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The Academy Awards dived headfirst into controversy last year, when it announced that a new category would be added to its 2019 ceremony: Best Popular Film .
The backlash it sparked was swift and brutal. Deservedly so, since the move merely placed a band-aid over the deeper issues driving falling viewing figures for the ceremony.
It was a quick guarantee that the likes of Marvel and DC would be represented, without any deeper examination as to why audiences are feeling increasingly disconnected from the yearly event.
What’s more, it seemed an implicit declaration that films like Black Panther or Crazy Rich Asians could never be considered worthy of Best Picture on their own terms.
The introduction of the category has since officially been “postponed”, with the Academy noting it will now “examine and seek additional input” – effectively translating to a cancellation, albeit with the looming threat that it might one day return. There are better solutions here.
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Show all 90 1 /90Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Scroll through for every single Best Picture winner there has ever been
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Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Wings (1928) The realistic air-combat sequences – a benchmark for all future aviation scenes – set this film apart from the competition at the very first Academy Awards ceremony (the category was then named Best Picture Production).
Paramount/Rex
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The Broadway Melody (1929) This was the first "talkie" to win the main prize. It follows a pair of sisters from the vaudeville circuit who try to make it big on Broadway.
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) One of the most harrowing accounts of WWI, All Quiet on the Western Front was the first Best Picture winner to win Best Director too (Lewis Milestone accepted the trophy).
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Cimarron (1931) Westerns don't usually win the main prize at the Oscars, but Cimarron proves a rare exception.
RKO Radio Pictures
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Grand Hotel (1932) Grand Hotel , starring Joan Crawford and John Barrymore, is the only Best Picture winner that received no nominations in any other category.
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Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Cavalcade (1933) This film presents a view of English life during the first quarter of the 20th century from New Year's Eve 1899 to New Year's Day 1933, from the point of view of well-to-do London residents Jane and Robert Marryot (Diana Wynward and Clive Brook).
Fox Film Corporation
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards It Happened One Night (1934) The first of three films to win in all the five main categories (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay) alongside One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest and The Silence of the Lambs .
Columbia Pictures
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) Another win for Cavalcade director Frank Lloyd that inspired the creation of the Best Supporting Actor category after three of its lead stars – Clark Gable, Charles Laughton and Franchot Tone – were nominated for Best Actor. Interestingly, they were all beaten by Victor McLaglen for The Informer .
Warner Bros
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The Great Ziegfeld (1936) This lavish and extremely lengthy MGM production remains a standard in musical filmmaking, even if critics have fallen out of love with it over the years.
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Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The Life of Emile Zola (1937) Paul Muni failed to win the Best Actor trophy for his portrayal of French playwright Émile Zola, but the film took home Best Picture beating out the likes of The Awful Truth and A Star Is Born .
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards You Can't Take It with You (1938) It Happened One Night filmmaker Frank Capra's third Best Director win came with his second victory in the Best Picture category.
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Gone with the Wind (1939) One of the most successful films of all time, Gone with the Wind swept the board at the Oscars, winning 10 out of 13 nominations.
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Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Rebecca (1940) Alfred Hitchcock's first American film, an adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's gothic drama, won Best Picture, but failed to win any awards in any of the acting, writing or director category – one of the only instances in Oscar history.
United Artists
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards How Green Was My Valley (1941) Otherwise known as: the film that beat Citizen Kane . It's also said to be future Oscar-winner Clint Eastwood's favourite film.
20th Century Fox
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Mrs Miniver (1942) This drama, depicting the life of an unassuming British housewife (Greer Garson) in rural England during World War II, won six Oscars in total.
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Casablanca (1943) After almost missing out on a nomination due to a technicality, Casablanca went on to win three Oscars, including Best Director for Michael Curtiz.
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Going My Way (1944) Leo McCarey's collaboration with Bing Crosby wasn't just the biggest hit at the 1944 box office, but a ten-time Oscar nominee that marked a first: a Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor nomination - for the same actor (Barry Fitzgerald).
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Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The Lost Weekend (1945) This drama, following Ray Milland's alcoholic writer, was the talk of the 1946 ceremony, winning four trophies in total.
Paramount Pictures
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) This war drama was the talk of Hollywood after winning nine Oscars, including two for veteran and non-professional actor Harold Russell, who remains the only person to have won two awards (Best Supporting Actor and an honorary trophy) for the same role.
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Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Gentlemen’s Agreement (1947) Controversial in its time, Gentlemen's Agreement follows a journalist (Gregory Peck) who poses as a Jew to research an exposé on the widespread distrust and dislike of Jews in New York City. It won three of the five Oscars it was nominated for.
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Hamlet (1948) Hamlet stands tall as one of the most successful Shakespearean adaptations at the Oscars, as well as the first British film to win Best Picture.
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Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards All the King’s Men (1949) This adaptation of the Robert Penn Warren novel of the same name starred Broderick Crawford as the ambitious and occasionally ruthless politician, Willie Stark.
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards All About Eve (1950) This Best Picture winner won six Oscars, but left lead stars Bette Davis and Anne Baxter – both nominated for Best Actress – empty-handed.
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Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards An American in Paris (1951) Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron lead this musical version of George Gershwin's orchestral composition that won six Oscars in all.
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Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) Many consider this film to be one of the worst Best Picture winners in Oscar history, and was the last victor to win fewer than three trophies until Spotlight in 2016. Many believe it beat its competitors as it was a chance to honour Cecil B DeMille whose films had failed the main prize.
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Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards From Here to Eternity (1953) Fred Zinneman's romantic drama took home an impressive eight out of 13 nominations, including a Best Supporting Actor win for Frank Sinatra.
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards On the Waterfront (1954) Marlon Brando won his first Oscar in this Best Picture winner from Elia Kazan.
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Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Marty (1955) Marty – starring Best Actor victor Ernest Borgnine – was also the fourth American release to win the coveted Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
United Artists
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Around the World in 80 Days (1956) The adaptation of Jules Verne's classic novel won five Oscars, beat out a particularly tough category that included epics The Ten Commandments , Giant and The King and I .
United Artists
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) The 30th Oscars ceremony awarded David Lean's epic war film that saw Alec Guinness take home Best Actor.
Columbia Pictures/AP
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Gigi (1958) Leslie Caron fronted classic MGM musical Gigi , which won nine Oscars – a record for just one year.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Ben-Hur (1959) Ben-Hur is the first of only three films to win 11 Academy Awards (see also: Titanic and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King ). It was nominated 12 times, losing only to Room at the Top in the Best Adapted Screenplay category.
TCM
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The Apartment (1960) One of the last black-and-white Oscar winners as Hollywood moved towards colour in films a matter of years after The Apartment 's release. The most recent black-and-white films to win Best Picture are Schindler's List and The Artist .
United Artists
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards West Side Story (1961) This film, from directors Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins, holds the record for most wins for a musical (10 out of 11 nominations).
United Artists
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Lawrence of Arabia (1962) David Lean's next film following The Bridge on the River Kwai earned him yet another Best Picture and Best Director Oscar win.
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Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Tom Jones (1963) None of the producers of adventure-comedy film Tom Jones showed up to accept the trophy, which is now in possession of Albert Finney.
United Artists
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards My Fair Lady (1964) Eight-time Oscar winning My Fair Lady is considered one of the greatest musicals to this day.
Warner Bros Pictures
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The Sound of Music (1965) It's hard to believe that Julie Andrews didn't win for her lead role in The Sound of Music , but it did take home the Best Picture trophy in 1965.
Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards A Man for All Seasons (1966) Oscar favourite Fred Zinneman (From Here to Eternity ) was the talk of the town after his film about the final year of Sir Thomas More walked away with six awards.
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Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Oliver! (1968) No U-certificate film has won Best Picture since Oliver! – the last musical to do so since Chicago in 2002.
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Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Midnight Cowboy (1969) On the flip-side, Midnight Cowboy became the first and last X-rated film to win Best Picture (the classification no longer exists).
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Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Patton (1970) Seven-time Oscar-winning film Patton made headlines when George C Scott refused to accept his Best Actor trophy due to a dislike of the voting process.
20th Century Fox
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The French Connection (1971) Two years after the US introduced its age certificate system, the first R-rated film scooped Best Picture.
20th Century Fox
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The Godfather (1972) The highest-grossing film of 1972 was also the year's biggest Oscar winner, even though both Marlon Brando and Al Pacino boycotted the ceremony (the former won Best Actor and sent American Indian Rights activist Sacheen Littlefeather in his place).
Paramount Pictures.
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The Sting (1973) The Sting won seven out of its 10 Oscar nominations, with Julia Phillips becoming the first female producer to be nominated for and to win Best Picture.
Reuters
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The Godfather Part II (1974) The first and second sequel to have won Best Picture to date (see also; The Return of the King .
Paramount Pictures
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) Only three films have won an Academy Award in the five top categories, and this is one of them. It beat out fierce competition from Jaws , Barry Lyndon , Nashville and Dog Day Afternoon .
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Rocky (1976) Rocky became a sleeper hit at both the box office and the Academy Awards after receiving 10 nominations and winning three.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Annie Hall (1977) Annie Hall beat Star Wars to Oscars glory at the 50th edition of the ceremony.
United Artists
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The Deer Hunter (1978) This Best Picture winner also marked the first ever nomination for Meryl Streep who is currently the most nominated actor in Oscars history.
Universal
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Kramer vs Kramer (1979) Another Meryl Streep nomination followed for Kramer vs Kramer , which won five trophies in total.
Columbia Pictures
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Ordinary People (1980) Robert Redford's tear-jerking drama beat out hot favourite Raging Bull to the main prize.
Paramount Pictures
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Chariots of Fire (1981) The Brits found glory when Chariots of Fire won Best Picture and three other awards.
Enigma Productions
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Gandhi (1982) Richard Attenborough's epic historical drama received several trophies – and beat Steven Spielberg's E.T. to the top prize.
Columbia Pictures
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Terms of Endearment (1983) Terms of Endearment slipped through the cracks and won five Oscars from its impressive 11 nominations.
Paramount Pictures
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Amadeus (1984) Miloš Forman's lengthy fictionalised tale of composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart rightly won the main prize and is one of the few films to have two nominations in the Best Actor category (Tom Hulce and F Murray Abraham).
Warner Bros
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Out of Africa (1985) Director Sydney Pollack's Best Picture winner saw Meryl Streep receive yet another nomination.
Universal Pictures
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Platoon (1986) This Vietnam drama is the only film to have won Oliver Stone a Best Director Oscar (he also won Best Adapted Screenplay for Midnight Express almost 10 years before.
Orion Pictures
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The Last Emperor (1987) Bernardo Bertolucci's epic film about the life of Chinese Emperor Puyi won out in what was a rather eclectic range of Best Picture nominees (Fatal Attraction , Moonstruck ). It won all nine Oscars it was nominated for.
Columbia Pictures
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Rain Man (1988) Yet another Best Picture winner that was the highest-grossing film of that year.
United Artists
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Driving Miss Daisy (1989) The only film based on an off-Broadway production ever to win an Academy Award for Best Picture, and the first actor since Grand Hotel to not earn a nomination for its director (this would be repeated with Ben Affleck's Argo ).
Warner Bros
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Dances with Wolves (1990) Kevin Costner's film became the first Western to win Best Picture since Cimarron in 1931.
Orion Pictures
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The Silence of the Lambs (1991) The Silence of the Lambs is considered to be the only horror film that has ever won Best Picture – and is also the third of three films to take home trophies in the five main categories.
Orion Pictures
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Unforgiven (1992) Clint Eastwood capitalised on Dances With Wolves ' win a few years before by steering this Western to Oscars glory.
Warner Bros
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Schindler's List (1993) Steven Spielberg's acclaimed drama failed to win any acting awards but took home seven Oscars in total, including the coveted Best Picture prize.
Universal Studios
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Forrest Gump (1994) Tom Hanks's first Oscar win came with Robert Zemeckis's Best Picture winner. Hanks would win the next year also for Philadelphia .
Paramount Pictures
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Braveheart (1995) Braveheart was considered an outside bet until it won Best Film – Drama at the Golden Globes the month before the Oscars were due to take place. Sure enough, it won the main prize.
20th Century Fox
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The English Patient (1996) This major award-winner took home nine out of 12 nominations.
Miramax
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Titanic (1997) Titanic is one of the most successful films in Oscars history. It tied All About Eve for the Oscar nominations (14) and won 11, tying with Ben-Hur .
20th Century Fox
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Shakespeare in Love (1998) Shakespeare in Love won seven of its 13 nominations.
Universal Pictures
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards American Beauty (1999) Sam Mendes's drama may have not been considered an immediate favourite, but one tactical DreamWorks campaign later and it went home with four five Oscars.
DreamWorks Pictures
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Gladiator (2000) The second highest-grossing film of 2000 went on to win five Oscars.
Dreamworks & Universal Pictures
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards A Beautiful Mind (2001) This drama, based on the life of Nobel Laureate John Nash (Russell Crowe), was a surprise winner at this year's ceremony.
Dreamworks & Universal Pictures
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Chicago (2002) Chicago was the first musical to win Best Picture since Oliver! in 1968.
Miramax Flms
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) The second sequel to win Best Picture won all 11 Academy Awards it was nominated for, and holds the record for the highest clean sweep in Oscars history.
New Line Productions
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Million Dollar Baby (2004) This Best Picture winner scored Clint Eastwood his second directing Oscar after Unforgiven .
Warner Bros
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Crash (2005) Crash was the first Best Picture winner since Rocky (1976) to win only three Oscars.
Lionsgate Films
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The Departed (2006) The first and last Martin Scorsese film to win Best Picture (it also won him a belated Director Oscar).
Warner Bros
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards No Country for Old Men (2007) It was No Country for Old Men vs There Will Be Blood in one of the greatest Oscar races on record. It was the Coen brothers's crime thriller that reigned supreme.
Miramax Films
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Slumdog Millionaire (2008) Danny Boyle's sleeper hit Slumdog Millionaire became an Oscars success story, winning eight trophies in total.
Warner Bros
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The Hurt Locker (2009) One of the lowest-grossing films to ever win the main prize, The Hurt Locker also marked the first Best Picture winner by a female director (Kathryn Bigelow). This was also the first time the Best Picture nomination count went above five for the first time since 1943.
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The King's Speech (2010) Many thought The Social Network could reign supreme over The King's Speech , but they were wrong - Tom Hooper's historical drama won four Oscars.
Momentum Pictures
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The Artist (2011) The first fully black-and-white film to win since The Apartment Schindler's List had moments of colour), this film was also the first French-produced film to ever win the top prize.
Weinstein Company
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Argo (2012) Argo was nominated for seven Academy Awards and won three – although lead star and director was, in the words of Bradley Cooper, "robbed" of a Best Director nomination.
Warner Bros
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards 12 Years a Slave (2013) Steve McQueen's film was considered one of the best of the year, and its three Oscar wins reflected this. It made McQueen the first black British producer to ever receive the award.
Lionsgate
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Birdman (2014) Michael Keaton may have missed out on Best Actor, but Birdman won the main prize.
Fox Searchlight Pictures
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Spotlight (2015) Spotlight was the first Best Picture winner to win fewer than three Academy Awards since The Greatest Show on Earth in 1953
Open Road Films
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Moonlight (2016) Barry Jenkins's drama became the first film with an all-black cast, the first LGBTQ film and the second-lowest-grossing film domestically (behind The Hurt Locker ) to win the Oscar for Best Picture.
A24
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The Shape of Water (2017) Guillermo del Toro's The Shape of Water is the second fantasy film to win Best Picture alongside The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King .
Twentieth Century Fox
Though the naysayers will complain that the last thing the Oscars need is a longer ceremony, multiple categories have been suggested in the past that would diversify not only the kind of talent represented, but the type of film rewarded.
Here are just a few new categories that the Academy should consider including in the future.
Best Stunt Coordinator Tom Cruise becomes first actor to perform dangerous HALO stunt in Mission Impossible No other category has been fought for harder than Best Stunt Coordinator, with industry workers pressuring the Academy for its inclusion for over 25 years, only for the proposal to be consistently voted down. The movement has been spearheaded by Jack Gill, who boasts an extensive filmography, from the original Dukes of Hazzard TV series to 2011’s Fast Five .
While the Screen Actors Guild Awards introduced a similar category in 2008, with Wonder Woman being rewarded last year, the Academy Awards has yet to recognise the work of stunt performers, outside of a solitary Honorary Award presented to Yakima Canutt – the man who helped bring to life such iconic sequences as Ben-Hur ’s chariot race and Gone With the Wind ’s burning of Atlanta – in 1996.
The 10 worst Oscar Best Picture winnersShow all 10 1 /10The 10 worst Oscar Best Picture winners The 10 worst Oscar Best Picture winners 10. The Life of Emile Zola Prestige counts at the Oscars. That is why a stodgy literary biopic like The Life of Emile Zola somehow won the main award at the 1937 Oscars. It’s a solid and worthy piece of work, with a grandstanding performance from Paul Muni (under a lot of whiskers) as the campaigning French novelist. The idea, though, that it is one of the “few truly great pictures of all time”, as its own publicity suggested, is clearly idiotic.
Rex Features
The 10 worst Oscar Best Picture winners 9. Rocky It may seem churlish to go after an underdog like Rocky but this was an undeserving Best Picture winner. The Academy voters in 1976 acted as if they were punch drunk and had spent too long in the ring with Apollo Creed. The problem with its victory wasn’t so much the film itself but with the other nominees that were spurned in its favour. Taxi Driver, All the President’s Men and Network all surely had a better claim to that year’s statuette.
Rex Features
The 10 worst Oscar Best Picture winners 8. Around the World in 80 Days This was a perfectly amiable big-budget travelogue but you can’t help but suspect its Best Picture Oscar was more to do with the marketing and hustling skills of its producer, Mike Todd, than with any brilliance in the filmmaking. It was directed by the Englishman Michael Anderson, previously best known for The Dam Busters, and featured David Niven as the intrepid traveller, Phileas Fogg, who bets he can travel all the way round the world in a little over two months.
Rex Features
The 10 worst Oscar Best Picture winners 7. Crash Paul Haggis’s Crash is a decent and well-meaning study of the consequences of racism and violence in contemporary LA. It was independently made and had a large ensemble cast, all giving heartfelt performances. However, Robert Altman had covered similar territory better in Short Cuts and the feeling persisted that it had won the Best Picture award because some Academy voters were determined not to give the Oscar to the gay-themed contemporary western Brokeback Mountain.
Rex Features
The 10 worst Oscar Best Picture winners 6. Chicago You rarely win an Oscar without a strong marketing campaign. The now disgraced distributor/producer Harvey Weinstein knew the secrets of getting Academy voters on his side better than anyone else in the business. Whether it was the Blitz-like approach to advertising in the trade press, or the timing of the awards screenings, or the way he kept the film’s stars in front of the media or his relentless courtship of the Academy members, he was arguably as important to the Oscar success of the so-so musical Chicago as any of the creative talent behind it.
Rex Features
The 10 worst Oscar Best Picture winners 5. A Beautiful Mind It’s not bad. It’s a love story that touches on mental illness and mathematics (neither usually subjects that Hollywood embraces). Russell Crowe gives a fine performance as John Nash, the Nobel prize-winning boffin with the beautiful but unstable mind. Nonetheless, Ron Howard’s biopic isn’t any kind of classic. It won its Best Picture Oscar in an unusually thin year.
Rex Features
The 10 worst Oscar Best Picture winners 4. Marty Marty, the 1955 winner, isn’t even the best version of its own subject matter. This story, scripted by the great Paddy Chayevsky, about an emotionally repressed Italian American butcher from the Bronx looking for love, had already been made as a live TV drama the year before. In the small-screen version, Rod Steiger gave a superlative performance in the lead role. Ernest Borgnine in the film version can’t help but seem like second best to anyone who saw Steiger in the same part. Whereas the puggish Borgnine makes Marty a figure of pity, Steiger turned him into a full blown tragic hero.
Rex Features
The 10 worst Oscar Best Picture winners 3. Out of Africa You’ll remember the pink flamingos and all those scenes of beautiful Kenyan landscapes that looked as if they were cribbed from a David Attenborough natural history documentary. You won’t ever forget Meryl Streep’s eccentric accent as the Danish baroness and author, Karen Blixen (“I had a farm in Africa at the foot of the Ngong hills”). This is mushy stuff, though, and hardly deserving of its Oscar.
Rex Features
The 10 worst Oscar Best Picture winners 2. Braveheart This rousing, Scottish-set (but partly Irish-filmed) medieval epic is famous for its scenes of William Wallace’s army in blue faces lifting their kilts and baring their bums. Regardless of how accurate this was as history, it played into ongoing debates about devolution and Scottish independence. The film also did its bit for the Scottish tourism business. Mel Gibson knows how to stage a battle scene. Whether that qualifies his film for a Best Picture Oscar is another matter.
Rex Features
The 10 worst Oscar Best Picture winners 1. The Greatest Show on Earth From a vantage point 67 years on, the decision to give the Best Picture Oscar to Cecil B DeMille’s circus epic in 1952 is truly baffling. British viewers who have seen it will almost certainly have done so on TV (where its 152-minute running time made it useful for filling in gaps in the schedule). It has a decent cast and some reasonable stunts but Academy voters were surely clowning around when they chose it over other nominees in the same year which have aged far, far better like High Noon and The Quiet Man.
Rex Features
Stunt work’s exclusion from the Academy Awards ignores how intricate and complex creating the year’s greatest action scenes can be, not to mention the fact that, despite huge advances in safety measures, stunt work can still be dangerous.
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Try for free Furthermore, it’s an obvious route towards blockbusters getting a stronger showing at the Oscars; stunt performers may not be big names (aside from Kill Bill ’s Zoe Bell, perhaps), but it’s not a category that’s going to be lost on non-film fans, unlike the continued confusion over what exactly the difference between Sound Editing and Sound Mixing is (it’s choosing the sounds versus mixing the sounds together, if you’re wondering).
Possible contenders for 2019: Mission: Impossible – Fallout , Black Panther
Crazy Rich Asians - Trailer Best Casting Director was proposed to, and rejected by, the Academy in 1999 – but remains worthy of recognition. While we lavish praise on those who pick up the awards for Best Actress or Best Actor, it’s easy to forget that their talent could only flourish because someone else recognised their potential in the role.
Indeed, a good casting director can often make or break a potential awards contender, not only choosing the right name to sparkle as the film’s lead, but ensuring that the wider ensemble has both a sense of chemistry and balance. It’s here that, again, mainstream films would have a fair chance at the prize. The Star Wars franchise, for example, has impressed in its careful balance of familiar faces and breakout stars.
What’s particularly frustrating is that a specific branch for Casting Directors was created by the Academy back in 2013, which would suggest that the organisation at least recognises their work as an important and distinct part of the industry at large. Furthermore, casting directors remain the only crew members typically featured in the opening titles of a film that don’t have their own category at the Academy Awards.
Possible contenders for 2019: If Beale Street Could Talk , Crazy Rich Asians
Best Title Sequence Annihilation - Teaser Trailer The title sequence is an underrated form of artistry – one we’re often struck by at the beginning of a film, but quick to forget once we’ve been consumed by the splendour of the main event. This category was also nominated and rejected back in 1999, but seems increasingly necessary.
Imagine if the unforgettable, oily black opening credits of David Fincher’s The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo , the work of Tim Miller and Blur Studios, had been recognised? Or Disney’s The Jungle Book remake, and its beautifully crafted storybook design?
Possible contenders for 2019: Deadpool 2 , Annihilation
Best Voice Performance As much as it would seem right and fair that voice performers have a chance to compete for the major acting awards, in reality, it doesn’t exactly work out that way, since half of the performance is inevitably the creation of the animation or VFX team.
Therefore, it would make sense to create a separate category here, since VFX artists are already recognised by the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and animation teams are widely regarded as an integral part of any Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film win.
This is a category that could recognise both the stellar voice work done in animated film (don’t the voices behind your favourite Pixar characters deserve recognition for breaking your heart in two?) and for CGI characters in live-action film, offering the voice of Rocket Raccoon himself, Bradley Cooper, a chance to pick up another award alongside all the directing and singing he was so busy with in 2018.
Possible contenders for 2019: Ben Whishaw, Paddington 2 ; Shameik Moore, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Best Debut Film Sorry To Bother You - Trailer An easy way to make the Academy Awards feel fresh and relevant would be to put the spotlight on breakout talent. The Baftas, for example, already have their Rising Star Award, voted for by the public, which this year sees Jessie Buckley, Cynthia Erivo, Barry Keoghan, Lakeith Stanfield, and Letitia Wright all competing for the prize.
While the public vote inevitably renders the Rising Star Award a test of who has the largest fanbase (bonus points for those in blockbuster franchises), the Academy Awards could take a different approach by heralding the talents of first-time directors.
There is a lot of scope here. A debut film can come in many different forms, from ultra low-budget wonders, A24’s never-ending wheelhouse of indies, to actor-turned-director prestige dramas. Yet, it also frees up the awards race from its obligation to consistently dole out trophies to the established greats every time they crank out another instant classic, and from the domination of whatever studio outputs end up with most well-funded Oscar campaign.
In 2015, the Directors Guild of America created a best first-time feature category, and have since awarded the likes of Ex Machina, The Diary of a Teenage Girl, Lady Macbeth , and The Witch .
Possible contenders for 2019: Bo Burnham, Eighth Grade ; Boots Riley, Sorry to Bother You
Best motion-capture performance It’s about time the Academy recognise Andy Serkis for his work over the years, even if that means creating an entirely new category to do it. As with voice performance, it’s hard for motion-capture actors to compete in the main categories because their work exists as a collaboration with VFX teams.
Yet, we’re only going to see its use increase in the future, and there will come a point when the Academy won’t be able to ignore motion-capture any longer. It would also, of course, serve as an additional opportunity to recognise the work that goes into blockbuster filmmaking, while plenty of bankable stars like Vin Diesel and Benedict Cumberbatch have proven eager to jump into the fray.
Possible contenders for 2019: Andy Serkis, Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle ; Josh Brolin, Avengers: Infinity War
Best Original Movie Soundtrack Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse - trailer The Academy already recognises the work of composers with categories for both Best Original Score and Best Original Song, but continually underappreciated is the work of music supervisors, who collate the perfect combination of existing songs to make your favourite film moments really pop.
A separate category would have offered an opportunity to reward Baby Driver for giving its heist thriller the beats of a jukebox musical. Or it could have appreciated how Inside Llewyn Davis weaved its folk songs deep into its narrative of a luckless, hopeless musician in 1960s New York. It’s a category that spans genres, while potentially giving nods to films that might go empty handed elsewhere.
Possible contenders for 2019: Mid90s ; Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
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