How Many Best Picture Winners Have YOU Seen?
Feb 26, 2009 by Ross MillerEmpire Online has recently put up a feature which showcases all the Best Picture winners at the Oscars since the awards started back in 1928. …
Empire Online has recently put up a feature which showcases all the Best Picture winners at the Oscars since the awards started back in 1928. It’s a good read although a very long one since they felt the need to give each movie its own full page which means plenty of clicking of the “next” button.
So to save time and energy Screen Rant provides you with the much shortened version of the list, which makes it much easier to skim over and take in (thanks to www.tif.ro for the original short list, although we’ve shortened it even more).
My question for you, the welcomed and much loved Screen Rant reader, is how many of the Best Picture winners have you seen? This is all just a bit of fun but if you feel in the mood for a little list-motivated film discussion then tally up those which you have seen and post them (and any accompanying thoughts you may have) in the comments section.
1928 – Wings, Sunrise
1929 – The Broadway Melody
1930 – All Quiet on the Western Front
1931 – Cimarron
1932 – Grand Hotel
1933 – Cavalcade
1934 – It Happened One Night
1935 – Mutiny on the Bounty
1936 – The Great Ziegfield
1937 – The Life of Emile Zola
1938 – You Can’t Take It With You
1939 – Gone With The Wind
1940 – Rebecca
1941 – How Green Was My Valley
1942 – Mrs. Miniver
1943 – Casablanca
1944 – Going My Way
1945 – The Lost Weekend
1946 – The Best Years Of Our Lives
1947 – A Gentleman’s Agreement
1948 – Hamlet
1949 – All The King’s Men
1950 – All About Eve
1951 – An American in Paris
1952 – The Greatest Show on Earth
1953 – From Here to Eternity
1954 – On The Waterfront
1955 – Marty
1956 – Around the World in 80 Days
1957 – Bridge Over The River Kwai
1958 – Gigi
1959 – Ben Hur
1960 – The Apartment
1961 – West Side Story
1962 – Lawrence of Arabia
1963 – Tom Jones
1964 – My Fair Lady
1965 – The Sound of Music
1966 – A Man For All Season
1967 – In The Heat of the Night
1968 – Oliver
1969 – Midnight Cowboy
1970 – Patton
1971 – The French Connection
1972 – The Godfather
1973 – The Sting
1974 – The Godfather Part 2
1975 – One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest
1976 – Rocky
1977 – Annie Hall
1978 – The Deer Hunter
1979 – Kramer Vs. Kramer
1980 – Ordinary People
1981 – Chariots of Fire
1982 – Gandhi
1983 – Terms of Endearment
1984 – Amadeus
1985 – Out of Africa
1986 – Platoon
1987 – The Last Emperor
1988 – Rain Man
1989 – Driving Miss Daisy
1990 – Dances With Wolves
1991 – Silence of the Lambs
1992 – Unforgiven
1993 – Schindler’s List
1994 – Forrest Gump
1995 – Braveheart
1996 – The English Patient
1997 – Titanic
1998 – Shakespeare in Love
1999 – American Beauty
2000 – Gladiator
2001 – A Beautiful Mind
2002 – Chicago
2003 – Lord of the Ring: The Return of the King
2004 – Million Dollar Baby
2005 – Crash
2006 – The Departed
2007 – No Country for Old Men
2008 – Slumdog Millionaire
Whatever you think of the validity of the Oscars (the film that wins the Best Picture category every year being one of the most debated topics each and every year) you have to admit that pretty much any of those films which have won the little gold man are at least worth a watch. You may think it didn’t deserve to win and another should have won instead (which will always happen) but they are at least decent movies.
Looking at the list myself my final tally comes to 28 out of 81 movies and as a self-confessed film geek I consider that a bit of a disgrace (well, perhaps disgrace is a bit of a stong word but you get my drift). Like probably the large majority of you, most of the films I’ve seen have been the recent ones. The further back the years go the less and less I’ve seen (the earliest one I’ve seen is Rebecca from 1940), but I very much aim to change that…
So can anyone top a whopping 28 out of 81?
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81!
First off let me say I disagree that we have to admit that all the films are a good watch. Some of them in fact I would call complete crap.
I’ve seen 51.
I’ve seen 81 of the 82 (haven’t seen sunshine). On that list are some of the most brilliant films that I otherwise wouldn’t have seen like The Apartment, Annie Hall and Rebecca. Since 2004 though they haven’t picked the films that have deserved to win. It makes me wonder how many The Dark Knights have there been in those 80 years.
P.S. Crash is my least favourite film from the list. And in that particular year the Departed didn’t deserve to win. SATR.
a measly 13 with a bunch of them being in late 80s early 90s. Most of the recent ones in the 00s.
Oldest ones I saw were My Fair Lady, In the Heat of the Night & Lawrence of Arabia. All of which I enjoyed.
Technically I did see The English Patient but didn’t count it because I fell asleep in the theater. Most boring movie ever.
25/81. It would probably be more than that if I counted then ones that I have seen but not seen in their entirety. Earliest one I’ve seen is Sunrise, which was goodbad.
Also, the winner for 1956 was actually Around the World in 80 Days. Why does God have to punish Deborah Kerr all the time
48 of 81, I’m ashamed to say that I’ve not seen quite a few from the later years, but a few earlier classics. I still can’t believe Citizen Kane was beaten by How Green Was My Valley!
I’ve seen 52 of the 81. I think that’s good for somebody under 30. The omissions are glaring, however. (Schindler’s List, From Here to Eternity, etc)
I’m working on it. ….http://maryclaire.wordpress.com/
Oh, and Sunrise didn’t win best picture. Just Wings for that year. And 1956′s best picture was Around the World in 80 Days, not The King & I.
I have seen all of them.
64 – that surprises me, didn’t think I’d seen that many.
Citizen Kane didn’t win? Really? Isn’t that movie considered by many to be the best movie ever made???
There are a lot of great movies that were nominated that never won the Oscar
Chinatown
Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid
MASH
A Clockwork Orange
Exorcist
Apocalypse Now
Raging Bull
Reds
The Killing FIelds
The Color Purple
Fargo
Saving Private Ryan
To name a few..
Funny, I’ve seen and liked a higher percentage of those movies than the ones that actually won…
I guess history is the real judge of these movies as some of the losers are thought of as the better films by the generations that followed..
I’ve seen 37 out of 81. But “The King and I did not win the Best Picture award in 1956. Around the World in Eighty Days won. Mostly every recent Best Picture winner was the wrong choice and it’s a shame that the Academy doesn’t know what it’s doing. Anyone that knows what true filmmaking is would know that Milk was the obvious ‘Best Picture’ of 2008. Slumdog was good, but not Best Picture caliber.
I saw 65 out of the eighty one. I have not seen the last five and do not intend to.I avoided seeing them.
I’ve seen 79 of the 81. I just haven’t seen Cavalcade or Slumdog. Cavalcade isn’t even on Region 1 or I’d have it because I have every single one on dvd except cavalcade or Slumdog. When Slumdog comes out I will get it. So many didn’t win or get nominated in the Golden Age that were great movies and that is a shame. I’d say the hardest year to pick for me would be between Chinatown and the Godfather in 1974. Both great movies and I personally can’t even choose. Best movie to never but get nominated is easily Citizen Kane back in 1941. Best movie to never got nominated that should have won is Vertigo back in 1958.
If you get Fox Movie Network one ion a while they’ll show Cavalcade. It’s an awful movie, though. 1933 was such a golden year for Hollywood movies (King Kong, 42nd Street, Dinner at Eight) and Cavalcade wins. Yuck.
The best non-nominated movie ever, in my opinion is 1952′s Singin’ in the Rain
Yeah I’d still like to have it though. I have every one but Cavalcade. I might be able to get it in all regions but it’ll have that japanese or chinese writing on it. Singin’ in the Rain would be my next choice for best non nominated especially in a year when it should have won. The Greatest show on Earth was nothing special. Gigi in 1958 wasn’t either. Vertigo is miles ahead of that movie. Crash may have been the worst choice though. That movie was terrible. Brokeback Mountain should have won. I also didn’t like Annie Hall. Star Wars should have won.
Everyone posting on what should have won and what did win in the past (esp the Golden Age of Hollywood) seems to forget that the climate of the world was VERY DIFFERENT, and viewer tastes as well. That included viewers of the Academy who were voting on these awards. Our tastes as viewers are dramatically different, as are our feelings on what should have won awards. I agree with a great many of you, but that is the beauty of movies on DVD is that you can enjoy YOUR CHOICE for ‘Best Whatever’ and form your own opinions on what should have won, provided your fave is available on DVD (or even VHS)
64 out of 81. I have a plan to see all of them, although there are a few of them that are just horrible (the Great Ziegfeld comes to mind), but at the same time some of them are brilliant films that people wouldn’t see otherwise. Also, 1956 wasn’t the King and I, it was Around the World in Eighty Days.
How can someone say that Crash or The Departed were not good or did not deserve to win. I feel more often than not the best movies of the year do not win, but The Departed and Crash were times that I thought they more or less got it right.
They got it right with the Departed. Marty got a very long overdue Oscar for best director and one of his movies finnally won best picture (Raging Bull and Goodfellas should have won and I think the Aviator should have too). However crash was hard to follow and overall not a best picture movie. Brokeback should have won that year. The most deserving movie is probably Casablanca or the Godfather.
Brokeback shouldn’t have won an Oscar for anything. The fact that it did shows what the oscars are all about. Pushing whatever the agenda of the current times is. I don’t see how any one could think Crash is hard to follow. It was pretty simplistic and uncomplicated. I thought it was an amazing movie. I could buy an it’s boring argument some people can’t stand that kind of thing, but hard to follow ?
Even Jack Nicholson was surprised when Crash won. I agree with Daniel, Brokeback is a better film.
I’ve only seen 13 of them, and I thought ALOT of the ones on there that won are movies I wouldn’t watch if you paid me. I know what I like and what I like is VERY different from what the “Academy” likes. IMO, the best movie on that entire list is “Silence of the Lambs.” I am VERY surprised that a Sci-Fi fantasy movie like ROTK won considering how snobby and elitist the Academy is. Most of the movies on that list would have me sound asleep within 15 minutes…which is EXACTLY what happened during Chariots of Fire.
Crash had like 11 different characters with different stories and they were all somehow related and it was weird. Brokeback is far better acted, directed and written (and the score if the means a lot). Those are the three major parts of a movie. Brokeback should have easily won as the best film of the year as it did in the Globes. Oh and Silence of the Lambs is far from the best on the list. Godfather is probably best on the list.
@ Daniel, that’s kind of what I didn’t like about Heat, too many characters, too many backstories, too long, but I still thought it was good. But I guess 11 is kind of pushing it. Haven’t seen Crash so can’t really make any statement about it one way or another. But that’s just kind of what that argument reminded me of. I just remember thinking while watching it is how rushed some of the smaller characters’ backstories seemed.