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

[Hatebox]

RotK is the worst of the trilogy, but the Academy had to reward all of them somehow.

 

I was in New Zealand when it won. I've never seen a country get swept up by a film franchise so wholly before...

Edited January 19, 2014 by Hatebox

[The Stingray]

[Dementeleus]

Tsk tsk, both of you.

[Jake Gittes]

So I guess we're left with 2 Godfathers, Schindler's List and Casablanca... right?

[Dementeleus]

So I guess we're left with 2 Godfathers, Schindler's List and Casablanca... right?

No no, you're forgetting OLIVER!

[The Stingray]

#4:

 

The Godfather Part II (1974) - 105 points

 

The Godfather Part II is a 1974 American crime epic that Francis Ford Coppola produced, directed, and co-wrote with Mario Puzo, starring Al Pacino, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, and Robert De Niro. Partially based on Puzo's 1969 novel The Godfather, the film is both sequel and prequel to The Godfather, presenting parallel dramas: one picks up the 1958 story of Michael Corleone (Pacino), the new Don of the Corleone crime family, protecting his family business ventures in the aftermath of an attempt on his life; the prequel covers the journey of his father, Vito Corleone (De Niro), from his harrowing childhood escape from Sicily in 1901 to the desperate founding of his family enterprise in New York City.

 

 

Oscar Nominations/Wins: 11/6

 

Best Picture - Francis Ford Coppola, Gray Frederickson, Fred Roos (The movie became the first sequel to win the best picture award.)

Best Actor in a Supporting Role - Robert De Niro 

Best Director - Francis Ford Coppola 

Best Adapted Screenplay - Francis Ford Coppola, Mario Puzo 

Best Art Direction-Set Decoration - Dean Tavoularis, Angelo P. Graham, George R. Nelson 

Best Original Score - Nino Rota, Carmine Coppola 

 

Best Actor in a Leading Role - Al Pacino, Michael V. Gazzo, Lee Strasberg 

Best Actress in a Supporting Role - Talia Shire 

Best Costume Design - Theadora Van Runkle 

 

Winners from "The Godfather Part II": Gray Frederickson, Francis Ford Coppola, Fred Roos and Carmine Coppola.

 

[Hatebox]

I need to watch Part II again. It's been a while.

[Jake Gittes]

Part II >> Part I.

[DAR]

No no, you're forgetting OLIVER!

Consider yourself at home.Consider yourself one of the family

[Hatebox]

I've little time for musicals, but some of the songs in Oliver! are genuinely great.

[The Stingray]

#3:

 

Schindler's List (1993) - 112 points

 

Schindler's List is a 1993 American epic historical drama film directed and co-produced by Steven Spielberg. The film is based on the life of Oskar Schindler, a German businessman who saved the lives of more than a thousand mostly Polish-Jewish refugees during the Holocaust by employing them in his factories. It stars Liam Neeson as Schindler, Ralph Fiennes as Schutzstaffel (SS) officer Amon Goeth, and Ben Kingsley as Schindler's Jewish accountant Itzhak Stern.

 

 

Oscar Nominations/Wins: 12/7

 

Best Picture - Steven Spielberg, Gerald R. Molen, Branko Lustig 

Best Director - Steven Spielberg 

Best Adapted Screenplay - Steven Zaillian 

Best Cinematography - Janusz Kaminski 

Best Art Direction-Set Decoration - Allan Starski, Ewa Braun 

Best Film Editing - Michael Kahn 

Best Original Score - John Williams 

 

Best Actor in a Leading Role - Liam Neeson 

Best Actor in a Supporting Role - Ralph Fiennes 

Best Costume Design - Anna B. Sheppard 

Best Sound - Andy Nelson, Steve Pederson, Scott Millan, Ron Judkins 

Best Makeup - Christina Smith, Matthew W. Mungle, Judith A. Cory 

 

Best Director Steven Spielberg ("Schindler's List").

 

[The Stingray]

#2:

 

Casablanca (1942) - 131 points 

 

Casablanca is a 1942 American romantic drama film directed by Michael Curtiz. The film stars Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, and Paul Henreid. Set during World War II, it focuses on a man torn between, in the words of one character, "love and virtue". He must choose between his love for a woman and helping her Czech Resistance leader husband escape the Vichy-controlled Moroccan city of Casablanca to continue his fight against the Nazis.

 

 

Oscar Nominations/Wins: 8/3

 

Best Picture

Best Director - Michael Curtiz 

Best Screenplay - Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, Howard Koch 

 

Best Actor in a Leading Role - Humphrey Bogart 

Best Actor in a Supporting Role - Claude Rains 

Best Cinematography, Black-and-White - Arthur Edeson 

Best Film Editing - Owen Marks 

Best Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture - Max Steiner 

 

 

[The Stingray]

#1:

 

The Godfather (1972) - 133 points

 

The Godfather is a 1972 American crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Based on Puzo's 1969 novel of the same name, the film stars Marlon Brando and Al Pacino as the leaders of a fictional New York crime family. The story, spanning the years 1945 to 1955, centers on the transformation of Michael Corleone (Pacino) from reluctant family outsider to ruthless Mafia boss while also chronicling the family under the patriarch Vito Corleone (Brando).

 

The film was for a time the highest grossing picture ever made.

 

 

Oscar Nominations/Wins: 10/3

 

Best Picture - Albert S. Ruddy 

Best Actor in a Leading Role - Marlon Brando 

Best Adapted Screenplay - Mario Puzo, Francis Ford Coppola 

 

Best Actor in a Supporting Role - James Caan, Robert Duvall, Al Pacino 

Best Director - Francis Ford Coppola 

Best Costume Design - Anna Hill Johnstone 

Best Sound - Charles Grenzbach, Richard Portman, Christopher Newman 

Best Film Editing - William Reynolds, Peter Zinner 

Best Original Dramatic Score - Nino Rota (Withdrawn, ineligible: reused Fortunella score; replaced by a nomination for "Sleuth")

 

Best Actor Marlon Brando in a scene from Best Picture "The Godfather".

 

[Jake Gittes]

Yawn. 

[The Stingray]

Yawn. 

 

Edited January 19, 2014 by The Abominable Stingray

[Heretic]

I would have switched Godfather 1 and 2, but a great top 10 nonetheless.

[Dementeleus]

Expected, but still a worthy top 5.

[Heretic]

Don't like Casablanca though. No idea why it's regarded as one of the greatest film of all time.

[The Stingray]

FULL LIST

 

1. The Godfather: 133

2. Casablanca: 131

3. Schindler’s List: 112

4. The Godfather Part II: 105

5. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King: 98

 

6. Lawrence of Arabia: 94

7. One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest: 78

8. Forrest Gump : 77

9. The Silence of the Lambs: 69

10. Titanic: 62

 

11. Gladiator: 58

12. The Departed: 56

13. Unforgiven: 54

14. The Bridge on the River Kwai: 49

15. No Country for Old Men: 48

 

16. Gone with the Wind: 44

17. Rocky: 43

18. Amadeus: 39

19. Braveheart: 37

20. American Beauty: 35

 

21. The Sting: 33

22. On the Waterfront: 29 (won tiebreaker against All About Eve)

23. All About Eve: 29

24. The Sound of Music: 28

25. Annie Hall: 27

 

THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO VOTED!!

[iceroll]

 

#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".

 

This is too low 

 

Great job with the list Stingray!  The list is pretty generic though.