The Top 25 'Best Picture' Winners of All Time (COUNTDOWN THREAD).

[catlover]

Nice list! I love all the movies at #16 - #25, especially On the Waterfront and The Sting. I still remember how I was blown away after watching The Sting. And personally I would put The Sound of Music probably near the top. It's one of my favorite movies of all time.

[baumer]

How Rocky lost screenplay song and acting is a total joke.

[baumer]

American Beauty is a beauty of a movie.

[The Stingray]

Hey baumer, could we pin this for a day or two?

[The Stingray]

#15:

 

No Country for Old Men (2007) - 48 points

 

No Country for Old Men is a 2007 American neo-Western thriller directed, written, and edited by Joel and Ethan Coen, based on the Cormac McCarthy novel of the same name. The film stars Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem and Josh Brolin, and tells the story of an ordinary man to whom chance delivers a fortune that is not his, and the ensuing cat-and-mouse drama as the paths of three men intertwine in the desert landscape of 1980 West Texas. Themes of fate, conscience and circumstance re-emerge that the Coen brothers have previously explored in Blood Simple and Fargo.

 

 

Oscar Nominations/Wins: 8/4

 

Best Motion Picture of the Year - Scott Rudin, Ethan Coen, Joel Coen 

Best Actor in a Supporting Role - Javier Bardem 

Best Director - Ethan Coen, Joel Coen 

Best Adapted Screenplay - Joel Coen, Ethan Coen 

 

Best Cinematography - Roger Deakins 

Best Film Editing - Ethan Coen, Joel Coen  

Best Sound Mixing - Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff, Peter F. Kurland 

Best Sound Editing - Skip Lievsay 

[DAR]

How Rocky lost screenplay song and acting is a total joke.

Best Song I get. But there's no shame in losing Best Actor and Screenplay to Network. I love Rocky but Network was the Best Movie of that year

[The Stingray]

#14:

 

The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) - 49 points

 

The Bridge on the River Kwai is a 1957 British-American World War II film directed by David Lean, based on the eponymous French novel (1952) by Pierre Boulle. The film is a work of fiction but borrows the construction of the Burma Railway in 1942–43 for its historical setting. It stars William Holden, Jack Hawkins, Alec Guinness and Sessue Hayakawa.

 

After settling his differences with a Japanese PoW camp commander (Hayakawa), a British colonel (Guinness) co-operates to oversee his men's construction of a railway bridge for their captors - while oblivious to a plan by the Allies to destroy it.

 

 

Oscar Nominations/Wins: 8/7

 

Best Picture - Sam Spiegel 

Best Actor in a Leading Role - Alec Guinness 

Best Director - David Lean 

Best Adapted Screenplay - Pierre Boulle, Carl Foreman, Michael Wilson 

Best Cinematography - Jack Hildyard 

Best Film Editing - Peter Taylor 

Best Scoring - Malcolm Arnold 

 

Best Actor in a Supporting Role - Sessue Hayakawa 

 

Sessue Hayakawa with Best Actor Alec Guinness in "The Bridge on the River Kwai."

[Jake Gittes]

The best film to show up so far, imo. (edit: talking about NCFOM).

Edited January 19, 2014 by Jake Gittes

[Jake Gittes]

Best Song I get. But there's no shame in losing Best Actor and Screenplay to Network. I love Rocky but Network was the Best Movie of that year

Taxi Driver.

[The Stingray]

The best film to show up so far, imo. (edit: talking about NCFOM).

It's one of my favorites as well. One of the best of the last decade.

[The Stingray]

#13:

 

Unforgiven (1992) - 54 points

 

Unforgiven is a 1992 American Western film produced and directed by Clint Eastwood with a screenplay written by David Webb Peoples. The film portrays William Munny, an aging outlaw and killer who takes on one more job years after he had turned to farming. A dark Western that deals frankly with the uglier aspects of violence and the myth of the Old West, it stars Eastwood in the lead role, with Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, and Richard Harris. Eastwood dedicated the movie to deceased directors and mentors Don Siegel and Sergio Leone.

 

The film was the third Western to win the Oscar for Best Picture, following Cimarron (1931) and Dances With Wolves (1990).

 

 

Oscar Nominations/Wins: 9/4

 

Best Picture - Clint Eastwood 

Best Actor in a Supporting Role - Gene Hackman 

Best Director - Clint Eastwood 

Best Film Editing - Joel Cox 

 

Best Actor in a Leading Role - Clint Eastwood 

Best Original Screenplay - David Webb Peoples 

Best Cinematography - Jack N. Green 

Best Art Direction-Set Decoration - Henry Bumstead, Janice Blackie-Goodine 

Best Sound - Les Fresholtz, Vern Poore, Rick Alexander, Rob Young 

 

Best Director and Best Picture winner Clint Eastwood ("Unforgiven").

[The Stingray]

#12:

 

The Departed (2006) - 56 points

 

The Departed is a 2006 American crime thriller film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by William Monahan. It is a remake of the 2002 Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson and Mark Wahlberg. The film takes place in Boston. Irish Mob boss Francis "Frank" Costello plants Colin Sullivan as a mole within the Massachusetts State Police; the two characters are loosely based on famous gangster Whitey Bulger and corrupt FBI agent John Connolly, who grew up with Bulger. Simultaneously, the police assign undercover trooper William "Billy" Costigan to infiltrate Costello's crew. When both sides realize the situation, each man attempts to discover the other's true identity before his own cover is blown.

 

 

Oscar Nominations/Wins: 5/4

 

Best Picture - Graham King 

Best Director - Martin Scorsese 

Best Adapted Screenplay - William Monahan 

Best Film Editing - Thelma Schoonmaker 

 

Best Actor in a Supporting Role - Mark Wahlberg 

 

[Dementeleus]

In Mexico, THE SOUND OF MUSIC was released as THE REBEL NUN. Which is, let's admit, damn epic.

[DAR]

Taxi Driver.

Yeah, but I'd still go with Network

[Hatebox]

I like the way the Departed poster has the actors' faces in the text, but then accepts that some people wouldn't be able to make it out so repeats the title in a normal font.

Edited January 19, 2014 by Hatebox

[The Stingray]

#11:

 

Gladiator (2000) - 58 points

 

Gladiator is a 2000 British–American epic historical drama film directed by Ridley Scott, starring Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Nielsen, Ralf Möller, Oliver Reed (in his final film role), Djimon Hounsou, Derek Jacobi, John Shrapnel, and Richard Harris. Crowe portrays the fictional character, loyal Roman general Maximus Decimus Meridius, who is betrayed when the emperor's ambitious son, Commodus, murders his father and seizes the throne. Reduced to slavery, Maximus rises through the ranks of the gladiatorial arena to avenge the murder of his family and his emperor.

 

 

Oscar Nominations/Wins: 12/5

 

Best Picture - Douglas Wick, David Franzoni, Branko Lustig 

Best Actor in a Leading Role - Russell Crowe 

Best Costume Design - Janty Yates 

Best Sound - Scott Millan, Bob Beemer, Ken Weston 

Best Visual Effects - John Nelson, Neil Corbould, Tim Burke, Rob Harvey 

 

Best Actor in a Supporting Role - Joaquin Phoenix 

Best Director - Ridley Scott 

Best Original Screenplay - David Franzoni, John Logan, William Nicholson  

Best Cinematography - John Mathieson 

Best Film Editing - Pietro Scalia 

Best Original Score - Hans Zimmer 

Best Art Direction-Set Decoration - Arthur Max (art director), Crispian Sallis (set decorator) 

 

[Dementeleus]

I don't really get the love for THE DEPARTED. It was a fun movie, sure, but #12 of all time? Nah.

[baumer]

1976 had some great films. But Rocky is head and shoulders above Taxi Driver and Network....imo.

[The Stingray]

#10:

 

Titanic (1997) - 62 points

 

Titanic is a 1997 American epic romantic disaster film directed, written, co-produced, co-edited and partly financed by James Cameron. A fictionalized account of the sinking of the RMS Titanic, it stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet as members of different social classes who fall in love aboard the ship during its ill-fated maiden voyage.

 

With an initial worldwide gross of over $1.84 billion, it was the first film to reach the billion-dollar mark, and it remained the highest-grossing film of all time, until Cameron's own 2009 film Avatar surpassed its gross in 2010.

 

 

Oscar Nominations/Wins: 14/11

 

Best Picture - James Cameron, Jon Landau 

Best Director - James Cameron 

Best Cinematography - Russell Carpenter 

Best Art Direction-Set Decoration - Peter Lamont (art director), Michael Ford (set decorator) 

Best Costume Design - Deborah Lynn Scott 

Best Sound - Gary Rydstrom, Tom Johnson, Gary Summers, Mark Ulano 

Best Film Editing - Conrad Buff IV, James Cameron, Richard A. Harris 

Best Sound Effects Editing - Tom Bellfort, Christopher Boyes 

Best Visual Effects - Robert Legato, Mark A. Lasoff, Thomas L. Fisher, Michael Kanfer 

Best Original Song - James Horner (music), Will Jennings (lyrics) (For the song "My Heart Will Go On", performed by Céline Dion.)

Best Original Score - James Horner 

 

Best Actress in a Leading Role - Kate Winslet 

Best Actress in a Supporting Role - Gloria Stuart 

Best Makeup - Tina Earnshaw, Greg Cannom, Simon Thompson

 

Best Director James Cameron directing Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio in a scene from Best Picture winner "Titanic".

Edited January 19, 2014 by The Abominable Stingray

[DAR]

1976 also had a great Eastwood western that should have been nominated for Best Picture; The Outlaw Josey Wales