This is the prime award, where a group of people (or, in the case of the Nighthawk Awards, me) decide what the best film of the year is. It was complicated right from the start, of course, because the Academy Awards, the first awards group, had two different awards: Outstanding Picture and Quality Production. The first, according to the rule book was “the most outstanding motion picture, considering all elements that contribute to a picture’s greatness” while the second was “the most artistic, unique, and/or original motion picture without reference to cost or magnitude.” The italics are my emphasis because it’s that first award that went to Wings, often considered the first Best Picture winner which shows that right from the start, the Academy was focused on large productions. That’s the reason that films like The Great Ziegfeld, The Greatest Show on Earth, Around the World in 80 Days, Out of Africa, Braveheart and Titanic have Oscars. Well, that and questionable taste from the Academy.
The first critics group (sort of) was the National Board of Review and they began in 1933, followed two years later by the New York Film Critics. They agreed in that same year but the award went to The Informer which won everything but Picture at the Oscars. The Golden Globes arrived in 1943 (before the first three groups had ever agreed) but didn’t start splitting their award up until 1951. They did complicate the idea of a “Consensus Award” by having Foreign films (including British) not eligible for Picture. After complete lack of consensus in 1943 (four different films won the four awards), 1944 gave us the first film with three awards (Going My Way). In 1946 The Best Years of Our Lives would be the first to win four awards but that still wasn’t a sweep because one of those was the new BAFTA award which would complicate things by often being on a different calendar (the award was actually in 1947). Consensus got trickier in the 50s with A Streetcar Named Desire winning because it had the most points and noms (4) but only one win while two other films had two each. Also, many years had no limit on Globe or BAFTA nominees so the Consensus list was very long. On the Waterfront would set a new points record (410) and noms records (5) and would be the first film to win both critics awards and the Oscar but it would lose the BAFTA (to a film from a different year). Bridge on the River Kwai would become the first film to sweep all 5 awards. A Man for All Seasons would win 5 awards but in the year the National Society of Film Critics added a sixth award (which often went to a Foreign film). In 1974, Day for Night would become the first film to win the Consensus without an Oscar nomination thanks to two critics wins and the BAFTA win. The LA Film Critics would another award in 1975 and the Boston Society of Film Critics another in 1980. All the President’s Men would be the first film with 6 noms while GoodFellas would set new records across the board for points (650), noms (8) and wins (6) as the Chicago Film Critics and PGA added two more awards, all of which would be thumped by Schindler’s List, the only film to ever sweep all existing awards with 10 and a points record (910) that has not been matched and the highest Consensus percentage post-1946 (49.19%) by a considerable margin. Two years later the Critics Choice finally added the 11th and final award (six critics, five awards groups) with L.A. Confidential the first to 11 nominations with only Hurt Locker (10) also managing double-digits since.
For a full list of my own 9 point films (anything high ****) see the full Top 2000 list.
note: Critical Acclaim. That’s a phrase I will use below several times. So that I don’t have to keep repeating what it means, it’s based on the Consensus Awards that I do. My feelings don’t play into those awards except by the percentages I assign. 100 points for a win, 50 for a nomination. 100% for the Oscars, SAG, BAFTA, NYFC, LAFC, 90% for the BSFC, CFC, NSFC, 80% for the BFCA, NBR, 70% for the Globes. Then, I calculate percentage of the total points. That’s because in 1943 (the first year of the Globes) there were 990 total points and in 2011 there were 2795 total points, so the percentage of the total points is the best way to account for historical changes in scores. So, the film with the highest percentage of the year’s total points has the most critical acclaim under the definition I am using.
The Academy Awards
First, I’m doing this all as one post – no summarizing the post-2011 down below. This is complete through 2021. Second, there are a lot of tables here rather than text.
Summary:
I have covered each year in this category through 2020. Just go to the search bar of the blog and enter a year and look at it to get an idea for the years themselves.
As for trends, well the Academy with its focus on large-scale productions and major studios missed the boat for quite a long time. In the first six years, the Academy picked the two worst winners ever and a third among the 6 worst and had two years (1929, 1931) that couldn’t even average a good film among the nominees. Through 1934, they had only nominated 4 of the Top 200 nominees. Things started to improve in the latter half of the 1930s with 1935 being the first year to average a deserving Best Picture nominee (76 or higher) and 1939 the first year to average over an 80 as well as the first year with five great nominees (but not all 10 – don’t believe the hype). Still, none of those years even hits the Top 60 among Oscar years and the first 12 years (through 1938) are all among the 20 weakest Best Picture slates. In 1944, the Academy dropped to 5 nominees (it was variables through 1933, 12 each in 1934 and 1935 and 10 each through 1943) but didn’t necessarily start getting better. Though 1946 had two Top 100 nominees and 1947 set a new mark for highest average nominee (86.4), neither of them could still crack the Top 30 for years. The 1950s were actually a considerable step back. Though it had two of the best winners it also had two of the worst and the average winner was just an 80.6 after an 88.4 in the 1940s. The nominees had dropped from 81.25 to 77.04. No year even cracked the Top 50 and 1956 was one of the worst years ever. The 1960s were an improvement but still mixed with 1961 the best to date and 1963 the worst since 1931. The winners averaged a 90.4 but only had three Top 100 films. The 1970s finally saw Best Picture become what it should be. The nominees averaged 84.68 and the winners averaged 93.4 with 1972 becoming the first in which the average nominee was a great film and 1973 becoming the first Top 10 year. From 1972 to 1979 only two years were outside the Top 25. The 1980s both got better with 1980 and 1982 the first with nominees averaging 90 and two top 10 finishes for years but also worse as the first decade where the worst nominee was chosen three times (1985, 1985, 1989) and an average winner was the exact same as an average nominee (86.1). The 1990s were a bit odd with one terrible year (1995) and three great years (1991, 1993, 1994). But starting in 1991 and running through 2003, the Academy either picked the best of the nominees (91-93, 96, 98, 99, 03) or the worst (the rest). 2002 exhibited that oddness with the best slate of nominees by far (96 average) and awarding the weakest of them. The oddness continued with the weakest film chosen in 2005 and then the best for the last three years of the 5 BP Era. Then in 2009 came a change to 10 films, then in 2011 back to a variable which lasted through 2020 with a switch back to 10 in 2021. The interesting bit is that in spite of not nominating The Dark Knight or Wall-E in 2008 and prompting the switch, the Academy had been doing great; from 2001 to 2007, the Academy had five of the six best years in history. Since the final switch, the nominees have mostly been solid but undistinguished. The years have ranged as high as 12th (2017) and as low as 53rd (2011). It has included mostly great films (four years averaged above 90) but also some bad ones (seven nominees outside the Top 500). What’s more, they have yet to pick the best nominee in any year since the change. They picked the 2nd best several times (2009-12, 14, 15) but lately have been much worse (7th, 5th, 7th, 7th in the last four).
Sequels:
The Bells of St Mary’s was the first to earn a nomination and The Godfather Part II was the first winner with Return of the King following years later as the second winner. Other nominated films are The Godfather Part III, The Two Towers, Toy Story 3 (the first one nominated when the original wasn’t), Mad Max: Fury Road and Black Panther (sort of).
Genres:
No Kids, Horror or Sci-Fi film has ever won. The single winners are Action (The French Connection), Adventure (Mutiny on the Bounty) and Suspense (Silence of the Lambs). The Crime films are grouped (1972 and 1974, 2006 and 2007). Fantasy never won before 2003 but has now won three times. Comedy has gone long gaps between wins (1938-1956, 1977-1989, 1998-2011). Musical won five times between 1958 and 1968 and only twice since then. War is split – two World War I films, two World War II films, two Vietnam films, one Iraq film. Western went almost 60 years between wins and then won again two years later. Drama’s nadir was the 70s – just three wins. It’s peak was the 40s – it won every year from 1941 to 1950 and 16 times from 1937-1955. Its largest gap is 6 years (1969-1975) but followed that with 10 wins in 14 years.
| Genre | Wins | % |
| Drama | 50 | 52.63% |
| Comedy | 13 | 13.68% |
| Musical | 10 | 10.53% |
| War | 7 | 7.37% |
| Crime | 4 | 4.21% |
| Western | 3 | 3.16% |
| Fantasy | 3 | 3.16% |
| Mystery | 2 | 2.11% |
| Action | 1 | 1.05% |
| Adventure | 1 | 1.05% |
| Suspense | 1 | 1.05% |
Of the nominees, every genre is covered. Action took until 1971 for a nomination but won with its first. It also went 26 years between noms from 1974 to 2000. After not earning a nom until 1971, Horror earned four in six years then didn’t earn another until 1999. I don’t count Silence (like many do) but count many films that others don’t (Clockwork Orange, Black Swan, Get Out). Sci-Fi took until 1977, earned another in 1982 and then jumped to 2009 but since then has seven more; they do very well with also earning Tech noms with all but one earning Sound and all but one earning Visual Effects and surprisingly well in Screenplay (only Gravity didn’t earn a nom). Kids has been grouped (one in 1939, two in the mid 40s, two in the mid 60s, two in the early 90s, two in the late 00s). Mystery has now gone 18 years since its last nomination. Fantasy earned its first nom in 1935 but didn’t get its second until 1981 and its third until 1990; only half the Fantasy films nominated for Best Picture earned a Visual Effects nom but they all won the award. Adventure earned 8 noms from 1931 to 1938 but only 6 since and only two since 1972 (Master and Commander, Revenant); it has done poorly in Director (5 noms) but very well in Editing (11 noms, 3 wins) to go with Picture. The heyday for Suspense was the 40s (seven noms from 1940-47 including three for Hitchcock films) with only seven since and none since 1993. Westerns had a huge gap from 1969-1990 without a nom and a smaller one from 1992-2010. Crime once went 30 years without a nom (1937-1967) and its best period was not the 30s (just two noms) but 1985-1996 (six noms); of the post-1937 nominees only Hell or High Water didn’t earn a Director nom, all earned writing noms and all but Atlantic City earned Supporting Actor noms (several earning multiple). In fact, the 17 Crime films nominated for Best Picture from 1967-2019 earned a combined 23 Supporting Actor noms with 4 wins. War films have had several eight year gaps between noms (1962-70, 1970-78, 1998-2006) but never more than that. Most War films earn Director, Editing and Cinematography noms as well (15 added all three of those). Musicals don’t do well in major categories; while Musicals average 6.54 noms (versus 6.45 for all Picture nominees), over half their noms don’t earn a Director nom, over half don’t earn a Writing nom and a whopping 10 (21.2%) earn no major noms outside of Picture (compared to less than 10% of all Picture nominees). Musicals have had at least one nominee in every decade but what most people think of as a Musical (people burst into song) went nearly 30 years between Cabaret and Moulin Rouge. Musicals account for just 8% of all Picture nominees but account for 19% of Picture nominees nominated for Editing, Cinematography, Score, Art Direction, Sound and Costume Design. It took until 1931 for a Comedy to be nominated and Comedies, even with more than 5 nominees in lots of years now, still average less than one nomination per year and from 1944-1949 the only nominee was The Bishop’s Wife. In 1973, three Comedies were nominated and The Sting won and in 1977 two were nominated and Annie Hall won but none were nominated in the three years between. The biggest gap is five years 1989-1994). Even with the expanded era, there were no Comedy nominees in 2016 or 2020 though Comedies have benefited from this era with 21 nominees in 14 years after just 21 in the previous 28 years. In contrast to Musicals, only three Comedies have failed to earn another major nom and none since 1936 though only two Comedies earned those six Tech noms (The Sting, Shakespeare in Love). Comedies are especially weak in Visual Effects (one nom), Sound Editing (two), Song (four) and Foreign (two). Drama films average 3.25 nominees a year and even averaged 2.67 nominees a year in the 5 BP Era (1944-2008). In the original expanded era, (1932-1943), Dramas had a whopping 67 noms including 7 just in 1939 and set a new record in 2020 with 8 (out of 9!). Dramas have never had a year without a nominee have never had a decade with fewer than 25 noms and have had several years where it had 4 of the 5 nominees. While many Dramas have had no other major noms only two have done so since 1956 (Selma, Ford v Ferrari). Though 8 Dramas have earned no other noms except Picture, Dramas as a whole average 6.48 noms for their Picture nominees while Dramas that win the Oscar average 8.78 nominations and average 5 wins.
| Genre | Noms | % | Wins | % |
| Drama | 308 | 52.74% | 50 | 16.23% |
| Comedy | 81 | 13.87% | 13 | 16.05% |
| Musical | 47 | 8.05% | 10 | 21.28% |
| War | 32 | 5.48% | 7 | 21.88% |
| Crime | 21 | 3.60% | 4 | 19.05% |
| Western | 16 | 2.74% | 3 | 18.75% |
| Adventure | 14 | 2.40% | 1 | 7.14% |
| Suspense | 14 | 2.40% | 1 | 7.14% |
| Fantasy | 10 | 1.71% | 3 | 30.00% |
| Mystery | 10 | 1.71% | 2 | 20.00% |
| Kids | 9 | 1.54% | 0 | 0.00% |
| Sci-Fi | 9 | 1.54% | 0 | 0.00% |
| Horror | 8 | 1.37% | 0 | 0.00% |
| Action | 5 | 0.86% | 1 | 20.00% |
Foreign Films:
There have been 12 nominees over the years. The first was Grand Illusion in 1938 but the next wasn’t until Z in 1969, the first to also earn a Foreign Film nomination (and win). Of the 12 films, only six also earned Foreign Film noms (they all won). Parasite became the first to win the Oscar. Two films were American made films in other languages (Letters from Iwo Jima, Minari). Of interest, while Grand Illusion received no other noms, the other 11 were all nominated for Director and Screenplay.
Single Nominations:
This was common early on; from 1928-1936 15 films received a Picture nom with no other noms with Grand Hotel even winning. After that, it was just three more (Grand Illusion, One Foot in Heaven, The Ox-Bow Incident). Just two nominations was also common early on (12 films from 1928-36 including one winner), became rare (one in 1943, one in 1951) then non-existent (none again until 1994) and then sprang back into being more common with the new expanded BP era (five since 2009).
Other Categories:
There will be four charts. This first one is Best Picture winners (of which there are 95) with how often they win in other categories. There are no current streaks as Picture was literally the only award that Nomadland and CODA shared. The last active streak of more than two years was Director from 2006-11.
| Cat | Wins | % |
| D | 67 | 70.53% |
| AS | 43 | 45.26% |
| Ed | 34 | 35.79% |
| AD | 28 | 29.47% |
| A | 27 | 28.42% |
| Ci | 27 | 28.42% |
| Scr | 26 | 27.37% |
| Sd | 23 | 24.21% |
| Sc | 20 | 21.05% |
| CD | 20 | 21.05% |
| SA | 18 | 18.95% |
| AS | 13 | 13.68% |
| SAS | 13 | 13.68% |
| VE | 6 | 6.32% |
| Sg | 5 | 5.26% |
| Mk | 4 | 4.21% |
| SE | 3 | 3.16% |
| Fo | 1 | 1.05% |
| An | 0 | 0.00% |
Here are the Best Picture winners with their nominations in other categories. Since I separate the two writing categories, I will note that Going My Way won both and The Life of Emile Zola won Adapted and was nominated in Original (different rules back then). Only 6 films have won the Oscar without a writing nom and only three since 1933: Hamlet, The Sound of Music, Titanic. The number is based on films, not nominations (for instance, the 57 films nominated for Actor include 63 nominations). There is no active streak longer than 2 and the two longest streaks (Director from 1933-1988 and 1990-2011 and Editing from 1981-2013) were both broken multiple times in the last decade.
| Cat | Noms | % |
| D | 88 | 92.63% |
| Ed | 77 | 81.05% |
| AS | 59 | 62.11% |
| Ci | 59 | 62.11% |
| A | 57 | 60.00% |
| SA | 53 | 55.79% |
| Scr | 51 | 53.68% |
| AD | 48 | 50.53% |
| Sd | 47 | 49.47% |
| CD | 35 | 36.84% |
| SAS | 34 | 35.79% |
| Sc | 30 | 31.58% |
| AS | 30 | 31.58% |
| VE | 10 | 10.53% |
| SE | 10 | 10.53% |
| Mk | 10 | 10.53% |
| Sg | 8 | 8.42% |
| Fo | 1 | 1.05% |
| An | 0 | 0.00% |
News from the San Diego Becks 
26 October, 2022 at 8:24 pm
Well, I’m just as excited as ever to read your thoughts on the 2021 nominees, especially since you consider Don’t Look Up the worst nominee in almost 30 years (I don’t think it’s THAT bad, but I’m always game to read a good evisceration). Since you have Drive My Car as a *** film, that means 2021 joins 2015 among the years where my choice for the best of the nominees doesn’t even make your Picture list. (I haven’t seen all the nominees for 1956 or 1963, but as of now they would also qualify.)
Also: I was thinking of doing a post on my own blog going over your various top 5s in these posts as a set of awards – kind of like what I’ve been trying to do with my own All-Time Film Awards – with links to the relevant Century of Film posts. Would that be all right? I know your lists change over time, even over the four and a half years you’ve been working on this project, but I thought it would make a nice summing-up.
20 January, 2023 at 1:10 am
Out of all 94 Best Picture Oscar winners, only 6 rank below the lowest 3 star rating (63). That’s honestly pretty good.
31 January, 2023 at 8:36 pm
Having now seen all of the 2022 nominees, here’s how I’d rank them (and how I’d rank them among the films I’ve seen this year):
****:
1. Everything Everywhere All at Once (#2)
2. Tár (#3)
3. The Fabelmans (#6)
4. All Quiet on the Western Front (#14)
5. Women Talking (#16)
6. The Banshees of Inisherin (#17)
***.5:
7. Top Gun: Maverick (#32)
8. Avatar: The Way of Water (#40)
9. Elvis (#50)
***:
10. Triangle of Sadness (#61)
Not a great line-up, but hardly terrible; the nominees average an 85.5, and Triangle, as a high ***, is pretty solid for a weakest nominee. It helps that this isn’t a remarkably strong year; my #1 film, Decision to Leave, wouldn’t get higher than #3 in a lot of years.
But if they’d nominated Babylon instead of Triangle, the category would average an 86.7, and if they also went with Decision to Leave over Elvis, it would average an 87.7, nudging the average score into ****.
25 February, 2023 at 2:30 pm
@ mountanto –
Sorry for the delay. Women Talking took longer to land on VOD than I thought it would and then the last few days have been hectic.
Overall, we are not so dissimilar. Here is how I rank the BP nominees (I have seen every Oscar nominated film except Living and all but three other films with nominations from any group that I track).
****:
1. The Fabelmans (#1)
2. All Quiet on the Western Front (#3)
3. The Banshees of Inisherin (#4)
4. Women Talking (#6)
5. Tár (#8)
6. Everything Everywhere All At Once (#10)
***:
7. Top Gun: Maverick (#47)
8. Triangle of Sadness (#80)
9. Elvis (#82)
10. Avatar: The Way of Water (#251)
Agreed, not a great lineup. Overall, it comes in at an average of 82.8 which exactly matches 2021 but that’s because of no ***.5 film this year but a better #10 film. I rank it roughly #59 all-time (out of 95 years) because of the way I balance the rating and the overall ranks of films.
Trying the same two slightly modified replacements you did, I get similar results. Babylon (my #2 – and if the rest of the film had been as good as the first hour and a half, my #1) instead of Avatar (rather than Triangle for you) gets it up to 86.5 and it then ranks at #35 all-time. But also bumping Elvis for Decision to Leave (my #5), gets it up to 88.7 and up to #26 all-time.
So our Top 5 and Top 10 are quite similar which I think is rare for the two of us. The other two in my Top 10 are Pinocchio and Glass Onion with She Said and Bardo rounding out the **** films and The Menu, Turning Red, Official Competition and Black Panther rounding out the Top 20.
I actually expect none of my acting winners to win the Oscar with three from Banshees (though Keoughan instead of Gleeson) and Michelle Williams (whose performance I thought had just the tiniest bit more of poignancy than Blanchett – almost a tie there).
Some of other winners might win. In Screenplay I go with Fabelmans and All Quiet, with All Quiet taking Cinematography, Sound, Makeup and Foreign, Fabelmans adding Editing, Babylon taking Score, AD and CD, Maverick with my VE award, Pinocchio winning Animated and Black Panther taking Song.
25 February, 2023 at 2:51 pm
I still haven’t seen Bardo (or most of the International Film nominees), but I’m pretty sure my choices are pretty well set, at least until I reconsider them well down the road:
Picture: Decision to Leave
Director: Park Chan-wook
Actor: Park Hae-il
Actress: Michelle Yeoh
Supporting Actor: Ke Huy Quan
Supporting Actress: Stephanie Hsu
Ensemble: Babylon (it doesn’t make my top 5 in any category but has a ton of very good performances and two great ones from Robbie and Pitt)
Original Screenplay: Everything Everywhere All at Once
Adapted Screenplay: Living (a great film, but this is a very weak lineup)
Cinematography: Decision to Leave
Editing: Decision to Leave
Production Design: Babylon
Costume Design: Neptune Frost
Makeup: Crimes of the Future
Score: Crimes of the Future
Song: “New Body Rhumba” – White Noise
Sound Mixing: Tár
Sound Effects: Nope
Visual Effects: Avatar: The Way of Water
And my top 10 at present are:
1. Decision to Leave
2. Everything Everywhere All at Once
3. Tár
4. Crimes of the Future
5. The Cathedral (not even on the Oscar reminder list)
6. The Fabelmans
7. Bones and All
8. Aftersun
9. Babylon
10. EO
13 March, 2023 at 12:49 pm
Well, the Oscars went with four of my outright winners and picked the best nominee (in my book) four more times (Picture, Director, Editing, and Song). I didn’t really agree with JLC winning Supporting Actress based on the performance, but she’s awesome, so I can live with it.
But the Oscars only agreed with your choice in Cinematography, Foreign Film, and Animated Feature. Seems like it’s been a while since you diverged THAT much. Any thoughts on the winners?
(Also, with Way of Water coming in 251st on your list – is that a typo, or did you just see a ton of films and enough of them were at least passable that it snuck on the bottom end of ***?)
13 March, 2023 at 2:49 pm
None of my #1 won a major award but I’m quite pleased with all the winners. I muted the whole show except the acting winners and all were great moments. And having EEAAO win Picture made for the great moment between Ke Huy Quan and Harrison Ford. So no complaints about the winners. In acting, I would say they were my #2 (Fraser), 3 (Yeoh), 2 (Quan) and 3 (Curtis).
I’ve seen all but 21 of the submitted feature films and every film from last year that made over $250,000 and over half the submitted foreign films, so yeah, Avatar is just that far down. And it’s really down at the very low end of *** and lucky not to be lower. My nephew summed it up perfectly before I saw it: “They fight for two hours. Then a whale sings.”
28 April, 2023 at 1:23 am
I can’t wait to see the Year in Film posts for 2021 and 2022.