1 Fact About Every Best Picture Oscar Winner

On May 16, 1929, Hollywood’s elite gathered in the Blossom Ballroom at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel for the very first Academy Awards ceremony, which honored films released from August 1, 1927 to July 31, 1928. The 1927 film Wings took home the trophy for Outstanding Picture at the ceremony, and since then, nearly 100 awards have been handed out for Best Picture. Ahead of this year’s Academy Awards, check out one fascinating fact about every single Best Picture Oscar winner to date, from Gone With the Wind to Lord of the Rings. (Also, a reminder that Academy Awards ceremonies are usually titled after the year the movie was released, which is generally the year before the ceremony takes place.) 

1. Wings

Wings was a silent action-war-romance film released in 1927 about two military pilots vying for the love of a woman. The director, William A. Wellman, was chosen to helm the movie because he had actual military flying experience piloting fighter planes in World War I. 

2. The Broadway Melody

The second winner for Outstanding Picture was a talkie, a 1929 musical called The Broadway Melody, about two sisters trying to make it on the Great White Way. It was actually MGM’s first full-talking motion picture. The original film contained what was at the time a very exciting musical number done in Technicolor, in contrast to the rest of the film, which was black-and-white. Unfortunately, this technicolor sequence was lost, so only the people who originally saw this movie in theaters saw the true version of the film.

3. All Quiet on the Western Front

In 1930, the Academy switched the name of the award to Outstanding Production (it wouldn’t become Best Picture until the early 1960s). During the ceremony that year—which covered films released between August 1, 1929 and July 31, 1930—the award was given to All Quiet on the Western Front. The movie went through many changes before its official release; one notable tweak is that the original movie featured comedian ZaSu Pitts in a serious dramatic role. But according to one contemporary account, as soon as she appeared on screen, the audience started laughing—not because she did anything funny, just because they were expecting to laugh. The filmmakers ended up reshooting all of her scenes with a different actress.

4. Cimarron

The 1931 epic western Cimarron holds a few distinctions, some more impressive than others. Firstly, it was the first western to win Best Picture (one of only four, surprisingly). Second, when the studio bid for the rights to adapt the book of the same name into a film, it was, at the time, the most money ever paid for literary rights: The studio bid $125,000 (more than $2.3 million today). And lastly, it was one of the biggest box office losses ever for the time. The movie ended up costing over $1.4 million to make, which was well over budget. In its initial release, it lost a cool half-million bucks. 

5. Grand Hotel

No, this isn’t the prequel to Wes Anderson’s 2014 film, though it is sometimes cited as an inspiration. Grand Hotel is a 1932 drama based on a successful Broadway play which itself was based on the novel Menschen im Hotel. The film has been described as the Ocean’s Eleven of its time, in reference to its impressive cast of stars, which included Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, and John Barrymore. One of its most enduring influences is one of Garbo’s lines, the famous “I want to be alone,” which is considered one of the most notable quotes in film history.

6. Cavalcade

Cavalcade, released in 1933, is an epic film told over multiple decades, covering one British family’s life with backdrops like the sinking of the Titanic and World War I. It ended up winning Outstanding Production, Best Direction, and Best Art Direction, and was critically acclaimed. But it faced a few speed bumps along the way. 

Cavalcade was a pre-code film: a movie released after the implementation of talking, but before the Hays code was strictly enforced. The Hays code was a set of rules and regulations that films had to follow for a few decades that would censor things like profanity, sexual innuendo, and interracial romance. But before 1934, it was a little loose. Cavalcade tested the waters by including words like hell and damn. 

There was a lot of pushback from representatives at Fox, the studio behind the film, as well as Hays code authorities, but the filmmakers stood their ground, stating that the profanity was important to the tone of the film. Some were worried that this would set a bad precedent for future movies. But even the president of Fox upon seeing the film, stated that the words used “could not offend any person; and, after all, that was the real purpose of the Code. And as far as the use creating a precedent which might be followed by other producers is concerned, the best answer would be that anyone who could make a picture as good as Cavalcade might be justified in following the precedent.” 

This, the 6th Academy Awards ceremony, honored films released between August 1, 1932 and December 31, 1933. The 1935 ceremony would begin the tradition of honoring movies released the previous calendar year.

7. It Happened One Night

It Happened One Night may sound like a modern A24 horror film with a vague, scary title, but no. It’s a rom-com starring Clark Gable released in 1934. In fact, its official genre on AFI is listed as “screwball comedy.” The movie was the first film in history to win all five major categories: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and both Best Actor and Actress. 

8. Mutiny on the Bounty

Clark Gable followed the success of his previous Oscar-winning movie with 1935’s Mutiny on the Bounty, a naval drama that also won Outstanding Production. The film was based on a novel about the real life mutiny of the HMS Bounty. 

While some have criticized the film for very clear and obvious historical inaccuracies, other parts have been lauded for being incredibly spot on. For example, the detail that went into Captain Bligh’s costume. According to AFI, actor Charles Laughton, who played Bligh, “discovered that the Gieves Company, the very same London tailoring establishment that outfitted Captain Bligh a century and a half earlier, still possessed one of Bligh's original transaction records, which contained the price as well as the measurements and type of material of his uniforms. At Laughton's request, the tailor used the records to reproduce Bligh's uniforms for the picture.” 

9. The Great Ziegfeld

If you’re into Broadway history, you probably know the theatrical impresario Florenz Ziegfeld Jr., who was responsible for the Ziegfeld Follies (among many other things). The Great Ziegfeld (1936) acted as a musical biography of the man and wowed audiences across the world for its elaborate musical numbers and sets. Most notable is the number “A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody,”  an enormous set piece featuring 180 performers that took weeks to rehearse and cost over $220,000 to produce. Apparently, all of that work—and investment—paid off: The scene consistently received applause and cheers in movie theaters.

10. The Life Of Emile Zola

The Life of Emile Zola (1937) is a biographical film about Emile Zola, a French writer. While it was highly acclaimed in its day, it now serves as an interesting tableau of Hollywood and American politics at the time. Part of the film deals with Emile Zola’s involvement in the Dreyfus affair, a French scandal involving a Jewish officer being falsely convicted of a crime and the subsequent cover ups and backlash. While the film includes this important historical event, it doesn’t really address the antisemitism at the heart of the conflict. Studio heads even chose to remove the word Jew from the script entirely. This is indicative of a time in history where American art, film especially, was hesitant to speak out too harshly against Nazi actions or foreign antisemitism in general. It wouldn’t be until the U.S.’s involvement in World War II that movies took any sort of firm stance.

11. You Can’t Take It with You

The zany romantic comedy You Can’t Take It With You (1938) was also directed by Frank Capra, who helmed It Happened One Night as well as Mr. Deeds Goes To Town, both of which he won best director for. You Can’t Take It With You marked Capra’s third win for Best Director in just five years, which hasn’t happened since.

12. Gone With the Wind

The American classic Gone With the Wind (1939) features Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh tearing up the screen for three hours and 40 minutes. And just like its runtime, the making of this movie was very long. Gone With the Wind had a total of three directors. First was George Cukor, who left after 18 days of shooting. Next, Victor Fleming came on board for the majority of the shoot, but had a nervous breakdown and left for a few weeks to combat exhaustion. In the interim, Sam Wood took over. Writing the screenplay was apparently such an ordeal that the producer David Selznick ended up locking himself in a room with Fleming and script doctor Ben Hecht until it was finished. He only fed them peanuts and bananas. The writing process was such a mess that the story was turned into a play, Moonlight and Magnolias. 

13. Rebecca

Alfred Hitchcock is considered one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of all time, but only one of his films ever won Best Picture. Rebecca, based on Daphne du Maurier’s 1938 novel, came out in 1940 and stars Laurence Olivier as a brooding widower and Joan Fontaine as his new wife. The movie was a hit around the globe. In Spain, it was so popular that the type of coat that Fontaine wears throughout the movie became colloquially known as “rebecas.” Even today, if you walk into a clothing store in Spain and ask for a rebeca, they’ll point you toward one of these classic coats.

14. How Green Was My Valley

The 1942 Academy Awards were a doozy—the films in contention for top honors included some of the greatest classics of all time. Looking back on it, it feels like a pretty easy win for what is often considered the greatest film of all time, Citizen Kane. And if not Citizen Kane, then maybe The Maltese Falcon, one of the most influential noir films in American cinema.

The award went to neither. Instead, the 1941 film How Green Was My Valley, a working-class drama about a Welsh family, won. Though it isn’t as famous today as Citizen Kane and The Maltese Falcon, it was inducted into the National Film Registry in 1990.

15. Mrs. Miniver

The 1943 Academy Awards took place in an interesting time in America. The U.S. was fully involved in World War II, and audiences and filmmakers were faced with a very different reality than in previous years. The winner that year was an inspiring film entitled Mrs. Miniver (1942), which is about the life of a British housewife at the start of the war. It marked the first World War II film to win Best Picture, and it wouldn’t be the last. There have, so far, been seven movies directly about World War II that have won Best Picture (eight if you count Casablanca). 

16. Casablanca

Speaking of Casablanca (1943), it ended up taking home the top prize the following year. Set during World War II, this enduring romance has become a major part of cinema history. It’s also arguably the most quoted movie of all time. But Ingrid Bergman actually never says the line “play it again, Sam.” That’s a common example of the Mandela Effect, like how Darth Vader never actually says “Luke, I am your father.” She does say “Play it Sam. Play ‘As Time Goes By.’” 

17. Going My Way

Bing Crosby starred in 1944’s Going My Way, a musical comedy-drama about a young priest. The movie went on to become Paramount’s highest grossing film to date. That was due in part to their push for what was called the Fighting Front premiere. Sixty-five prints of the movie were distributed around the globe so that soldiers who were battling in World War II could see it. According to an article published at the time, an “arrangement for the simultaneous world-wide showing to the troops in combat areas was made by the Army Pictorial Service … from Alaska to Italy, and from England to the jungles of Burma.” The film made about $10,000,000 internationally.

18. The Lost Weekend

Obviously, the Academy Awards are the movie awards to pay attention to for Americans. But internationally, there are a few other options that are just as acclaimed. One of them is the Cannes Film Festival, which was known as the International Film Festival until 2003 and often features the cream of the crop of the film world. In 1946, the American movie The Lost Weekend (1945) ended up taking home the Academy Award for Best Picture, along with six other Oscars. That same year it also became one of the first films to win the highest prize awarded at Cannes (which at the time was the Grand Prix but is now the Palm D’or). This would make it the first film in history to win both Best Picture and the top prize at Cannes. Only two other movies have done it since.

19. The Best Years of Our Lives

Apparently, after World War II was over, filmmakers decided it was time to make movies about how World War II was over. In 1946 came The Best Years of our Lives, a story about three men returning home from the war and trying to readjust to a normal life. It’s based on the book Glory For Me, but interestingly, the idea for the book came from the movie’s producer Samuel Goldwyn. The story goes that Samuel’s wife Frances, after reading a Times article about soldiers’ readjustment to society, suggested it would make a compelling movie. Samuel then contacted MacKinlay Kantor, a novelist who had had many books adapted into movies. Kantor got to work on the book, and before long, the book was being turned into a movie. 

20. Gentleman’s Agreement

The 1947 film Gentleman’s Agreement was pretty controversial for the time. The story follows a journalist, played by Gregory Peck, exposing the shocking truths of antisemitism in America. The film received generally high praise and won Best Picture, but that didn’t mean it was smooth sailing. Reportedly, several influential Hollywood elites tried to convince the filmmakers to not make the movie, claiming it would cause too much trouble. The movie was even banned in various places, like the entire country of Spain for a few years. Thankfully, they went through with it anyway.

21. Hamlet

It took 21 Academy Awards for a Shakespeare adaptation to win Best Picture: Laurence Olivier’s 1948 film Hamlet finally sealed the deal in 1949, which was an exciting—albeit much shortened—version of the bard’s most famous drama. Olivier had already established himself as the film world’s undeniable Shakespeare aficionado, and this Oscar (along with the Venice International Film Festival’s Golden Lion) would lock that reputation in. One of the more unique accolades this film holds? The first British film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards. On another note, Olivier was 41 when this movie came out. Eileen Herlie, who played his mother Gertrude, was 30.

22. All the King’s Men

In 1950, All The King’s Men (1949) took home the top prize. It was written, directed, and produced by Robert Rossen and based on a Pulitzer prize-winning book. The story is a political drama that’s loosely based on former Louisiana governor and U.S. Senator Huey Long, who, as Britannica explains, created “social reforms and radical welfare proposals {that} were ultimately overshadowed by the unprecedented executive dictatorship that he perpetrated to ensure control of his home state.” Long was assassinated in 1935. 

Rossen was a member of the American Communist Party for many years, and, after this movie was released, he was called in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee—twice. After the first where he pleaded the fifth, he was essentially blacklisted in Hollywood. In his second appearance, he named a few dozen other communists to appease the committee. The film studio Columbia severed all ties with Rossen and bought all the rights and residuals to All the King’s Men. Rossen didn’t work much afterward.

23. All About Eve

All About Eve (1950) is often considered one of the finest films of the 20th century. It follows the story of an aging Broadway star and her young fan. It’s the only film in Academy Awards history to have four women nominated for a best acting Oscar: Anne Baxter and Bette Davis for Lead Actress, and Celeste Holm and Thelma Ritter for Supporting Actress. Surprisingly, none of them won.

24. An American in Paris

An American in Paris (1951) featured many whimsical and exciting musical sequences, choreographed in part by star Gene Kelly. The most lauded and extensive dance number is the climactic “An American in Paris Ballet” which runs nearly 20 minutes long. The set decoration was meant to evoke the styles of famous European artists. As described in an outline by Kelly and director Vincente Minnelli,“The decor of the ballet will be its most distinguishing feature as to uniqueness and originality, for each individual scene will be done in the styles of different painters which we will denote in the synopsis of the libretto … the ballet visually should reflect an artist's viewpoint and both the scenery and the costumes should be done as they painted. ... In essence, the entire ballet is a representation of a painter thinking about Paris.” 

25. The Greatest Show on Earth

The Greatest Show on Earth (1952), which is set in the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus, won Best Picture and Best Story at the 1953 Academy Awards. While the film features Hollywood actors taking on the lead roles—Charlton Heston plays the circus manager, for example—it also featured the actual circus troupe with over 1000 performers and hundreds of animals. 

26. From Here to Eternity

The 1892 Rudyard Kipling poem “Gentleman Rankers” provided the title for this next Oscar winner. From Here to Eternity (1953) follows three soldiers—played by Montgomery Clift, Burt Lancaster, and Frank Sinatra—in the time leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor. Reportedly, Clift went above and beyond to prepare for the role. He took boxing lessons and learned to play the bugle. The director Fred Zinnemann later recalled, “Clift forced the other actors to be much better than they really were. That’s the only way I can put it. He got performances from the other actors, he got reactions from the other actors that were totally genuine.”

27. On the Waterfront

A crime drama about corruption and violence along the New Jersey waterfront starring Marlon Brando—yeah, that sounds like a Best Picture winner. On the Waterfront (1954) is still considered one of the best American films in history, with many citing Brando’s performance as a main selling point. The film’s score, however, is also worth noting. It was composed by Leonard Bernstein, who was the focus of 2023’s Bradley Cooper-led Maestro. While Bernstein was a highly prolific composer, this is the only instance in which he wrote an original score for a film.

28. Marty

Marty (1955) was the directorial debut of Delbert Mann. It’s pretty rare for someone’s first film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards, but it’s very rare for someone’s first film to also win the top prize at Cannes. Joining the very short list along with The Lost Weekend of Best Picture/Cannes winners, Marty also holds the distinction of being the first to win the Palm D’Or grand prize, which replaced the Grand Prix that year. 

29. Around the World in 80 Days

No, not the 2004 Jackie Chan movie. Or the 1914 silent film. It’s 1956’s Around the World in 80 Days that took home the coveted statue. Based on the classic Jules Verne novel, the movie follows an adventurer who makes a claim that he can circumvent the globe in 80 days flat. It’s a fun adventure around the world that features a famous hot air balloon scene as part of the protagonist’s journey. If you’ve ever seen an image from this movie, or the poster, or anything, it’s probably the hot air balloon. But the hot air balloon isn’t in the original novel: While a fair amount of the movie stays true to Verne’s vision, the filmmakers decided to include at least one exciting new addition. 

30. The Bridge on the River Kwai

The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) is an epic war film based loosely on the construction of the Burma Railway during World War II. It was extremely popular during its time, and is still recognized as one of the most important movies of the 20th century. It’s based on the book by Pierre Boulle, who also won the Academy Award for its screenplay. But the screenplay was actually secretly penned by two other men: Carl Foreman was the original writer, but director David Lean apparently hated his version of the script, so he worked on it himself. He also hated his own work, so brought in Michael Wilson. Both Foreman and Wilson were on the Hollywood blacklist, and their names weren’t on the movie. They were later both given an honorary Oscar posthumously to honor their achievement. 

31. Gigi

Director Vincente Minnelli returned to the awards stage with his 1958 movie Gigi. How did he top the impressive and masterful An American in Paris? By making another musical that somehow does even better than before. Gigi was nominated for nine Academy Awards, and it won them all. It held the record for highest clean sweep in Oscars history for decades until Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King came out in 2003. That’s nearly 50 years.

32. Ben-Hur

Everything about this Charlton Heston-led 1959 epic film was big: big sets, big costumes, big awards, and an astonishingly big price tag. Ben-Hur cost approximately $15 million to make and was considered the most expensive movie ever made up until that point.  

And nothing tops its infamous chariot race sequence. The shoot lasted for about three weeks and involved using upwards of 15,000 extras. The set for the chariot race was vast, too: It took roughly six months to construct, stretched out over 18 acres, and was about five stories high. 

The chariot race even gave rise to an urban legend that a stuntman was killed during the filming of it, and that his tragic death was left in the final cut of the flick. While this rumor has been repeatedly debunked—including by Heston himself—it does underscore just how monumental the whole scene really seemed.

33. The Apartment

A comedy-drama about a lowly office lackey who lets his bosses use his apartment to meet up with side chicks couldn’t have gotten made during the heyday of the Hays Code. But even though the Hays Code was technically in effect until 1968 (when it was replaced by the MPAA rating system), it was starting to crack by the late 1950s, which gave The Apartment’s director Billy Wilder a chance to bend the rules even further. 

Wilder drew inspiration for his 1960 film from real-life as well as David Lean’s 1945 British drama Brief Encounter, about an affair that never quite takes off; apparently Wilder’s story note read, “Movie about the guy who climbs into the warm bed left by two lovers.” He wrote the role of Buddy Baxter specifically for Jack Lemmon. The movie is a poignant tale about love, office politics, and adultery, and some of the heavier themes were considered very controversial when it was first released. 

34. West Side Story  

Casting for the 1961 big-screen adaptation of West Side Story was a veritable who’s who of Hollywood up-and-comers—and established mega-stars. For the part of Tony, the charismatic former bad boy turned good, producers considered everyone from Warren Beatty (who would go on to make his film debut later that year in Elia Kazan’s Splendor in the Grass) to Burt Reynolds, Anthony Perkins, and according to rumors, even the King of Rock and Roll himself, Elvis Presley. Colonel Tom Parker—Elvis’s long-time manager—reportedly turned down the opportunity, thinking a movie about street gangs wouldn’t exactly be good for the King’s image. 

Even the lineup for the part of the hopeful, starry-eyed Maria was stacked with heavy-hitters. While Natalie Wood—who also appeared in Splendor in the Grass, and later got an Oscar nod for her work in it—landed the role, there were other big names in the running, including Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, and future Bond girl Jill St. John. Wood didn’t sing, though—her voice was dubbed by Marni Nixon.

35. Lawrence of Arabia

Lawrence of Arabia leading man Peter O’Toole loved being in the desert. But the veteran Shakespearean actor, who by then had already established himself via his work on television and the stage, wasn’t a big fan of camels, and later claimed that learning how to ride one for the 1962 film was “impossible.”  

So impossible, in fact, that he revealed in a 1993 interview that his “bottom was bleeding from bouncing up and down on this snorting great dragon,” and considering he had to be riding on camels a lot for the sweeping, nearly 4-hour-long adventure saga, it was kind of a problem. 

O’Toole figured out a workaround: He took a trip to Beirut, bought some sponge rubber, and stuffed it under his saddle. It made the rides a lot more comfortable for him, and some Bedouin extras on the set started following his example. They later nicknamed O’Toole the “father of the sponge” for his troubles. 

36. Tom Jones

Tom Jones, the 1963 British comedy starring Albert Finney, charmed audiences in a major way, raking in multiple Oscar wins at the 36th Academy Awards, including Best Music Score and a Best Director award for Tony Richardson. But the movie could have ended up looking a lot different—literally—if it wasn’t for a little help from United Artists, which took over distribution duties after the original production company, Bryanston Films, filed for bankruptcy. Under the original production, Tom Jones might have ended up in black and white. Instead, once UA stepped in, they opted to set the whole thing to brilliant color. 

37. My Fair Lady

Before it became known as My Fair Lady, Alan Jay Lerner and composer Frederick Loewe’s 1956 Broadway production of this tale actually went through a number of name changes. The musical—which was inspired by George Bernard Shaw’s 1913 play, Pygmalion, and its 1938 film adaptation starring Leslie Howard—was first known as Liza, but was then rechristened Lady Liza. Ultimately, Lerner and Loewe took it in a different direction after Rex Harrison, who starred in the stage musical, complained it made Eliza Doolittle seem like too much of the focus. 

The title they finally settled on, My Fair Lady, was taken from the enduring nursery rhyme, “London Bridge is Falling Down.” It was used for the stage musical and again in 1964, for the big-screen version starring Harrison alongside Audrey Hepburn (whose singing voice was also dubbed by Marni Nixon). 

38. The Sound of Music

Although it was partly based off of Maria von Trapp’s 1949 memoir about her family, The Sound of Music (1965) actually bears a lot of other musical influences outside of the famous Austrian singing group. 

Before being adapted for the silver screen in 1965, the tale first opened at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on Broadway in 1959, helmed by none other than Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein II. It ended up being the final collaboration for the powerhouse pair, who had dominated the music theater landscape throughout the 1940s and ’50s with iconic productions like Oklahoma!, Carousel, and The King and I. 

Sadly, Hammerstein passed away in 1960. “Edelweiss,” a moving anthem from the 1959 Broadway production of The Sound of Music, was the last song Hammerstein ever wrote. 

And by the way, Christopher Plummer’s vocals were dubbed by Bill Lee, who stepped in to sing the part of Captain Von Trapp—but a version of the movie soundtrack was recently released featuring some songs with Plummer’s vocals intact.

39. A Man for All Seasons

Actress Vanessa Redgrave has some unique distinctions in the history of Hollywood. And no, it’s not just for being one of the rare thespians to achieve the coveted Triple Crown of Acting (winning an Oscar, an Emmy, and a Tony award). The English-born actress has actually appeared on screen as multiple famous historical figures from the Tudor and Stuart dynasties in England and Scotland. In 1966’s A Man for All Seasons, she makes a brief, unbilled cameo as Henry VIII’s divisive second wife, Anne Boleyn. But Redgrave doesn’t have any lines in this Oscar-winning historical drama, and in fact, she wasn’t even paid for her appearance.

Then in 1971, she starred in Mary, Queen of Scots as the eponymous Stuart ruler—who incidentally, was Henry VIII’s great-niece, and also the mother of James VI/I, who would go on to inherit the throne of England from Elizabeth I after her death in 1603. And speaking of Elizabeth I, Redgrave has played her too. She appeared in Roland Emmerich’s 2011 period drama Anonymous as the Virgin Queen. Maybe she’s a major 16th century British history lover, or perhaps it’s all just a funny coincidence.

40. In the Heat of the Night

For the 1967 neo-noir In the Heat of the Night, about a Philly-based homicide detective roped into investigating a grisly murder in the Deep South, star Sidney Poitier had a few stipulations. 

He had already made Oscar history as the first Black man to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for 1958’s The Defiant Ones, and for becoming the first Black man to actually win that award in 1964, for James Poe’s comedy-drama, Lilies of the Field. (Sadly, he would remain the only Black actor to have that Oscar until Denzel Washington won in 2002 for his performance in Training Day.)

But as part of agreeing to work on In the Heat of the Night, Poitier demanded that the film—which was based on John Ball’s 1965 novel of the same name—be shot up north in Illinois, not in Mississippi, where most of the plot is technically based. 

The reason? He was concerned about racial violence and the Ku Klux Klan, which he’d already had an unsettling run-in with back in Mississippi in 1964, alongside his friend Harry Belafonte. Poitier’s request was honored by director Norman Jewison, except for a three-day shoot in Tennessee, during which Poitier was forced to stay at a segregated Holiday Inn, and reportedly slept with a gun under his pillow. 

But famously, that wasn’t Poitier’s only request. For a pivotal scene where his character, Virgil Tibbs, is slapped by a plantation-owning Ku Klux Klansman, Poitier insisted that he get to smack him back, even though it wasn’t in the original script. The “slap heard round the world,” as it later came to be known, serves as a crucial turning point within the film and became one of the most defining moments of Poitier’s celebrated career.

41. Oliver!

Oliver!, the coming-of-age 1968 musical, is an adaptation of an adaptation. It was directly based off of Lionel Bart’s musical of the same name, which premiered at the Wimbledon Theatre in London in 1960, before hopping over to the West End and eventually moving across the pond, where it ended up on Broadway by 1963. And the musical itself is a spirited retelling of Charles Dickens’s 1838 classic, Oliver Twist. 

Carol Reed, who directed the 1968 film version, cast mostly unknown actors to play the plucky youngsters featured in it, with one notable exception. Jack Wild, a child actor who had appeared in the West End production of Oliver! back in 1964, was cast in the flick as the Artful Dodger. He ended up being nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the 41st Academy Awards, and while Wild—who was 16 years old at the time—ultimately didn’t win the award, he’s still one of the youngest Oscar contenders in the event’s history. 

42. Midnight Cowboy

You probably don’t imagine a big old X-rating appearing right on the poster for most Oscar-winning films. But in director John Schlesinger’s 1969 adaptation of Midnight Cowboy, which was based on a 1965 novel of the same name by James Leo Herlihy, that’s exactly what you got. ​​

The salacious tale of two hustlers—one a consumptive con-man played by Dustin Hoffman, the other a dewy-eyed sex worker played by Jon Voight—earned the Best Picture Oscar at the 42nd Academy Awards, and an X-rating from the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) ahead of its theatrical release because of its depictions of homosexuality. 

In that way, this heavy drama about two reluctant pals trying to make it on the mean streets of Gotham made history as the first—and only—X-rated film to earn such high accolades from the Academy. And in 1971, United Artists—the film’s distributor—re-submitted Midnight Cowboy to the MPAA for a new rating, after the organization retooled its grading system. It was then re-released for audiences with an R rating, and the rest is movie history.  

43. Patton

The opening monologue famously spoken by George C. Scott in the 1970 war biopic Patton wasn’t a work of pure fiction—in fact, it was lifted from a series of speeches that the celebrated U.S. general gave to the Third Army in 1944, ahead of the Allied invasion of France. 

There are some notable differences, though. Old Blood and Guts, as Patton was colorfully known as among his men, used curse words throughout those speeches, but a lot of his language had to be toned down in the opener so the film could retain a PG rating. 

One thing the production did follow to the letter was Patton’s overall look; the ivory-handled revolvers that Scott sports in the film are replicas of the .45 Long Colt Single Action and .357 Magnum Smith & Wesson that Patton often carried. Plus, all the medals seen on Scott’s uniform were recreations of the ones Patton earned for his service.  

44. The French Connection

Even though Gene Hackman seems like a shoo-in now for the gritty part of “Popeye” Doyle—the hardscrabble narcotics detective who has to bend some rules to catch a few perps—he wasn’t the actor that director William Friedkin initially had in mind for The French Connection (1971). 

Friedkin actually considered Paul Newman for the role, but when Newman’s salary demands were too high, the director looked at other stars like Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, and even Jackie Gleason. Friedkin even briefly cast columnist Jimmy Breslin, but fired him after discovering he didn’t know how to drive. 

After Hackman, a former Marine, was cast, he spent time shadowing Eddie Egan, the real-life inspiration for Doyle. Egan even ended up in the film, co-starring as Doyle’s supervisor. Hackman walked away with Oscar glory after winning the Best Actor prize at the 44th Academy Awards for his work in this film. 

45. The Godfather

Adapted from Mario Puzo’s best-selling 1969 novel of the same name, this initial foray into the gripping yet sordid world of the Corleone family feels like a quintessential piece of New York cinema, especially considering director Francis Ford Coppola shot a lot of it on location throughout the city. 

But if Paramount Pictures had their way, The Godfather (1972) wouldn’t have been set in the Big Apple at all, or even in the 1940s and ’50s. The studio actually wanted to make it a contemporary film set in St. Louis, Missouri, but Coppola resisted and ultimately won that fight. 

It wasn’t the only issue Coppola would have with Paramount during the making of The Godfather. He was reportedly constantly on the verge of getting fired throughout the production, but his Oscar win in 1971 for co-writing the script for Patton helped keep him off the chopping block. In 2021, the director told NPR that working on the film was “just the most frightening and depressing experience I think I’ve ever had.”

46. The Sting

For director George Roy Hill, it wasn’t enough that 1973’s The Sting was set in the 1930s. For this period piece about a couple of charming grifters looking to make one great final score, Hill wanted the film to look and feel like part of that era, too. 

To do that, Hill had artist Jaroslav Gebr create inter-title cards modeled after the old illustrations that were on display throughout the 1930s in the Sunday Evening Post. He also asked composer Marvin Hamlisch to recreate some classic ragtime tunes by Scott Joplin for the film’s score, including “The Entertainer.” And the director avoided using extras, claiming the 1930s crime capers he watched for inspiration didn’t feature them at all. 

But perhaps the best trick Hill pulled off here was just coming up with a way to reunite Paul Newman and Robert Redford on film. He’d previously directed the pair in the 1969 classic Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The Sting would end up being their final on-screen collaboration.

47. The Godfather Part II

With this 1974 follow-up to the critically acclaimed crime saga, The Godfather, Francis Ford Coppola really wanted to shake things up, and in more ways than one. 

After having a notoriously difficult time on the set of the first Corleone family film, Coppola was eager to pass off directorial duties to someone else. In his view, he had the perfect candidate in mind in director Martin Scorsese, who was fresh off making 1973’s Mean Streets, which had been inspired in part by Scorsese’s experiences growing up in New York’s Little Italy neighborhood. But even though Scorsese was quickly becoming the poster child for the “movie brats” of the New Hollywood scene, Paramount—the studio behind The Godfather Part II—wouldn’t go for it. 

So instead, Coppola resumed directorial duties for the sequel, while Scorsese directed Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, the 1974 drama that ultimately earned Ellen Burstyn an Oscar for Best Actress at the 47th Academy Awards. And reportedly, Burstyn hand-picked Scorsese to direct the picture based on Coppola’s glowing recommendation of the young director. 

48. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

As only the second film in the history of the Oscars to sweep all five of the major categories, including a Best Actor win for Jack Nicholson and Best Actress award for Louise Fletcher, 1975’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is notable in a number of ways. 

Apart from serving as an early showcase for rising stars like Danny DeVito and Brad Dourif, the 1975 drama featured several cast members who weren’t actually trained actors at all. Will Sampson, the 6-foot, 7-inch tall bronco-busting rodeo performer who co-starred as Chief Bromden, had never acted before. The same was true for Dr. Dean Brooks, who was the real-life superintendent of Oregon State Hospital, where director Miloš Forman shot much of the film. Brooks even got several of his patients to serve as extras and crew members on the set, but it wasn’t until much later that producer Michael Douglas learned that many of them were technically considered criminally insane. 

49. Rocky

Ever wonder how many sequels Rocky (1976) has actually spawned? From 1979’s Rocky II to spin-off entries like 2018’s Creed II, there are eight follow-ups to the original 1976 rags-to-riches sports drama. The first six scripts were also written completely by Sylvester Stallone, although he only directed four of them, including 1982’s Rocky III and 2006’s Rocky Balboa. 

And in a very Stallone-like move, actor Michael B. Jordan—who stars as Apollo Creed’s son, Adonis, in the Creed series—took over the director’s chair for Creed III, which came out in 2023 and focuses on the boxer’s tense relationship with an old childhood friend who is determined to win the heavyweight championship belt at any cost. 

50. Annie Hall

Woody Allen struck pay dirt with his sixth film Annie Hall, the 1977 romantic comedy that was loosely based on his past romance with co-star Diane Keaton. The actress later nabbed the Best Actress Oscar at the 50th Academy Awards—and sparked a major fashion craze—with her turn as the titular Annie, a klutzy, menswear-loving manic pixie dream girl who audiences couldn’t help but lurve, loave, and luff. 

But for all of the film’s future acclaim, Allen actually struggled to come up with a name for it. He shot it without an official title, although he originally wanted to call it Anhedonia, after a mental health disorder that makes individuals unable to feel pleasure. Ultimately, Allen made it a real-life ode to Keaton, as the flick’s title is a play on Diane Hall, her birth name. 

51. The Deer Hunter

Russian roulette is a recurring theme in the 1978 war drama The Deer Hunter, which was actually filmed on location near the River Kwai and other parts of Thailand. 

But according to director and co-writer Michael Cimino, one scene in particular went pretty method, when star Robert De Niro requested a live round for his revolver, to be used in a Russian roulette scene with co-star John Cazale. Cimino claimed that Cazale agreed to it and “didn’t bat an eye.” However, he did demand that the gun get checked between takes, to make sure that live round wasn’t next up in the chamber.  

52. Kramer vs. Kramer

Although she’d end up winning her first Oscar for her work in the 1979 divorce drama Kramer vs. Kramer, actress Meryl Streep wasn’t director Robert Benton’s first choice to play the part of Joanna, the litigious ex-wife to Ted, star Dustin Hoffman’s single-dad character. 

Several other leading ladies, including Kate Jackson of Charlie’s Angels fame, were offered the part first but declined. Streep, who was initially cast in a smaller role, envisioned Joanna as more sympathetic than she was originally depicted in Avery Corman’s 1977 novel on which the film was based. But Streep’s softer take clearly won out with Academy voters and audiences alike. 

53. Ordinary People

For his directorial debut, Robert Redford opted to adapt Ordinary People, Judith Guest’s bestselling 1976 novel of the same name about a family falling apart at the seams. His adaptation earned multiple awards at the 53rd Academy Awards (including a Best Director Oscar for Redford), but the book itself was—and remains—highly controversial: There were attempts to ban it from school libraries throughout the 1980s, and it actually made the American Library Association’s list of the 100 most challenged books of the 1990s, stemming from its graphic depictions of sexuality and references to death by suicide. Redford purchased the rights to the book before it hit shelves; he and writer Alvin Sargent worked on the script for three years, consulting Guest along the way.

54. Chariots of Fire

The highly evocative name of the celebrated 1981 sports drama Chariots of Fire might seem like a stroke of good luck—like screenwriter Colin Welland just figured out a killer turn of phrase that immediately captures the vibe of two Olympic athletes competing for eternal glory, as seen in the film. But in truth, the title was actually inspired by verses in the King James Bible, and also by “Jerusalem,” a poem by William Blake that appeared in his Milton collection, circa 1810. 

55. Gandhi

Gandhi, the sprawling 1982 biopic about the life and times of Mahatma Gandhi, was director Richard Attenborough’s passion project, and his third attempt at trying to get a movie about the Indian independence movement leader off the ground. His first effort was in 1952, but it failed to launch. He tried again around 1963, and even gained the support of Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister. But after Nehru’s death in 1964, that project stalled out as well. It wasn’t until 1980 that Attenborough finally secured the support and financing needed to bring his vision of the revered figure to life. 

56. Terms of Endearment

Debra Winger and Shirley MacLaine were both nominated for the Best Actress Oscar in 1984 for the moody tearjerker Terms of Endearment (1983), which earned a total of five Oscars at the 56th Academy Awards, including a Best Supporting Actor win for Jack Nicholson.

But when it came time for the duo—who played mother and daughter on screen and reportedly had a pretty contentious relationship off of it—to face off for the gold, things got even more heated. As MacLaine made her way down the aisle after seizing the victory, she reportedly whispered to Winger, “You deserve half of this.” To which Winger replied, “I’ll take it.” In the end, MacLaine still thanked her outspoken co-star in her acceptance speech, but made a point of adding in the end: “I deserve this. Thank you.” 

57. Amadeus

You might not know it, but there are actually two versions of the 1984 period drama Amadeus. The flick, which takes its cues from playwright Peter Shaffer’s 1979, Tony award-winning stage play about the life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, was initially released in PG format. In 2002, Miloš Forman released an R-rated director’s cut, which pushes the film’s length up to roughly three hours. 

58. Out of Africa

Robert Redford ran into some trouble early into the making of the 1985 romantic drama Out of Africa, which was based on the 1937 autobiography by Karen Blixen, a Danish author writing under the pseudonym Isak Dinesen. 

Blixen’s tome captures her tumultuous relationship with British aristocrat Denys Finch Hatton, whom Redford stars as in the adaptation. But if you watch the film, you’ll notice that Redford doesn’t speak with a British accent. This unexpected move was the work of director Sidney Pollack, who felt that audiences might be “thrown by Bob as an Englishman,” so he nixed it. Several scenes shot early in the production actually had to be redubbed as a result. 

59. Platoon

The 1986 war drama Platoon wasn’t Oliver Stone’s first attempt at making a film inspired by his experiences in the Vietnam War. In 1969, the director and screenwriter penned Break [PDF], a semi-autobiographical (albeit psychedelic) look at his time serving in active combat. Stone later retooled the script, which was used as the basis for Platoon. 

But before he did that, Stone actually sent a copy of Break to Jim Morrison of The Doors. He envisioned the iconic frontman playing the lead role, and that the soundtrack would be set to classic tracks like “Break on Through (To the Other Side).” 

Morrison never responded, but had a copy of the script with him in Paris in 1971; it was found by one of his managers in his apartment after he died. In 1990, the wife of that manager returned the script to Stone, who would go on to direct a 1991 biopic inspired by the late singer. 

60. The Last Emperor

The Last Emperor, a drama about Puyi, the last emperor of China, courted major acclaim upon its release in 1987—and some major controversy. 

A 30-second sequence focused on the Nanjing Massacre—a brutal mass murder of Chinese civilians by the Imperial Japanese Army, which began in late 1937 and stretched on for six weeks in what was the capital city of the Republic of China—was removed by the Shochiku Fuji Company ahead of its distribution in Japanese theaters. The company feared it would be too gruesome for audiences. 

Director Bernardo Bertolucci was reportedly livid over the censorship, claiming it was “revolting” and that he wasn’t involved in the decision. The distribution company ultimately restored the scene, referring to the whole episode as “a big misunderstanding.”

61. Rain Man

After starring in the 1988 hit Rain Man, star Dustin Hoffman—who scored a Best Actor award at the 61st Academy Awards for his work in the film—actually walked away with an arguably even bigger prize: one of the two 1949 Buick Roadmaster convertibles used during production. The car was in Hoffman’s personal collection until 2022, when the actor let it go to auction. It reportedly sold for $335,000. 

62. Driving Miss Daisy

There are a number of Oscar “firsts” connected with the 1989 drama Driving Miss Daisy, which scooped up multiple awards at the 62nd Academy Awards, including for Best Picture and Best Screenplay. Among those firsts? Actress Jessica Tandy nabbed the Oscar for Best Actress for Driving Miss Daisy, and at 80 years old, became the oldest winner of the award in the show’s history. 

63. Dances With Wolves

Dances With Wolves (1990) tells the story of a Civil War lieutenant who connects with a Lakota tribe in the American West. The Best Picture winner didn’t rely on CGI to bring its impressive set pieces to life: When the script called for 3500 buffalo, the filmmakers had to find 3500 real animals to set loose on the prairie. Rounding them up was so time consuming that the crew had just one opportunity to film the stampede per day. With help from 20 wranglers, a helicopter, and 10 pickup trucks, they captured the footage they needed in eight days. For close-ups of the animals, they acquired two domesticated buffalo: Neil Young’s pet named Mammoth and the mascot of a South Dakota meat manufacturer named Cody. Cody had a taste for OREOs, which his handler used to get him to charge at the camera. 

64. The Silence of the Lambs

In The Silence of the Lambs (1991), an FBI trainee played by Jodie Foster turns to a cannibal serial killer named Hannibal Lecter for insights into her search for a different killer known as Buffalo Bill. Anthony Hopkins channeled some unlikely muses for his Oscar-winning portrayal of Lecter. He revealed that his biggest inspirations for the character were Truman Capote, Katharine Hepburn, and HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey. The book’s original author Thomas Harris, on the other hand, said he didn’t base the cannibal serial killer on any one person. Instead, he was an amalgamation of all the evil he found while researching serial killers for the novel.

65. Unforgiven

Clint Eastwood was already a Hollywood legend by 1992: He had directed and starred in dozens of movies by that point. But Unforgiven—which follows a geriatric bandit in the Old West who comes out of retirement for a bounty hunting gig—was the first to garner him recognition from the Academy with Oscar nominations for Best Actor, Best Picture, and Best Director. When he collected the Best Director statue, he was the oldest filmmaker to receive the award at that time in history. It took him more than a decade to win his second Oscar for his directing work on Million Dollar Baby.

66. Schindler’s List

After dropping out of college in 1968, Steven Spielberg had no trouble finding success as a filmmaker. It was only after directing multiple blockbusters and collecting several Oscars that he decided to go back to school and finish his degree. In 2002, he anonymously enrolled at Cal State Long Beach and earned his credits by turning in assignments under a pseudonym. For his final project, he submitted 1993’s Schindler’s List, his Best Picture winner about former Nazi Oskar Schindler's plot to save hundreds of Jews during the Holocaust. That easily makes it the most lauded student film of all time. 

67. Forrest Gump

Forrest Gump is an unlikely source of wisdom as he experiences the major pop cultural and political events of the latter half of the 20th century throughout his titular film, which was released in 1994. It’s not a stretch to think he said something profound in his anti-Vietnam rally speech, but the exact content of that speech was a pain point for filmmakers. Director Robert Zemeckis was dissatisfied with what screenwriter Eric Roth had written, so he asked Billy Crystal and Robin Williams to punch up the section. When those drafts didn’t work, he came up with a simple workaround: having the microphone cut out as soon as Forrest starts talking. Though his speech doesn’t make it into the film, what Tom Hanks said on set isn’t a secret. The actor revealed that the lines were as follows: “Sometimes when people go to Vietnam, they go home to their mommas without any legs. Sometimes they don’t go home at all. That’s a bad thing. That’s all I have to say about that.”

68. Braveheart

If you’re familiar with one element of 1995’s Braveheart, it’s likely the iconic blue paint Mel Gibson wears as William Wallace. While the 14th-century Scottish warrior he portrays leading a revolt against England before he's ultimately executed was real, there’s no evidence he wore face paint into battle. The movie’s makeup department decided to ignore the anachronism, and the decision paid off. In addition to winning Best Picture that year, Braveheart secured an Oscar for its makeup artist, Lois Burwell.

69. The English Patient

Kristin Scott Thomas wasn’t a huge name in Hollywood when she went out for the female lead in The English Patient (1996), but she was determined to get the part. The Best Picture winner centers on a plane crash victim recovered during World War II who reveals his past through a series of flashbacks. Before his accident, he was a cartographer who fell in love with a married woman on an archeological expedition. 

After she nailed her audition, director Anthony Minghella promised Thomas the role—which caused friction with studio executives. They wanted Demi Moore for Katherine, and were so adamant about casting her that they delayed production. Minghella was equally stubborn, and he ended up moving the project to a new studio to get it made. His instincts were spot on, and Thomas landed a Best Actress Oscar nomination for her work in the film.

70. Titanic

Titanic (1997) grossed nearly $2 billion during its initial run, making it the most successful movie ever at the time. James Cameron’s historic disaster film is seen as a high water mark in Hollywood today, but it wasn’t always seen as money in the bank. The director wanted to center the 1912 maritime disaster around a star-crossed love story between a wealthy young woman in first class and a starving artist in steerage. The studio executives wanted something action-packed, more along the lines of Cameron’s previous works, and they doubted that such a romance-forward story would appeal to a wide audience. Despite their hesitations, they greenlit the movie based on the director’s stellar track record. As filming began, Cameron didn’t succeed in instilling confidence. The already massive production went over schedule and over budget, and the movie drew comparisons to the doomed voyage that inspired it in the press. (The cast and crew were also drugged with PCP via some spiked clam chowder during filming.) Skeptics were proven wrong at the box office and at that year’s Academy Awards. Titanic won a record-tying 11 Oscars, including Best Picture.

71. Shakespeare in Love

We don't know much about the personal life of William Shakespeare, but Shakespeare in Love (1998) imagines a fictional love affair for the writer that was as romantic as his plays. The film won seven Oscars this year, including a Best Supporting Actress trophy for Dame Judy Dench. Her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth I took up just eight minutes of screen time, and she acknowledged the awkwardness of being recognized for such a small part in her acceptance speech. Cate Blanchett was nominated in the lead actress category that year for playing the titular part in Elizabeth, marking the first time in Oscars history that two actresses were nominated the same year for playing the same character in separate films.

72. American Beauty

In American Beauty (1999), Lester Burnham’s new lease on life is spurred by a disturbing crush on his teenage daughter’s best friend. We see the infatuation develop in real time during the film’s infamous cheerleading scene. This sequence was choreographed by none other than Paula Abdul. A few years before becoming a judge on American Idol, the pop star lent her talents to this future Best Picture winner. For the project, Abdul channeled her days as a cheerleader and head choreographer for the Los Angeles Lakers cheerleading team.

73. Gladiator

Gladiator (2000) tells the story of a Roman general who loses everything when he’s betrayed by the son of the emperor. He ends up enslaved, but through his fighting skills in the arena, he’s able to regain his freedom and avenge the murders of his family. Though he was never forced to fight to the death, Russell Crowe endured plenty of abuse while filming Gladiator. Following a sword fight scene, the actor lost all feeling in his right forefinger for two years. He also suffered injuries to his foot, hip, bicep, and Achilles tendon.

74. A Beautiful Mind

A Beautiful Mind (2001) is the biopic of John Nash, a mathematician who did Nobel prize-worthy work while struggling with a mental illness eventually, diagnosed as schizophrenia. Though the average viewer would likely never notice, the mathematical equations Russell Crowe’s character writes in the movie actually make sense. Filmmakers hired Barnard College math professor Dave Bayer to consult on the movie’s complicated mathematics. His academic expertise wasn’t the only thing that made him a good fit for the project. After hiring him to be a consultant, filmmakers noticed that Bayer’s hands and handwriting were similar to Crowe’s. With some help from the makeup department, he acted as Crowe’s hand double in close-up shots where John Nash scribbles equations on a chalkboard.

75. Chicago

Based on the Broadway show of the same name, 2002’s Chicago follows two female performers, each facing trial for murder during the Roaring Twenties. When the movie won the Oscar for Best Picture in 2002, it became the first musical to do so in over three decades. The last musical to receive the honor was the movie adaptation of Oliver! in 1968. More than 20 years later, the Academy has yet to bestow its most prestigious award upon another musical. 

76. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

In The Return of the King (2003), Frodo (Elijah Wood) and Sam (Sean Astin) must finish their quest to destroy the One Ring, which they started at the beginning of the epic fantasy series. The scene in the third and final film where Frodo orders Sam to go home is one of the most heart-wrenching moments of the The Lord of the Rings trilogy. It’s even more impactful when you know that Sean Astin and Elijah Wood’s dialogue was filmed a year apart. The three installments were filmed together as part of one long production, and as is the case with most movie shoots, scenes were filmed out of order. This led to some quirks in the shooting schedule, with the year-long gap between Sam and Frodo’s parts in the same scene being the most extreme example. 

77. Million Dollar Baby

Remember back in 1992 when Clint Eastwood became the oldest Best Director winner in Oscars history? He beat that same record again when he collected another trophy for Million Dollar Baby (2004). His movie about an underdog female boxer training under a jaded mentor earned him the Oscar for Best Director at age 74. He still holds that distinction two decades later. 

78. Crash

Crash (2005) beat out Brokeback Mountain, Capote, Good Night and Good Luck, and Munich to win the Best Picture Oscar at the 2006 Academy Awards—a decision that’s often regarded as one of the Academy’s biggest blunders. The film follows the overlapping stories of seemingly unrelated characters in Los Angeles who find themselves embroiled in social and racial tensions. It regularly tops lists of the worst Best Picture winners, and when Academy members were polled in 2015, they admitted they would have awarded Brokeback Mountain instead, given the chance. Even director Paul Haggis agrees that his film wasn’t necessarily the best of the year. He told HitFix in 2015: “I’m very glad to have those Oscars. They’re lovely things. But you shouldn’t ask me what the best film of the year was because I wouldn’t be voting for Crash, only because I saw the artistry that was in the other films.”

79. The Departed

Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese are frequent collaborators, and the pair nearly teamed up for The Departed (2006). The movie is about a Boston cop who goes undercover to gain access to the Irish mob, while unbeknownst to him, the mob plants a spy in his police unit. De Niro was offered the choice of playing either mob boss Frank Costello or police Captain Queenan, and declined both roles to pursue his own directing project. But the duo has continued to work together since then, and in total, they’ve worked on 10 projects, including 2023’s Killers of the Flower Moon.

80. No Country for Old Men

When a Vietnam vet finds millions of dollars in the desert, his path crosses with the cattle stun gun-wielding murderer looking for the cash and the sheriff looking for them both. No Country for Old Men (2007) is known for its matter-of-fact violence, and the Coen brothers didn’t skimp on the realistic gore. Special fake blood had to be shipped from the UK, and it cost around $800 a gallon. The expensive prop wasn’t necessarily chosen for how it looked on camera. Because the bloodiest scenes were shot in the desert, the cheaper corn syrup solution that’s typically used on movie sets would have attracted flies. The directors spared their actors by splurging on sugar-free fake blood that pests weren’t interested in. 

81. Slumdog Millionaire

In Slumdog Millionaire (2008), an 18-year-old game show contestant from the slums of Mumbai reflects on his life story while answering questions on the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? The unique story wasn’t the only thing that set it apart as an Oscars darling in 2008. Slumdog Millionaire was the first Best Picture winner to be shot mostly on digital. The portions that were shot on film used Fuji, also making it the first Best Picture recipient since 1928 not to use Kodak film. A digital copy of the movie came with DVD purchases, which was another first in Oscars history.

82. The Hurt Locker

Director Kathryn Bigelow took great pains to bring authenticity to the set of 2009’s The Hurt Locker. The movie, about a bomb disposal unit facing dangers during the Iraq War, was shot in Jordan where temperatures averaged around 120°F, according to Jeremy Renner. So, when you see the star sweating through his 100-pound bomb suit during tense scenes, that isn’t acting.

83. The King’s Speech

The King’s Speech (2010) centers around King George VI’s struggle with a speech impediment in light of his coronation, so Colin Firth’s vocal performance was crucial to the story’s success. His younger sister Kate Firth is a professional voice coach, and he leaned on her expertise when preparing for the role. She acted as his consultant, occasionally visiting him on set, and some of her suggestions even made it into the script. According to Colin, “A lot of the routines that you see, the bizarre stuff, were her ideas.”

84. The Artist

Silent films don’t have much representation on the list of Best Picture Oscar winners. After Wings received the accolade at the first-ever Academy Awards in 1929, it would take over 80 years for another mainly silent film to win the top honor. The Artist (2011) explores a relationship between an up-and-coming starlet and a veteran silent film star as the talkies become the preferred mode in Hollywood. Its lack of dialogue wasn’t the only way The Artist recreated 1920s cinema. It was also the first Best Picture winner presented in the 4:3 aspect ratio since 1953 and the first fully black-and-white film to win since 1960.

85. Argo

Argo (2012) was inspired by the true story of the Iran hostage crisis of 1979. After escaping a hostage situation in Tehran and finding shelter with the Canadian ambassador, six American refugees were trapped, waiting for help. To get them out alive, a C.I.A. agent concocted a fake movie production as a cover for the rescue operation. 

The actors who played the refugees in Argo didn’t check into a hotel after a day of filming. Director Ben Affleck arranged for them to stay in the same house that served as the Canadian ambassador’s home in the film. To further emphasize the feeling of being trapped in the building, Affleck forbade the performers from using their phones or contacting anyone on the outside. According to actor Rory Cochrane, the forced method acting was a surprisingly pleasant experience that helped him get into character. 

86. 12 Years a Slave

Based on the 1853 memoir of the same name, 12 Years a Slave (2013) tells the harrowing story of how Solomon Northup was kidnapped and sold into slavery before ultimately regaining his freedom. The movie has been praised for its historical accuracy, and that commitment to authenticity comes through in the details. It was shot on real antebellum plantations, and costume designer Patty Norris used dirt from the sites to make the clothing look worn. Some of the costumes that appear in the film were historical garments once worn by actual enslaved people. These aesthetic details, as well as the story, itself garnered praise from historians upon the film’s release.

87. Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

In a delightfully meta performance, Michael Keaton plays an aging superhero actor hoping for a career comeback on Broadway in 2014's Birdman. One of the most memorable scenes in the Best Picture winner involves Keaton walking through Times Square in his underpants. Because walking through Times Square is already challenging for non-celebrities, the crew had to wait until after midnight to shoot the sequence. Crowds had dispersed enough by that point that most of the onlookers you see are hired extras—though more than a few faces in the background are tourists genuinely reacting to seeing Michael Keaton half-naked. 

88. Spotlight

Spotlight (2015) won the Oscars’ top honor for its riveting depiction of the real-life Boston journalists who investigated the widespread child abuse covered up by the Catholic church. If a movie wins the Oscar for Best Picture, it’s almost guaranteed to clean up in other categories. Despite being nominated for six Oscars for 2015, Spotlight only won for Best Screenplay in addition to being named the Best Film of the year. The last time a Best Picture winner went home with just one additional Oscar was in 1952 when The Greatest Show on Earth received Best Picture and the since-retired Best Story award.

89. Moonlight

Moonlight (2016) proved that you don’t need to spend a lot of money to win recognition from the Academy. The movie, which focuses on a Black American boy growing into a young man and coming to terms with his sexuality, became the lowest-budget Best Picture winner in Oscars history when it took home the final award of the night. Barry Jenkin made the movie for just $1.5 million. For comparison, its fellow Best Picture nominee, Mad Max: Fury Road, had a budget of $150 million, and a 30-second ad that ran during the Oscars broadcast was made for $2.2 million.

90. The Shape of Water

Doug Jones is the king of transforming for a part. After playing the Pale Man in Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth and Abe Sapien in his Hellboy movies, he collaborated with the director again to play the Amphibian Man in The Shape of Water (2017). His character wins the heart of a mute janitor played by Sally Hawkins, who falls in love with him and helps him escape a research facility in the 1960s. He didn’t have any lines, so to prepare for the part, he studied the body language of dogs responding to their owners. He also mimicked the movements of Spanish matadors to bring some sensuality to the cold-blooded creature.

91. Green Book

Green Book (2018) is based on the real-life story of the relationship the Black pianist Don Shirley developed with his white driver and bodyguard while touring the American South in 1962. Director Peter Ferrelly wanted to avoid cliche choices when selecting the movie’s early ‘60s soundtrack. Lucky for him, his wife’s friend was dating Robert Plant at the time, and he used a double date as an opportunity to get the former Led Zeppelin frontman’s advice. Deep cuts on the soundtrack, like “Pretty Lil’ Thing” by Sonny Boy Williamson and “Goodbye, My Lover, Goodbye” by Robert Mosley, came directly from that conversation. The movie also features an original recording from the real Don Shirley, who’s played by Mahershala Ali in the film.

92. Parasite

English-language movies—particularly ones made in America—tend to dominate the major Oscars categories. So, when Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite (2019) won the top prize, it made history many times over. The movie centers on a poor family who devise a plot to infiltrate a wealthy household by replacing its current servants and lying about their identities. It was the first South Korean film to win any Oscar, including Best Picture. It was also the first Asian motion picture and the first one in a language other than English to receive the Academy’s highest honor.

93. Nomadland

Adapted from the nonfiction book Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century, Nomadland (2020) follows a widow who abandons her old life to travel the country and live out of her van. Frances McDormand is the only big-name actor who appears in Nomadland. The rest of the cast is made up of nonprofessional actors playing fictionalized versions of themselves. Many of the “nomads” in the film were also featured in the book it’s based on, and their names in the movie are also their names in real life. Director Chloé Zhao took the same approach when she cast actors with zero experience in her previous films Songs My Brothers Taught Me and The Rider.

94. Coda

An English-language remake of a French-Belgian film from 2014, CODA (2021) tells the story of a hearing child of deaf adults who balances supporting her family’s struggling business with her own career aspirations. The movie earned Apple its first Oscar for Best Picture—a sentence that would have made zero sense a couple of decades ago. Apple acquired the film after it premiered at Sundance and released it through Apple TV+, making it the first movie distributed by a streaming service to win Best Picture. CODA did play in theaters as well, but not many people saw it there. It also made history as the lowest-earning Best Picture ever, with a box office gross of just $1.2 million at the time of its win.

95. Everything, Everywhere, All at Once

In Everything, Everywhere, All at Once (2022), the owner of a laundromat is pulled into an interdimensional adventure that forces her to jump between different versions of herself from alternate universes. Instead of working with a post-production house, the Daniels gathered a small team of filmmakers to create the movie’s unique visual effects. Visual effects lead Zak Stoltz had collaborated with the Daniels in the past, but it was his first time supervising the effects of a feature-length film. In the end, more than 80 percent of the visual effects on screen were the work of just five artists. The process was made more unconventional by the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced the team to work separately from their homes.

96. Oppenheimer

Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer (2023)—which was based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer—took home seven Oscars at the 2024 awards ceremony, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Cillian Murphy, who played the titular scientist. Murphy told CBS’s 60 Minutes that he agreed to do the film before even reading the script: “It’s always paid off for me, you know, in every film that I worked with {Nolan} on,” Murphy said. Thankfully, it was “one of the greatest screenplays I’d ever read.” To play Oppenheimer, the actor lost 28 pounds and prepped by reading—and listening to—the scientist’s lectures. “I remember at one point, I said to Chris—‘Chris … he appears to speak Dutch here. And I think he’s giving a lecture in Dutch here. What are we gonna do about that?’,” Murphy recalled. “And Chris said, ‘You mean, what are you gonna do about that.’”

Discover More Stories About Movies: