Anyone who claims to be a moviegoer has surely seen their fair share of Academy Award-winning movies, but how many can say they have seen every single film to take home the top prize at the Oscars? We would not blame anybody who has not, since the Best Picture winners list is a hefty one that keeps getting longer on an annual basis.
Yet, that is part of why seeing each and every esteemed title sounds like such an aspirational feat. For those who are up to the challenge – and before the winners of the 2023 Oscar nominations are announced – allow us to point you in the right direction by listing all the movies to receive the honor of being named the Best Picture of their respective years in the eyes of the Academy and where you can watch them, starting at the very beginning.
Wings (1927)
The first movie to be named Best Picture at the Academy Awards (before they were called Oscars) was Wings – an action-packed, silent epic following two World War I fighter pilots and their bitter feud over the same woman (Clara Bow).
The Broadway Melody (1929)
A romantic rivalry is also at the heart of director Harry Beaumont’s musical about show business dreams, The Broadway Melody – the first “talkie” to win the highest honor at the Academy Awards.
Rent/buy The Broadway Melody on Amazon (opens in new tab).
All Quiet On The Western Front (1930)
The first adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s novel All Quiet on the Western Front – and only the first to be nominated for Best Picture before Netflix’s 2022 version – won the prize for its heartbreaking depiction of World War I from a German soldier’s perspective.
(opens in new tab)Cimarron (1931)
Edna Farber’s novel about a newspaper editor’s (Richard Dix) involvement in the late 19th-Century Oklahoma land rush inspired Cimarron - the first Western to win at the Academy Awards, including the top prize.
Rent/buy Cimarron on Amazon (opens in new tab).
Grand Hotel (1932)
An iconic ensemble – including Joan Crawford, Greta Garbo, and John Barrymore (grandfather of Drew) – lead the thrilling, romantic interwoven stories told in Grand Hotel, whose sole Academy Award nomination and win was Best Picture.
Rent/buy Grand Hotel on Amazon (opens in new tab).
Cavalcade (1933)
Several notable and tragic events of the early 20th Century are seen through the eyes of a well-to-do English family in Cavalcade, which also earned awards for director Frank Lloyd and art director William S. Darling.
Rent/buy Cavalcade on Amazon (opens in new tab).
It Happened One Night (1934)
Director Frank Capra and stars Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert also each won their first Academy Award for It Happened One Night – one of the most charming and influential romantic comedy movies ever made.
Stream It Happened One Night on Tubi.
Mutiny On The Bounty (1935)
Clark Gable also led director Frank Lloyd’s Mutiny on the Bounty – a thrilling adventure, inspired by a real incident from 1789, about a ship crew rebelling against their sadistic captain (Charles Laughton).
Rent/buy Mutiny on the Bounty on Amazon (opens in new tab).
The Great Ziegfeld (1936)
Also inspired by a true story is The Great Ziegfeld – a lavish tale about the ups and downs of show business that also took home an award for Seymour Felix’s choreography.
Rent/buy The Great Ziegfeld on Amazon (opens in new tab).
The Life Of Emile Zola (1937)
The following year, the Academy gave Best Picture to another fact-based drama, The Life of Emile Zola – starring Paul Muni as the titular French writer who fought against the unjust Dreyfus affair.
Rent/buy The Life of Emile Zola on Amazon (opens in new tab).
You Can't Take It With You (1938)
Director Frank Capra’s adaptation of playwrights George S. Kaufmann and Moss Hart’s brilliant economic satire You Can’t Take It with You won Best Picture the first year the Academy started calling the statuette “Oscar.”
Rent/buy You Can't Take It with You on Amazon (opens in new tab).
Gone With The Wind (1939)
Still the highest grossing film when adjusted for inflation, Gone with the Wind marked a historic moment for the Oscars when it became the first color film to win Best Picture, and star Hattie McDaniel became the first Black person to ever be nominated and awarded by the Academy.
Stream Gone with the Wind on HBO Max (opens in new tab).
Rebecca (1940)
It is hard to believe that Alfred Hitchcock never won an Oscar himself, but his adaptation of Daphne Du Maurier’s shocking novel, Rebecca, at least earned him the honor of saying he helmed a Best Picture winner.
Buy Rebecca on Blu-ray at Amazon (opens in new tab).
How Green Was My Valley (1941)
The legendary John Ford also won his third of four Oscars for directing How Green Was My Valley, based on Richard Llewellyn’s story of one family’s struggles in a Welsh mining village in the early 1900s.
Rent/buy How Green Was My Valley on Amazon (opens in new tab).
Mrs. Miniver (1942)
As World War II was still in its prime, the Best Picture Oscar went to Mrs. Miniver, which tells the story of the earth-shattering conflict’s infancy through the eyes of a middle-class British family.
Stream Mrs. Miniver on IndieFlix.
Casablanca (1943)
The events of World War II were very much an influence on the story of the highly influential classic, Casablanca, starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman as former lovers reunited over political intrigue in Morocco.
(opens in new tab)Going My Way (1944)
The Academy must have been in the mood for something lighter when it awarded Best Picture to a musical called Going My Way, which also earned star Bing Crosby his sole Oscar.
Rent/buy Going My Way on Amazon (opens in new tab).
The Lost Weekend (1945)
Following World War II’s end, the Academy sought darkness again and gave the top prize to Billy Wilder’s The Lost Weekend – a film noir classic following an alcoholic’s days-long bender.
Rent/buy The Lost Weekend on Amazon (opens in new tab).
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
Speaking of World War II’s end, The Best Years of Lives follows a trio of traumatized veterans as they struggle to readjust to their old lives.
Stream The Best Years of Our Lives on Amazon Prime (opens in new tab).
Gentleman's Agreement (1947)
Gregory Peck plays a renowned journalist who goes undercover as a Jewish man as research for a series of articles covering anti-Semitism in Gentleman’s Agreement, which was directed by Elia Kazan (grandfather of Zoe).
Rent/buy Gentleman's Agreement on Amazon (opens in new tab).
Hamlet (1948)
Sir Laurence Olivier directed, did uncredited screenwriting work on, and gave an Oscar-winning performance in the title role of Hamlet – the first talkie based on William Shakespeare’s tragedy and the first non-American film to win Best Picture.
Stream Hamlet on HBO Max (opens in new tab).
All The King's Men (1949)
Based on Robert Penn Warren’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, All the King’s Men chronicles the triumphant rise and fall of a corrupt politician played by Broderick Crawford in an Oscar-winning portrayal.
Stream All the King’s Men on Tubi.
All About Eve (1950)
“Fasten your seatbelts” for All About Eve – the dazzling drama from screenwriter and director Joseph L. Mankiewicz (portrayed by Tom Pelphrey in Mank) about the title character’s (Anne Baxter) schemes to assume the life of an aging Broadway star (Bette Davis).
Rent/buy All About Eve on Amazon (opens in new tab).
An American In Paris (1951)
Gene Kelly plays a painter struggling to find work in France in the essential, romantic musical, An American in Paris, which also won Best Original Score.
Stream An American in Paris on HBO Max (opens in new tab).
The Greatest Show On Earth (1952)
Directed by the great Cecil B. DeMille and starring legends like James Stewart and Charlton Heston, The Greatest Show on Earth brought all the excitement of the circus to the movie theater and – as depicted in The Fabelmans – inspired a young Steven Spielberg to pursue a career in filmmaking.
Stream The Greatest Show on Earth on Paramount+ (opens in new tab).
From Here To Eternity (1953)
One of the most exciting and romantic war dramas of all time is From Here to Eternity, which includes one of the most iconic movie kisses and for which singer Frank Sinatra won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar.
Stream From Here to Eternity on HBO Max (opens in new tab).
On The Waterfront (1954)
Marlon Brando won his first Academy Award for playing a down and out former boxer who “coulda been a contender” in On the Waterfront, which also earned director Elia Kazan his second Oscar.
Stream On the Waterfront on HBO Max (opens in new tab).
Marty (1955)
The late Ernest Borgnine gives an Oscar-winning performance in the title role of Marty, a Bronx butcher who receives an unexpected chance at love when he meets the equally disillusioned teacher, Clara (Betsy Blair).
Around The World In 80 Days (1956)
Based on Jules Verne’s seminal, inventive adventure novel, Around the World in 80 Days stars comedy legends David Niven and Cantinflas as two explorers attempting to do just what the title suggests.
Stream Around the World in 80 Days on HBO Max (opens in new tab).
(opens in new tab)The Bridge On The River Kwai (1957)
Future Obi-Wan Kenobi actor Alec Guinness won the Best Actor Oscar for playing one of many POWs forced to build a doomed railway during World War II in The Bridge on the River Kwai.
Stream The Bridge on the River Kwai on HBO Max (opens in new tab).
Gigi (1958)
Winner of all nine Oscars it was nominated for, Gigi is a sweeping musical about a friendship between a rich playboy (Louis Jordan) and a courtesan-in-training (Leslie Caron) that blossoms into more.
Rent/buy Gigi on Amazon (opens in new tab).
Ben-Hur (1959)
Charlton Heston won Best Actor for playing the title role of a Jewish prince wrongfully sold into slavery in Ben-Hur – director Willian Wyler’s quintessential period epic that is also celebrated for its editing by experts of the craft.
Stream Ben-Hur on HBO Max (opens in new tab).
The Apartment (1960)
One of writer and director Billy Wilder’s most definitive achievements was The Apartment - an inventive comedy about an insurance clerk (Jack Lemmon) who allows his coworkers to have romantic encounters in his Manhattan home.
Stream The Apartment on Paramount+ (opens in new tab).
West Side Story (1961)
William Shakespeare’s seminal romantic tragedy Romeo & Juliet is given a modernized, musical update with West Side Story, which Steven Spielberg would later reimagine in 2021.
Stream West Side Story on Amazon Prime (opens in new tab).
Lawrence Of Arabia (1962)
It is hard to believe that Peter O’Toole never won an Oscar, especially for his performance in the title role of Lawrence of Arabia, which is about how England’s T.E. Lawrence led Arab tribes against the Turks during World War I.
Stream Lawrence of Arabia on HBO Max (opens in new tab).
Tom Jones (1963)
Legendary British actor Albert Finney plays the chivalrous, titular lothario in Tony Richardson’s adaptation of Henry Fielding’s period novel Tom Jones.
Stream Tom Jones on HBO Max (opens in new tab).
My Fair Lady (1964)
Based on the stage musical of the same name, My Fair Lady is the largely influential story – it was the basis for She’s All That – of a phonetics professor (Rex Harrison) who wagers he can make an upper-class citizen out of a working-class, Cockney woman (Audrey Hepburn).
Stream My Fair Lady on Paramount+ (opens in new tab).
The Sound Of Music (1965)
Another iconic musical that earned the top prize at the Oscars in the 1960s is Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music, starring Julie Andrews as a governess who teaches her employer’s (Christopher Plummer) children about the joys of song.
(opens in new tab)A Man For All Seasons (1966)
Sir Thomas More’s (Paul Scofield) defiance of the Catholic Church’s prohibition of divorce inspired the play A Man for All Seasons by Robert Bolt, who would win an Oscar for penning the screenplay of this enthralling adaptation.
Rent/buy A Man for All Seasons on Amazon (opens in new tab).
In The Heat Of The Night (1967)
The late, great trailblazer, Sidney Poitier, gave one of the most inspiring performances of his career in one of the Academy Award winner’s best movies, In the Heat of the Night, as a Black detective asked by a Mississippi police chief (Rod Steiger) to help solve a murder he was unjustly accused of.
Stream In the Heat of the Night on Paramount+ (opens in new tab).
Oliver! (1968)
Based on the classic Charles Dickens novel, Oliver! is a musical that tells the story of a young orphan who adopts the art of pickpocketing in 1830s London.
Stream Oliver! on HBO Max (opens in new tab).
Midnight Cowboy (1969)
The first and only Best Picture winner to receive an X rating is Midnight Cowboy, in which a Texas hustler (Jon Voight) forms a deep bond with a rebuffed local (Dustin Hoffman) in Brooklyn.
Stream Midnight Cowboy on Amazon Prime (opens in new tab).
Patton (1970)
George C. Scott brilliantly embodied one of the most famous military figures in history to Oscar-winning acclaim in the monumental biopic, Patton.
Rent/buy Patton on Amazon (opens in new tab).
The French Connection (1971)
Director William Friedken arguably redefined the cop thriller with The French Connection, starring Gene Hackman in an Oscar-winning performance as Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle.
Rent/buy The French Connection on Amazon (opens in new tab).
The Godfather (1972)
Director Francis Ford Coppola inarguably redefined the mafia thriller with one of the best ‘70s movies, The Godfather, starring Marlon Brando in an Oscar-winning performance as Don Vito Corleone.
Stream The Godfather on Peacock (opens in new tab).
The Sting (1973)
Paul Newman and Robert Redford – stars of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid – reunite for the heist thriller classic, The Sting, as a pair of grifters who plan a huge con to avenge the murder of their mutual friend.
Stream The Sting on Netflix (opens in new tab).
The Godfather Part II (1974)
Francis Ford Coppola completed his adaptation of Mario Puzo’s novel with the, arguably, more powerful follow-up, The Godfather Part II, starring Robert De Niro in an Oscar-winning performance as a young Don Vito Corleone.
Stream The Godfather Part II on Peacock (opens in new tab).
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
Milos Forman directs one of the greatest Jack Nicholson performances in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, in which a petty criminal (Nicholson) leads a rebellion against a sadistic nurse (Louise Fletcher) after an insanity plea gets him sent to a mental institution.
Stream One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest on HBO Max (opens in new tab).
Rocky (1976)
Sylvester Stallone was nominated for both writing and starring in the lead role of Rocky - one of the best sports movies ever made, which inspired an ongoing franchise of beloved boxing films.
Stream Rocky on Netflix (opens in new tab).
Annie Hall (1977)
A neurotic comedian (Woody Allen) looks back on his unique relationship with a free-spirited, aspiring singer (Diane Keaton, giving an Oscar-winning performance) in Annie Hall, which remains one of the most inventive and refreshingly honest rom-coms of all time.
Rent/buy Annie Hall on Amazon (opens in new tab).
The Deer Hunter (1978)
Less a war movie and more an analysis of post-war trauma, The Deer Hunter – one of the best Robert De Niro movies – is the harrowing and controversial story of a veteran’s (De Niro) struggles to find his friends after becoming separated in Vietnam.
Stream The Deer Hunter on Peacock (opens in new tab).
Kramer Vs. Kramer (1979)
Both Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep received Oscars for their performances in Kramer vs. Kramer as a separated couple embroiled in a bitter custody battle over their young son.
Rent/buy Kramer vs. Kramer on Amazon (opens in new tab).
Ordinary People (1980)
Dysfunctional family dynamics are also at the heart of the devastating drama, Ordinary People, for which director Robert Redford won his sole competitive Academy Award.
Stream Ordinary People on Amazon Prime (opens in new tab).
Chariots Of Fire (1981)
Vangelis also earned his sole Academy Award for his instantly recognizable score for Chariots of Fire, which follows two young, British track runners of differing backgrounds at the 1924 Olympics.
Rent/buy Chariots of Fire on Amazon (opens in new tab).
Gandhi (1982)
Sir Ben Kingsley, who is of Indian descent on his father’s side, disappears into the role of the titular, iconic proponent for non-violent resistance in Gandhi – a rousing biopic from director Richard Attenborough.
Rent/buy Gandhi on Amazon (opens in new tab).
Terms of Endearment (1983)
It is hard to believe that Shirley MacLaine has just one Oscar, for her performance in Terms of Endearment – a drama covering several years of a woman’s (MacLaine) relationship with her daughter (Debra Winger) that is often funny until it is devastating.
Stream Terms of Endearment on HBO Max (opens in new tab).
Amadeus (1984)
The late, great Milos Forman earned his second Best Director Oscar for Amadeus – a retelling of the life of renowned composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Tom Hulce) as told by the fellow musician who claims to have enviously murdered him, Antonio Salieri (F. Murray Abraham).
Rent/buy Amadeus on Amazon (opens in new tab).
Out of Africa (1985)
Robert Redford and Meryl Streep star as a big game hunter and a Danish baroness, respectively, who fall in love in 20th century Kenya in Out of Africa, which is lauded as one of producer and director Sydney Pollack’s greatest achievements.
Stream Out of Africa on Netflix (opens in new tab).
Platoon (1986)
American soldiers are subjected to relentless, senseless brutality while serving in Vietnam in Platoon – an epic, thought-provoking indictment on the cruelty of war that could only come from writer and director Oliver Stone, and one of the greatest war movies to win Best Picture yet.
Stream Platoon on HBO Max (opens in new tab).
The Last Emperor (1987)
The story of Pu Yi (John Lone) – who would become the last person to serve as the monarchical leader of China – is revealed in The Last Emperor, for which Bernardo Bertolucci earned Oscars for both writing and directing.
Stream The Last Emperor on HBO Max (opens in new tab).
Rain Man (1988)
Dustin Hoffman gives one of the most esteemed performances of his career as an autistic savant opposite a stellar Tom Cruise as his unwitting younger sibling in Rain Man – a beautiful story of redemption through brotherly love from director Barry Levinson.
Stream Rain Man on HBO Max (opens in new tab).
Driving Miss Daisy (1989)
Jessica Tandy and Morgan Freeman make an irresistible pair as a disgruntled, elderly widow and her chauffeur, respectively, in one of Freeman’s best movies, Driving Miss Daisy – an inspirational story about redemption through friendship set between the 1950s and 1970s.
Stream Driving Miss Daisy on HBO Max (opens in new tab).
Dances With Wolves (1990)
Kevin Costner won a Best Director Oscar for Dances with Wolves – the first Western do so since 1931’s Cimarron – in which the Yellowstone cast member also plays the title role of a Civil War-era soldier who learns the ways of a Native American tribe.
Stream Dances with Wolves on HBO Max (opens in new tab).
The Silence Of The Lambs (1991)
An FBI trainee (Jodie Foster) seeks help from a cannibalistic former psychologist (Anthony Hopkins) to catch a killer in The Silence of the Lambs – one of the best horror movies ever made and the only one to ever win Best Picture so far.
Stream The Silence of the Lambs on HBO Max (opens in new tab).
Unforgiven (1992)
The Academy would show its taste for the Western again by giving the top prize to Unforgiven, for which star Clint Eastwood won his first Oscar as both director and producer.
Rent/buy Unforgiven on Amazon (opens in new tab).
Schindler’s List (1993)
Having already taken the world of cinema by storm, Steven Spielberg became an Academy Award-winning filmmaker as director and producer of one of his best films, Schindler’s List – a technically magnificent, emotionally distressing portrait of the Holocaust.
Rent/buy Schindler's List on Amazon (opens in new tab).
Forrest Gump (1994)
For his second Oscar-winning performance, Tom Hanks plays the simple-minded title hero of Forrest Gump – an endearing revisionist history drama from director Robert Zemeckis.
Stream Forrest Gump on Netflix (opens in new tab).
Braveheart (1995)
Mel Gibson became an Oscar-winning filmmaker as the director and producer of the historical epic Braveheart, in which he also stars as Scottish warrior William Wallace in a bid to free his people from England’s tyrannical rule.
Stream Braveheart on HBO Max (opens in new tab).
The English Patient (1996)
A French-Canadian nurse (Juliette Binoche) indulges in an affair with a British, semi-amnesiac plane crash victim (Ralph Fiennes) in The English Patient - a romantic World War II-era drama from director Anthony Minghella.
Stream The English Patient on Showtime.
Titanic (1997)
A wealthy, young woman (Kate Winslet) indulges in an affair with a poor, young man (Leonardo DiCaprio) while on an ill-fated luxury ship in Titanic – James Cameron’s heavily dramatized retelling of the 1912 tragedy that became the highest grossing film ever for a time.
Rent/buy Titanic on Amazon (opens in new tab).
Shakespeare In Love (1998)
A young William Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes) indulges in an affair with a woman (Gwyneth Paltrow) who inspires some of his most iconic work in the Best Picture winner (despite some who disagree with the choice), Shakespeare in Love, for which Paltrow and Judi Dench also won Oscars for their performances.
Stream Shakespeare in Love on Showtime.
American Beauty (1999)
Following his own death, a forty-something suburban dad (Kevin Spacey) recalls the bizarre last few weeks of his life through overhead narration in American Beauty, which – despite not aging too well beyond the 1990s – saw a major career breakthrough for director Sam Mendes.
Stream American Beauty on Pluto TV.
Gladiator (2000)
Ridley Scott directs Russell Crowe in an Oscar-winning performance as the hero of Gladiator – a thrilling period piece that will surely have you “entertained!”
Stream Gladiator on Paramount+ (opens in new tab).
A Beautiful Mind (2001)
Russell Crowe headlined back-to-back Best Picture winners in the early 2000s – the second being director Ron Howard’s A Beautiful Mind, in which he plays real-life mathematician John Nash, whose struggles with mental illness almost threatened his career.
Rent/buy A Beautiful Mind on Amazon (opens in new tab).
Chicago (2002)
Catherine Zeta-Jones danced her way to Oscar glory in Chicago – the cinematic adaptation of the Broadway musical inspired by the infamous “Murderess Row” case of the late 1920s.
Stream Chicago on HBO Max (opens in new tab).
The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King (2003)
Director Peter Jackson completed his trilogy inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien’s influential fantasy books with The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, which also became the most acclaimed film of the Lord of the Rings movies and earned him a Best Director Oscar.
Stream The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King on HBO Max (opens in new tab).
Million Dollar Baby (2004)
Star Clint Eastwood won his second Best Director Oscar for the boxing drama Million Dollar Baby, which also saw Morgan Freeman win his first Academy Award and Hilary Swank her second.
(opens in new tab)Crash (2005)
Director Paul Haggis earned a Best Original Screenplay Oscar for co-writing Crash – an analysis of modern racial tension as told from the point of view of various Los Angeleans in a 36-hour period.
The Departed (2006)
Martin Scorsese received a long-overdue Oscar for directing The Departed – a gritty, bleak, twisty remake of the Chinese cop drama, Infernal Affairs, set in Boston’s criminal underground.
Stream The Departed on HBO Max (opens in new tab).
No Country For Old Men (2007)
One of Joel and Ethan Coen’s best movies, No Country for Old Men – based on Cormac McCarthy’s powerful meditation on the ongoing war between good and evil on Earth – also earned the duo Oscars for both writing and directing.
Stream No Country for Old Men on HBO Max (opens in new tab).
Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
A teenager (Skins cast member Dev Patel) reflects on his childhood in Mumbai while competing on a game show in Slumdog Millionaire – an inspiring fairy tale of sorts from director Danny Boyle.
Stream Slumdog Millionaire on HBO Max (opens in new tab).
The Hurt Locker (2009)
Kathryn Bigelow became the first female Best Director winner for The Hurt Locker, starring Jeremy Renner as a military bomb defuser whose recklessness puts him at odds with his peers while serving in Iraq.
Rent/buy The Hurt Locker on Amazon (opens in new tab).
The King's Speech (2010)
Colin Firth gives a brilliant performance as an heir to the British throne struggling to overcome his debilitating stammer in The King’s Speech, which also earned Tom Hooper an Oscar for directing.
Stream The King’s Speech on Amazon Prime (opens in new tab).
The Artist (2011)
The first “silent film” to win the Best Picture Oscar since the very first Best Picture Oscar winner (Wings) was The Artist, which, itself, is a rousing, visually stunning love letter to the silent era.
Stream The Artist on HBO Max (opens in new tab).
Argo (2012)
Ben Affleck directs and stars in one of his best movies – the intense thriller Argo, which is based on the true story of a CIA agent who helped Americans escape an Iranian hostage situation by posing as a film crew in 1979.
Stream Argo on HBO Max (opens in new tab).
12 Years A Slave (2013)
Lupita Nyong’o earned a Best Actress Oscar for her performance in her feature-length debut, 12 Years a Slave, also starring Chiwetel Ejiofor as Solomon Northrup, whose experience as a free Black man abducted and sold into slavery inspired this harrowing drama.
Stream 12 Years a Slave on Paramount+ (opens in new tab).
Birdman Or (The Unexpected Virtue Of Ignorance) (2014)
One of the best Michael Keaton movies, Birdman – a masterclass in satire and surrealism from co-writer and director Alejandro González Iñárritu – sees the Oscar nominee poking fun at his own career by starring as a former superhero movie actor seeking a comeback.
Stream Birdman on HBO Max (opens in new tab).
Spotlight (2015)
Michael Keaton led back-to-back Oscar winners in the mid-2010s, the second being Spotlight – which tells the story behind the Boston Globe’s Pulitzer Prize-winning exposé about child molestation cover-ups in the Catholic Church.
Stream Spotlight on HBO Max (opens in new tab).
Moonlight (2016)
Although an infamous mistake initially made it seem like La La Land won in 2017, the Best Picture Oscar really went to Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight - the harrowing story of a young, Black man struggling with his sexual identity with help from a much-needed mentor (Mahershala Ali).
The Shape Of Water (2017)
Visionary filmmaker Guillermo del Toro won over the Academy with The Shape of Water – one his of many celebrated collaborations with Doug Jones – which sees him continue to indulge in his love of creature features, but filtered through a powerful commentary on forbidden love.
Stream The Shape of Water on Hulu (opens in new tab).
Green Book (2018)
Mahershala Ali won his second Best Supporting Actor Oscar for one of his best roles yet – a Black pianist who forms a strong bond with his white chauffeur (Viggo Mortensen) while touring the Jim Crow era South – in Green Book, which takes its name from a real road guide used to locate safe areas for Black travelers at the time.
Rent/buy Green Book on Amazon (opens in new tab).
Parasite (2019)
An impoverished, South Korean family infiltrates the lives of a wealthy family in Bong Joon-ho’s striking, brilliant subversive thriller Parasite – the first movie to win Oscars for both Best Foreign Language Film and Best Picture.
(opens in new tab)Nomadland (2020)
Chinese-born filmmaker Chloé Zhao became the first woman of color to win Best Director for Nomadland, which could almost count as a documentary on the post-Recession culture of middle-aged people living exclusively on the road for its casting of real “nomads” as themselves.
Stream Nomadland on Hulu (opens in new tab).
CODA (2021)
A young woman (Emilia Jones) who is the only hearing person in her family struggles between following her musical aspirations and helping her parents when they fall on hard times in CODA, which also saw star Troy Kotsur make history as the first deaf male win the Best Actor Oscar.
Stream CODA on Apple TV+. (opens in new tab)
Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022)
In addition to Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, and (in one of the night's biggest surprises) Jamie Lee Curtis' first Oscar wins, statuettes for DANIELS' screenplay and directing, and Paul Rogers' editing, A24's bizarre, emotional, crowd-pleasing adventure through the Multiverse, Everything Everywhere All At Once, took home the top prize in 2023.
Stream Everything Everywhere All At Once on Showtime.
Now that you can say you have seen every Best Picture Oscar winner so far, would you say you agree with the Academy?
