Best Picture Ranking
by nickkubat | created - 3 weeks ago | updated - 22 hours ago | PublicRanking all the best picture winners (through 1959)
- Instant Watch Options
- Genres
- Movies or TV
- IMDb Rating
- In Theaters
- Release Year
- Keywords
1. Casablanca (1942)
PG | 102 min | Drama, Romance, War
A cynical expatriate American cafe owner struggles to decide whether or not to help his former lover and her fugitive husband escape the Nazis in French Morocco.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains
Votes: 606,246 | Gross: $1.02M
Another one I don't feel like I have to say much about. I mean it's Casablanca. It's one of the Mount Rushmore films of Hollywood.
2. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Approved | 218 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama
The story of T.E. Lawrence, the English officer who successfully united and led the diverse, often warring, Arab tribes during World War I in order to fight the Turks.
Director: David Lean | Stars: Peter O'Toole, Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn, Jack Hawkins
Votes: 314,505 | Gross: $44.82M
The Hollywood epic to end all epics. Perhaps the most "cannon" film ever, and the film with maybe the greatest cinematography ever. Need I go on?
3. All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
Passed | 152 min | Drama, War
A German youth eagerly enters World War I, but his enthusiasm wanes as he gets a firsthand view of the horror.
Director: Lewis Milestone | Stars: Lew Ayres, Louis Wolheim, John Wray, Arnold Lucy
Votes: 67,706 | Gross: $3.27M
Easily holds up today and is one of the films from the early years that I think everyone could enjoy. Even with the new Netflix remakes, the visuals here are much more striking and visceral.
4. On the Waterfront (1954)
Approved | 108 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
An ex-prize fighter turned New Jersey longshoreman struggles to stand up to his corrupt union bosses, including his older brother, as he starts to connect with the grieving sister of one of the syndicate's victims.
Director: Elia Kazan | Stars: Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb, Rod Steiger
Votes: 164,993 | Gross: $9.60M
A beautiful masterpiece. Marlon Brando with a performance that not only is it among his best, but the best in all of cinema. The story isn't too bad either.
5. Wings (1927)
PG-13 | 144 min | Drama, Romance, War
Two young men, one rich, one middle class, who are in love with the same woman, become fighter pilots in World War I.
Directors: William A. Wellman, Harry d'Abbadie d'Arrast | Stars: Clara Bow, Charles 'Buddy' Rogers, Richard Arlen, Jobyna Ralston
Votes: 14,544 | Gross: $6.59M
A deserving first winner in a packed year. Even 100 years later, the dogfights are still jaw dropping. I think it's a good quintessential "Hollywood" film.
6. The Lost Weekend (1945)
Passed | 101 min | Drama, Film-Noir
The desperate life of a chronic alcoholic is followed through a four-day drinking bout.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Ray Milland, Jane Wyman, Phillip Terry, Howard Da Silva
Votes: 40,211 | Gross: $9.46M
A bleak and stark look at alcoholism that had aged shockingly well. It's paced and edited immaculately, though you shouldn't expect less from Billy Wilder, and it's all lead by an all timer of a performance from Ray Milland
7. West Side Story (1961)
Approved | 153 min | Crime, Drama, Musical
Two youngsters from rival New York City gangs fall in love, but tensions between their respective friends build toward tragedy.
Directors: Jerome Robbins, Robert Wise | Stars: Natalie Wood, George Chakiris, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn
Votes: 121,241 | Gross: $43.66M
One of the few musicals that is an easy recomend. Sure the story is basically just Romeo and Juliet but the music here is really good, as are the performances and directing.
8. How Green Was My Valley (1941)
Passed | 118 min | Drama, Family
At the turn of the century in a Welsh mining village, the Morgans, he stern, she gentle, raise coal-mining sons and hope their youngest will find a better life.
Director: John Ford | Stars: Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O'Hara, Anna Lee, Donald Crisp
Votes: 26,494
The film that will forever be known as the one that denied Citizen Kane Hollywood's biggest honor. Which is a shame because it's actually a really solid film. I think that any film that can make a setting a character can like this film is really good. You really feel how tired and desperate this blue collar Welsh town is.
9. The Apartment (1960)
Approved | 125 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A Manhattan insurance clerk tries to rise in his company by letting its executives use his apartment for trysts, but complications and a romance of his own ensue.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Fred MacMurray, Ray Walston
Votes: 196,938 | Gross: $18.60M
Now this is a solid film. It's 2 hours of Billy Wilder just flexing his muscles on everyone. It's hard not to fall for Shirley MacLaine and Jack Lemmon here. Easy to see why it's so iconic.
10. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
Approved | 170 min | Drama, Romance, War
Three World War II veterans, two of them traumatized or disabled, return home to the American midwest to discover that they and their families have been irreparably changed.
Director: William Wyler | Stars: Myrna Loy, Dana Andrews, Fredric March, Teresa Wright
Votes: 70,577 | Gross: $23.65M
The timing of this film is super interesting. A film about coming back from war that hit right at the end of WW2 and the affects the war had on people is amazing, and it's well acted and directed.
11. All About Eve (1950)
Passed | 138 min | Drama
A seemingly timid but secretly ruthless ingénue insinuates herself into the lives of an aging Broadway star and her circle of theater friends.
Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz | Stars: Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, George Sanders, Celeste Holm
Votes: 138,810 | Gross: $0.01M
One of 3 films with 14 nominations. It's one of the biggest Oscar juggernauts of all time, anchored by Mankiewicz's masterful writing/ directing as well as Davis and Baxter's performances.
12. All the King's Men (1949)
Approved | 110 min | Drama, Film-Noir
The rise and fall of a corrupt politician, who makes his friends richer and retains power by dint of a populist appeal.
Director: Robert Rossen | Stars: Broderick Crawford, John Ireland, Joanne Dru, John Derek
Votes: 16,596
A solid rise and fall film. It's a story that's been told hundreds of time but good performances and editing rises this one up.
13. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
PG | 161 min | Adventure, Drama, War
British POWs are forced to build a railway bridge across the river Kwai for their Japanese captors in occupied Burma, not knowing that the allied forces are planning a daring commando raid through the jungle to destroy it.
Director: David Lean | Stars: William Holden, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, Sessue Hayakawa
Votes: 233,382 | Gross: $44.91M
There is exactly one film on the list I feel like I didn't get a great watch of and it was this one. Going to have to rewatch it since due to things it took me 3 sit downs do complete. That being said I like what I saw. It seemed like a gripping and suspenseful war drama.
14. You Can't Take It with You (1938)
Passed | 126 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
The son of a snobbish Wall Street banker becomes engaged to a woman from a good-natured but decidedly eccentric family not realizing that his father is trying to force her family from their home for a real estate development.
Director: Frank Capra | Stars: Jean Arthur, James Stewart, Lionel Barrymore, Edward Arnold
Votes: 27,915 | Gross: $4.66M
This one feels like a hidden gem of the winners. It's essentially a play for the most part but I found it to be cute. Capra's direction and the production design, as well as an early star turn from Jimmy Stewart are the highlights.
15. Gentleman's Agreement (1947)
Not Rated | 118 min | Drama, Romance
A reporter pretends to be Jewish in order to cover a story on anti-Semitism, and personally discovers the true depths of bigotry and hatred.
Director: Elia Kazan | Stars: Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire, John Garfield, Celeste Holm
Votes: 17,778
Good but forgettable one. Another one where the post war affects are obvious and strikingly relevant today.
16. It Happened One Night (1934)
Passed | 105 min | Comedy, Romance
A rogue reporter trailing a runaway heiress for a big story joins her on a bus heading from Florida to New York and they end up stuck with each other when the bus leaves them behind at one of the stops along the way.
Director: Frank Capra | Stars: Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert, Walter Connolly, Roscoe Karns
Votes: 112,312 | Gross: $4.36M
This one is hard to rate because it's like "the" romcom. Even 90 years later it's not hard to see how the tropes and plot points set up here are still to this day the basis of most romcoms. Gable and Colbert are electric it's not hard to see why this one swept the big 5.
17. Rebecca (1940)
Approved | 130 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
A self-conscious woman juggles adjusting to her new role as an aristocrat's wife and avoiding being intimidated by his first wife's spectral presence.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, George Sanders, Judith Anderson
Votes: 146,816 | Gross: $4.36M
Surprisingly, it's the only Hitchcock on the list. For the master of suspense it's surprising he only won for one of his early works, not from his immaculate run later on. Anyways this is a solid psychological thriller that you would expect from a genius like Hitchcock.
18. Ben-Hur (1959)
G | 212 min | Adventure, Drama
After a Jewish prince is betrayed and sent into slavery by a Roman friend in 1st-century Jerusalem, he regains his freedom and comes back for revenge.
Director: William Wyler | Stars: Charlton Heston, Jack Hawkins, Stephen Boyd, Haya Harareet
Votes: 253,748 | Gross: $74.70M
As far as the old Hollywood blockbuster epics go, this one is alright. As someone who isn't religious a lot of the those elements don't do much for me here but still an awe to look at and the chariot scene is still a thrill to watch over 65 years later.
19. An American in Paris (1951)
Passed | 114 min | Drama, Musical, Romance
Three friends struggle to find work in Paris. Things become more complicated when two of them fall in love with the same woman.
Director: Vincente Minnelli | Stars: Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron, Oscar Levant, Georges Guétary
Votes: 36,895 | Gross: $4.50M
It's a Gene Kelly musical alright. Decent music/ choreography and we kinda start the color era here. Technicolor always looks good.
20. From Here to Eternity (1953)
Passed | 118 min | Drama, Romance, War
At a U.S. Army base in 1941 Hawaii, a private is cruelly punished for not boxing on his unit's team, while his commanding officer's wife and top aide begin a tentative affair.
Director: Fred Zinnemann | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Deborah Kerr, Donna Reed
Votes: 50,838 | Gross: $30.50M
It's a solid story about the lives of soldiers living at Pearl Harbor in the days before the attack. It's not something that really stuck with me but it's solid and it's easy to see why a 1953 Academy fell in love with it.
21. Hamlet (1948)
Approved | 154 min | Drama
Prince Hamlet struggles over whether or not he should kill his uncle, whom he suspects has murdered his father, the former king.
Director: Laurence Olivier | Stars: Laurence Olivier, Jean Simmons, John Laurie, Esmond Knight
Votes: 18,409 | Gross: $7.09M
I mean it's Hamlet. Not much more to add. Far from the worst but probably not the best adaptation.
22. Marty (1955)
Not Rated | 90 min | Drama, Romance
A middle-aged butcher and a school teacher who have given up on the idea of love meet at a dance and fall for each other.
Director: Delbert Mann | Stars: Ernest Borgnine, Betsy Blair, Esther Minciotti, Augusta Ciolli
Votes: 27,034
A cute little romcom. At 90 minutes it's the shortest winner ever. It's not hard to see why it's won, it's a charming underdog tale in a weak year, highlighted by Ernest Borgnine's performance.
23. Going My Way (1944)
Passed | 126 min | Comedy, Drama, Music
When young Father O'Malley arrives at St. Dominic's, old Father Fitzgibbon doesn't think much of the church's newest member.
Director: Leo McCarey | Stars: Bing Crosby, Barry Fitzgerald, Frank McHugh, James Brown
Votes: 13,457 | Gross: $16.30M
A cute but ultimately forgettable film. You can't go wrong with a Bing Crosby musical, even if this is far from his best. Really not much more to say about it.
24. Cavalcade (1933)
Passed | 112 min | Drama, Romance, War
A portrayal of the triumphs and tragedies of two English families, the upper-crust Marryots and the working-class Bridgeses, from 1899 to 1933.
Director: Frank Lloyd | Stars: Diana Wynyard, Clive Brook, Una O'Connor, Herbert Mundin
Votes: 5,991 | Gross: $7.63M
This one gets a bad rap but I don't think its terrible. The history of the film is interesting and sure the Titanic reveal is funny I still got more out of it then I thought I would.
25. Grand Hotel (I) (1932)
Not Rated | 112 min | Drama, Romance
A group of very different individuals staying at a luxurious hotel in Berlin deal with each of their respective dramas.
Director: Edmund Goulding | Stars: Greta Garbo, John Barrymore, Joan Crawford, Wallace Beery
Votes: 20,884 | Gross: $2.69M
The only film to win Best Picture without any other nominations. It has quite a lot of the stars of the time and the format of it (essentially an early version of an anthology film) is interesting but not memorable in the slightest.
26. Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
Passed | 132 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama
First mate Fletcher Christian leads a revolt against his sadistic commander, Captain Bligh, in this classic seafaring adventure, based on the real-life 1789 mutiny.
Director: Frank Lloyd | Stars: Charles Laughton, Clark Gable, Franchot Tone, Herbert Mundin
Votes: 24,867
One of the older ones that I didn't like as much as others. The highlight was the character relationships, mostly between Gable and Laughton. I think a remake could do wonders because it's a story that could really use modern film technology and theories.
27. The Great Ziegfeld (1936)
Passed | 176 min | Drama, Musical
The ups and downs of Florenz Ziegfeld Jr., famed producer of extravagant stage revues, are portrayed.
Director: Robert Z. Leonard | Stars: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Luise Rainer, Frank Morgan
Votes: 8,995
This one was never really going to work for me. These super long "biopic" likes with a ton of song and dance numbers are technically impressive and nice to look at in the moment but never leaves you with much.
28. Gone with the Wind (1939)
Passed | 238 min | Drama, Romance, War
A sheltered and manipulative Southern belle and a roguish profiteer face off in a turbulent romance as the society around them crumbles with the end of slavery and is rebuilt during the Civil War and Reconstruction periods.
Directors: Victor Fleming, George Cukor, Sam Wood | Stars: Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Thomas Mitchell, Barbara O'Neil
Votes: 334,423 | Gross: $198.68M
It's Gone With The Wind. I'm far from the first and I'm sure I won't be the last to discuss it. It's the pinnacle of the studio system for a reason. From a technical standpoint it's stunning. From the sets, to the costumes to the camera work. However, it will always be overshadowed by it's blatant racism. Also it's melodrama is just so over the top that at times you just have to laugh.
29. The Life of Emile Zola (1937)
Passed | 116 min | Biography, Drama
The biopic of the famous French muckraking writer and his involvement in fighting the injustice of the Dreyfus Affair.
Director: William Dieterle | Stars: Paul Muni, Gale Sondergaard, Joseph Schildkraut, Gloria Holden
Votes: 9,021
What a hypocritical film. For a film that is basically all about one man and antisemitism you should probably at least talk about the main event of his life and say the word "Jew".
30. Mrs. Miniver (1942)
Approved | 134 min | Drama, Romance, War
A British family struggles to survive the first months of World War II.
Director: William Wyler | Stars: Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Teresa Wright, May Whitty
Votes: 19,469 | Gross: $13.50M
An utterly boring film for the most part. It gets a bit more interesting near the end. However, for the most part the main conflict is about women trying to win a rose contest. Not exactly the gripping film you'd expect to win as WW2 hits full power as the US enters.
31. Around the World in 80 Days (1956)
G | 175 min | Adventure, Comedy, Family
A Victorian Englishman bets that with the new steamships and railways he can circumnavigate the globe in eighty days.
Directors: Michael Anderson, John Farrow | Stars: David Niven, Cantinflas, Finlay Currie, Robert Morley
Votes: 29,712 | Gross: $42.00M
Less a movie and more just a super long travel commercial. All the sets pieces in different countries around the world are cool but other than that it's way way way too long and most of the plot from the book is taken out.
32. Tom Jones (1963)
Not Rated | 129 min | Adventure, Comedy, History
The romantic and chivalrous adventures of adopted bastard Tom Jones in 18th-century England.
Director: Tony Richardson | Stars: Albert Finney, Susannah York, George Devine, Rachel Kempson
Votes: 14,266 | Gross: $37.60M
Perhaps the weirdest film to win Best Picture? Someone was on drugs making this. It's messy and all over the place and every time you start to get into it the films hits you with whiplash. It also came out at an interesting time in cinema and Hollywood history right before New Hollywood kicked off.
33. The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)
Passed | 152 min | Drama, Family, Romance
The dramatic lives of trapeze artists, a clown, and an elephant trainer are told against a background of circus spectacle.
Director: Cecil B. DeMille | Stars: James Stewart, Charlton Heston, Betty Hutton, Cornel Wilde
Votes: 16,062 | Gross: $36.00M
The circus one. It has a few interesting moment, mostly the famous train crash but that's in the last half hour. The rest of it is quite long and boring but hey a young Spielberg loves it so at least we have that.
34. Cimarron (1931)
Passed | 123 min | Drama, Western
A newspaper editor settles in an Oklahoma boom town with his reluctant wife at the end of the nineteenth century.
Director: Wesley Ruggles | Stars: Richard Dix, Irene Dunne, Estelle Taylor, Nance O'Neil
Votes: 6,937
Boring and bland, a paint by numbers with 1930's stereotypes and a terrible sound design that makes it hard to hear.
35. The Broadway Melody (1929)
Passed | 100 min | Drama, Musical, Romance
A pair of sisters from the vaudeville circuit try to make it big time on Broadway, but matters of the heart complicate the attempt.
Director: Harry Beaumont | Stars: Bessie Love, Anita Page, Charles King, Eddie Kane
Votes: 8,021 | Gross: $6.12M
A very rough early sound musical. Music is not that memorable and the characters are super unlikable. Kinda interesting to see as a transition to sound film.
36. Gigi (1958)
G | 115 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
Weary of the conventions of Parisian society, a rich playboy and a youthful courtesan-in-training enjoy a platonic friendship which may not stay platonic for long.
Directors: Vincente Minnelli, Charles Walters | Stars: Leslie Caron, Maurice Chevalier, Louis Jourdan, Hermione Gingold
Votes: 24,509
This one is a big yikes. It was already facing an uphill battle considering it's a costume drama/ musical but then the first song hits and it's about a guy saying he loves little girls... yikes.
Tell Your Friends