Every Oscar Best Picture Winner (2024)

After winning a slew of precursor awards, “Everything Everywhere All at Once” swept the 2023 Oscars with seven trophies, becoming the most-awarded best picture winner since 2008’s “Slumdog Millionaire.”

“Everything Everywhere” took home Oscars for best picture, director, original screenplay, lead actress, supporting actress, supporting actor and editing. Michelle Yeoh became the first Asian best actress winner for her role as a laundromat owner dealing with family turmoil.

Though it built momentum throughout awards season, the A24 film’s win still felt surprising — not only had “Everything Everywhere” premiered a full year ago at SXSW, but with its multiverse storyline and surreal touches didn’t seem like the traditional Oscar-bait type of film. Its win seemed to prove that with hundreds of new voting members from all over the world, the Academy is finally embracing a diverse bunch of acting nominees as well as rewarding risk-taking directing choices.

2020 Best Picture Winner

In a year of COVID and minimal moviegoing, Oscar races seemed more unpredictable than ever. But Searchlight’s “Nomadland” was able to maintain its frontrunner status for six months, no easy feat. Voters responded to its warmth, the scenic beauty of the U.S. Southwest and its sympathetic look at displaced individuals who live in their vehicles. The film took two other prizes: Chloé Zhao became the second woman and the first Asian American woman to win for directing, while Frances McDormand (also a producer) won her third best actress trophy.

Read the Original 2020 Film Review

2019 Best Picture Winner

The win for “Parasite,” from writer-director Bong Joon Ho, was historic: For 91 years, the top prize has gone to a film primarily in English. This South Korean comedy-drama was the big winner of 2019, also taking prizes for original screenplay, director and international film (the new name for the category formerly known as foreign-language film). When it won as international film, everyone presumed it would not be named best picture, but the reaction at the Dolby Theatre indicated that this was a surprising but popular choice.

Read the Original 2019 Film Review

2018 Best Picture Winner

The online haters were relentless; nobody seemed to like “Green Book” except audiences — and awards voters. At the Oscar ceremony, it won three, including the top prize. Almost as important: It got the endorsem*nt of longtime civil-rights activist Rep. John Lewis, who introduced a clip. The old-fashioned feel-good movie, set in 1962 and based on fact, is only the fifth movie to win best pic without its director being nominated.

Read the Original 2018 Film Review

2017 Best Picture Winner

Fox Searchlight’s “The Shape of Water” centers on the 1962 romance between a mute janitor and an Amazonian fish-man. It’s an eccentric premise, but voters were swept away by the dreamlike visuals, the heart-on-your-sleeve emotions, and the subtle social commentary of the film. It was a tight Oscar race, but voters seemed happy to salute Guillermo del Toro, one of the best-liked and most respected artists working in film.

Read the Original 2017 Film Review

2016 Best Picture Winner

The “Moonlight” win was a record-breaker in Academy history: It was the first film with an all-black cast, with many black artists behind the camera, and was the first gay-themed film to take the top prize. It was also at the center of Oscar’s biggest snafu: Due to a mix-up in envelopes, Faye Dunaway announced “La La Land” as the winner, and it took a few minutes before the real “Moonlight” victory was announced.

Read the Original 2016 Film Review

2015 Best Picture Winner

The fact-based story, about a Boston newspaper team, won two Oscars, for filmand screenplay (by Josh Singer and director Tom McCarthy). It marked the second consecutive win for a film starring Michael Keaton.

Read the Original 2015 Film Review

2014 Best Picture Winner

The film, about a faded star attempting a stage comeback, was technically dazzling, appearing to have been shot in one continuous take. Not everyone loved the Alejandro Inarritu-directed comedy-drama and some were mystified by the ending. But the people who liked it REALLY liked it.

Read the Original 2014 Film Review

2013 Best Picture Winner

The film about U.S. slavery was directed by Steve McQueen and written by John Ridley, based on the memoirs of Solomon Northup, a free man who was kidnapped and sold into slavery. The film earned an impressive $188 million worldwide, with 70% of that from outside the U.S. It earned three Oscars out of nine nominations and Brad Pitt was among the producers.

Read the Original 2013 Film Review

2012 Best Picture Winner

The film about the true-life rescue of hostages in Tehran, was directed by Ben Affleck; it became the first movie in 23 years to take top prize without a director nomination. It was also the fourth film in a decade with key scenes shot in Los Angeles. And it has one other major distinction: Variety plays an important role in a plot twist.

Read the Original 2012 Film Review

2011 Best Picture Winner

This was yet another unlikely winner: a black-and-white film without dialogue, set in 1920s Hollywood, and made by French filmmakers. It was the first best picture Oscar winner to be set in the movie industry and only the second silent film, after original winner “Wings.”

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2010 Best Picture Winner

The 2010 film was another unlikely subject matter: The king of England needs to eliminate his stutter. But it became a touching film about a man overcoming personal obstacles, family love, and friendship. Colin Firth’s acting, Tom Hooper’s direction, and David Seidler’s script all won Oscars and got huge ovations from the Oscar audience.

Read the Original 2010 Film Review

2009 Best Picture Winner

The film, directed by Kathryn Bigelow and written by Mark Boal, beat out some tough competition, including the record-breaking “Avatar” — “Hurt Locker” earned $49 million at the global box office, the lowest-grossing film in Oscar history. But it has gained many fans and admirers over the years, and Bigelow became the first woman to win a directing Oscar.

Read the Original 2009 Film Review

2008 Best Picture Winner

No foreign-language film has won best picture, but “Slumdog Millionaire” comes closest, since one-third of the dialogue is in Hindi. It’s also a rarity, since it centers around a TV show: India’s version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.”

Read the Original 2008 Film Review

2007 Best Picture Winner

The film, based on Cormac McCarthy’s novel, became the second consecutive bloody actioner to take the big prize. And it was the second winner in Oscar history directed by a duo: Joel and Ethan Coen (after the team from “West Side Story”).

Read the Original 2007 Film Review

2006 Best Picture Winner

After five nominations as director, Martin Scorsese hit the jackpot with No. 6, winning one of the film’s four awards. It’s an Oscar rarity since it’s a remake, based on the 2002 Hong Kong crime thriller “Infernal Affairs.”

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2005 Best Picture Winner

In the build-up to the Oscars, the gay western “Brokeback Mountain” had dominated the awards scene. But the Paul Haggis-directed “Crash” came out the big winner.

Read the Original 2005 Film Review

2004 Best Picture Winner

This was Clint Eastwood’s second big night at the Academy Awards, following “Unforgiven.” The tale of a woman boxer holds another distinction: In Oscar’s 77th ceremony, this became the first best picture winner set in Southern California.

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2003 Best Picture Winner

Peter Jackson’s film trilogy, adapted from the J.R.R. Tolkien novels, earned billions at the B.O., the intense loyalty of fans, and industry admiration for the new technology introduced in the fantasy epic. It also became the third film to win 11 Oscars, after “Ben-Hur” and “Titanic” — and “LOTR” became the only one to sweep all its categories.

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2002 Best Picture Winner

Hollywood had circled around a movie adaptation of the stage musical since the 1970s, but director Rob Marshall and writer Bill Condon figured out how to make it work. They delivered a razzle-dazzle musical with wry observations about contemporary obsessions with scandal and celebrity.

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2001 Best Picture Winner

It doesn’t sound like a surefire project: A biopic about a delusional math genius. But Russell Crowe turned in another great performance, and Oscars went to director Ron Howard, supporting actress Jennifer Connelly, and writer Akiva Goldsman, adapting Sylvia Nasar’s book about John Nash.

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2000 Best Picture Winner

When the Ridley Scott-directed epic opened in May, audiences loved it, but few predicted it would be a best picture winner. But as the months wore on, Academy members clearly maintained their admiration for the film, the kind of intelligent spectacle that Hollywood does best.

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1999 Best Picture Winner

The dramedylooked at all the dark longings beneath the sunny facade of U.S. suburbia.

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1998 Best Picture Winner

It was a battle between Steven Spielberg’s “Saving Private Ryan” and “Shakespeare in Love,” and many were stunned when the comedy won. But it shouldn’t have been a surprise: The film is a love letter to theater and acting, and the largest branch of the Academy is actors.

Read the Original 1998 Film Review

1997 Best Picture Winner

When James Cameron was making his film, many in the industry predicted a gigantic disaster, since it was behind schedule, over budget, and everybody knew the ending. But when it opened, audiences turned it into the highest-grossing film of all time, and the Academy rewarded it with 11 Oscars, tying with “Ben-Hur” as the most winning films of all time.

Read the Original 1997 Film Review

1996 Best Picture Winner

The film almost wasn’t made, when the studio withdrew funding at the last minute. But Harvey Weinstein stepped in, and the film (directed by Anthony Minghella) earned an impressive $232 million worldwide, and scored nine Oscars — meaning it’s one of the top seven winners of all time.

Read the Original 1996 Film Review

1995 Best Picture Winner

The biopic, directed by Mel Gibson, was a popular winner in a tight year. It’s also one of the few films to win Oscar’s top prize without a single acting nomination, alongside “Last Emperor,” “Slumdog Millionaire,” and a few others.

Read the Original 1995 Film Review

1994 Best Picture Winner

The Robert Zemeckis-directed film, starring Tom Hanks, utilized many technical innovations, but Oscar voters responded more to the tale and to the title character than to the decade-spanning effects.

Read the Original 1994 Film Review

1993 Best Picture Winner

The Steven Spielberg film defied conventional wisdom, by being a long, black andwhite movie about a depressing topic. But it was a hugely popular win.

Read the Original 1993 Film Review

1992 Best Picture Winner

Clint Eastwood had directed 15 films in the past 20 years, earning industry respect and affection, but few awards. However, the thoughtful, well-crafted “Unforgiven” proved irresistible to audiences and to Academy voters. Since it was the second western to win in three years, some predicted a major big-screen revival of the genre, but that didn’t happen.

Read the Original 1992 Film Review

1991 Best Picture Winner

It became the third and final film to win Oscar’s top five prizes (film, director, script, actor, and actress). It was a surprise win because suspense thrillers were not considered Academy favorites, and “Silence” had opened in February; but the film maintained its enthusiastic buzz for more than a year.

Read the Original 1991 Film Review

1990 Best Picture Winner

No major studio wanted to make the film, but the Kevin Costner-directed Western proved a huge hit with audiences and earned 12 Oscar nominations, winning seven.

Read the Original 1990 Film Review

1989 Best Picture Winner

The film was a rarity, winning the top prize though its director (Bruce Beresford) wasn’t even nominated. Among the wins were actress Jessica Tandy and scripter Alfred Uhry, adapting his own play.

Read the Original 1989 Film Review

1988 Best Picture Winner

The film, produced by Mark Johnson and directed by Barry Levinson, was basically a two-character study, with Dustin Hoffman winning as best actor; while Tom Cruise’s performance was widely admired, he was surprisingly not nominated.

Read the Original 1988 Film Review

1987 Best Picture Winner

The Bernardo Bertolucci-directed biopic scored a clean sweep: Nine wins out of nine nominations, the first time that happened since “Gigi.” The winners included Vittorio Storaro for his beautiful cinematography.

Read the Original 1987 Film Review

1986 Best Picture Winner

Oliver Stone’s autobiographical film, a vivid account of his Vietnam experiences, won four Oscars, including Stone as director.

Read the Original 1986 Film Review

1985 Best Picture Winner

The epic romance benefited from Meryl Streep’s performance, Sydney Pollack’s direction and Kurt Luedtke’s adaptation of Isak Dinesen’s book. In all, the film won seven Oscars (though Streep was an also-ran).

Read the Original 1985 Film Review

1984 Best Picture Winner

Milos Forman’s sumptuous version of Peter Shaffer’s stage play scored eight wins out of 11 nominations.

Read the Original 1984 Film Review

1983 Best Picture Winner

TV’s James L. Brooks made a splashy film debut, winning three personal awards that night (as writer, director, and producer), while Shirley MacLaine and Jack Nicholson also took home acting prizes.

Read the Original 1983 Film Review

1982 Best Picture Winner

There was a lot of competition that year, including “E.T. the ExtraTerrestrial” and “Tootsie.” But the grand-scale biopic from director Richard Attenborough was the evening’s big winner, with eight trophies.

Read the Original 1982 Film Review

1981 Best Picture Winner

The tale of the 1924 Olympics proved one of the biggest surprises in Oscar history, though a popular choice; most pundits had predicted it would be a showdown between Warren Beatty’s epic “Reds” and the small-scale family drama “On Golden Pond.”

Read the Original 1981 Film Review

1980 Best Picture Winner

Robert Redford’s directing debut won at the National Board of Review, the N.Y. Film Critics Circle, Golden Globes, the Writers and Directors guilds, and then four Oscars, out of six nominations.

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1979 Best Picture Winner

The intimate drama about the ravages of divorce and child custody earned honors for adapted screenplay, director (both Robert Benton), actor (Dustin Hoffman), and supporting actress (Meryl Streep).

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1978 Best Picture Winner

During the Vietnam war, Hollywood avoided movies about the conflict, but Michael Cimino’s epic was one of the first major-studio releases to tackle the subject. It remains a controversial movie, but Cimino’s directing skills are unquestionable.

Read the Original 1978 Film Review

1977 Best Picture Winner

The year’s biggest box office hit, “Star Wars,” was nominated as best pic, but lost out to Woody Allen’s comedy-romance, which also earned trophies for screenplay, director, and actress.

Read the Original 1977 Film Review

1976 Best Picture Winner

There were plenty of great films that year, including “All the President’s Men” and “Network,” but the Academy voters fell in love with this tale of a likable loser who works hard for his big chance. It started a slew of “Rocky” sequels.

Read the Original 1976 Film Review

1975 Best Picture Winner

This was only the second film to take the top five prizes: Best picture, director, screenplay, actor and actress.

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1974 Best Picture Winner

The Francis Coppola movie was the first time a sequel won the top prize. It started decades of “Part 2” movies, though the tale of the Corleones had a unique structure: It was both a continuation of the first film and an origins story, flashing back to before the original’s start.

Read the Original 1974 Film Review

1973 Best Picture Winner

The caper movie, starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford, marked the first time a woman won a best picture Oscar: the film’s producers were Tony Bill, Michael Phillips, and Julia Phillips.

Read the Original 1973 Film Review

1972 Best Picture Winner

Mario Puzo’s novel was a big hit, and the Francis Coppola-directed film was too. It hit a milestone by passing $100 million at the U.S. box office. And Oscar history was made when the best-picture winner’s tally (threeOscars) was outnumbered by another film (“Cabaret,” with eight wins).

Read the Original 1972 Film Review

1971 Best Picture Winner

This action-drama was one of Oscar’s many fact-based wins, based on the actions of N.Y. drug cop Popeye Doyle (played by winner Gene Hackman). The film (directed by William Friedkin and edited by Gerald B. Greenberg) featured a chase sequence that is still held up as an example of great filmmaking.

Read the Original 1971 Film Review

1970 Best Picture Winner

The film, written by Francis Coppola and Edmund H. North, was directed by Franklin J. Schaffner. Arriving in the heat of the Vietnam war, some people claimed “Patton” was hawkish, while others said it was anti-war. George C. Scott gave a powerhouse performance and won as best actor, even after announcing he wouldn’t accept it because he didn’t believe actors should be in competition.

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1969 Best Picture Winner

The film, directed by John Schlesinger and starring Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman, became the first X-rated movie to win the Oscar. When it was re-released two years later, it was re-rated as an R, without any cuts. The script was by Waldo Salt, based on the novel by James Leo Herlihy.

Read the Original 1969 Film Review

1968 Best Picture Winner

The 1960s were NOT the heyday of Hollywood musicals, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at Oscar: “Oliver!” became the fourth musical in eight years to take the best-picture win.

Read the Original 1968 Film Review

1967 Best Picture Winner

The competition was intense in 1967, including “The Graduate” and “Bonnie & Clyde.” But only three years after passage of the Civil Rights Act, this mystery was a look at race relations, exploding prejudices, and offering smart insights. Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger (best actor winner) led a strong cast.

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1966 Best Picture Winner

Robert Bolt’s thoughtful play, about Sir Thomas More’s battles with King Henry VIII, concerned religion, principles, and morality. Bolt adapted his play, which was directed by Fred Zinnemann (“From Here to Eternity”).

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1965 Best Picture Winner

A few years after the urban grittiness of “West Side Story,” Robert Wise directed this wholesome Rodgers & Hammerstein musical. It won five Oscars and was an enormous hit; it also rescued the financially strapped 20th Century Fox, which was recovering from the mega-expensive “Cleopatra.”

Read the Original 1965 Film Review

1964 Best Picture Winner

It was one of the most-anticipated films in years, since it was based on the Broadway mega-hit. The winner of eight Academy Awards, it’s also notable as the last best pic winner to be filmed entirely on Hollywood soundstages.

Read the Original 1964 Film Review

1963 Best Picture Winner

For decades, Hollywood’s Hays Code dictated what couldn’t be depicted onscreen. This comedy, directed by Tony Richardson and written by John Osborne adapting Henry Fielding, helped break that code by depicting the radical idea that sex could be fun.

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1962 Best Picture Winner

At three hours and 48 minutes, it’s the longest-running best picture winner (one minute longer than “Gone With the Wind”). The tale of T.E. Lawrence marked the second best picture win for David Lean in five years.

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1961 Best Picture Winner

The musical was co-directed by Jerome Robbins (who had staged the Broadway musical) and Robert Wise, the first time a team directed a best picture winner. The film won 10 Oscars, remaining in the record books as the sole runner-up to the trio of movies that won 11.

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1960 Best Picture Winner

After “Lost Weekend,” Billy Wilder again found himself in the winner’s circle, taking home Oscars as producer, director, and co-writer (with I.A.L. Diamond) for this wry look at corporate America.

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1959 Best Picture Winner

The production was wildly over budget, and some worried that Hollywood’s early-1950s craze for biblical epics had already peaked. But the film, which is still famous for its chariot-race sequence, won 11 Oscars — a record it held for 38 years, until “Titanic” also received 11.

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1958 Best Picture Winner

Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, fresh off the success of Broadway’s “My Fair Lady,” wrote a score for this musical version of Colette’s tale about a young girl being groomed to become a courtesan in Paris. The film made Oscar history by winning every award it was nominated for: nine for nine.

Read the Original 1958 Film Review

1957 Best Picture Winner

The big-scale drama, about the insanity of war, was directed by David Lean. The screenplay was credited to Pierre Boule, who wrote the novel. But in 1984, the Academy updated their records to acknowledge that the script was written by Michael Wilson and Carl Foreman, who had been blacklisted at the time.

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1956 Best Picture Winner

Producer Michael Todd coined the term “cameo” to describe the multiple stars appearing briefly in small roles. This film, adapted from Jules Verne’s novel, starred David Niven, Cantinflas and Shirley MacLaine, and featured dozens of stars like Frank Sinatra, Buster Keaton and Marlene Dietrich in brief (and sometimes wordless) appearances.

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1955 Best Picture Winner

The intimate character study made Oscar history because it was an adaptation of a TV drama — and because it was the first film whose awards campaign costs ($400,000) surpassed its production budget ($340,000).

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1954 Best Picture Winner

Marlon Brando won his first Oscar as Terry Malloy, a New York dock worker. Elia Kazan directed from a script by Budd Schulberg, both of whom were targeted by the Hollywood blacklist; some have seen this film as a metaphor for their experiences and an explanation of their actions.

Read the Original 1954 Film Review

1953 Best Picture Winner

Daniel Taradash adapted James Jones’ novel into a great screenplay, augmented by Fred Zinnemann’s smart direction. Burt Lancaster topped a strong cast in the tale of military lives in Hawaii just before the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

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1952 Best Picture Winner

Director Cecil B. DeMille was a showman since the silent days of movies, but this was his first to take the Best PictureAcademy Award, with his colorful and gaudy spectacle about life in the circus.

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1951 Best Picture Winner

This Vincent Minnelli musical starring Gene Kelly, was a surprise winner. Producer Arthur Freed took home the Oscar, starting the Academy’s new policy of giving the award to an individual producer, rather than the studio. After “Gone with the Wind,” this was the second best-pic winner in color.

Read the Original 1951 Film Review

1950 Best Picture Winner

Three of the year’s five best picture nominees were dominated by great female performances: “Born Yesterday,” “Sunset Blvd.” and “All About Eve.” But Joseph Mankiewicz’s witty tale about Broadway competition was the one that ended up in the winner’s circle.

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1949 Best Picture Winner

The movie, written and directed by Robert Rossen (nominated in both categories), was based on the novel by Robert Penn Warren. It was a thinly disguised version of Louisiana’s Huey Long, and the film’s observations about politics still hold up surprisingly well.

Read the Original 1949 Film Review

1948 Best Picture Winner

The black and whiteShakespeare adaptation, from U.K.’s J. Arthur Rank-Two Cities, was the first non-Hollywood film to take the top award. And Laurence Olivier became the first person to direct himself to a best-actor win.

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1947 Best Picture Winner

The Elia Kazan-directed drama, starring Gregory Peck, was another hot-button winner, as it addressed the topic of anti-Semitism.

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1946 Best Picture Winner

The world population was just adjusting to life after World War II and some film executives feared that audiences wanted escapism, not a movie reflecting their lives. But it was a huge hit, and its honesty in dealing with civilian changes and vulnerabilities are still powerful. It was produced by Samuel Goldwyn, directed by William Wyler.

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1945 Best Picture Winner

The film, directed by Billy Wilder, was widely admired even though it was controversial: Though movies had featured drunks since the silent days, it was considered daring to address the subject head-on.

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1944 Best Picture Winner

Writer-director Leo McCarey once again proved his ability to balance tears and laughs, in this tale of a rule-breaking priest (Oscar winner Bing Crosby) taking over a New York parish from a retiring priest. In the latter role, Barry Fitzgerald was oddly nominated as both lead and supporting actor, winning in the latter category.

Read the Original 1944 Film Review

1943 Best Picture Winner

The WWII drama represents the studio system at its best, where all the talent (behind and in front of the camera) worked at their peak. Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman were not the studio’s first choices for their roles, but they remain one of the screen’s all-time great romantic pairings.

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1942 Best Picture Winner

The film, about a British family during the early days of World War II, came at just the right time, reassuring Americans that their newish war effort was the right decision.

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1941 Best Picture Winner

The drama was set in a Welsh mining village, with director John Ford winning one of the film’s five Oscars. Even then, many were surprised that the movie beat Orson Welles’ “Citizen Kane,” but a Variety reporter at the time attributed that to the 6,000 movie extras who voted on Oscar’s top prize: “The mob prefers a regular guy to a genius.”

Read the Original 1941 Film Review

1940 Best Picture Winner

The darkest aspects of the Daphne du Maurier novel were cleaned up a little, but the film was popular then and still remains a fan favorite. It’s the only Alfred Hitchco*ck film to take the top Academy Award.

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1939 Best Picture Winner

“Gone With the Wind” is epic filmmaking, embodying all of Hollywood’s strengths — and its weaknesses. Producer David O. Selznick pulled together a film that is one of the all-time box office champions, and he toned down author Margaret Mitchell’s Confederacy-is-the-greatest sensibility, but not enough. Though it’s set during the Civil War era, slavery is barely mentioned. Hollywood knows how to please the masses, but its sensitivity to minorities has always been a problem, and “GWTW” is just one reminder of that.

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1938 Best Picture Winner

This was the second Frank Capra film to take the top prize. The film is a sweet, zany comedy, but many pundits think that a major factor in its win was Capra’s crucial role in keeping the peace between studios and the new guilds; some had predicted a long strike. Others predicted the end of Hollywood.

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1937 Best Picture Winner

The bio of French novelist Zola is mostly centered on his passionate defense of Capt. Alfred Dreyfus, who was falsely accused of treason and sentenced to Devil’s Island. It’s a good old-fashioned Hollywood biopic, with plenty of fictional touches, that is a great showcase for Paul Muni in the title role.

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1936 Best Picture Winner

The film is enlivened by William Powell’s performance and by the one sequence for which it’s best remembered: A lavish musical number, “A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody,” that is done in one complex continuous take.

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1935 Best Picture Winner

The MGM spectacle is the third (and so far, last) film to take top prize with no other wins, after “Broadway Melody” and “Grand Hotel.” It is also the only film to have three best actor nominations: Clark Gable, Charles Laughton and Franchot Tone. The overcrowding helped lead to the Academy’s creation of the supporting actor and actress categories.

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1934 Best Picture Winner

Frank Capra’s film was a surprise winner because nobody predicted the comedy to defeat all the year’s serious films. It became the first of only three films to take the top prizes of film, director, screenplay, actor and actress.

Read the Original 1934 Film Review

1932/33 Best Picture Winner

The film was an adaptation of Noel Coward’s play chronicling the passage of time as seen through one family. The Titanic figures prominently in one of the episodes, which wasn’t the last time that the 1912 disaster was features in an Oscar winner.

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1931/32 Best Picture Winner

The multi-story movie was a novelty as MGM gathered multiple big stars for one film. It remains the only best picture winner to take top honors with only one nomination.

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1930/31 Best Picture Winner

This big-scale Hollywood western was based on the novel by Edna Ferber. The land-rush scene is still effective, but the acting is sometimes a reminder that some actors had a hard time making the transition from big theatrical acting to subtler film work.

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1929/30 Best Picture Winner

This WWI film marked a quantum leap from the winner of the previous year: It’s impressive, subtle and moving, an early Hollywood relic that still holds up well in the 21st century.

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1928/29 Best Picture Winner

It was the first talkie to win an Oscar, with the movie’s publicity bragging “All talking! All dancing! All singing!” That novelty made it a sensation, but the film is pretty creaky in modern times. There were no nominations that year, just an announcement of winners.

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1927/28 Best Picture Winner

The silent film about World War I soldiers and their girls back home provided intimacy and spectacle, including aviation sequences that are still impressive. For the first six ceremonies, the Academy did not use the calendar year, which is why the dates are a little confusing.

Read the Original 1927/28 Film Review