Best of the Best: Oscar Winners for Best Picture Ranked

Sydney Pollack’s drama “Out of Africa” follows a wealthy woman and plantation owner who has an affair with a free-spirited hunter. The movie won Pollack’s only Oscar for Best Director in his career.

“Chariots of Fire” is a biopic about two British track athletes in the religiously divided U.K. competing in the 1924 Olympics. One is Jewish and the other a devout Christian. The film “manages to make effectively stirring use of its spiritual and patriotic themes,” according to Rotten Tomatoes’ Critics Consensus.

Tracing the loving but ill-fated relationship between a mother and daughter over the years, this classic tear-jerker moves from Houston to Des Moines to New York City. Along the way there are family conflicts, infidelities, and love stories that culminate in the daughter’s death from cancer.

“Driving Miss Daisy” tells the story of how an old Jewish woman (Jessica Tandy) who lives alone and her African-American chauffeur (Morgan Freeman) in the South become friends over the course of several years.

Guillermo del Toro’s sci-fi drama about the relationship between a janitor and an aquatic creature won four Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director. Forty-five movies grossed more than it did in 2017. These include “Star Wars Ep. VIII: The Last Jedi,” which took in nearly ten times as much at the domestic box office.

James Cameron’s “Titanic” was a cultural landmark, winning 11 Academy Awards and becoming one of the highest grossing movies of all time, worldwide. The film was also highly successful at evoking tears from the audience’s eyes, with both the tragic demise of the Titanic itself and the doomed romance between the film’s main characters, Jack and Rose.

“Oliver!” follows one of literature’s most famous characters — Charles Dickens’ young orphan Oliver Twist. The film tells the story of him hanging out with a group of pickpockets and later trying to hide from them. The movie “has aged somewhat awkwardly, but the performances are inspired, the songs are memorable, and the film is undeniably influential,” according to Rotten Tomatoes’ Critics Consensus.

Director Paul Haggis’ Los Angeles-based drama “Crash” grossed just over $55 million at the domestic box office in 2005 — $70.9 million when adjusted for inflation — making it the 49th biggest movie of that year. Among the movies that “Crash” beat for Best Picture is “Brokeback Mountain,” which grossed $83 million unadjusted.

“Chicago” is a feature film adaptation of the famous musical of the same name. The film follows two women in jail for murder being defended by the same selazy laywer, who turns their trial into a tabloid sensation. The film won Catherine Zeta-Jones her only Oscar so far — for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.

“Shakespeare in Love” centers on arguably the world’s greatest playwright ever when he was young and in love with a woman who inspired him to write some of his most famous plays. The film won a total of seven Oscars, including Best Actress in a Leading Role (Gwyneth Paltrow) and Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Judie Dench).

A French-Canadian nurse at the end of World War II in Italy tends a badly burned, semi-amnesiac patient. Flashbacks reveal details of his affair with a married woman and her lonely death, and the fact that he was forced into collaborating with the Germans before enduring the plane crash that left him badly injured. The nurse, whose fiancé has died in the war, finds love with a British-Indian officer, and the burned man — who is revealed to be Hungarian, not English — succumbs.

Written by and starring Sylvester Stallone, “Rocky” is the film that put the action star on the map. The film is a boxing film about the ultimate underdog. The movie won the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture – Drama. It would be a prelude to the film’s showing at the Academy Awards, where it won three Oscars.

Director Alejandro G. Iñárritu‘s movie about a former superhero actor trying to reinvent himself won four Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Writing — Original Screenplay. The movie was only the 77th top grossing movie released in 2014, however. The year’s best-performer at the domestic box office was fellow Best Picture-nominee “American Sniper,” which brought in more than $350 million.

Six Oscars went to “A Man for All Seasons,” which tells the story of Sir Thomas More, who chose his conscience over his king, King Henry VIII — the king demanded a divorce over the objection of the Catholic Church. Fred Zinneman would win the second of his two Oscars for Best Director. Paul Scofield would triumph as Best Actor in the lead role.

“Braveheart” stands out as Mel Gibson’s great one-man show. He plays Scot William Wallace who has convinced himself he can free his people from the British. Gibson produced and directed the film, which ends badly for Wallace in the finishing frames. The movie won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Makeup, and Best Sound Effects Editing.

“Moonlight” follows the life of a young African-American named Chiron as he struggles to reconcile himself with his sexual identity, beginning in childhood and leading up through his adult years. Chiron is relentlessly bullied, helped by a Puerto Rican drug dealer who watches out for him, he comes to terms with who he is, and reconciles with his drug addict mother and the school friend who had once beaten him up.

Kevin Costner directed and starred in this story about an American soldier who makes peace with wolves and Native Americans in the west and becomes an outcast among his peers. Costner won one of the film’s three Golden Globes for Best Director – Motion Picture, a feat he would equal at the Academy Awards, where “Dances with Wolves” took home seven Oscars.

“A Beautiful Mind” stars Russell Crowe as John Nash, a brilliant mathematician tortured by mental illness who eventually triumphs over his affliction to win the Nobel Prize. Crowe won one of four Golden Globes for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama, and Jennifer Connelly took home a Globe and an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress as Nash’s tormented wife.

Ridley Scott directed this epic about a former Roman general out for vengeance against the corrupt emperor who killed his family and forced him into slavery. The movie is known for its startling reimagining of ancient Rome as well as the intense gladiatorial combat scenes. The film won five Oscars, including Best Picture and a Best Actor statue for Russell Crowe.

Despite winning Best Picture at the 2019 Academy Awards, “Green Book” was outgrossed by 35 other films at the domestic box office in 2018. Among the films that performed better than the Oscar-winner about a white driver accompanying a black musician in the South during the 1960s are fellow 2018 Best Picture nominees “Black Panther,” “A Star is Born,” and “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci rose to prominence in the 1970s directing movies including “The Conformist” (1970) and “Last Tango in Paris” (1972). His film “The Last Emperor” — about the last Emperor of China, Pu Yi — won Best Picture, along with eight other Oscars, in 1988.

The first film directed by Robert Redford, this is the story of a dysfunctional Chicago area family trying to deal with the accidental death of one son and the attempted suicide of another. A friend of the surviving son successfully kills herself, and the mother of the family leaves them.

“Midnight Cowboy,” about an unlikely friendship between two hustlers in New York City, is the only X-rated film to ever win Best Picture. It also won director John Schlesinger his sole Oscar. He would be nominated for Best Director one more time in 1971 for “Sunday Bloody Sunday.”

One of the most beloved and watched films of all time tells the story of the Von Trapp Family from Austria and their tutor Maria as the Nazis rise to power just before the start of WWII. The movie is remembered for the star turn of Julie Andrews and memorable songs composed by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II such as “My Favorite Things,” “Edelweiss,” and “Climb Ev’ry Mountain.”

Kathryn Bigelow made history at the Oscars in 2010. Her low-budget, apolitical Iraq war film “The Hurt Locker” won a total of six Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director. Bigelow is the first woman — and so far the only one — to win the Best Director award at the Oscars. The movie follows three American soldiers, members of a bomb-disposal unit in Baghdad, who are at the end of their tours.

A wife walks out on her husband and young son. When she returns 15 months later, a brutal custody battle ensues. The court rules in the woman’s favor, but on the day she is to pick up the boy, she has a change of heart and tells her ex that their son belongs with him.

Clocking in at nearly two and a half hours, “Forrest Gump” has everything from comedy to romance. Yet the film leaves viewers on a rather low note, related to protagonist Forrest losing the love of his life. The ending didn’t dissuade audiences from flocking to the movie, which grossed over $675 million worldwide.

This historical epic recounts the life of the famed Indian leader as he fights against British rule. The movie won eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director for Richard Attenborough and Best Actor for Ben Kingsley.

This is the story of a selfish young hustler (Cruise) who discovers that he has an autistic savant brother, played by Dustin Hoffman, and ends up caring for him in spite of himself.

The blood flows freely in Ethan and Joel Coen’s tale of a hunter (Josh Brolin) who finds dead drug dealers and $2 million and decides to keep the money. Javier Bardem won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor as the nut-job killer who goes after the money and Brolin, leaving dead bodies along the way. The Coen brothers also won Oscars for Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Picture.

Michel Hazanavicius directed and wrote this homage to silent movies about the tumbling fortunes of a silent screen actor and the rising to stardom of a young actress at the dawn of talking movies who develop a relationship. “The Artist” was only the second silent film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. (“Wings” was the first silent film to win Best Picture.)

The legendary car chase in this cops-and-drug-smugglers movie has been called the best in cinematic history. Members of the Motion Picture Academy liked “The French Connection” well enough to award it Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor (Gene Hackman). Hackman played detective Popeye Doyle, a fictionalized stand-in for real-life cop Eddie Egan.

Danny Boyle directed this entertaining tale of an orphan in Mumbai played by Dev Patel who dazzles television audiences with his knowledge on the Indian version of the television quiz show “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?” and is wrongly accused of cheating. Eight Oscars went to the film, including one to Boyle and two others to A.R. Rahman for Original Score and Original Song.

An impoverished, cantankerous 31-year-old waitress is determined to become a boxer, and she finds a boxing gym owner to take her on and train her. The two develop a surrogate father-daughter relationship as she hones her pugilistic skills. She’s finally ready for a championship fight against the middleweight women’s champion. Her opponent fights dirty, and finally blindsides her, knocking her into a corner stool and leaving her permanently paralyzed. Bedridden and with a leg amputated for gangrenous bed sores, she simply wants to end her life. Her trainer grants her wish.

“Platoon” is about a young recruit in Vietnam who gets caught in the middle of in-fighting between two sergeants. Director Oliver Stone used some of his own experience in the war to guide the movie. The film won a total of four Oscars. Stone won for Best Director.

Ben Affleck’s 2012 film about a CIA operation to rescue American hostages from Iran in 1979 won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Part of the movie’s success is due to its realism. The filmmakers were able to shoot in the actual CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.

George Cukor’s long and distinguished film career was rewarded in 1965 when he won the Best Director Oscar for “My Fair Lady,” the movie adaptation of the George Bernard Shaw play “Pygmalion.” “My Fair Lady” won eight Academy Awards, including Best Actor for Rex Harrison.

Sam Mendes, nominated for Best Director in 2020 for “1917,” won his first Academy Award for the comedic drama about disillusionment in suburban America. Kevin Spacey won the Best Actor Oscar, one of five Academy Awards won by the film.

Michael Cimino won his single Best Director Oscar for the searing film “The Deer Hunter,” about the emotional and psychological damage suffered by Vietnam War veterans who are from a small town in Pennsylvania. “The Deer Hunter” received five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor for Christopher Walken.

Norman Jewison’s boiling racial drama about an African American detective investigating a murder in the American South won three Golden Globes, including for Rod Steiger for Best Actor – Drama. Steiger would win the same award at the Oscars, one of five Academy Awards the film won.

On its critics’ consensus, Rotten Tomatoes called George C. Scott’s portrayal of one of America’s most famous generals in this military epic “as definitive as any performance in the history of American biopics.” Scott won Best Actor, and the film won Best Picture at both the Academy Awards and the Golden Globes. “Patton” won five additional Oscars as well.

This historical drama about King George VI of England and the speech therapist who helped him overcome his stammer won Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Actor (Colin Firth as the titular king), Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay.

Based on an 1853 memoir by a free black man from Saratoga, New York, who was kidnapped and sold into slavery, this film convincingly evokes the cruelty of plantation life, but it also pays tribute to the resilience of the enslaved. Though the story ends with the hero returning to his home and family, he has lost 12 years of his life and missed seeing his children grow into adults.

The final film in Peter Jackson’s exceedingly popular Lord of the Rings trilogy won 11 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Writing – Adapted Screenplay. The 201-minute epic is among the top-grossing movies of all time at the domestic box office when not adjusting for inflation, having grossed more than $378 million.

Perhaps the most acclaimed of Woody Allen’s movies, “Annie Hall” was at one point titled “Anhedonia,” a term that refers to a person’s inability to experience pleasure. Allen’s film won four Academy Awards in 1978, including Best Director for Allen, who did not attend the Oscars because he was playing with his jazz group in Manhattan.

“The Departed” is director Martin Scorsese’s immersive look at Irish gangster life in Boston. The film took home four Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director. The film packs the star power of actors Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, and Martin Sheen, but it is Jack Nicholson’s menacing portrayal of the mob boss that dominates the movie. “The Departed” has a 90% Freshness rating among critics on Rotten Tomatoes, and 94% of audiences liked the movie.

Child molestation and cover-ups by the Catholic Church in Boston, as exposed by the Boston Globe, form the theme of this unsettling film, which is described by the Sydney Morning Herald as possibly “the best newspaper film since All the President’s Men.”

Clint Eastwood’s western “Unforgiven” scored four Oscar wins in 1992 including best director and best picture. He both directed and starred in the film, appearing as William Munny, a pig farmer-turned-bounty hunter. The film opened as a number one box office smash and was one of Eastwood’s biggest financial successes.

Based on Peter Shaffer’s Tony Award-winning play of the same name, this account of the life and successes of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — told through the eyes of his rival, Antonio Salieri — dominated the 1985 Oscars. “Amadeus” won eight Academy Awards, including those for Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Director.

The 1973 heist film “The Sting,” starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford, was both a commercial and critical success. The movie was nominated for 10 Academy Awards and won seven, including Best Picture.

South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon Ho’s “Parasite” surprised many by winning Best Picture at the 2020 Academy Awards despite being among the lesser-seen nominees. Reception of the film has been near universally positive, however, especially among critics, who have given it a 98% Freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The film tells the story of a lower-class family that dupes a wealthier family into employing them with unexpected results.

Jonathan Demme’s psychological thriller “The Silence of the Lambs” made a huge cultural impact upon its release in 1991, thanks in large part to its lead actors Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins. The two won Academy Awards for their work on the film, which also won best picture.

The Miloš Forman-directed drama about a criminal who encourages rebellion against an oppressive nurse in a mental hospital did exceptionally well at the 1976 Academy Awards, winning the Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actor, and Best Actress. Seventeen years later, the movie was deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” by the U.S. Library of Congress and added to the National Film Registry.

One of the greatest retellings of one of the worst chapters in human history. Liam Neeson plays Oskar Schindler, a Catholic businessman who uses his position to save hundreds of Jews from extermination. Steven Spielberg does not spare the viewer from the horrors of the Holocaust, yet the film provides viewers messages of hope and redemption. “Schindler’s List” was nominated for 12 Academy Awards and won seven.

Critics awarded “The Godfather: Part II” a 98% Freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Critics consensus on the site hailed this all-star saga for setting “new standards for sequels that have yet to be matched or broken.” Critics generally found it deeper and more powerful than the first “Godfather,” and the Chicago Tribune called it “a landmark work from one of Hollywood’s top cinema eras.” Not surprisingly, it won six Academy Awards, including best picture, best director, and best actor in a supporting role (Robert De Niro).

Francis Ford Coppola’s gangster epic “The Godfather” breathed new life into the American film industry upon its release in 1972. The film currently has 98% positive ratings from both critics and audiences on Rotten Tomatoes. Critics Consensus on the site describes the film as “one of Hollywood’s greatest critical and commercial successes” and credits it for establishing “new benchmarks for American cinema.”