It seemed a foolhardy task – 95 movies in 365 days, all Best Picture winners – but I’m a dyed-in-the-wool completist. What followed was My Year with Oscar, a complete watch or rewatch of all 95 Best Picture winners from F.W. Murnau’s 1927 silent film Sunrise to last year’s winner CODA.¹

Halfway through the process, I started wondering which movie would stand out as the best picture of Best Pictures. Surprises emerged along the way among both rewatches and first time viewings. I was amazed at how little I retained from my initial viewing of Patton. Despite the complexities of the man, the only image that managed to be seared into my twelve-year-old brain was Patton standing in front of that IMAX-sized American flag in the opening scene.² There’s also a shot in the opening minutes of 12 Years a Slave that I have not been able to forget all year. It’s a simple shot of Solomon eating off a plate, but the juice of the berries trickles as if having bled themselves. So much of what has happened in America’s marred past and what is to come in the movie itself is contained in that shot. That hard cut in Lawrence of Arabia has aged flawlessly and remains the unobtainable ideal. And after seeing Spieldberg’s The Fabelmans, I could not help going back and watching Judd Hirsch’s astounding performance in Ordinary People.³

But if after all 95 of these movies only one can remain, which is it? We’ll conduct this exercise according to the current Academy rules for Best Picture nominations, which means ten nominated films from the entire crop of Best Picture winners (and we’ll count them off in alphabetical order, so as not to spoil who the winner is).

The Apartment (1960) – Shirley MacLaine. Shirley MacLaine. Shirley MacLaine. A truly incandescent performance. Though it’s intended to be a Jack Lemmon vehicle, his portrayal of the ultimate conformer in C.C. “Bud” Baxter is dwarfed by Fran (MacLaine) assuredly and assertively embracing her brokenness. “The mirror, it’s broken,” Bud says. “I know. I like it this way,” she replies, “makes me look the way I feel.” It’s incisive and unnerving. A film not fully embraced in its time but one that has repeatedly endeared itself to audiences and truly lasted the test of time.

Casablanca (1946) – The case for Casablanca as the best picture of Best Pictures is not difficult to make. Bogart’s searing performance, the iconic lines of dialogue, that ending, but the way it’s referenced and used in other movies places it a cut above the rest. In When Harry Met Sally… (1989), our two protagonists continually return to the famous love triangle of Rick-Ilsa-Laszlo. It’s a point of contention when they meet, a film over which they bond as they become friends, and an insight into their romance by the end of the film. But the image of Harry and Sally, sitting in their respective apartments and talking on the phone as they watch Casablanca together is a testament to not only the film’s enduring nature but also the debt that romance movies and rom-coms owe to Casablanca.

The Godfather (1972) – What almost didn’t happen… It’s strange to think that Francis Ford Coppola didn’t always have the credit and reputation he now does in Hollywood. Fired from directing Patton, he eventually won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, and as a result he was not fired from directing The Godfather. Talk about a close call. The Godfather in someone else’s hands could have been a disaster, or at least just a mediocre movie, as so many adaptations end up being. Instead, it became one of the most accomplished and applauded films in a decade that included Rocky, Network, Taxi Driver, All the President’s Men, Apocalypse Now, Jaws, Star Wars, Kramer vs. Kramer, The French Connection, Cabaret, The Exorcist, Alien, Animal House, Smokey and the Bandit, and Annie Hall.

The Godfather, Part II (1974) – It feels indulgent not only to have two Coppola films on here but also to have two movies revolving around the same character, but The Godfather, Part II and Michael Corleone are undeniable. It’s peak Al Pacino – not the unpredictable, over-affected portrayals we’ve come to love but the measured and calm precision of a character that has truly gone over to the dark side. It’s a descent into complete corruption. But it also rewards multiple rewatches and tracking each of Michael’s relationships as they unravel – Kay, Fredo, Pentangeli, Tom Hagen, Hyman Roth. Follow each character from beginning to end, their motivations and ticks, each movement and sideways glance. Watch as each character revolves around Michael like objects pulled closer by an imploding star, unable to escape its pull and devastation.

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) – This isn’t a win for one movie as much as it is for three movies to be fair. That being said, Return of the King brought to and end, at least temporarily, one of the most audacious undertakings in movies. It was nominated for eleven Academy Awards. It won eleven Academy Awards, tying it with Titanic and Ben-Hur for most Oscars in a single year. Now winning an Oscar doesn’t necessarily confer merit – no one deserves an Oscar – but The Return of the King is as close as we may get to consensus recognition for years and decades to come.

Parasite (2019) – Maybe it’s recency bias, but the fact that Parasite won Best Picture still makes me smile. A movie which essentially takes place in two homes yet what unfolds goes beyond the home, beyond language barriers, beyond class divides, beyond South Korea. For those who still haven’t seen it, stop what you are doing and go watch it. No more will be said so as to not spoil the experience of seeing this movie for the first time, but I’ll be curious to see if Parasite still leaves such an impression five and ten years from now.

Schindler’s List (1993) – The Academy Awards have historically rewarded war movies. In fact, you could argue that twenty of the ninety-five Best Picture winners are war movies or at least movies where war plays a large and critical role. Yet Schindler’s List transcends the war genre. Few movies reach the level of real import, and yet this is how we still talk about the film decades later – ‘You haven’t seen Schindler’s List? You really should see it.’ But it’s not the kind of ‘should’ that suggests entertainment. The film resonates as both a monumental accomplishment and a monument to those who suffered in the concentration camps of WWII.

The Silence of the Lambs (1991) – Is there one role more connected with an actor than Hannibal Lecter is with Sir Anthony Hopkins – also did this movie re-launch our collective fascination with true crime and serial killers? The performances by Hopkins and Jodie Foster are just that good. There’s a reason why it’s the last film to win the “Big Five”: Best Picture, Best Director (Jonathan Demme), Best Actor (Hopkins), Best Actress (Foster), and Best Adapted Screenplay.

Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927) – The ’20s and ’30s produced some incredible though rarely talked about films, Grand Hotel and It Happened One Night included, but there is a narrative seamlessness to Murnau’s silent film. It’s sad to think that just as silent movies were reaching their zenith and producing truly tremendous, sumptuous stories, they were eclipsed by the new technology of the “talkies”. A real one step forward two very loud steps backward moment for Hollywood. It took several years to work out the intricacies of sound and the kinks of the new technology and cameras. Quality certainly suffered during that learning curve, but the pinnacles of the silent era – like Sunrise – remain.

Titanic (1997) – We really had it good in the ’90s, or at least we had some memorable winners during that stretch. The Silence of the Lambs, Unforgiven, Schindler’s List, Forrest Gump, and Braveheart – and that’s just 1991-1995. But the moment Titanic hit theaters must go down as one of the biggest turning points in cinematic history. We didn’t know it at the time, but would go down as the highest peak in the cinematic landscapes. Other films after it would certainly be successful, but none truly reached the heights that James Cameron, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Kate Winslet did in 1997. It is truly the Everest of cinematic summits. Other peaks may be more treacherous, interesting, or challenging, but everyone knows Everest and everyone knows Titanic.

1. All ninety-five Best Picture winners can be seen in the list at the bottom of this article, but keep in mind that two movies – Sunrise and Wings – were given awards of equivalent weight before a single Best Picture category was established for the 2nd Academy Awards.
2. We should all be thankful for this movie. Francis Ford Coppola, who penned the Patton screenplay but was fired while directing the film, credits the unexpected Best Screenplay Oscar as the reason he wasn’t fired from making The Godfather.
3. More on Judd Hirsch in a future article.
4. “I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse” & “Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.”
5. Brando, Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, and John Cazale – if The Godfather is not mentioned in each of their obituaries, somebody messed up.