Who started the Oscars? It all began with studio king Louis B. Mayer, co-founder of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). On a January day in 1927, he invited 36 key film industry figures to the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles with the goal of establishing a group to honor each year’s best motion picture work. Thus the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was founded. The celebrated actor Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. took on the job of the organization’s first president.
An early committee of the Academy was established to consider instituting what were then called Awards of Merit. The seven-person group broke the first awards into 12 categories. The inaugural Academy Awards ceremony occurred at the Roosevelt Hotel’s Blossom Room on May 26, 1929. A total of 270 people attended.
How much have the awards, sometimes referred to at the Oscars, evolved? Awards now cover 26 main categories, plus 17 scientific and technical honors, voted on by a total of 8,469 Academy members according to their branches of expertise. Last year, according to Nielsen, 23.6 million people watched the Oscars. Films that win awards and even those that are only nominated add millions if not tens of millions of dollars to their box office totals — usually. These are the Best Picture winners that made the least amount of money.
Last year, responding to criticisms about the lack of diversity both in the Academy Awards and the Academy itself (inspiring the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite), the organization’s directors expanded its membership to include hundreds of non-white and female voters, and encouraged members to take advantage of an Academy unconscious bias training program.
In addition, while current rules allow anywhere from five to ten nominees for the Best Picture award, a full ten will be required effective in 2022.
That will only make the annual debate over who most deserves — or at least who is mostly likely to win — this top prize even more intense. Over the last several decades, the media has offered reams of predictions each year. Often, they handicap directly. From time to time, there are upsets.
Click here to see the Oscar winners for Best Picture the year you were born
One thing remains certain. A large number of the Best Picture winners over the decades remain among the cinema’s greatest creations, from “All Quiet on the Western Front” in 1930, and “Mutiny on the Bounty” in 1936 to “The King’s Speech” in 2011 and “12 Years a Slave” in 2014. On the other hand, here are the 35 greatest movies that should have won an Oscar.
These are the the Academy Awards for Best Picture the year you were born — as long as you’re 91 or younger.
1927-1928. Wings
> Director: William A. Wellman, Harry d’Abbadie d’Arrast (uncredited)
> Starring: Clara Bow, Charles ‘Buddy’ Rogers, Richard Arlen, Jobyna Ralston
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1927-1928. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
> Director: F.W. Murnau
> Starring: George O’Brien, Janet Gaynor, Margaret Livingston, Bodil Rosing
1928-1929. The Broadway Melody
> Director: Harry Beaumont
> Starring: Bessie Love, Anita Page, Charles King, The Angeles Twins
1929-1930. All Quiet on the Western Front
> Director: Lewis Milestone
> Starring: Lew Ayres, Louis Wolheim, John Wray, Arnold Lucy
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1930-1931. Cimarron
> Director: Wesley Ruggles
> Starring: Richard Dix, Irene Dunne, Estelle Taylor, Nance O’Neil
1931-1932. Grand Hotel
> Director: Edmund Goulding
> Starring: Greta Garbo, John Barrymore, Joan Crawford, Wallace Beery
1932-1933. Cavalcade
> Director: Frank Lloyd
> Starring: Diana Wynyard, Clive Brook, Una O’Connor, Herbert Mundin
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1934. It Happened One Night
> Director: Frank Capra
> Starring: Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert, Walter Connolly, Roscoe Karns
1935. Mutiny on the Bounty
> Director: Frank Lloyd
> Starring: Charles Laughton, Clark Gable, Franchot Tone, Herbert Mundin
1936. The Great Ziegfeld
> Director: Robert Z. Leonard
> Starring: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Luise Rainer, Frank Morgan
1937. The Life of Emile Zola
> Director: William Dieterle
> Starring: Paul Muni, Gale Sondergaard, Joseph Schildkraut, Gloria Holden
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1938. You Can’t Take It with You
> Director: Frank Capra
> Starring: Jean Arthur, James Stewart, Lionel Barrymore, Edward Arnold
1939. Gone with the Wind
> Director: Victor Fleming
> Starring: Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Thomas Mitchell, Barbara O’Neil
1940. Rebecca
> Director: Alfred Hitchcock
> Starring: Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, George Sanders, Judith Anderson
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1941. How Green Was My Valley
> Director: John Ford
> Starring: Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O’Hara, Anna Lee, Donald Crisp
1942. Mrs. Miniver
> Director: William Wyler
> Starring: Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Teresa Wright, May Whitty
1943. Casablanca
> Director: Michael Curtiz
> Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains
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1944. Going My Way
> Director: Leo McCarey
> Starring: Bing Crosby, Barry Fitzgerald, Frank McHugh, James Brown
1945. The Lost Weekend
> Director: Billy Wilder
> Starring: Ray Milland, Jane Wyman, Phillip Terry, Howard Da Silva
1946. The Best Years of Our Lives
> Director: William Wyler
> Starring: Myrna Loy, Dana Andrews, Fredric March, Teresa Wright
1947. Gentleman’s Agreement
> Director: Elia Kazan
> Starring: Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire, John Garfield, Celeste Holm
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1948. Hamlet
> Director: Laurence Olivier
> Starring: Laurence Olivier, Jean Simmons, John Laurie, Esmond Knight
1949. All the King’s Men
> Director: Steven Zaillian
> Starring: Broderick Crawford, John Ireland, Joanne Dru, John Derek
1950. All About Eve
> Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
> Starring: Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, George Sanders, Celeste Holm
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1951. An American in Paris
> Director: Vincente Minnelli
> Starring: Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron, Oscar Levant, Georges Guétary
1952. The Greatest Show on Earth
> Director: Cecil B. DeMille
> Starring: James Stewart, Charlton Heston, Betty Hutton, Cornel Wilde
1953. From Here to Eternity
> Director: Fred Zinnemann
> Starring: Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Deborah Kerr, Donna Reed
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1954. On the Waterfront
> Director: Elia Kazan
> Starring: Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb, Rod Steiger
1955. Marty
> Director: Delbert Mann
> Starring: Ernest Borgnine, Betsy Blair, Esther Minciotti, Augusta Ciolli
1956. Around the World in 80 Days
> Director: Michael Anderson
> Starring: David Niven, Cantinflas, Finlay Currie, Robert Morley
1957. The Bridge on the River Kwai
> Director: David Lean
> Starring: William Holden, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, Sessue Hayakawa
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1958. Gigi
> Director: Vincente Minnelli
> Starring: Leslie Caron, Maurice Chevalier, Louis Jourdan, Hermione Gingold
1959. Ben-Hur
> Director: William Wyler
> Starring: Charlton Heston, Jack Hawkins, Stephen Boyd, Haya Harareet
1960. The Apartment
> Director: Billy Wilder
> Starring: Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Fred MacMurray, Ray Walston
1961. West Side Story
> Director: Robert Wise, Jerome Robbins
> Starring: Natalie Wood, George Chakiris, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn
1962. Lawrence of Arabia
> Director: David Lean
> Starring: Peter O’Toole, Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn, Jack Hawkins
1963. Tom Jones
> Director: Tony Richardson
> Starring: Albert Finney, Susannah York, George Devine, Rachel Kempson
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1964. My Fair Lady
> Director: George Cukor
> Starring: Audrey Hepburn, Rex Harrison, Stanley Holloway, Wilfrid Hyde-White
1965. The Sound of Music
> Director: Robert Wise
> Starring: Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer, Eleanor Parker, Richard Haydn
1966. A Man for All Seasons
> Director: Fred Zinnemann
> Starring: Paul Scofield, Wendy Hiller, Robert Shaw, Leo McKern
1967. In the Heat of the Night
> Director: Norman Jewison
> Starring: Sidney Poitier, Rod Steiger, Warren Oates, Lee Grant
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1968. Oliver!
> Director: Carol Reed
> Starring: Mark Lester, Ron Moody, Shani Wallis, Oliver Reed
1969. Midnight Cowboy
> Director: John Schlesinger
> Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight, Sylvia Miles, John McGiver
1970. Patton
> Director: Franklin J. Schaffner
> Starring: George C. Scott, Karl Malden, Stephen Young, Michael Strong
1971. The French Connection
> Director: William Friedkin
> Starring: Gene Hackman, Roy Scheider, Fernando Rey, Tony Lo Bianco
1972. The Godfather
> Director: Francis Ford Coppola
> Starring: Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Diane Keaton
1973. The Sting
> Director: George Roy Hill
> Starring: Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Robert Shaw, Charles Durning
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1974. The Godfather: Part II
> Director: Francis Ford Coppola
> Starring: Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton
1975. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
> Director: Miloš Forman
> Starring: Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, Michael Berryman, Peter Brocco
1976. Rocky
> Director: John G. Avildsen
> Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weathers
1977. Annie Hall
> Director: Woody Allen
> Starring: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Tony Roberts, Carol Kane
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1978. The Deer Hunter
> Director: Michael Cimino
> Starring: Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, John Cazale, John Savage
1979. Kramer vs. Kramer
> Director: Robert Benton
> Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep, Jane Alexander, Justin Henry
1980. Ordinary People
> Director: Robert Redford
> Starring: Donald Sutherland, Mary Tyler Moore, Judd Hirsch, Timothy Hutton
1981. Chariots of Fire
> Director: Hugh Hudson
> Starring: Ben Cross, Ian Charleson, Nicholas Farrell, Nigel Havers
1982. Gandhi
> Director: Richard Attenborough
> Starring: Ben Kingsley, John Gielgud, Rohini Hattangadi, Roshan Seth
1983. Terms of Endearment
> Director: James L. Brooks
> Starring: Shirley MacLaine, Debra Winger, Jack Nicholson, Danny DeVito
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1984. Amadeus
> Director: Milos Forman
> Starring: F. Murray Abraham, Tom Hulce, Elizabeth Berridge, Roy Dotrice
1985. Out of Africa
> Director: Sydney Pollack
> Starring: Meryl Streep, Robert Redford, Klaus Maria Brandauer, Michael Kitchen
1986. Platoon
> Director: Oliver Stone
> Starring: Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe, Keith David
1987. The Last Emperor
> Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
> Starring: John Lone, Joan Chen, Peter O’Toole, Ruocheng Ying
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1988. Rain Man
> Director: Barry Levinson
> Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Tom Cruise, Valeria Golino, Gerald R. Molen
1989. Driving Miss Daisy
> Director: Bruce Beresford
> Starring: Morgan Freeman, Jessica Tandy, Dan Aykroyd, Patti LuPone
1990. Dances with Wolves
> Director: Kevin Costner
> Starring: Kevin Costner, Mary McDonnell, Graham Greene, Rodney A. Grant
1991. The Silence of the Lambs
> Director: Jonathan Demme
> Starring: Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Lawrence A. Bonney, Kasi Lemmons
1992. Unforgiven
> Director: Clint Eastwood
> Starring: Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, Richard Harris
1993. Schindler’s List
> Director: Steven Spielberg
> Starring: Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Kingsley, Caroline Goodall
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1994. Forrest Gump
> Director: Robert Zemeckis
> Starring: Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise, Sally Field
1995. Braveheart
> Director: Mel Gibson
> Starring: Mel Gibson, Sophie Marceau, Patrick McGoohan, Angus Macfadyen
1996. The English Patient
> Director: Anthony Minghella
> Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche, Willem Dafoe, Kristin Scott Thomas
1997. Titanic
> Director: James Cameron
> Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Zane, Kathy Bates
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1998. Shakespeare in Love
> Director: John Madden
> Starring: Gwyneth Paltrow, Joseph Fiennes, Geoffrey Rush, Tom Wilkinson
1999. American Beauty
> Director: Sam Mendes
> Starring: Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch, Wes Bentley
2000. Gladiator
> Director: Ridley Scott
> Starring: Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Nielsen, Oliver Reed
2001. A Beautiful Mind
> Director: Ron Howard
> Starring: Russell Crowe, Ed Harris, Jennifer Connelly, Christopher Plummer
2002. Chicago
> Director: Rob Marshall
> Starring: Renée Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Richard Gere, Taye Diggs
2003. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
> Director: Peter Jackson
> Starring: Elijah Wood, Viggo Mortensen, Ian McKellen, Orlando Bloom
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2004. Million Dollar Baby
> Director: Clint Eastwood
> Starring: Hilary Swank, Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman, Jay Baruchel
2005. Crash
> Director: Paul Haggis
> Starring: Don Cheadle, Sandra Bullock, Thandie Newton, Karina Arroyave
2006. The Departed
> Director: Martin Scorsese
> Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg
2007. No Country for Old Men
> Director: Ethan Coen & Joel Coen
> Starring: Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Woody Harrelson
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2008. Slumdog Millionaire
> Director: Danny Boyle
> Starring: Dev Patel, Freida Pinto, Saurabh Shukla, Anil Kapoor
2009. The Hurt Locker
> Director: Kathryn Bigelow
> Starring: Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty, Guy Pearce
2010. The King’s Speech
> Director: Tom Hooper
> Starring: Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, Helena Bonham Carter, Derek Jacobi
2011. The Artist
> Director: Michel Hazanavicius
> Starring: Jean Dujardin, Bérénice Bejo, John Goodman, James Cromwell
2012. Argo
> Director: Ben Affleck
> Starring: Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston, John Goodman, Alan Arkin
2013. 12 Years a Slave
> Director: Steve McQueen
> Starring: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Kenneth Williams, Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt
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2014. Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
> Director: Alejandro G.Iñárritu
> Starring: Michael Keaton, Zach Galifianakis, Edward Norton, Andrea Riseborough
2015. Spotlight
> Director: Tom McCarthy
> Starring: Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber
2016. Moonlight
> Director: Barry Jenkins
> Starring: Mahershala Ali, Naomie Harris, Trevante Rhodes, Alex R. Hibbert
2017. The Shape of Water
> Director: Guillermo del Toro
> Starring: Sally Hawkins, Octavia Spencer, Michael Shannon, Doug Jones
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2018. Green Book
> Director: Peter Farrelly
> Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Mahershala Ali, Linda Cardellini, Sebastian Maniscalco
2019. Gisaengchung (Parasite)
> Director: Bong Joon-ho
> Starring: Kang-ho Song, Lee Sun-kyun, Cho Yeo-jeong, Choi Woo-sik
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