The members of the Online Film Critics Society — of which I am one — have jointly ranked the 86 movies that have won the Academy Award for Best Picture. This is our top 10:
1. The Godfather (1972)
2. Casablanca (1943)
3. The Godfather Part II (1974)
4. Sunrise (1927/28)
5. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
6. It Happened One Night (1934)
7. All About Eve (1950)
8. Annie Hall (1977)
9. On the Waterfront (1954)
10. All Quiet on the Western Front (1929/30)
Links go to my reviews. The rest of the OFCS list is at Online Film Critics Society. (You’ll see how current we can be: newly minted Best Pic 12 Years a Slave is on the list, at No. 23.)
Read more about the Oscar Best Pictures, including fascinating trivia nuggets for each Best Picture and the other nominees each were up against, in these OFCS posts:
• “The Best of the Best Picture Oscar Winners, Part 1” (counting down from 86 to 66)
• “The Best of the Best Picture Oscar Winners, Part 2” (65 through 51)
• “The Best of the Best Picture Oscar Winners, Part 3” (50 through 36)
• “The Best of the Best Picture Oscar Winners, Part 4” (35 through 21)
• “The Best of the Best Picture Oscar Winners, Part 5” (20 through 1, with additional commentary on the top 10, including one by yours truly)
So this presents a daunting challenge: Go back and watch at least some of the hordes of movies I haven’t seen, taken not only from the list of winners, but the lists of movies that the winners beat, which is included in the main list. I have just now put in a request for Sunrise with the library. This ought to keep me busy for a long, long, long time. Dang.
You can watch Sunrise on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnLVMREVA6M
The film is in the public domain, so this isn’t piracy.
(Now I need to review that one.)
I haven’t seen all the nominees!
The section on It Happened One Night features the poster for Mutiny on the Bounty. Oops!
Ha! I hadn’t noticed. I’ll let them know.
A shame there isn’t any commentary on anything but the top 10. Particularly the bottom 20.
Sunrise didn’t win Best Picture or its equivalent Outstanding Picture. It won an Academy Award for Unique and Artistic Production. It seems that number four on the list shouldn’t be eligible at all.
D’oh!
Lots of people who think about these things consider it an equivalent to Best Picture. As, clearly, the OFCS organizers do.