Best picture winners list: Every single movie to win top Oscar
"Titanic" and "All About Eve" top the list as the most-nominated movies to win best picture, with 14 nods each.
ByAlex Meier
Sunday, March 10, 2024
The Academy Awards showered nominations on Christopher Nolan's blockbuster biopic, "Oppenheimer," which came away with a leading 13 noms.
LOS ANGELES -- In the Oscars' nearly 100-year history, the Academy has nominated 601 films for the best picture award.
Some winners, like the comedy-drama "Forrest Gump" (1994), are considered classics. While others, like the psychological horror "Silence of the Lambs" (1991), are trailblazers in their genres.
"Titanic" (1997) and "All About Eve" (1950) top the list as the most-nominated movies to win best picture, with 14 nominations each. "La La Land" (2016) also boasts 14 nods but did not win best picture, even if Warren Beatty's famous faux pas had millions of ceremony viewers briefly believing it had.
"Titanic" is also one of three movies to win a record 11 awards, joined by "Ben-Hur" (1959) and "Lord of the Rings: Return of the King" (2003). Yet the latter takes the cake for being the most-nominated movie to win in every single nominated category.
"Gone with the Wind" (1939) was the pioneer for color films, while "Midnight Cowboy" (1969) is the only X-rated film to ever win best picture.
Few sequels are nominated for best picture, and only two have won: "The Godfather Part II" (1974) and "Lord of the Rings: Return of the King" (2003).
When "Parasite" won best picture in 2020, it became the first non-English language film to take home the Academy's highest honor. At the time, it was only the second time a non-English language film has made the nominees list. "Grand Illusion" (1938), in French, was the first, "Drive My Car" (2021), in Japanese, made 2021's list, and this year, Germany's "All Quiet on the Western Front" made the cut.
Only three best picture winners were directed by women: Kathryn Bigelow's "The Hurt Locker" (2009), Chloé Zhao's "Nomadland" (2020) and Sian Heder's "CODA" (2021). Woman-directed movies have only made that nominee list 16 times, including "Women Talking," directed by Sarah Polley.
As movie buffs know, winning several awards in other categories does not guarantee best picture success. "Cabaret" (1972) won in eight categories but lost to "The Godfather" for the top prize.
Here are the 96 best picture winners listed in reverse-chronological order.
Please note that the accompanying year indicates when the film was released, not when it won its Oscar:
2020s: Best picture winners
This image released by Universal Pictures shows Cillian Murphy in a scene from "Oppenheimer."
Universal Pictures via AP
"Oppenheimer" (2023)
"Everything Everywhere All At Once" (2022)
"CODA" (2021)
"Nomadland" (2020)
2010s: Best picture winners
Michael Keaton stars in "Birdman" (2014).
"Parasite" (2019)
"Green Book" (2018)
"The Shape of Water" (2017)
"Moonlight"(2016)
"Spotlight" (2015)
"Birdman" (2014)
"12 Years a Slave" (2013)
"Argo" (2012)
"The Artist" (2011)
"The King's Speech" (2010)
2000s: Best picture winners
Russell Crowe looking at a wall of numbers in a scene from the film "A Beautiful Mind" (2001).
Photo by Universal/Getty Images
"The Hurt Locker" (2009)
"Slumdog Millionaire" (2008)
"No Country for Old Men" (2007)
"The Departed" (2006)
"Crash" (2005)
"Million Dollar Baby" (2004)
"The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" (2003)
"Chicago" (2002)
"A Beautiful Mind" (2001)
"Gladiator" (2000)
1990s: Best picture winners
Tom Hanks in "Forrest Gump" (1994)
Sunset Boulevard
"American Beauty" (1999)
"Shakespeare in Love" (1998)
"Titanic" (1997)
"The English Patient" (1996)
"Braveheart" (1995)
"Forrest Gump" (1994)
"Schindler's List" (1993)
"Unforgiven" (1992)
"The Silence of the Lambs" (1991)
"Dances with Wolves" (1990)
1980s: Best picture winners
Debra Winger in a scene from the film "Terms of Endearment" (1983).
Photo by Paramount Pictures/Getty Images
"Driving Miss Daisy" (1989)
"Rain Man" (1988)
"The Last Emperor" (1987)
"Platoon" (1986)
"Out of Africa" (1985)
"Amadeus" (1984)
"Terms of Endearment" (1983)
"Gandhi" (1982)
"Chariots of Fire" (1981)
"Ordinary People" (1980)
1970s: Best picture winners
Al Pacino sitting in an armchair in a publicity still issued for the film, "The Godfather Part II" (1974)
Photo by Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images
"Kramer vs. Kramer" (1979)
"The Deer Hunter" (1978)
"Annie Hall" (1977)
"Rocky" (1976)
"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (1975)
"The Godfather Part II" (1974)
"The Sting" (1973)
"The Godfather" (1972)
"The French Connection" (1971)
"Patton" (1970)
1960s: Best picture winners
Julie Andrews performs a musical number in the movie "The Sound Of Music" (1964) directed by Robert Wise.
Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
"Midnight Cowboy" (1969)
"Oliver!" (1968)
"In the Heat of the Night" (1967)
"A Man for All Seasons" (1966)
"The Sound of Music" (1965)
"My Fair Lady" (1964)
"Tom Jones" (1963)
"Lawrence of Arabia" (1962)
"West Side Story" (1961)
"The Apartment" (1960)
1950s: Best picture winners
Messala, played by Stephen Boydcompetes against Judah Ben-Hur, played by Charlton Heston, in the chariot racing scene from "Ben-Hur" (1959), directed by William Wyler.
Photo by Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images
"Ben-Hur" (1959)
"Gigi" (1958)
"The Bridge on the River Kwai" (1957)
"Around the World in 80 Days" (1956)
"Marty" (1955)
"On the Waterfront" (1954)
"From Here to Eternity" (1953)
"The Greatest Show on Earth" (1952)
"An American in Paris" (1951)
"All About Eve" (1950)
1940s: Best picture winners
Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman star in the Warner Brothers film "Casablanca" (1942).
Photo by Popperfoto/Getty Images)
"All the King's Men" (1949)
"Hamlet" (1948)
"Gentleman's Agreement" (1947)
"The Best Years of Our Lives" (1946)
"The Lost Weekend" (1945)
"Going My Way" (1944)
"Casablanca" (1943)
"Mrs. Miniver" (1942)
"How Green Was My Valley" (1941)
"Rebecca" (1940)
1930s: Best picture winners
Joan Crawford, John Barrymore and Lionel Barrymore star in "Grand Hotel" (1932), directed by Edmund Goulding for MGM.
Photo via John Kobal Foundation/Getty Images
"Gone with the Wind" (1939)
"You Can't Take It with You" (1938)
"The Life of Emile Zola" (1937)
"The Great Ziegfeld" (1936)
"Mutiny on the Bounty" (1935)
"It Happened One Night" (1934)
"Cavalcade" (1933)
"Grand Hotel" (1932)
"Cimarron" (1931)
"All Quiet on the Western Front" (1930)
1920s: Best picture winners
Charles 'Buddy' Rogers and Clara Bow in front of an airplane in a scene from the film "Wings" (1927).