Best Picture Rankings 1993-2017

Article by Paul Douglas Moomjean

Best Picture of the Year very rarely goes to the best film of that year. With the exception of Schindler’s List and maybe The Return of the King, few films were slam dunk considered the best film of their respective year.

Many of these films have experienced either varying degrees of blacklash (Forrest Gump, Titanic, Crash) or worse, have been forgotten forever (The English Patient, A Beautiful Mind, The Hurt Locker). Though some films have cemented their place in film history because of unseen Oscar success, like Braveheart and Gladiator.

Then there’s The Artist, a film that would be no one’s pick if we redid the voting. A film that in the moment felt like a throwback to a golden age, that today seems trivial at best and shallow at worst.

1. 2007: No Country for Old Men
This is not even The Coen Brothers’ best film, yet it’s still better than any other Best Picture winner of the past 25 years. The winner of picture, acting, and writing awards, only four other films pulled off that accomplishment in the last quarter century. Plus Tommy Lee Jones’ book end monologues are pure cinematic bliss.

2. 1994: Forrest Gump
I know I’ll get hatred for this, but I was there in 1994, in the movie theaters, when we all wept and laughed and loved together over Robert Zemeckis’ modern fairy tale of a dream motion picture.

3. 2003: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Peter Jackson’s epic trilogy for a post 9/11 world. The third film tied up every character arc, plot point, and turned the fellowship cast into household names.

4. 1993: Schindler’s List
Steven Spielberg should have won for so many other films before this beautifully shot, wonderfully acted Holocaust drama, but in a way, the film’s win cemented him not as a fantasy filmmaker but a serious tour-de-force like Kubrick or Capra.

5. 1995: Braveheart
I love this movie. I love every scene and performance and battle. Sure, the script has modern dialogue and jokes to accompany the rape and torture scenes, but Mel Gibson creates a true Hollywood spectacle.

6. 2014: Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
I was Team Boyhood that year, but upon multiple viewings, this film was just as ambitious, but on a different level.

7. 2004: Million Dollar Baby
Clint Eastwood’s boxing film was not about boxing, but like most of Eastwood’s films, redemption. Here, he is able to create a different type of love story, and the film earns every laugh and every tear.

8. 2016: Moonlight
The mistaken winner, but the worthy one. This is a film we will cherish for decades to come.

9.2013: 12 Years a Slave
Such a raw and assured cinematic experience. While it only won two Oscars, it was a great reminder of the power of cinema to bring to life the past.

10. 2010: The King’s Speech
A great old fashion epic, lead by three great performances. One of only five films to win picture, director, writing, and acting.

11. 1998: Shakespeare in Love
The great upset of the 1990s is much better than time has remembered. A wonderful ensemble with an amazing script and score.

12. 2000: Gladiator
This film has grown on me over the years. Those final scenes walking through the fields is such solid filmmaking.

13. 2012: Argo
A great Hollywood story with great performances and a tight script. Ben Affleck deserved a nomination.

14. 1999: American Beauty
Time has not been kind to this film, but in 1999, this was the best film, as it captured the spirit of the midlife crisis men had at the time.

15. 2006: The Departed
Martin Scorsese’s remake of a great foreign crime film is Scorsese-light. And the ending is rushed and not strong writing.

16. 2015: Spotlight
A very efficient film. But for a film about the catholic priest scandal, it lacks warmth in a film that reads like a story but not about the people.

17. 2008: Slumdog Millionaire
A wonderful film — the first time. But repeat viewings reveal more holes than Swiss cheese.

18. 2009: The Hurt Locker
A tight thriller, but plotless, and lacking a strong narrative to hold us through.

19. 1997: Titanic
I saw this one four times in the theater. It’s not a great story. But it is great in scope.

20. 2005: Crash
Paul Haggis gets a lot of flack for his un-PC, Altman-esque story about racism in Los Angeles.