Day of the Jackal, or Badlands.) Cries and Whispers is one of my favorite films of all time, but it would never win. Today, The Sting gets slighted for winning over more popular movies, but that movie holds up and is worth checking out. Even if you’ve seen The Exorcist way more.
Fun Fact: The Exorcist was the first horror film nominated for Best Picture.

1974 – The Godfather: Part II

Nominees: Chinatown, The Conversation, Lenny, The Towering Inferno
Thoughts: I mean, good God, look at that race. It’s silly that The Towering Inferno is here (the Academy used to love disaster thrillers), and though Lenny is better than I remember, I’d give those two spots to A Woman Under the Influence and Day for Night. But The Godfather: Part II, Chinatown, The Conversation… take your pick. Three American masterpieces that all deserved to win.
Fun Fact: The Godfather: Part II was the first sequel to win Best Picture, the only other one is The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003).

1975 – One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

Nominees: Barry Lyndon, Dog Day Afternoon, Jaws, Nashville
Thoughts: It’s pretty rare when every film nominated for Best Picture is an A+ movie. Any one of these was worthy of the top prize. Twist my arm and Dog Day is my favorite movie here, but I would never want to strip Cuckoo’s Nest of its Big Five Oscar wins. Damn well deserved.
Fun Fact: Jaws is one of 15 films to win every category it was nominated for, except Best Picture. That wouldn’t be done again until Traffic in 2000.

1976 – Rocky

Nominees: All the President’s Men, Bound for Glory, Network, Taxi Driver
Thoughts: It’s pretty wild that Network came close to repeating Cuckoo’s Nest’s Big Five wins. Taxi Driver is my favorite film of all time, but the Academy wasn’t ready to award a movie like that so highly. Network is second, and All the President’s Men is a close third, but Rocky was the sentimental film the world needed after Vietnam. Contextually, it makes sense that it won.
Fun Fact: Not only was Network a rare film nominated in every acting category, but no film since Network has received five acting nominations.

1977 – Annie Hall

Nominees: The Goodbye Girl, Julia, Star Wars, The Turning Point
Thoughts: There’s actually a logical reason why Star Wars may have lost here. Annie Hall was released in theaters in April 1977. When its theatrical run was done, the movie replayed constantly on the Los Angeles–based pay television channel, Z Channel, which many Oscar voters watched. Perhaps Annie Hall’s consistent rotation on Z Channel was enough to tip the Oscar scales its way. Sorcerer and Saturday Night Fever were my two favorite films of the year; shame they weren’t nominated.

1978 – The Deer Hunter

Nominees: Coming Home, Heaven Can Wait, Midnight Express, An Unmarried Woman
Thoughts: I’d have Autumn Sonata take An Unmarried Woman’s place, but this is a relatively smooth year. The proper film won, after all.

1979 – Kramer vs. Kramer

Nominees: All That Jazz, Apocalypse Now, Breaking Away, Norma Rae
Thoughts: This is first of two consecutive years where the Academy favored a sentimental picture over a tough front runner. I like Kramer vs. Kramer plenty, but it’s certainly no Apocalypse Now. Perhaps the Academy needed a break from war after The Deer Hunter and Coming Home the year before?

1980 – Ordinary People

Nominees: Coal Miner’s Daughter, The Elephant Man, Raging Bull, Tess
Thoughts: Same argument as 1979. Ordinary People is a good movie whose Oscar win over Raging Bull will always out shadow the film itself. I’m not sure why it won over Raging Bull, but it’s a film that deserves to be seen all the same.

1981 – Chariots of Fire

Nominees: Atlantic City, On Golden Pond, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Reds
Thoughts: Great year for genre film, bad year for prestige cinema. Reds was favored to win, and it was a shock when Chariots of Fire took it.
Fun Fact: In a rare feat, three of the Best Picture nominations (Atlantic City, On Golden Pond, and Reds) were nominated for the Big Five Oscars (Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Screenplay).

1982 – Gandhi

Nominees: E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Missing, Tootsie, The Verdict
Thoughts: Film at this time was in a weird transition. In the ‘70s, the highest-grossing movies of the year and the most critically adored movies of the year were usually the same. But after the failure of Heaven’s Gate (1980) caused studios to take control away from auteur directors, studios began making either prestige films, or popcorn genre movies. That’s why when you look up the most notable movies of 1982, you’ll find that many iconic genre films aren’t listed here. Of course, Gandhi was going to win regardless, but this is when you really started seeing fewer entertaining films nominated for Best Picture.

1983 – Terms of Endearment

Nominees: The Big Chill, The Dresser, The Right Stuff, Tender Mercies
Thoughts: Fanny and Alexander should absolutely be here, but its Best Director nomination for Ingmar Bergman, and four Oscar wins, were deserved consolation prizes. The Big Chill is one of my favorite films, but I’m not upset with Terms of Endearment winning.

1984 – Amadeus

Nominees: The Killing Fields, A Passage to India, Places in the Heart, A Soldier’s Story
Thoughts: The 1980s gave us some stuffy Oscar years. Here are five heavy-handed epics, with the correct one winning. I watched Amadeus last week and that thing still hits, but couldn’t at least one of these nominees be something a little more fun?

1985 – Out of Africa

Nominees: The Color Purple, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Prizzi’s Honor, Witness
Thoughts: Out of Africa is the weakest film here, but this isn’t exactly the strongest year. Would have been nice for Back to the Future to land a nomination.
Fun Fact: The Color Purple is tied with The Turning Point (1977) as the movie that received the most Oscar nominations (11) without winning any award.

1986 – Platoon

Nominees: Children of a Lesser God, Hannah and Her Sisters, The Mission, A Room with a View
Thoughts: Definitely my favorite Best Picture winner of the 1980s; it’s still surprising that such a radical movie like Platoon was embraced so well by the Academy. I’d add Blue Velvet to the nominees list, but I think its nomination for Best Director was the best it could expect.

1987 – The Last Emperor

Nominees: Broadcast News, Fatal Attraction, Hope and Glory, Moonstruck
Thoughts: I’m really glad Bernardo Bertolucci has an Oscar, I just wish it was for something a bit more memorable than The Last Emperor.
Fun Fact: This marked the 12th Best Picture win for Columbia Pictures, which remains the most for any studio.

1988 – Rain Man

Nominees: The Accidental Tourist, Dangerous Liaisons, Mississippi Burning, Working Girl
Thoughts: Two pretty weak years in a row. Rain Man is a quality film, but none of these movies really feel like Best Picture films to me.

1989 – Driving Miss Daisy

Nominees: Born on the Fourth of July, Dead Poets Society, Field of Dreams, My Left Foot
Thoughts: I’ve noticed a trend here. I’ve seen half of the 1980s Best Picture winners once. I’ve seen four of the remaining winners two times each; Platoon is the only one I’ve watched several times. Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of quality films here (Amadeus really is great), but many of the 1980s Best Picture winners don’t rank very highly among all Best Picture winners. As for Driving Miss Daisy, even with Do the Right Thing not nominated, Driving Miss Daisy is the fifth-best film here.

1990 – Dances with Wolves

Nominees: Awakenings, Ghost, The Godfather: Part III, Goodfellas
Thoughts: Full context is important here, because according to GQ’s incredible oral history on Goodfellas, as Oscar night approached, it seemed clear to Hollywood insiders that Dances with Wolves would win Best Picture, and Martin Scorsese would win Director. But even with that in mind, Michael Imperioli, via the GQ profile, said it best: “When was the last time you rented Dances with Wolves?”

1991 – The Silence of the Lambs

Nominees: Beauty and the Beast, Bugsy, JFK, The Prince of Tides
Thoughts: This was a stronger year in the Best Director category (Thelma & Louise and Boyz n the Hood should be here), but I’ll always be perfectly fine with The Silence of the Lambs winning the Big Five.
Fun Facts: (1) Beauty and the Beast was the first animated film nominated for Best Picture. (2) The Silence of the Lambs is the last film to win the Big Five Oscars (Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Screenplay). Wonder when it’ll happen again?

1992 – Unforgiven

Nominees: The Crying Game, A Few Good Men, Howards End, Scent of a Woman
Thoughts: Not the strongest overall year (The Player should absolutely be here), but it makes sense that Clint Eastwood finally got Best Picture and Director Oscars, for a great revisionist western, no less.

1993 – Schindler’s List

Nominees: The Fugitive, In the Name of the Father, The Piano, The Remains of the Day
Thoughts: I cannot imagine anything beating Schindler’s List, another film born to win the Best Picture Oscar. No complaints. Also, props to the Academy for nominating such a shamelessly entertaining movie as The Fugitive. They didn’t really do that again until 2009, when they began allowing up to 10 movies to be nominated for Best Picture.

1994 – Forrest Gump

Nominees: Four Weddings and a Funeral, Pulp Fiction, Quiz Show, The Shawshank Redemption
Thoughts: Pulp Fiction would absolutely get my vote; it has the most cinematic influence here. But the Academy isn’t ready to award a movie like that now, let alone in 1994. Forrest Gump checks so many emotional boxes for voters; it makes perfect sense that it won.
Fun Fact: Forrest Gump was nominated for 13 Oscars, making it the most nominated film since Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966).

1995 – Braveheart

Nominees: Apollo 13, Babe, The Postman (Il Postino), Sense and Sensibility
Thoughts: I’m repeating what I said in the ‘80s – I don’t agree with a lot of these Best Picture winners, but given the type of films they are, it makes sense that they won Best Picture. Apollo 13 is my favorite film here, and given how well it pulls on the heartstrings, I wonder if it gave Braveheart some good competition.

1996 – The English Patient

Nominees: Fargo, Jerry Maguire, Secrets & Lies, Shine
Thoughts: The English Patient is the safe Best Picture winner, but Fargo is the superior film. It would have been great for Sling Blade to get a nomination here as well.
Fun Fact: My dad tried to see The English Patient twice in the theater, and fell asleep within the first 20 minutes both times. He’s still never seen it.

1997 – Titanic

Nominees: As Good as It Gets, The Full Monty, Good Will Hunting, L.A. Confidential
Thoughts: The second these nominations were announced, the people behind As Good as It Gets, The Full Monty, Good Will Hunting, and L.A. Confidential knew they could sit Best Picture and Best Director out. The Full Monty’s nomination was a lot of fun at the time, but nothing was going to top Titanic.
Fun Fact: The Academy loved Titanic. The film is tied with All About Eve for the most nominations (14) and tied with Ben-Hur and The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King with the most wins (11).

1998 – Shakespeare in Love

Nominees: Elizabeth, Life is Beautiful, Saving Private Ryan, The Thin Red Line
Thoughts: The most shocking Best Picture win of my lifetime. It was such a surprise, that people felt there had to be context to it. Within days of the win, reports came out that Shakespeare in Love’s producer, Harvey Weinstein, had campaigned heavily for his film to beat Saving Private Ryan. He apparently sent Academy members gifts (including DVD players and copies of the film, which was a big deal at the time), started a smear campaign against Saving Private Ryan, and went full-court-press on the film’s promotional tour. A win is a win, I suppose, but does it feel the same if you bought it?
Fun Fact: In 2015, the Hollywood Reporter polled Academy members, and if given a chance to vote again, they said they would award Best Picture to Saving Private Ryan.

1999 – American Beauty

Nominees: The Cider House Rules, The Green Mile, The Insider, The Sixth Sense
Thoughts: This was a great year for film and a pretty important Oscar year. American Beauty’s win may not have aged well for some (The Insider would get my vote), but it was really significant when it won. It proved that the smaller films still had a chance against the epics.
Fun Fact: The Matrix won all four Oscars it was nominated for, making it the film with the biggest Oscar sweep that wasn’t nominated for Best Picture.

2000 – Gladiator

Nominees: Chocolat, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Erin Brockovich, Traffic
Thoughts: Gladiator’s win wasn’t a surprise, even though everyone was talking about Crouching Tiger, and Steven Soderbergh had two movies nominated for Best Picture.
Fun Fact: Gladiator was the first movie to win Best Picture without winning Best Director or Best Screenplay since All the King’s Men (1949).

2001 – A Beautiful Mind

Nominees: Gosford Park, In the Bedroom, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Moulin Rouge!
Thoughts: Weak and safe representation here; many of the other categories this year featured more exciting movies (Mulholland Drive, Black Hawk Dawn, Monster’s Ball, Ali, Memento, The Royal Tenenbaums, Amélie, etc.). In the Bedroom is my favorite among the nominees, but A Beautiful Mind was the expected sentimental choice.

2002 – Chicago

Nominees: Gangs of New York, The Hours, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The Pianist
Thoughts: This was one of the all-time great Oscar ceremonies. Michael Moore starting shit with his Bowling for Columbine speech, Eminem winning Best Song, and The Pianist’s late surge of wins, surprisingly taking Best Actor, Director, and Screenplay. For a second there, I really thought The Pianist was going to take, but Chiacgo’s win brought the night back to reality.
Fun Fact: Only five actors have starred in three Best Picture-nominated films in the same year. The last time it happened was John C. Reilly this year, who starred in Gangs of New York and The Hours, and was nominated for Chicago.

2003 – The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Nominees: Lost in Translation, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, Mystic River, Seabiscuit
Thoughts: Weak year for me. I wish In America was nominated here, maybe that would encourage more people to see it. I adore that little movie.
Fun Fact: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King has the biggest sweep in Oscar history, winning all of the 11 Oscars it was nominated for.

2004 – Million Dollar Baby

Nominees: The Aviator, Finding Neverland, Ray, Sideways
Thoughts: I guess it’s a hot take now to say that you love Million Dollar Baby, and always have?

2005 – Crash

Nominees: Brokeback Mountain, Capote, Good Night, and Good Luck, Munich
Thoughts: Brokeback Mountain was a lock here. As Ang Lee was giving his Best Director speech, you could almost start cleaning up your Oscar party, assuming Brokeback would win Best Picture next. But when Jack Nicholson read Crash as the winner, it was truly shocking. This win will always act as one of the biggest mistakes in Oscar history.
Fun Fact: Crash was the first Best Picture winner that was initially acquired at a film festival, having premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in 2004.

2006 – The Departed

Nominees: Babel, Letters from Iwo Jima, Little Miss Sunshine, The Queen
Thoughts: I wish United 93 landed a nomination, but there’s no objection from me about a Martin Scorsese Picture finally winning Best Picture.
Fun Fact: According to editor Thelma Schoonmaker, a lot of The Departed was found in the editing room; it’s fun trying to think of all the different approaches to that story.

2007 – No Country for Old Men

Nominees: Atonement, Juno, Michael Clayton, There Will Be Blood
Thoughts: This was one of the best movie years in recent memory and a solid year for the Academy as well. I love No Country for Old Men, but I wish There Will Be Blood won at least one of No Country’s major Oscars (Best Picture, Director, or Adapted Screenplay). There Will Be Blood deserved to win one.

2008 – Slumdog Millionaire

Nominees: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon, Milk, The Reader
Thoughts: The Wrestler should be here, and Rachel Getting Married would have been nice, but I suppose I’m not upset that a Danny Boyle film has won Best Picture.
Fun Facts: Though never officially proven, it has been speculated that the reason the Best Picture category began nominating up to 10 films is because The Dark Knight was not nominated this year. By allowing up to 10 nominees, the Academy assumed more popular films would get nominated (there were correct) thereby increasing viewership of the broadcast (that still has not happened).

2009 – The Hurt Locker

Nominees: Avatar, The Blind Side, District 9, An Education, Inglourious Basterds, Precious, A Serious Man, Up, Up in the Air
Thoughts: I have never been a fan of the “up to 10” Best Picture nominees. Most years, it’s obvious which films should be taken out so that there are only five nominees. Frankly, it makes the race, and the overall show, less interesting. With all that noted, I’m very pleased The Hurt Locker won here.
Fun Fact: The Hurt Locker is the lowest-grossing Best Picture winner ever, earning only $14.7 million by the time it won.

2010 – The King’s Speech

Nominees: Black Swan, The Fighter, Inception, The Kids Are All Right, 127 Hours, The Social Network, Toy Story 3, True Grit, Winter’s Bone
Thoughts: Echoes of 1990, an extremely close race in which a sentimental film was slightly favored to win Best Picture, and the auteur behind the more daring film would win Best Director. Translation: David Fincher absolutely should have won Director. When he lost to Tom Hooper, I assumed The King’s Speech was going to win Best Picture over The Social Network. Regardless, it’s still an embarrassing win, and always will be.

2011 – The Artist

Nominees: The Descendants, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, The Help, Hugo, Midnight in Paris, Moneyball, The Tree of Life, War Horse
Thoughts: I always knew The Artist was going to win, it’s a fine throwback for the Academy. But some of these nominees are genuinely bad films, which is such a shame given that 2011 was a great movie year. The Tree of Life would’ve been my pick, followed by Moneyball, a film that really holds up with each passing viewing.

2012 – Argo

Nominees: Amour, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Django Unchained, Les Misérables, Life of Pi, Lincoln, Silver Linings Playbook, Zero Dark Thirty
Thoughts: This was a weak and unmemorable year for me, and that is because of the new Best Picture voting system. When the category changed to up to 10 nominees, Oscar voters had to begin filling out a preferential ballot for Best Picture. In every other race, you simply pick the single winner, but for Best Picture, you have to rank the nominees, and how the winner is chosen is confusing as all hell (Collider did a good job making sense of it here). I believe this is why we have seen several somewhat forgettable films winning this prize lately. Or maybe the movies are getting duller.

2013 – 12 Years a Slave

Nominees: American Hustle, Captain Phillips, Dallas Buyers Club, Gravity, Her, Nebraska, Philomena, The Wolf of Wall Street
Thoughts: Steve McQueen is one of my favorite filmmakers, and I’ll never object to a movie of his having a Best Picture Oscar. I like The Wolf of Wall Street more, but I still can’t believe the Academy even nominated it.
Fun Fact: With this win, Steve McQueen became the first black person to win Best Picture.

2014 – Birdman

Nominees: American Sniper, Boyhood, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Imitation Game, Selma, The Theory of Everything, Whiplash
Thoughts: Same argument as 2007. I adored Birdman, but couldn’t Boyhood have won Best Picture, Director, or Original Screenplay over Birdman?
Fun Fact: Since the Best Picture category was expanded, all Best Picture nominees won at least one Oscar in just two years: 2014 and 2018.

2015 – Spotlight

Nominees: The Big Short, Bridge of Spies, Brooklyn, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Martian, The Revenant, Room
Thoughts: I think it’s telling when the Best Picture winner only takes home one other additional prize (in Spotlight’s case, it also won Best Original Screenplay).
Fun Fact: Spotlight was the first Best Picture winner to only win one other award since The Greatest Show on Earth (1952).

2016 – Moonlight

Nominees: Arrival, Fences, Hacksaw Ridge, Hell or High Water, Hidden Figures, La La Land, Lion, Manchester by the Sea
Thoughts: Envelopgate! Sadly, for Moonlight, its Best Picture win will always be out shadowed by the fact that Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway were given the wrong envelope, and incorrectly read La La Land as the winner. La La Land is still my pick, but I love that Moonlight won. It had a $1.5 million production budget, which means that new, small films have a shot.
Fun Fact: Moonlight was the first Best Picture winner to feature an all-black cast.

2017 – The Shape of Water

Nominees: Call Me by Your Name, Darkest Hour, Dunkirk, Get Out, Lady Bird, Phantom Thread, The Post, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Thoughts: This was always a bizarre year for me. I love Guillermo del Toro and dug The Shape of Water, but that is a weird damn movie. I’ll be interested to see how this win ages.

2018 – Green Book

Nominees: Black Panther, BlaKkKlansman, Bohemian Rhapsody, The Favourite, Roma, A Star is Born, Vice
Thoughts: Stay with me here. After #OscarSoWhite in 2015, which saw no people of color nominated in acting categories, the Academy invited thousands of new diverse members to the club, effectively bringing in a New Guard to the Academy. This New Guard was made up of young, progressive voters who are likely responsible for wins like Moonlight and Parasite. But the Old Guard still remains, and sometimes they band together and award movies like Green Book.
Fun Fact: Green Book is one of five films to win Best Picture without a Best Director nomination, joining Wings (1927/28), Grand Hotel (1931/32), Driving Miss Daisy (1989), and Argo (2012).

2019 – Parasite

Nominees: Ford v Ferrari, The Irishman, Jojo Rabbit, Joker, Little Women, Marriage Story, 1917, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Thoughts: The impact of this win won’t be felt for a few years, but Parasite’s Best Picture win is a true game-changer. For the first time in Oscar history, a movie not in the English language won the top prize. Hopefully this opens Oscar voters’ minds to something many of us have known for decades: that foreign films often represent some, if not the, best movies of each year.
Fun Fact: As mentioned, Parasite is the first foreign-language film to win Best Picture.

More Oscar Breakdowns

Best Picture
Best Director

Best Actress

Best Actor

Best Supporting Actress (coming soon)

Best Supporting Actor (coming soon)

Best Original Screenplay (coming soon)

Best Adapted Screenplay (coming soon)