Moviefone presents the 30 greatest Best Picture Oscar winners of all time.
The 98th Academy Awards will take place on Sunday, March 15th and by its conclusion a new film will be added to the exclusive list of Best Picture winners.
Over the previous 97 years, many classic movies have received this honor from ‘In the Heat of the Night‘ to ‘Titanic.’ But for every ‘Schindler’s List‘ or ‘Moonlight‘ there is a film like ‘Driving Miss Daisy‘ or ‘American Beauty‘ that has not aged well.
Release Date: Oct 1, 1999
Run Time: 2 hr 2 min
Budget: $15,000,000
And let’s not forget the all-time classic movies that were completely snubbed such as ‘Pulp Fiction‘ or ‘The Shawshank Redemption,’ and did not receive the Academy recognition they deserved.
In honor or the upcoming Oscar ceremony, we’ve decided to countdown the 30 greatest Best Picture winners of all-time.
Let’s begin!
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(L to R) Robert Redford and Paul Newman in ‘The Sting’. Photo: Universal Pictures.
A novice con man (Robert Redford) teams up with an acknowledged master (Paul Newman) to avenge the murder of a mutual friend by pulling off the ultimate big con and swindling a fortune from a big-time mobster (Robert Shaw).
“…all it takes is a little confidence.”
Release Date: Dec 25, 1973
Run Time: 2 hr 9 min
Budget: $5,500,000
In the years before World War II, a tomboyish postulant (Julie Andrews) at an Austrian abbey is hired as a governess in the home of a widowed naval captain (Christopher Plummer) with seven children and brings a new love of life and music into the home.
“The happiest sound in all the world!”
Release Date: Apr 1, 1965
Run Time: 2 hr 54 min
Budget: $8,200,000
When car dealer Charlie Babbitt (Tom Cruise) learns that his estranged father has died, he returns home to Cincinnati, where he discovers that he has a savant older brother named Raymond (Dustin Hoffman) and that his father’s $3 million fortune is being left to the mental institution in which Raymond lives. Motivated by his father’s money, Charlie checks Raymond out of the facility in order to return with him to Los Angeles. The brothers’ cross-country trip ends up changing both their lives.
“A journey through understanding and fellowship.”
Release Date: Dec 16, 1988
Run Time: 2 hr 14 min
Budget: $25,000,000
All unemployed, Ki-taek’s (Song Kang-ho) family takes peculiar interest in the wealthy and glamorous Parks for their livelihood until they get entangled in an unexpected incident.
“Act like you own the place.”
Release Date: Nov 1, 2019
Run Time: 2 hr 13 min
Budget: $11,363,000
Joe Buck (Jon Voight) is a wide-eyed hustler from Texas hoping to score big with wealthy New York City women; he finds a companion in Enrico “Ratso” Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman), an ailing swindler with a bum leg and a quixotic fantasy of escaping to Florida.
“For those who have never seen it and those who have never forgotten it.”
Release Date: Jul 30, 1969
Run Time: 1 hr 53 min
Budget: $3,600,000
(L to R) Leonardo DiCaprio and Jack Nicholson in ‘The Departed’. Photo: Warner Bros.
To take down South Boston’s Irish Mafia, the police send in one of their own to infiltrate the underworld, not realizing the syndicate has done likewise. While an undercover cop (Leonardo DiCaprio) curries favor with the mob kingpin (Jack Nicholson), a career criminal (Matt Damon) rises through the police ranks. But both sides soon discover there’s a mole among them.
“Cops or criminals. When you’re facing a loaded gun, what’s the difference?”
Release Date: Oct 5, 2006
Run Time: 2 hr 31 min
Budget: $90,000,000
A prizefighter-turned-longshoreman (Marlon Brando) with a conscience goes up against labor leaders to expose corruption, extortion, and murder among the union ranks.
“The man lived by the jungle law of the docks!”
Release Date: Jul 28, 1954
Run Time: 1 hr 48 min
Budget: $910,000
During the Iraq War, a Sergeant recently assigned to an army bomb squad is put at odds with his squad mates due to his maverick way of handling his work.
“You don’t have to be a hero to do this job. But it helps.”
Release Date: Jul 31, 2009
Run Time: 2 hr 11 min
Budget: $15,000,000
Directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, collectively known as Daniels, the film is a hilarious and big-hearted sci-fi action adventure about an exhausted Chinese American woman (Michelle Yeoh) who can’t seem to finish her taxes.
“The universe is so much bigger than you realize.”
Release Date: Mar 25, 2022
Run Time: 2 hr 20 min
Budget: $25,000,000
21. ‘Platoon‘ (1987)
As a young and naive recruit in Vietnam, Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen) faces a moral crisis when confronted with the horrors of war and the duality of man.
“The first casualty of war is innocence.”
Release Date: Feb 6, 1987
Run Time: 2 hr
Budget: $6,000,000
20. ‘Anora’ (2024)
(L to R) Mikey Madison as Ani and Mark Eydelshteyn as Ivan in ‘Anora’. Photo: Courtesy of NEON.
Mikey Madison captivates as Ani, a young sex worker from Brooklyn whose life takes an unexpected turn when she meets and impulsively marries Vanya (Mark Eydelshteyn), the impetuous son of a Russian billionaire. However, when Vanya’s parents catch wind of the union, they send their henchmen to annul the marriage, setting off a wild chase through the streets of New York.
Release Date: Nov 1, 2024
Run Time: 2 hr 19 min
Budget: $6,000,000
William Munny (Clint Eastwood) is a retired, once-ruthless killer turned gentle widower and hog farmer. To help support his two motherless children, he accepts one last bounty-hunter mission to find the men who brutalized a prostitute. Joined by his former partner (Morgan Freeman) and a cocky greenhorn, he takes on a corrupt sheriff (Gene Hackman).
“Some legends will never be forgotten. Some wrongs can never be forgiven.”
Release Date: Aug 7, 1992
Run Time: 2 hr 10 min
Budget: $14,400,000
A fading actor (Michael Keaton) best known for his portrayal of a popular superhero attempts to mount a comeback by appearing in a Broadway play. As opening night approaches, his attempts to become more altruistic, rebuild his career, and reconnect with friends and family prove more difficult than expected. Also starring Edward Norton, Naomi Watts, and Emma Stone.
“How did we end up here?”
Release Date: Nov 14, 2014
Run Time: 2 hr
Budget: $18,000,000
African-American Philadelphia police detective Virgil Tibbs (Sidney Poitier) is arrested on suspicion of murder by Bill Gillespie (Rod Steiger), the racist police chief of tiny Sparta, Mississippi. After Tibbs proves not only his own innocence but that of another man, he joins forces with Gillespie to track down the real killer. Their investigation takes them through every social level of the town, with Tibbs making enemies as well as unlikely friends as he hunts for the truth.
“They got a murder on their hands. They don’t know what to do with it.”
Release Date: Aug 2, 1967
Run Time: 1 hr 49 min
Budget: $2,000,000
In Casablanca, Morocco in December 1941, a cynical American expatriate (Humphrey Bogart) meets a former lover (Ingrid Bergman), with unforeseen complications.
“They had a date with fate in Casablanca!”
Release Date: Jan 23, 1943
Run Time: 1 hr 42 min
Budget: $878,000
Russell Crowe in ‘Gladiator’. Photo: Paramount Pictures.
After the death of Emperor Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris), his devious son takes power and demotes Maximus (Russell Crowe), one of Rome’s most capable generals who Marcus preferred. Eventually, Maximus is forced to become a gladiator and battle to the death against other men for the amusement of paying audiences.
“What we do in life echoes in eternity.”
Release Date: May 5, 2000
Run Time: 2 hr 35 min
Budget: $103,000,000
14. ‘Titanic‘ (1997)
101-year-old Rose DeWitt Bukater (Gloria Stuart) tells the story of her life aboard the Titanic, 84 years later. A young Rose (Kate Winslet) boards the ship with her mother and fiancé. Meanwhile, Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Fabrizio De Rossi (Danny Nucci) win third-class tickets aboard the ship. Rose tells the whole story from Titanic’s departure through to its death—on its first and last voyage—on April 15, 1912.
“Nothing on earth could come between them.”
Release Date: Dec 19, 1997
Run Time: 3 hr 14 min
Budget: $200,000,000
A petty criminal (Jack Nicholson) fakes insanity to serve his sentence in a mental ward rather than prison. He soon finds himself as a leader to the other patients—and an enemy to the cruel, domineering nurse (Louise Fletcher) who runs the ward.
“In this clean, orderly, disciplined world, who needs guys like McMurphy? Everybody.”
Release Date: Nov 19, 1975
Run Time: 2 hr 13 min
Budget: $3,000,000
12. ‘Argo’ (2012)
As the Iranian revolution reaches a boiling point, a CIA ‘exfiltration’ specialist (Ben Affleck) concocts a risky plan to free six Americans who have found shelter at the home of the Canadian ambassador. Also starring Bryan Cranston, Alan Arkin, and John Goodman.
“The movie was fake. The mission was real.”
Release Date: Oct 12, 2012
Run Time: 2 hr
Budget: $44,500,000
The tender, heartbreaking story of a young man’s struggle to find himself, told across three defining chapters in his life as he experiences the ecstasy, pain, and beauty of falling in love, while grappling with his own sexuality.
“This is the story of a lifetime”
Release Date: Nov 18, 2016
Run Time: 1 hr 51 min
Budget: $4,000,000
Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn Elessar in director Peter Jackson’s ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.’ Photo: Warner Bros.
Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) is revealed as the heir to the ancient kings as he, Gandalf and the other members of the broken fellowship struggle to save Gondor from Sauron’s forces. Meanwhile, Frodo (Elijah Wood) and Sam (Sean Astin) take the ring closer to the heart of Mordor, the dark lord’s realm.
“The eye of the enemy is moving.”
Release Date: Dec 17, 2003
Run Time: 3 hr 21 min
Budget: $94,000,000
9. ‘Rocky’ (1976)
When world heavyweight boxing champion, Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) wants to give an unknown fighter a shot at the title as a publicity stunt, his handlers choose palooka Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) , an uneducated collector for a Philadelphia loan shark. Rocky teams up with trainer Mickey Goldmill (Burgess Meredith) to make the most of this once in a lifetime break.
“His whole life was a million-to-one shot.”
Release Date: Dec 3, 1976
Run Time: 2 hr
Budget: $1,000,000
Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) is a top student at the FBI’s training academy. Jack Crawford (Scott Glenn) wants Clarice to interview Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins), a brilliant psychiatrist who is also a violent psychopath, serving life behind bars for various acts of murder and cannibalism. Crawford believes that Lecter may have insight into a case and that Starling, as an attractive young woman, may be just the bait to draw him out.
“To enter the mind of a killer she must challenge the mind of a madman.”
Release Date: Feb 14, 1991
Run Time: 1 hr 59 min
Budget: $19,000,000
The story of J. Robert Oppenheimer’s (Cillian Murphy) role in the development of the atomic bomb during World War II.
“The world forever changes.”
Release Date: Jul 21, 2023
Run Time: 3 hr 1 min
Budget: $100,000,000
The true story of how businessman Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson) saved over a thousand Jewish lives from the Nazis while they worked as slaves in his factory during World War II.
“Whoever saves one life, saves the world entire.”
Release Date: Feb 4, 1994
Run Time: 3 hr 15 min
Budget: $22,000,000
(L to R) Michael Keaton and Mark Ruffalo in ‘Spotlight.’ Photo: Open Road Films.
The true story of how the Boston Globe uncovered the massive scandal of child molestation and cover-up within the local Catholic Archdiocese, shaking the entire Catholic Church to its core. The movie stars Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, and Rachel McAdams.
“Break the story. Break the silence.”
Release Date: Nov 25, 2015
Run Time: 2 hr 9 min
Budget: $20,000,000
Tough narcotics detective ‘Popeye’ Doyle (Gene Hackman) is in hot pursuit of a suave French drug dealer (Fernando Rey) who may be the key to a huge heroin-smuggling operation.
“Doyle is bad news—but a good cop.”
Release Date: Oct 9, 1971
Run Time: 1 hr 44 min
Budget: $1,800,000
In the continuing saga of the Corleone crime family, a young Vito Corleone (Robert De Niro) grows up in Sicily and in 1910s New York. In the 1950s, Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) attempts to expand the family business into Las Vegas, Hollywood and Cuba.
“The rise and fall of the Corleone empire.”
Release Date: Dec 20, 1974
Run Time: 3 hr 22 min
Budget: $13,000,000
During World War I, English officer Thomas Edward ‘T.E.’ Lawrence (Peter O’Toole) sets out to unite and lead the diverse, often warring, Arab tribes to fight the Turks.
Release Date: Dec 16, 1962
Run Time: 3 hr 48 min
Budget: $15,000,000
(L to R) James Caan, Marlon Brando, Al Pacino and John Cazale in ‘The Godfather’. Photo: Paramount Pictures.
Spanning the years 1945 to 1955, a chronicle of the fictional Italian-American Corleone crime family. When organized crime family patriarch, Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) barely survives an attempt on his life, his youngest son, Michael (Al Pacino) steps in to take care of the would-be killers, launching a campaign of bloody revenge.
“An offer you can’t refuse.”
Release Date: Mar 24, 1972
Run Time: 2 hr 55 min
Budget: $6,000,000
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