Best Picture Vs. “Best Picture”: Mark’s picks (1927-2023)

1980 - Raging Bull, Martin Scorsese
1981 - Raiders of the Lost Ark - Steven Spielberg
1982 - Fanny and Alexander - Ingmar Bergman
1983 - Danton - Andrzej Wajda
1984 - Ghostbusters - Ivan Reitman
1985 - Ran - Akira Kurosawa
1986 - Hannah and Her Sisters - Woody Allen
1987 - Au Revoir Les Enfants - Louis Malle
1988 - Grave of the Fireflies - Isao Takahata
1989 - Do the Right Thing - Spike Lee

WWII offers two international winners with France's Au Revoir and Japan gives us our second best picture from animation with Grave of Fireflies. The decade also features wins from career greats Bergman and Kurosawa and we'll put in Wadja for Danton. But this decade also features big hits like Ghostbusters and Raiders of the Lost Ark. We also get the newyork trio of Lee, Allen, and Scorsese all winning crushing the lackluster Hollywood offerings from this period of time.

1990 - Goodfellas, Martin Scorsese
1991 - The Silence of the Lambs - Jonathan Demme
1992 - A League of Thier Own- Penny Marshall
1993 - Schindlers List - Steven Spielberg
1994 - The Shawshank Redemption - Frank Darabont
1995 - Braveheart - Mel Gibson
1996 - Fargo - The Coen Brothers
1997 - Titanic - James Cameron
1998 - Saving Private Ryan - Steven Spielberg
1999 - The Iron Giant - Brad Bird

Spielberg ties Lean with 3 BP's...Titanic, Braveheart, and Silence of the Lambs all retain which is a step up from the 80's. 99 has so many great options but the film I would pick will be the third animated film to win BP...The Iron Giant. Fargo and Shawshank win the rightfull Oscars over the overrated Gump and English Patient...and 92 women finally break through with Penny Marshall's classic A League of their Own.

2000 - Cast Away, Robert Zemeckis
2001 - The Royal Tennebaums, Wes Anderson
2002 - Catch Me if You Can, Steven Spielberg
2003 - Lord of the Rings:Return of the King, Peter Jackson
2004 - Fahrenheit 9/11 - Michael Moore
2005 - The New World - Terrence Mallick
2006 - The Departed - Martin Scorsese
2007 - Across the Universe - Julie Taymor
2008 - Wall-E - Andrew Stanton
2009 - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - David Yates

Zemeckis get's his career win for Cast Away not Gump...Anderson breaks through giving us the rare comedy win. Jackson still gets his awards for finishing the classic Lord of Rings series...but Harry Potter also wins at the end of the decade for one of the better Potter films and the knowledge that the last film will be split. In a shock animation and documentaries show up with Wall-E and Michael Moores 9/11 taking in the honors. Spielberg also sets the record with 4 BP's breaking Lean's tie. Mallick gets his career award for the New World and we get another female winner and proper musical with Across the Universe taking the big prize.

2010 - Inception, Christopher Nolan
2011 - The Skin I Live In - Pedro Almodovar
2012 - Life of Pi - Ang Lee
2013 - Her - Spijke Jonze
2014 - Whiplash - Damien Chazelle
2015 - Anomalisa - Charlie Kaufman, Duke Johnson
2016 - Silence - Martin Scorsese
2017 - Phantom Thread - Paul Thomas Anderson
2018 - A Star is Born - Bradly Cooper
2019 - Once Upon a Time in Hollywood - Quetin Tarantino

Scorsese now ties with Spielberg with 4 BP's, Cooper gets regonized for his romantic musical Jonze and Kaufman both get awarded for their imaginative work for different projects. All-time active greats Nolan, Tarantino, and Anderson all win their BP's. Chazelle actually gets the Cassavettes, Spike Lee treatment with his debut that establish's him as legitamite voice to watch. Almodovar and Lee both get BP's further expanding the international markets.

2020 - Mank, David Fincher
2021 - Dune, Denis Villenueve
2022 - The Menu - Mark Mylod
2023 - The Holdovers, Alexander Payne

Fincher get's his career win for Mank while Hollywood goes back to genre fair with science fiction (Dune), Horror (The Menu) and comedy (The Holdovers) giving Payne and Villenueve BP wins.

That was a fantastic read, Siddon, really enjoyed looking over your picks and going through your notes.

Might have to steal your model here, and post my own.

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Completed Extant Filmographies: Luis Buñuel, Federico Fellini, Satyajit Ray, Fritz Lang, Andrei Tarkovsky, Buster Keaton, Yasujirō Ozu - (for favorite directors who have passed or retired, 10 minimum)

I just quickly did an IMDB advanced title search for the year 1949, just because that year had been topical on this thread. OMG, there was so many good films that no way could I ever compile a best of list and if I did try I'd have to have 100 nominations for each year and 10-15 Best Picture winners That's why in my post above I just went with the noms that the Academy had chose, easier for me that way. It would be a fun movie watching exercise to see all the Oscar Best pic noms. I've seen alot of the older ones but in this millennia not so many.

I don't know how many of the actual nominees I've seen. That would take a lot longer to figure out. I know I've seen a fair amount though. Films get nominated for, and win, Best Picture for a reason. I don't always agree, obviously. Usually a film is good, at least in the context for when it was released, when it wins the award.

Some are head-scratchers even in their year of victory, and some are odd, like Grand Hotel what had one nomination, vis Best Picture, and it won, except those are minimal. Most of the Best Pictures I've seen are great, and I'm only missing around four, so their victories really aren't a problem, although I often prefer another film to the winner, which is due to my taste, and not because the winner sucked.

It is fun to say, "This won, and I prefer that." It's just that there's a reason this won and that didn't.

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I destroyed the dastardly dairy dame! I made mad milk maid mulch!
He hid in the forest, read books with great zeal
He loved Che Guevera, a revolutionary veal
Cow Tse Tongue

Looking for something to do tonight during insomnia time, so I'll share my best picture winners, using Siddons model, as that was clear and easy on the eyes. As stated, I not only challenging Oscar picks, but their rules - I also go by worldwide theatrical release dates (no test screenings or festival showings if I can avoid it, though sometimes that is unavoidable)

My awards before there were Oscars - though I do stick with the split season model Oscar used early on

1913-14 - Cabiria (Giovanni Pastrone - Italy)
1914-15 - The Italian (Reginald Barker - United States)
1915-16 - The Cheat (Cecil B. DeMille - United States)
1916-17 - A Man There Was (Victor Sjöström - Sweden)
1917-18 - The Blue Bird (Maurice Tourneur - United States)
1918-19 - Broken Blossoms (D.W. Griffith - United States)
1919-20 - The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Robert Wiene - Germany)
1920-21 - The Kid (Charlie Chaplin - United States)
1921-22 - Nosferatu (F.W. Murnau - Germany)
1922-23 - La Roué (Abel Gance - France)
1923-24 - Sherlock Jr. (Buster Keaton - United States)
1924-25 - Greed (Erich von Stroheim - United States)
1925-26 - Battleship Potemkin (Sergei Eisenstein - Soviet Union)
1926-27 - Metropolis (Fritz Lang - Germany)

Greed is an oddball since it's in such a heavily edited state, I went with the 4-hr restored (with stills) version as that fleshes out the backstories and subplots better than the other cuts. Closest races - Torn between the Kid and the Phantom Carriage, and have given some thought to going with Stiller's Song of the Scarlet Flower over the Griffith film. I started with 1913-14, as it gets more difficult to find extant feature length pictures before that. But Cabiria's a great launching point.

And now the Oscar era begins

1927-28 - The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Theodor Dreyer - France)
1928-29 - Man with a Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov - Soviet Union)
1929-30 - People on Sunday (Robert Siodmak & Edgar G. Ulmer - Germany)
1930-31 - L’Age d’Or (Luis Bunuel - France)
1931-32 - Scarface (Howard Hawks - United States)
1932-33 - Island of Lost Souls (Erle C. Kenton - United States)
1934 - L’Atalante (Jean Vigo - France)
1935 - The Thirty-Nine Steps (Alfred Hitchcock - UK)
1936 - Swing Time (George Stevens - United States)
1937 - Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (David Hand - United States)
1938 - Bringing Up Baby (Howard Hawks - United States)
1939 - The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum (Kenji Mizoguchi - Japan)

Howard Hawks takes two honors in this era, Disney's folly (as critics at the time called it before its release) edges Pépé le Moko in 1937. 32/33 was difficult, I watched and rewatched that season for years before settling on my unconventional pick (your supposed to take King Kong or Duck Soup, if not that... but I just like Lost Souls a bit more). '36 was tough, Dodsworth and Fury might arguably be better, more complete films, but I love the dancing, the art deco sets, the romance and humor in Swing Time. Two directorial giants, Hitchcock and Mizoguchi win their firsts, as does my favorite director, Luis Bunuel, with L'Age d'Or, which also happens to be my first talkie.

1940 - The Grapes of Wrath (John Ford - United States)
1941 - Citizen Kane (Orson Welles - United States)
1942 - Casablanca (Michael Curtiz - United States)
1943 - The Ox-Bow Incident (William A. Wellman - United States)
1944 - Henry V (Laurence Olivier - UK)
1945 - Children of Paradise (Marcel Carné - France)
1946 - The Best Years of Our Lives (William Wyler - United States)
1947 - Black Narcissus (Michael Powell - UK)
1948 - Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio De Sica - Italy)
1949 - The Third Man (Carol Reed - UK)

Ford opens the decade with his first win, Ox-Bow had test screenings and such in late 42 (the studio didn't have a clue what do with it) but didn't receive a wider, domestic release until '43. 1946 was my first internal battle, I kept going back to Best Years, so why was I hesitant to pick it? I told myself "this isn't about picking against Oscar, but selecting your own favorites, if it's Best Years, then darn well go with it." So that was a lesson learned. 1948 was a struggle between Bicycle and The Red Shoes (Sierra Madre was just behind them).

1950 - In a Lonely Place (Nicholas Ray - United States)
1951 - Diary of a Country Priest (Robert Bresson - France)
1952 - Ikiru (Akira Kurosawa – Japan)
1953 - Tokyo Story (Yasujirô Ozu - Japan)
1954 - On the Waterfront (Elia Kazan - United States)
1955 - Pather Panchali (Satyajit Ray - India)
1956 - The Searchers (John Ford - United States)
1957 - The Seventh Seal (Ingmar Bergman - Sweden)
1958 - Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock - United States)
1959 - Hiroshima Mon Amour (Alain Resnais - France & Japan)

I had some debate in 1950 (Sunset Blvd, Rashomon and All About Eve were in the mix) - Japan ruled 1954, but Waterfront is my all-time favorite, so I had to go with it. A lot of great directors this decade with first time wins, while Ford and Hitch take their second awards. First award for a film from India in '55.

1960 - The Apartment (Billy Wilder - United States)
1961 - Last Year at Marienbad (Alain Resnais - France)
1962 - Harakiri (Masaki Kobayashi - Japan)
1963 - 8½ (Federico Fellini - Italy)
1964 - Hamlet (Grigori Kozintsev - Soviet Union)
1965 - The Story of a Prostitute (Seijun Suzuki - Japan)
1966 - Andrei Rublev (Andrei Tarkovsky - Soviet Union)
1967 - Belle de Jour (Luis Bunuel - France)
1968 - Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone - Italy, Spain, USA)
1969 - Z (Costas-Garvas - France and Algeria)

I originally thought Dr. Strangelove was going to be a shoo-in at '64, then I saw Hamlet, Charulata and Soy Cuba, and suddenly Strangelove was push back to 4th place. I didn't have a clear runaway winner in '65, until I found the Suzuki picture a few years back. 1960 was loaded, but I went with the same one Oscar did. Bunuel and Resnais win their seconds... though '67 is really tight, with Marketa Lazarová right there with Belle. 1968 was 2001 vs Once Upon a Time... tough one for me.

1970 - Five Easy Pieces (Bob Rafelson - United States)
1971 - McCabe and Mrs. Miller (Robert Altman - United States)
1972 - Last Tango in Paris (Bernardo Bertolucci - Italy)
1973 - Day for Night (François Truffaut - France)
1974 - Chinatown (Roman Polanski - United States)
1975 - The Travelling Players (Theo Angelopoulos - Greece)
1976 - Cría cuervos (Carlos Saura - Spain)
1977 - Annie Hall (Woody Allen – United States)
1978 - Days of Heaven (Terence Malick - United States)
1979 - The Marriage of Maria Braun (Rainer Werner Fassbinder - Germany)

Aside from the Allen flick, I danced to the beat of my own drummer for this decade. No Godfather, though it was nominated (I actually prefer Tango, Solaris and Cabaret that year), and was happy to award Saura, who is one of my favorites from the late 60s through the 70s. Fassbinder finally gets his. The debate in 1970 was between Pieces and The Conformist - and whenever Tarkovsky released something, that was always in the conversation (Mirror in '75, Stalker in '79). This decade also marked the first and only time Greece won the top prize.

1980 - Ordinary People (Robert Redford – United States)
1981 - Das Boot (Wolfgang Petersen - Germany)
1982 - Fitzcarraldo (Werner Herzog - Germany, Peru)
1983 - Sans Soleil (Chris Marker - France)
1984 - Amadeus - Directors Cut (Miloš Forman - US, France, Czechoslovakia)
1985 - Brazil (Terry Gilliam - UK)
1986 - Mona Lisa (Neil Jordan - UK)
1987 - Wings of Desire (Wim Wenders - Germany, France)
1988 - Grave of the Fireflies (Isao Takahata - Japan)
1989 - Revenge (Yermek Shinarbayev - Kazakhstan)

The second great German wave leaves its mark on the 80s. Revenge was one of those with a wishy-washy release date (it came and went quickly and then was later rediscovered) but I've kept it at '89, and now I notice IMDB has switch from Kazakhstan to Russia for its country of origin -sigh- (second place would be Crimes and Misdemeanors). 85 was Brazil or Ran, 86 was Lisa or Blue Velvet, I had a couple of years like that throughout the decade (80, 83, 84 hosted close races too)

1990 - The Nasty Girl (Michael Verhoeven - Germany)
1991 - Raise the Red Lantern (Zhang Yimou - China, Taiwan, Hong Kong)
1992 - Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood - United States)
1993 - Schindler’s List (Steven Spielberg - United States)
1994 - Three Colors: Red (Krzysztof Kieslowski - France, Poland, Sweden)
1995 - Maborosi (Hirokazu Kore-eda - Japan)
1996 - A Moment of Innocence (Mohsen Makhmalbaf - Iran, France)
1997 - Princess Mononoke (Hayao Miyazaki - Japan)
1998 - Dark City (Alex Proyas - United States & Australia)
1999 - Magnolia (Paul Thomas Anderson - United States)

Before I'm asked, no, I'm not a big fan of Goodfellas, I wish I liked it as much as others do, buuut, you know, we all have movies like that. Mononoke was Miyazaki's first, and Ghibli's second win. 1991 was disheartening in a way, because I found several films I used to love that just didn't hold up as well on a revisit - I still had some goodies, and it came down to Lantern and The Double Life of Veronique. Moment was Iran's first feature win (it won for best short in '63 with "The House is Black")

Godfather is usually taken to be a 70's offering one can't really refuse. You don't want to wake up next to a horsehead, do you?

2000 - Yi Yi (Edward Yang - Taiwan & Japan)
2001 - The Royal Tenenbaums (Wes Anderson - United States)
2002 - Talk to Her (Pedro Almodóvar - Spain)
2003 - Lost in Translation (Sofia Coppola - United States & Japan)
2004 - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry - United States)
2005 - The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (Cristi Puiu - Romania)
2006 - Pan’s Labyrinth (Guillermo del Toro - Spain & Mexico)
2007 - Once (John Carney - Ireland)
2008 - Synecdoche, New York (Charlie Kaufman - United States)
2009 - Up in the Air (Jason Reitman - United States)

First win for a woman in the features category (though not the first nomination, and there were wins in shorts and miniseries) LIT is also one of my 25 Treasures (a list of mine) - several weird and/or imaginative movies here (Sunshine, Synecdoche), 09 was tough, I had a lot I liked, but no clear #1. So happy to finally award one of my favorite directors, Almodovar.

2010 - Winter’s Bone (Debra Granik - United States)
2011 - Hugo 3D (Martin Scorsese - United States)
2012 - Barbara (Christian Petzold - Germany)
2013 - Nebraska (Alexander Payne - United States)
2014 - Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (Alejandro González Iñárritu - United States)
2015 - Ex Machina (Alex Garland - UK)
2016 - Jackie (Pablo Larraín - USA, France, Chile, China, Germany, UK)
2017 - I, Tonya (Craig Gillespie - United States)
2018 - If Beale Street Could Talk (Barry Jenkins - United States)
2019 - Parasite (Bong Joon-ho - South Korea)
2020 - The Father (Florian Zeller - UK, France)
2021 - The Power of the Dog (Jane Campion - New Zealand, Australia, UK, Canada)
2022 - TÁR (Todd Field - United States)
2023 - Poor Things (Yorgos Lanthimos - Ireland, UK, USA, Hungary)

I believe that you need to live with a film year for a while, to get a good feel for it. So several here could change - Hugo, yes, specifically in 3D and in the theater - the 3D wasn't a mere gimick but an important storytelling tool, at home, without it, it's just not the same movie, but no one shows it in 3D anymore, so I can't revisit it the way I want to - and I really don't have anything else to replace it, I like other films (A Separation) but they just don't feel right as my #1. That said, the last 3 seasons have been pretty definitive for me, when I saw them, I was like, "Oh yeah, that's it, that's my top movie"

Story of a Prostitute is a nice film. It's not the best film of 1965 though, and I'd say not in the top 6.

Hu, and I could have sworn it was the best film of 1965.

Personally I would go:
1. Alphaville
2. Le Bonheur
3. The Sound of Music
4. For a Few Dollars More


5. Pierrot Le Fou
6. Repulsion
7. Story of a Prostitute

Never was that hot for the Sound of Music, but the others you list are favorites.

My 4.5-to-5-star graded movies.

Story of a Prostitute
Doctor Zhivago
Pierrot le Fou
The Shop on Main Street
Red Beard
The Hill
Le Bonheur
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
Simon of the Desert
Rapture
Repulsion
Chimes at Midnight
Tokyo Olympiad

Well, I think Memoria was released in California at some point and that's the sort of movie I'm thinking about.

Sure, but it's eligible for the AAs in the year that it was first released in Cali.