March 12, 2026Updated March 13, 2026, 8:39 a.m. ET
Everybody has their very own thought of what makes a bestpicture winner at the Oscars. Perhaps a biopic or one thing large in scale akin to “Dances With Wolves” and “Titanic,” or a small art-house film like final yr’s Academy Awards winner, “Anora.”
What’s fairly clear in the event you undertake watching all 97 (so far) films to take that vaunted prize – and it is not for the fainthearted, belief us – is that you just come out of it modified. You love movies a little bit more.
A brand new film will be a part of this storied canon on the 98th Academy Awards on March 15 (airing live on ABC and Hulu, 7 ET/4 PT). In celebration, here is a rating of each best picture winner, from iffy stuff where a recount seems in order to the very best of the best.
97. ‘The Broadway Melody’ (1928/29)
The second best picture winner, it is a musical dud with vaudevillian sisters and romantic malarkey that would have gained worst picture, too.
96. ‘Crash’ (2005)
A mess of interwoven stories centered on social and xenophobic tensions in LA, it has forged (Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle) and little else.
95. ‘The Greatest Show on Earth’ (1952)
Jimmy Stewart is a clown and Charlton Heston additionally indicators up for this ostentatious and loathsome three-ring ode to P.T. Barnum’s circus.
94. ‘Cimarron’ (1930/31)
The rocky drama about an 1800s Oklahoma household was the primary Western to win the class, but it has aged badly with unlucky racist stereotypes.
93. ‘Cavalcade’ (1932/33)
This sentimental story of household, pals and servants experiencing ups and downs of life from 1899 to 1933 is like “Downton Abbey” however not good.
92. ‘Driving Miss Daisy’ (1989)
Morgan Freeman performs a Black driver and Jessica Tandy is his aged white cost in an emotionally manipulative dramedy made for random cable TV showings.
91. ‘Around the World in 80 Days’ (1956)
An English dude (David Niven) travels the globe and meets colourful characters in a flighty three-hour affair. It’s no “Cannonball Run,” although.
90. ‘The English Patient’ (1996)
The pretentious World War II melodrama has Ralph Fiennes as a burned man, Juliette Binoche as his nurse and Kristin Scott Thomas as his already-married love.
89. ‘Out of Africa’ (1985)
Meryl Streep’s married Danish author falls for Robert Redford‘s big-game hunter over 160 snoozy minutes of Oscar-bait romance.
88. ‘Shakespeare in Love’ (1998)
The biopic rom-com gone unsuitable finds Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes) wooing the girl (Gwyneth Paltrow) who helps him write “Romeo and Juliet.”
87. ‘The Great Ziegfeld’ (1936)
William Powell plays the infamous title Broadway producer in an arduous and showy musical that is, suffice it to say, less than great.
86. ‘Million Dollar Baby’ (2004)
Hilary Swank packed on muscle to play an up-and-coming boxer trained by an aging coach (director Clint Eastwood) in a film as depressing as “Rocky” is uplifting.
85. ‘How Green Was My Valley’ (1941)
One of the Oscars’ greatest unsolved mysteries is how this maudlin Welsh family coal drama upset “Citizen Kane.”
84. ‘Chariots of Fire’ (1981)
Vangelis’ catchy theme is the most memorable aspect of this emotionally deep but sluggish British sports drama that follows runners racing toward the 1924 Paris Olympics.
83. ‘Green Book’ (2018)
Mahershala Ali plays a Black pianist touring the Jim Crow South and Viggo Mortensen is his uncouth driver in a feel-good film about race relations with a whitewashed perspective.
82. ‘Gentleman’s Agreement’ (1947)
Gregory Peck stars as a journalist who pretends to be Jewish for a story on antisemitism, which probably sounded like a better idea in 1947.
81. ‘Tom Jones’ (1963)
The courtly British comedy finds Albert Finney embracing saucy adventures and getting into swordfights as a squire cast out of his kingdom.
80. ‘Grand Hotel’ (1931/32)
The episodic drama peeks at the various goings-on at a swanky Berlin hotel, like the budding relationship of a Russian ballerina (Greta Garbo) and jewelry-heisting gambler (John Barrymore).
79. ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ (2008)
Dev Patel’s orphan rises from the slums to win the Indian “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” but a Bollywood song-and-dance number botches the satisfying ending.
78. ‘The Lost Weekend’ (1945)
Billy Wilder’s bracing, noir-ish exploration of alcoholism features Ray Milland as a writer whose life devolves into a desperate hunt for his next drink over several harrowing days.
77. ‘Forrest Gump’ (1994)
The title character’s fanciful jaunt through American history veers schmaltzy, so thank goodness for Tom Hanks imbuing Gump with an enduring charm.
76. ‘Marty’ (1955)
One of Hollywood’s great character actors, Ernest Borgnine is outstanding as a 30-something butcher who finally finds love and doesn’t know who to do with it.
75. ‘The Hurt Locker’ (2009)
Director Kathryn Bigelow’s Iraq War thriller makes you feel the constant stress and danger faced by a military bomb-disposal unit (including Jeremy Renner and Anthony Mackie).
74. ‘American Beauty’ (1999)
Who could have imagined 20-plus years later that the divisive “dancing” plastic bag from the suburban satire would be more respected than best actor winner Kevin Spacey?
73. ‘Terms of Endearment’ (1983)
Shirley MacLaine and Debra Winger are a mother and daughter with a polarized relationship, yet Jack Nicholson stands out as a roguish astronaut.
72. ‘Anora’ (2025)
In Sean Baker’s Gen Z “Pretty Woman,” a Brooklyn sex worker (Mikey Madison) elopes with a Russian oligarch (Mark Eydelshteyn) and it’s not the greatest idea ever.
71. ‘Gigi’ (1958)
Young courtesan wannabe Gigi (Leslie Caron) and Parisian playboy Gaston (Louis Jourdan) see each other as just friends, until romance intercedes in the musical confection.
70. ‘You Can’t Take It With You’ (1938)
Frank Capra’s folksy rom-com casts Jimmy Stewart as Tony, a grounded guy from a snobby family who falls for Alice (Jean Arthur), the most normal in a clan of oddballs.
69. ‘Nomadland’ (2020)
Chloe Zhao’s look at older workers in modern America combines splendid scenery with a wondrous Frances McDormand as a woman who adores life on the road.
68. ‘Going My Way’ (1944)
Bing Crosby is the singingest priest you’ve ever seen in the musical dramedy, a tune-filled battle of wills between Crosby’s young holy man and Barry Fitzgerald’s elder pastor.
67. ‘Argo’ (2012)
Director Ben Affleck also stars in the historical thriller (and a sort of salute to the movies) about the CIA using a fake sci-fi movie as a ruse to rescue diplomats during the Iran hostage crisis.
66. ‘The Deer Hunter’ (1978)
Pennsylvania friends (including Robert De Niro and Christopher Walken) go off to Vietnam and face the psychological aftermath. Well made but super-duper bleak, so maybe chase it with …
65. ‘Oliver!’ (1968)
Charles Dickens’ spunky characters from “Oliver Twist” get a crowd-pleasing, all-ages revamp courtesy of a Victorian musical that doesn’t skimp on the earworming showtunes.
64. ‘The Best Years of Our Lives’ (1946)
Fredric March, Dana Andrews and Harold Russell star in the drama that deals honestly with a theme of the time: World War II veterans returning home to face personal and professional struggles.
63. ‘Braveheart’ (1995)
Mel Gibson’s controversial stances aside, he is pretty good at making you want to put war paint on and fight for Scottish independence.
62. ‘Ordinary People’ (1980)
Mary Tyler Moore veers unlikable for a change as the hard-to-please matriarch of a family shaken to its core by the death of one son and a suicide attempt by the other (Timothy Hutton).
61. ‘An American in Paris’ (1951)
Gene Kelly stars as a World War II vet crushing on the French perfume girl (Leslie Caron) who’s dating his singer pal (Georges Guétary). Awkward! But this one’s all about the wowing 17-minute dance finale set to Gershwin’s title tune.
60. ‘Mrs. Miniver’ (1942)
Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon star as an English couple dealing with the early days of World War II in a drama that, unlike many other films on this list, was made during said war.
59. ‘The King’s Speech’ (2010)
The sweet and inspirational story features Colin Firth as England’s King George VI working through a childhood stutter to be the steady voice his country needs.
58. ‘The Bridge on the River Kwai’ (1957)
“Star Wars” followers will respect Alec Guinness proudly owning the display screen as a World War II British colonel main whistling, bridge-building POWs at a Japanese jail camp in Thailand.
57. ‘Wings’ (1927/28)
The first best picture winner holds up properly nearly a century later. The silent movie stars Charles Rogers and Richard Arlen as rival pilots in World War I who dig the identical lady (Clara Bow) again dwelling.
56. ‘Dances With Wolves’ (1990)
Kevin Costner takes a break from sports activities motion pictures to direct and star within the strong Western epic as a Union soldier who befriends – and fights for – a Native American tribe.
55. ‘The Life of Emile Zola’ (1937)
Maybe not essentially the most well-known biopic however a fairly efficient one, with Paul Muni because the Nineteenth-century French author who speaks up for a Jewish captain tagged as a traitor.
54. ‘All the King’s Men’ (1949)
The movie noir tackles the corruptive tendencies of energy, with Broderick Crawford as a populist politician who rises up as a Southern governor and wields harmful affect.
53. ‘A Man for All Seasons’ (1966)
Paul Scofield brings regular nerve to his portrayal of Sir Thomas More, the British statesman who butted heads with King Henry VIII (Robert Shaw).
52. ‘A Beautiful Mind’ (2001)
A yr after successful best actor for “Gladiator,” Russell Crowe returned to the Oscar race together with his function as John Nash, a genius on an absorbing journey of math and insanity.
51. ‘The Last Emperor’ (1987)
Bernardo Bertolucci was the primary Italian filmmaker to win best director for the immersive historic chronicle of Chinese emperor Puyi’s life, from ruling as a toddler to being imprisoned as an grownup.
50. ‘The Shape of Water’ (2017)
Guillermo del Toro’s superbly unconventional romance makes you consider within the love between a unvoiced janitor (Sally Hawkins) and a captured fish man (Doug Jones).
49. ‘Rain Man’ (1988)
Dustin Hoffman reveals up on this record a number of occasions as a part of some dynamic duos. Here, he performs a savant with autism who reconnects together with his brash youthful brother (Tom Cruise) on the street.
48. ‘Gandhi’ (1982)
Richard Attenborough’s biopic takes on the story of the famend Indian chief and succeeds, primarily due to the spirit Ben Kingsley offers his title character.
47. ‘The Sound of Music’ (1965)
Julie Andrews is a nun who teaches a household of youngsters to sing and gallivants tunefully throughout Austrian mountains, whereas Christopher Plummer rips up a Nazi flag. They understood the project, as the youngsters say.
46. ‘The Artist’ (2011)
The (largely) silent movie is a joyous take a look at Hollywood’s yesteryear, discovering one thing particular with an growing old star (Jean Dujardin), an infectious ingenue (Bérégood Bejo) and a ridiculously cute pooch.
45. ‘Mutiny on the Bounty’ (1935)
Clark Gable appears unusual with out his signature mustache, but he is a clean-shaven pressure of excellent on this watery conflict as a seaman taking up Charles Laughton’s merciless Captain Bligh.
44. ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King’ (2003)
Hobbits and Co. lastly attain Mount Doom, and Peter Jackson’s large fantasy trilogy will get its atta-boy.
43. ‘Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)’ (2014)
Alejandro González Iñárritu’s revolutionary satire units its sights on movie star, household and film superheroes, with a gonzo Michael Keaton in certainly one of his best roles.
42. ‘Oppenheimer’ (2024)
Christopher Nolan tackles the creation of the atomic bomb in blistering trend, and the work of J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) unfolds as each scientific feat and all-time cautionary story.
41. ‘Rebecca’ (1940)
Alfred Hitchcock’s lone entry on this record is a becoming psychological head journey, with Joan Fontaine taking part in the brand new spouse of an aristocrat (Laurence Olivier) who cannot escape the seemingly fixed presence of his useless spouse.
40. ‘Patton’ (1970)
George C. Scott embodies Gen. George S. Patton as a tricky chief on the battlefield and a larger-than-life speaker, particularly the opening monologue in entrance of a flag that is a basic Hollywood second.
39. ‘No Country for Old Men’ (2007)
The Coen brothers’ Western-tinged thriller rounds up a posse with Josh Brolin as a Vietnam vet who finds a load of drug cash and Javier Bardem as a chilling hitman.
38. ‘Midnight Cowboy’ (1969)
Dustin Hoffman discovered one other dude duo with Jon Voight as two hustlers – one a Texan intercourse employee, the opposite an ailing con man – navigating New York City’s seedier corners.
37. ‘Hamlet’ (1948)
Laurence Olivier is the peanut butter, Shakespeare’s Danish prince is the jelly, they usually’re made for one another in a scrumptious deal with doing expressionism approach earlier than “The Tragedy of Macbeth.”
36. ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ (2022)
The one with the new canine fingers! Michelle Yeoh paces the brain-melting sci-fi comedy with the heart of gold as a laundromat proprietor who goes from needing to repair her tax issues to saving the multiverse with superior kung fu strikes.
35. ‘Platoon’ (1986)
Oliver Stone’s Vietnam drama fantastically depicts the horrors of warfare and the morals of the lads concerned, together with Charlie Sheen as a soldier caught between ideologically totally different sergeants (Willem Dafoe and Tom Berenger).
34. ‘CODA’ (2021)
It’s an enormous, heat inclusive hug of a film, with a listening to lady (Emilia Jones) torn between the struggling fishing enterprise run by her dad and mom (Marlee Matlin and Oscar winner Troy Kotsur) and her personal musical desires. Have a field of tissues by your facet always.
33. ‘Kramer vs. Kramer’ (1979)
Dustin Hoffman’s best pairing was with Meryl Streep, with their searing look at parenting, divorce and the effects on a child many years earlier than “Marriage Story.”
32. ‘Titanic’ (1997)
In James Cameron’s blockbuster, Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet gave us a doomed love story folks could (mostly) buy amid a historical disaster. (Jack totally could have fit on Rose’s door, though.)
31. ‘Annie Hall’ (1977)
Woody Allen is polarizing, his best movie is not. The filmmaker’s beloved comedy hilariously follows the relationship build and breakup of a comedian (Allen) and a singer (Diane Keaton).
30. ‘The Sting’ (1973)
Set to a rollicking ragtime score, the enjoyable crime caper lets Robert Redford and Paul Newman shine as con men who eye a powerful boss as their ultimate mark after the murder of a shared friend.
29. ‘Ben-Hur’ (1959)
The chariot race rules and the action is on a biblical scale (literally!) in the epic featuring Charlton Heston as a Jewish prince enslaved on a galley ship who plots revenge on the Romans who betrayed him.
28. ‘Unforgiven’ (1992)
Clint Eastwood rides tall in the director’s chair, stakes his claim for best Western ever and stars as an aging farmer who returns to his outlaw ways for righteous retribution.
27. ‘Gladiator’ (2000)
Joaquin Phoenix’s first Oscar win for “Joker” should have been No. 2: He was devilishly top-notch as evil Commodus opposite Russell Crowe’s vengeful battler Maximus.
26. ‘In the Heat of the Night’ (1967)
The late Sidney Poitier wondrously exudes intelligence and gumption as a visiting detective traveling through Mississippi who helps racist cops catch a killer.
25. ‘The Departed’ (2006)
Martin Scorsese’s sole best director win is for this twisty crime thriller with gangster Jack Nicholson, undercover cop Leonardo DiCaprio and Mob mole Matt Damon.
24. ‘My Fair Lady’ (1964)
Audrey Hepburn is a hoot as cockney Brit Eliza Doolittle, given a makeover by Rex Harrison’s Henry Higgins in the musical take on “Pygmalion.”
23. ’12 Years a Slave’ (2013)
Chiwetel Ejiofor plays a free Black man tricked into servitude for Steve McQueen’s uneasy-to-watch yet essential pre-Civil War drama.
22. ‘Chicago’ (2002)
The rare A-list musical – with Renée Zellweger and Catherine Zeta-Jones as jazz-era convicts – that ingeniously treats its numbers as flights of fantasy.
21. ‘From Here to Eternity’ (1953)
Come for Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr’s infamous kiss on the beach, stay for the drama involving soldiers in Hawaii just before the Pearl Harbor attack.
20. ‘The Apartment’ (1960)
Nothing says “Christmas movie” like office drone Jack Lemmon lending his place to the boss for hookups and falling for elevator girl Shirley MacLaine.
19. ‘Rocky’ (1976)
With Sylvester Stallone’s headstrong boxer, it’s the classic every underdog sports drama will be compared to forevermore.
18. ‘It Happened One Night’ (1934)
Frank Capra’s enjoyable and sexy (for the ’30s) romantic comedy had Clark Gable’s journalist falling for Claudette Colbert’s runaway heiress.
17. ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ (1929/30)
The extremely powerful anti-war film explored the carnage of World War I and the disillusioned soldiers who came home.
16. ‘Spotlight’ (2015)
Sigh. “All the President’s Men” didn’t win best picture. Thankfully this story of crusading Boston journalists and a shady Catholic Church cover-up did.
15. ‘West Side Story’ (1961)
The cultural portrayals earn some side-eye, but the musical love story still soars with powerhouse tunes and a phenomenal Rita Moreno.
14. ‘Gone With the Wind’ (1939)
It’s problematic for modern eyes, but the Southern-fried Civil War epic still works as a spectacle of unrequited romance.
13. ‘Moonlight’ (2016)
Barry Jenkins’ elegant character study of a Black man dealing with his identity and sexuality is an unforgettable, multilayered work.
12. ‘Parasite’ (2019)
In the first non-English language film to win best picture, a poor but clever Korean family infiltrates a wealthy clan – as well as the viewer’s heart and mind.
11. ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ (1962)
Peter O’Toole’s title British officer has his allegiances torn in this sweeping, sandy epic that influenced a generation of filmmakers.
10. ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ (1975)
A criminal (Jack Nicholson) figures being in an asylum is an easy way to do time, then runs into the nurse from hell (Louise Fletcher).
9. ‘The Godfather Part II’ (1974)
Francis Ford Coppola’s great gangland prequel/sequel unleashes Al Pacino and Robert De Niro as two generations of Mob bosses.
8. ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ (1991)
Anthony Hopkins made us root for the bad guy (and a cannibal at that) in the only horror movie to crack this vaunted Oscar list.
7. ‘The French Connection’ (1971)
With an all-timer of a car chase and Gene Hackman’s fantastic antihero Popeye Doyle, good luck finding a better cop thriller.
6. ‘Amadeus’ (1984)
Who said period pieces have to be boring? In the hands of Tom Hulce, musical genius Mozart is a 19th-century wild child we’d all want to party with.
5. ‘All About Eve’ (1950)
Bette Davis’ Broadway star freaks out about her age (at 40!) – and Anne Baxter’s zealous understudy does not help – in a stellar lesson on celebrity and cold-blooded ambition.
4. ‘On the Waterfront’ (1954)
Marlon Brando’s New Jersey boxer-turned-longshoreman “coulda been a contender” however is unquestionably the champ of this beautiful crime drama.
3. ‘Schindler’s List’ (1993)
A transferring, devastating Holocaust story about hope and kindness, it is the best Steven Spielberg movie with no sure globetrotting archaeologist.
2. ‘Casablanca’ (1943)
As Humphrey Bogart learns, you may keep impartial in warfare solely till love and righteousness stroll again by your nightclub doors.
1. ‘The Godfather’ (1972)
With violence, betrayal, drama, Marlon Brando and Al Pacino, the sprawling gangster epic is the cannoli on prime of the Oscars’ best picture cake.
