Best Picture
filed in Media: Film & TV on Feb.25, 2008
Taking a cue from The Original Mud Puppy, below is the list of films designated as BEST PICTURE by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences® since 1976, the year I was born.
Film titles in italics are films that I’ve already seen.
Bold titles are films which I still need to see.
2007 – No Country for Old Men
2006 – The Departed
2005 – Crash
2004 – Million Dollar Baby
2003 – Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
2002 – Chicago
2001 – A Beautiful Mind
2000 – Gladiator
1999 – American Beauty
1998 – Shakespeare in Love
1997 – Titanic
1996 – The English Patient
1995 – Braveheart
1994 – Forrest Gump
1993 – Schindler’s List
1992 – Unforgiven
1991 – The Silence of the Lambs
1990 – Dances with Wolves
1989 – Driving Miss Daisy
1988 – Rain Man
1987 – The Last Emperor
1986 – Platoon
1985 – Out of Africa
1984 – Amadeus
1983 – Terms of Endearment
1982 – Gandhi
1981 – Chariots of Fire
1980 – Ordinary People
1979 – Kramer vs. Kramer
1978 – The Deer Hunter
1977 – Annie Hall
1976 – Rocky
I did have a good run from 1988-present, having missed only three films… but I have a lot of catching up to do with the older films. Anyone want to suggest the order I see them in?
February 25th, 2008 on 9:11 pm
Looks like we need to get together and have a movie marathon!
How was Amadeus btw?
February 25th, 2008 on 9:30 pm
Amadeus is awesome. One of my wife’s top 5 movies of all time. We own it.
February 25th, 2008 on 11:11 pm
I’m not big on the Academy Awards. I find the movies to be too grand and yet, about nothing. (Titanic, anyone? Heart of the Sea? Come on!). Annie Hall is a favorite of mine. The only other movie I have seen that you have not is The English Patient which is good but way too long. I’m not big on long movies. Directors have a lot of nerve expecting that kind of time from me for the schlock they produce. (I did see Gandhi but it was so long ago that I can’t conscionably list it.)
February 26th, 2008 on 7:58 am
I’m not a big fan of the Academy either, but only because they threatened me and my friend with a lawsuit (click the Academy link in the post to read all about it). But, I love movies and usually find the award show pretty entertaining – you can’t go wrong with John Stewart hosting.
February 26th, 2008 on 5:34 pm
Hey Ken…
Of the ones you have not seen, I have seen only The English Patient, Unforgiven, and Gandhi. I show Gandhi every year in my Gobal classes and I think it’s great! Beautiful music and Ben Kingsley is amazing, plus a epic true story. I thought the Unforgiven was truly terrible. For a western, it had virtually no action and…I don’t know, I saw it when I was in 9th grade, so that could be a factor. The English patient WAS a bit long, but a good story. Of the one’s I’ve seen, I’d go Gandhi (carve out 3 hours), English Patient (another 3), and then Unforgiven.
February 26th, 2008 on 10:46 pm
Thanks Jason! Ghandi is certainly #1 on our list. I’ve heard Unforgiven is very good, and much the same story as Michael Clairborn, but very much not a traditional western. English Patient I’m actually shocked I didn’t see, as the agency I used to work for designed the poster for that film.