Tom O’Neil’s Top 25 Best Picture Winners

Tom O’Neil, Editor-in-Chief, President and founder of Gold Derby, has devoted his career to studying all major showbiz awards. His books “The Emmys” and “The Grammys,” published by Penguin Putnam, were the first in-depth studies of those awards and their histories and “Movie Awards” was the first to track the year-by-year histories of Hollywood’s 12 major film kudos. What are his personal favorite Oscar Best Picture winners of all time? Click through our photo gallery above to see O’Neil’s Top 25 faves. Can you guess what’s #1?

-By Amanda Spears

25.) ‘Grand Hotel’ (1932)

A group of very different individuals staying at a luxurious hotel in Berlin deal with each of their respective dramas.

Total Oscar Nominations: 1

Wins: 1
Best Picture

Losses: 0
This film was undefeated

1931-32 Best Picture Nominees:
“Arrowsmith”
“Bad Girl”
“The Champ”
“Five Star Finale”
“Grand Hotel”
“One Hour with You”
“Shanghai Express”
“The Smiling Lieutenant”

24.) ‘On the Waterfront’ (1954)

An ex-prize fighter turned longshoreman struggles to stand up to his corrupt union bosses.

Total Oscar Nominations: 12

Wins: 8
Best Picture
Best Director (Elia Kazan)
Best Actor (Marlon Brando)
Best Supporting Actress (Eva Marie Saint)
Best Writing, Story and Screenplay (Budd Schulberg)
Best Cinematography, Black and White
Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black and White
Best Film Editing

Losses: 4
Best Supporting Actor (Lee J. Cobb)
Best Supporting Actor (Karl Malden)
Best Supporting Actor (Rod Steiger)
Best Score

1954 Best Picture Nominees: 
“The Caine Mutiny”
“The Country Girl”
“On the Waterfront”
“Seven Brides for Seven Brothers”
“Three Coins in a Fountain”

23.) ‘It Happened One Night’ (1934)

A spoiled heiress running away from her family is helped by a man who is actually a reporter in need of a story.

Total Oscar Nominations: 5

Wins: 5
Best Picture
Best Director (Frank Capra)
Best Actor (Clark Gable)
Best Actress (Claudette Colbert)
Best Writing, Adaptation (Robert Riskin)

Losses: 0
This film was undefeated

1934 Best Picture Nominees:
“The Barretts of Wimpole Street”
“Cleopatra”
“Flirtation Walk”
“The Gay Divorcee”
“Here Comes the Navy”
“The House of Rothschild”
“Imitation of Life”
“It Happened One Night”
“One Night of Love”
“The Thin Man”
“Viva Villa!”
“The White Parade”

22.) ‘Patton’ (1970)

The World War II phase of the career of the controversial general, George S. Patton.

Total Oscar Nominations: 10

Wins: 7
Best Picture
Best Director (Franklin J. Schaffner)
Best Actor (George C. Scott)
Best Original Screenplay (Francis Ford Coppola and Edmund H. North)
Best Art Direction-Set Decoration
Best Film Editing
Best Sound

Losses: 3
Best Cinematography
Best Score
Best Visual Effects

1970 Best Picture Nominees:
“Airport”
“Five Easy Pieces”
“Love Story”
“M*A*S*H”
“Patton”

21.) ‘The Bridge on the River Kwai’ (1957)

After settling his differences with a Japanese POW camp commander, a British colonel cooperates to oversee his men’s construction of a railway bridge for their captors – while oblivious to a plan by his Allies to destroy it.

Total Oscar Nominations: 8

Wins: 7
Best Picture
Best Director (David Lean)
Best Actor (Alec Guinness)
Best Adapted Screenplay (Pierre Boulle, Carl Foreman, and Michael Wilson)
Best Cinematography
Best Film Editing
Best Original Score

Losses: 1
Best Supporting Actor (Sessue Hayakawa)

1957 Best Picture Nominees:
“The Bridge on the River Kwai”
“Peyton Place”
“Sayonara”
“12 Angry Men”
“Witness for the Prosecution”

20.) ‘Schindler’s List’ (1993)

In German-occupied Poland during World War II, Oskar Schindler gradually becomes concerned for his Jewish workforce after witnessing their persecution by the Nazi Germans.

Total Oscar Nominations: 12

Wins: 7
Best Picture
Best Director (Steven Spielberg)
Best Adapted Screenplay (Steven Zaillian)
Best Cinematography
Best Art Direction-Set Decoration
Best Film Editing
Best Score

Losses: 5
Best Actor (Liam Neeson)
Best Supporting Actor (Ralph Fiennes)
Best Costume Design
Best Sound
Best Makeup

1993 Best Picture Nominees:
“The Fugitive”
“In the Name of the Father”
“The Piano”
“The Remains of the Day”
“Schindler’s List”

19.) ‘Terms of Endearment’ (1983)

Follows hard-to-please Aurora looking for love and her daughter’s family problems.

Total Oscar Nominations: 11

Wins: 5
Best Picture
Best Director (James L. Brooks)
Best Actress (Shirley MacLaine)
Best Supporting Actor (Jack Nicholson)
Best Adapted Screenplay (James L. Brooks)

Losses: 6
Best Actress (Debra Winger)
Best Supporting Actor (John Lithgow)
Best Art Direction-Set Decoration
Best Film Editing
Best Original Score
Best Sound

1983 Best Picture Nominees:
“The Big Chill”
“The Dresser”
“The Right Stuff”
“Tender Mercies”
“Terms of Endearment”

18.) ‘The Apartment’ (1960)

A man tries to rise in his company by letting its executives use his apartment for trysts, but complications and a romance of his own ensue.

Total Oscar Nominations: 10

Wins: 5
Best Picture
Best Director (Billy Wilder)
Best Original Screenplay (Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond)
Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black and White
Best Film Editing

Losses: 5
Best Actor (Jack Lemmon)
Best Actress (Shirley MacLaine)
Best Supporting Actor (Jack Kruschen)
Best Cinematography, Black and White
Best Sound

1960 Best Picture Nominees:
“The Alamo”
“The Apartment”
“Elmer Gantry”
“Sons and Lovers”
“The Sundowners”

17.) ‘Shakespeare in Love’ (1998)

A young Shakespeare, out of ideas and short of cash, meets his ideal woman and is inspired to write one of his most famous plays.

Total Oscar Nominations: 13

Wins: 7
Best Picture
Best Actress (Gwyneth Paltrow)
Best Supporting Actress (Judi Dench)
Original Screenplay (Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard)
Best Art Direction-Set Decoration
Best Costume Design
Best Original Musical/Comedy Score

Losses: 6
Best Director (John Madden)
Best Supporting Actor (Geoffrey Rush)
Best Cinematography
Best Film Editing
Best Sound
Best Makeup

1998 Best Picture Nominees:
“Elizabeth”
“Life is Beautiful”
“Saving Private Ryan”
“Shakespeare in Love”
“The Thin Red Line”

16.) ‘Forrest Gump’ (1994)

Forrest Gump, while not intelligent, has accidentally been present at many historic moments, but his true love, Jenny Curran, eludes him.

Total Oscar Nominations: 13

Wins: 6
Best Picture
Best Director (Robert Zemeckis)
Best Actor (Tom Hanks)
Best Adapted Screenplay (Eric Roth)
Best Film Editing
Best Visual Effects

Losses: 7
Best Supporting Actor (Gary Sinise)
Best Cinematography
Best Art Direction-Set Decoration
Best Original Score
Best Sound
Best Sound Effects Editing
Best Makeup

1994 Best Picture Nominees:
“Forrest Gump”
“Four Weddings and a Funeral”
“Quiz Show”
“Pulp Fiction”
“The Shawshank Redemption”

15.) ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ (1975)

A criminal pleads insanity after getting into trouble again and once in the mental institution rebels against the oppresive nurse and rallies up the scared patients.

Total Oscar Nominations: 9

Wins: 5
Best Picture
Best Director (Milos Forman)
Best Actor (Jack Nicholson)
Best Actress (Louise Fletcher)
Best Adapted Screenplay (Lawrence Hauben and Bo Goldman)

Losses: 4
Best Supporting Actor (Brad Dourif)
Best Cinematography
Best Film Editing
Best Original Score

1975 Best Picture Nominees:
“Barry Lyndon”
“Dog Day Afternoon”
“Jaws”
“Nashville”
“One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”

14.) ‘Midnight Cowboy’ (1969)

A naive hustler travels from Texas to New York to seek personal fortune but, in the process, finds himself a new friend.

Total Oscar Nominations: 7

Wins: 3
Best Picture
Best Director (John Schlesinger)
Best Adapted Screenplay (Waldo Salt)

Losses: 4
Best Actor (Dustin Hoffman)
Best Actor (Jon Voight)
Best Supporting Actress (Sylvia Miles)
Best Film Editing

1969 Best Picture Nominees:
“Anne of the Thousand Days”
“Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”
“Hello, Dolly!”
“Midnight Cowboy”
“Z”

13.) ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ (1930)

A young soldier faces profound disillusionment in the soul-destroying horror of World War I.

Total Oscar Nominations: 4

Wins: 2
Best Picture
Best Director (Lewis Milestone)

Losses: 2
Best Writing, Achievement (George Abbott, Maxwell Anderson, and Del Andrews)
Best Cinematography

1929-30 Best Picture Nominees:
“All Quiet on the Western Front”
“The Big House”
“Disraeli”
“The Divorcee”
“The Love Parade”

12.) ‘Marty’ (1955)

A middle-aged butcher and a school teacher who have given up the idea of love meet at a dance and fall for each other.

Total Oscar Nominations: 8

Wins: 4
Best Picture
Best Director (Delbert Mann)
Best Actor (Ernest Borgnine)
Best Writing, Screenplay (Paddy Chayefsky)

Losses: 4
Best Supporting Actor (Joe Mantell)
Best Supporting Actress (Betsy Blair)
Best Cinematography, Black and White
Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black and White

1955 Best Picture Nominees:
“Love is a Many Splendored-Thing”
“Marty”
“Mister Roberts”
“Picnic”
“The Rose Tattoo”

11.) ‘West Side Story’ (1961)

Two youngsters from rival New York City gangs fall in love, but tensions between their respective friends build toward tragedy.

Total Oscar Nominations: 11

Wins: 10
Best Picture
Best Director (Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins)
Best Supporting Actor (George Chakiris)
Best Supporting Actress (Rita Moreno)
Best Cinematography, Color
Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color
Best Costume Design, Color
Best Film Editing
Best Score
Best Sound

Losses: 1
Best Adapted Screenplay (Ernest Lehman)

1961 Best Picture Nominees:
“Fanny”
“The Guns of Navarone”
“The Hustler”
“Judgment at Nuremberg”
“West Side Story”

10.) ‘Lord of the Rings: Return of the King’ (2003)

Gandalf and Aragorn lead the World of Men against Sauron’s army to draw his gaze from Frodo and Sam as they approach Mount Doom with the One Ring.

Total Oscar Nominations: 11

Wins: 11
Best Picture
Best Director (Peter Jackson)
Best Adapted Screenplay (Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, and Peter Jackson)
Best Art Direction-Set Decoration
Best Costume Design
Best Film Editing
Best Makeup
Best Score
Best Song (“Into the West”)
Best Sound Mixing
Best Visual Effects

Loses: 0
This film was undefeated

2003 Best Picture Nominees:
“The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”
“Lost in Translation”
“Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World”
“Mystic River”
“Seabiscuit”

9.) ‘Annie Hall’ (1977)

Neurotic New York comedian Alvy Singer falls in love with the ditzy Annie Hall.

Total Oscar Nominations: 5

Wins: 4
Best Picture
Best Director (Woody Allen)
Best Actress (Diane Keaton)
Best Original Screenplay (Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman)

Losses: 1
Best Actor (Woody Allen)

1977 Best Picture Nominees:
“Annie Hall”
“The Goodbye Girl”
“Julia”
“Star Wars”
“The Turning Point”

8.) ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ (2008)

A Mumbai teen who grew up in the slums becomes a contestant on the Indian version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” He is arrested under suspicion of cheating, and while being interrogated, events from his life history are shown which explain why he knows the answers.

Total Oscar Nominations: 10

Wins: 8
Best Picture
Best Director (Danny Boyle)
Best Adapted Screenplay (Simon Beaufoy)
Best Cinematography
Best Film Editing
Best Score
Best Song (‘Jai Ho’)
Best Sound Mixing

Losses: 2
Best Song (“O…Saya”)
Best Sound Editing

2008 Best Picture Nominees:
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
“Frost/Nixon”
“Milk”
“The Reader”
“Slumdog Millionaire”

7.) ‘Casablanca’ (1942)

In Casablanca, Morocco in December 1941, a cynical American expatriate meets a former lover, with unforeseen consequences.

Total Oscar Nominations: 8

Wins: 3
Best Picture
Best Director (Michael Curtiz)
Best Writing, Screenplay (Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, and Howard Koch)

Losses: 5
Best Actor (Humphrey Bogart)
Best Supporting Actor (Claude Raines)
Best Cinematography, Black and White
Best Film Editing
Best Original Score

1943 Best Picture Nominees:
“Casablanca”
“For Whom the Bell Tolls”
“Heaven Can Wait”
“The Human Comedy”
“In Which We Serve”
“Madame Curie”
“The More the Merrier”
“The Ox-Bow Incident”
“The Song of Bernadette”
“Watch on the Rhine”

6.) ‘The Sound of Music’ (1965)

A woman leaves an Austrian convent to become a governess to the children of a Naval officer widower.

Total Oscar Nominations: 10

Wins: 5
Best Picture
Best Director (Robert Wise)
Best Film Editing
Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment
Best Sound

Losses: 5
Best Actress (Julie Andrews)
Best Supporting Actress (Peggy Wood)
Best Cinematography, Color
Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color
Best Costume Design, Color

1965 Best Picture Nominees:
“Darling”
“Doctor Zhivago”
“Ship of Fools”
“The Sound of Music”
“A Thousand Clowns”

5.) ‘The Godfather’ (1972)

The aging patriarch of an organized crime dynasty transfers control of his clandestine empire to his reluctant son.

Total Oscar Nominations: 11

Wins: 3
Best Picture
Best Actor (Marlon Brando)
Best Adapted Screenplay (Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo)

Losses: 8
Best Director (Francis Ford Coppola)
Best Supporting Actor (James Caan)
Best Supporting Actor (Robert Duvall)
Best Supporting Actor (Al Pacino)
Best Costume Design
Best Film Editing
Best Sound
Best Original Score (nomination rescinded, replaced by “Sleuth”)

1972 Best Picture Nominees:
“Cabaret”
“Deliverance”
“The Emigrants”
“The Godfather”
“Sounder”

4.) ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ (1991)

A young F.B.I. cadet must confide in an incarcerated and manipulative killer to receive his help on catching another serial killer who skins his victims.

Total Oscar Nominations: 7

Wins: 5
Best Picture
Best Director (Jonathan Demme)
Best Actor (Anthony Hopkins)
Best Actress (Jodie Foster)
Best Adapted Screenplay (Ted Tally)

Losses: 2
Best Film Editing
Best Sound

1991 Best Picture Nominees:
“Beauty and the Beast”
“Bugsy”
“JFK”
“The Prince of Tides”
“The Silence of the Lambs”

3.) ‘All About Eve’ (1950)

An ingenue insinuates herself into the company of an established but aging stage actress and her circle of theater friends.

Total Oscar Nominations: 14

Wins: 6
Best Picture
Best Director (Joseph L. Mankiewicz)
Best Supporting Actor (George Sanders)
Best Writing, Screenplay (Joseph L. Mankiewicz)
Best Costume Design, Black and White
Best Sound

Losses: 8
Best Actress (Anne Baxter)
Best Actress (Bette Davis)
Best Supporting Actress (Celeste Holm)
Best Supporting Actress (Thelma Ritter)
Best Cinematography, Black and White
Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black and White
Best Film Editing
Best Original Score

1950 Best Picture Nominees:
“All About Eve”
“Born Yesterday”
“Father of the Bride”
“King Solomon’s Mines”
“Sunset Blvd.”

2.) ‘Gone with the Wind’ (1939)

A manipulative Southern belle carries on a turbulent affair with a blockade runner during the American Civil War.

Total Oscar Nominations: 13

Wins: 8
Best Picture
Best Director (Victor Fleming)
Best Actress (Vivien Leigh)
Best Supporting Actress (Hattie McDaniel)
Best Writing, Screenplay (Sidney Howard)
Best Cinematography, Color
Best Art Direction
Best Film Editing
*Honorary Oscar: William Cameron Menzies, for outstanding achievement in the use of color for the enhancement of dramatic mood.
*Technical Achievement Award: R.D. Musgrave, for pioneering in the use of of coordinated equipment.

Losses: 5
Best Actor (Clark Gable)
Best Supporting Actress (Olivia de Havilland)
Best Score
Best Sound
Best Special Effects

1939 Best Picture Nominees:
“Dark Victory”
“Gone with the Wind”
“Goodbye, Mr. Chips”
“Love Affair”
“Mr. Smith Goes to Washington”
“Ninotchka”
“Of Mice and Men”
“Stagecoach”
“The Wizard of Oz”
“Wuthering Heights”

1.) ‘Titanic’ (1997)

A 17-year-old aristocrat falls in love with a kind but poor artist aboard the luxurious, ill-fated R.M.S. Titanic.

Total Oscar Nominations: 14

Wins: 11
Best Picture
Best Director (James Cameron)
Best Cinematography
Best Art Direction-Set Decoration
Best Costume Design
Best Film Editing
Best Score
Best Song (“My Heart Will Go On”)
Best Sound
Best Sound Effects Editing
Best Visual Effects

Losses: 3
Best Actress (Kate Winslet)
Best Supporting Actress (Gloria Stuart)
Best Makeup

1997 Best Picture Nominees:
“As Good as It Gets”
“The Full Monty”
“Good Will Hunting”
“L.A. Confidential”
“Titanic”

More Oscar Photo Galleries

Every Oscar winner for Best Picture

Every Oscar winner for Best Director

Every Oscar winner for Best Actor

Every Oscar winner for Best Actress

Every Oscar winner for Best Supporting Actor

Every Oscar winner for Best Supporting Actress

Biopics that won Best Picture

Musicals that won Best Picture

Westerns that won Best Picture

Tom O’Neil: My Top 25 Oscar Best Picture Winners of All Time