Top 10 Best Picture Winners

10. It Happened One Night

The first and one of only three films to win the five major Academy Awards (Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Screenplay), this 1934 romantic comedy from Frank Capra is a true classic in every sense of the word. In a tale as old as time, a stubborn and naive rich girl runs away to meet up with her ill-advised fiance when she runs into an out of work reporter that wants to take advantage of the situation: if he can write her story, he’ll help her get back to her betrothed. The performances of Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable are so familiar, absolutely hysterical, and perfectly in sync in every scene. When characters in other films claim “I saw it in a movie,” they might be referring to the iconic curtain scene that also gives us the memorable line, “The walls of Jericho are toppling.” —Natalie Pohorski (streaming, libraries)

9. Rebecca

For the most part, Rebecca de Winter is one of cinema’s ultimate captivating figures in spite of the fact that we never even view her tangible presence. She hovers above the narrative like a phantom that creates an atmosphere of tragedy that calmly unfolds before we ourselves wind up with the alienation we feel onscreen throughout. Laurence Olivier is great as Maxim de Winter, but it’s Joan Fontaine as de Winter’s new wife and Judith Anderson as the inimitable Mrs. Danvers who kill the game: the first displaying an expansive dimension of character from initial innocence to eventual unhinged hopelessness, and the latter with her chilly yet searing presentation of villainy. Although this is the sole Hitchcock film to ever win Best Picture, at least they selected a damn fine one. —Natalie Bauer (streaming, libraries)

8. The French Connection

A lively, hand-held clincher of an upturned megalopolis, rotten and saturated to epinephrine precision, The French Connection condenses metropolitan anarchy into a sort of funereal-tinged, methodical lawlessness. Procedural attitude, booze-drowned and emotionless by one’s own experience, the instinct of ammunition as rationale. Melodramatic monomania veering into an all-inclusive compulsion, Gene Hackman’s Popeye Doyle burdensomely wags his finger at the crime-riddled streets of New York City, under the pretense of jurisdiction. Firearm explosions matched with the turbulent clangs of a piano, director William Friedkin’s thrashing, cops running, downsized dialogue traded for full-speed collisions, all gasping a blitz of anxieties in this neo-noir to its impetus. —Natalie Bauer (streaming, libraries)

7. West Side Story

Count ‘em: TEN OSCARS. Ten Oscars to the musical that changed the game. That changed an entire culture’s understanding of what a musical is and could be. That took a beloved Shakespeare tale and flipped it on audiences, reflecting the prejudices and consequences of a nation divided. That sang and danced boldly, powerfully and immaculately all the way to the Oscars stage where history was made. There are many winners in Oscars history that have been forgotten or, for one reason or another, don’t hold up today. But with the collective powers of its stars Rita Moreno, Natalie Wood and Richard Beymer, the dominant musical collaboration of Stephen Sondheim and Leonard Bernstein, the pristine direction from Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins, and the sizzling choreography by Jerome Robbins, West Side Story remains as impressive and vital as it was the year it was released. —Kevin Prchal (streaming, libraries)

6. Lord of the Rings: Return of the King

“It’s a clean sweep!” intoned Steven Spielberg as he announced Return of the King’s eleventh (and record-tying) Oscar win for Best Picture. Some argue this award bonanza was for the entire trilogy rather than for just this third and most epic of the installments, but that matters not as it’s deserving in both ways. Amidst today’s never-ending franchises, the One Threequel to Rule Them All serves as a beacon for how to properly end a saga through high fantasy and wholeheartedness. —Chad Comello (streaming, libraries)

5. No Country for Old Men

When the Coen Brothers were filming No Country for Old Men, the set was famously shut down for a day when a smoke cloud from the set of There Will Be Blood interrupted the scene. Both movies were filming in Marfa, Texas, and both movies would go on to define a decade and compete for Best Picture at the 2008 Academy Awards. While either film would have been a landmark win, it was the bleak, hushed, and riveting power of No Country that took the prize. Anton Chigurh pummeling the trail of Llewelyn Moss like a dark cloud; the bold choice of no score, elevating each scene to its quiet, creaky, and harrowing potential; The Coens’ signature brand of humor spattered throughout, offering a glint of levity in an otherwise grim tale; the legend Tommy Lee Jones, rundown and dishing out his hard-earned wisdom at every turn; and the sheer sinister vibe of it all make this one of the greatest American films of all time and a high-water mark for the Academy Awards. —Kevin Prchal (streaming, libraries)

4. The Silence of the Lambs

One of those films that you could use as an example to demonstrate almost anything about filmmaking as structure plus routine (camera employment, motion, viewpoint, optics, ensemble, backdrop construction, needle drops), but still even a little definitively more than the bulk of all of Jonathan Demme’s brimming best. It is a marker in American genre cinema because its gruesomeness complements and advises its authenticity as well as its despair, and that combination in turn approaches really disturbing and contaminated beliefs around sexism and suffering. Jodie Foster’s Clarice Starling is one of the most profoundly noble film leads, and crucially the film isn’t designated as an examination of her ethics or an investigation of any extra darkness. It’s an analysis of civility as courage, understanding, and integrity, of honesty persevering and even creating its own amount of change at the end of the day. —Natalie Bauer (streaming, libraries)

3. Moonlight

Written and directed by Barry Jenkins, Moonlight follows a young Black man through three important stages in his life. Growing up in a rough part of Miami, he struggles with finding love and identity. Vital to his story are the influential figures in his life: his mom, father figure, and a friend, brought to life by Naomi Harris, Mahersala Ali, and Jharrel Jerome. Jenkins tells the story with such compassion and gentleness that seeing it for the first time feels like being wrapped in a warm blanket. You breathe along with the waves when Chiron floats in the ocean and hold your breath when he sees an old friend for the first time. The spectacle of the movie’s Best Picture win over La La Land may have become instantly infamous (I’ve never screamed so loud in my life), but Moonlight itself is groundbreaking, indelible, and certainly deserving of this honor. —Natalie Pohorski (streaming, libraries)

2. Casablanca

What more is there to say about this 1942 Best Picture-winning movie that’s consistently ranked as one of the greatest movies of all time? How about that it gives us the best performances of Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, a murderer’s row of supporting players, a triumphant middle finger to the Nazis in the form of “La Marseillaise”, and a cavalcade of quotable lines in its Best Screenplay-winning script. The World War II context has faded, yet the movie’s power only grows as time goes by. Here’s looking at you, Casablanca. —Chad Comello (streaming, libraries)

1. Parasite

Halfway through the 2020 Academy Awards, there was a shift of momentum. A momentum that, as any sports fan knows, felt inevitable once it took hold. Going into the event, one might have bet their money was safe with Sam Mendes’ World War I epic 1917. But once Bong Joon Ho’s genre-bending thriller Parasite picked up Best Original Screenplay, Best International Feature Film, and the coveted Best Director, it became clear whose year it was. Even so, you had to see it to believe it. When Jane Fonda stepped out to present the award for Best Picture, it was an unforgettable shock to the system when she uttered the word “Parasite.” For the first time in Oscars history, an International Feature was awarded the top prize. A film that demonstrated the social, political, and psychological effects of wealth disparity better than any other film of its time. A film that, to this day, has me looking twice at my basement staircase before shutting the door. —Kevin Prchal (streaming, libraries)