What Should Have Won Best Picture Each Year

Updated!

Spurred by a great listing idea from my friend, I have chosen which films I think should have won the Best Picture Oscar from each year's nominees. (For my favorites from each year, check out my Posties lists, which go back to 2019 on this site.) I will put the actual winner in bold and my choice in italics, and I will try not to editorialize. Here we go!

2025: One Battle After Another, Bugonia, F1, Frankenstein, Hamnet, Marty Supreme, The Secret Agent, Sentimental Value, Sinners, Train Dreams

2024: Anora, The Brutalist, A Complete Unknown, Conclave, Dune: Part Two, Emilia Pérez, I’m Still Here, Nickel Boys, The Substance, Wicked

2023: Oppenheimer, American Fiction, Anatomy of a Fall, Barbie, The Holdovers, Killers of the Flower Moon, Maestro, Past Lives, Poor Things, The Zone of Interest

2022: Everything Everywhere All At Once, All Quiet on the Western Front, Avatar: The Way of Water, Elvis, Tár, The Banshees of Inisherin, The Fabelmans, Top Gun: Maverick, Triangle of Sadness, Women Talking

2021: CODA, West Side Story, Drive My Car, Licorice Pizza, Dune, King Richard, Belfast, Don’t Look Up, Nightmare Alley, The Power of the Dog 

2020: Nomadland, Minari, Judas and the Black Messiah, The Trial of the Chicago 7, Promising Young Woman, Sound of Metal, Mank, The Father

2019: Parasite, The Irishman, 1917, Joker, Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood, Ford v Ferrari, Marriage Story, Little Women, Jojo Rabbit 

2018: Green Book, Roma, The Favourite, Black Panther, A Star Is Born, BlacKkKlansman, Bohemian Rhapsody, Vice 

2017: The Shape of Water, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri; Dunkirk, Lady Bird, Get Out, The Post, Darkest Hour, Call Me by Your Name, Phantom Thread 

2016: Moonlight, La La Land, Manchester by the Sea, Hidden Figures: The Untold Story of the African American Women Who Helped win the Space Race, Fences, Arrival, Hacksaw Ridge, Hell or High Water, Lion 

2015: Spotlight, The Revenant, The Big Short, The Martian, Mad Max: Fury Road, Room, Bridge of Spies, Brooklyn

2014: Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), American Sniper, Boyhood, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Imitation Game, Selma, The Theory of Everything, Whiplash 

2013: 12 Years a Slave, Gravity, American Hustle, Dallas Buyers Club, Her, Philomena, The Wolf of Wall Street, Captain Phillips, Nebraska 

2012: Argo, Lincoln, Zero Dark Thirty, Les Misérables, Life of Pi, Silver Linings Playbook, Django Unchained, Amour, Beasts of the Southern Wild 

2011: The Artist, The Tree of Life, The Help, The Descendants, Hugo, Midnight in Paris, Moneyball, War Horse, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close 

2010: The King’s Speech, The Social Network, Inception, 127 Hours, Black Swan, The Fighter, The Kids Are All Right, Toy Story 3, True Grit, Winter’s Bone 

2009: The Hurt Locker, Avatar, The Blind Side, District 9, An Education, Inglourious Basterds, Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire, A Serious Man, Up, Up in the Air 

2008: Slumdog Millionaire, Frost/Nixon, Milk, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Reader 

2007: No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood, Atonement, Juno, Michael Clayton 

2006: The Departed, Babel, Letters from Iwo Jima, Little Miss Sunshine, The Queen 

2005: Crash, Brokeback Mountain, Capote, Good Night and Good Luck, Munich 

2004: Million Dollar Baby, Finding Neverland, Ray, Sideways, The Aviator 

2003: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Lost in Translation, Master and Commander, Mystic River, Seabiscuit

2002: Chicago, The Pianist, Gangs of New York, The Hours, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers 

2001: A Beautiful Mind, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Gosford Park, In the Bedroom, Moulin Rouge! 

2000: Gladiator, Chocolat, Erin Brockovich, Traffic, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon 

1999: American Beauty, The Cider House Rules, The Green Mile, The Insider, The Sixth Sense 

1998: Shakespeare in Love, Elizabeth, Life is Beautiful, Saving Private Ryan, The Thin Red Line 

1997: Titanic, Good Will Hunting, As Good as It Gets, L.A. Confidential, The Full Monty 

1996: The English Patient, Fargo, Jerry Maguire, Secrets & Lies, Shine 

1995: Braveheart, Apollo 13, Babe, The Postman, Sense and Sensibility (Honestly, none of these are that great.)

1994: Forrest Gump, Pulp Fiction, The Shawshank Redemption, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Quiz Show 

1993: Schindler's List, In the Name of the Father, The Fugitive, The Piano, The Remains of the Day 

1992: Unforgiven, A Few Good Men, Howards End, Scent of a Woman, The Crying Game 

1991: The Silence of the Lambs, JFK, Bugsy, Beauty and the Beast, The Prince of Tides 

1990: Dances With Wolves, The Godfather: Part III, Awakenings, Ghost, Goodfellas (Another awful lineup.)

1989: Driving Miss Daisy, Field of Dreams, Born on the Fourth of July, Dead Poets Society, My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown 

1988: Rain Man, Mississippi Burning, Dangerous Liaisons, The Accidental Tourist, Working Girl 

1987: The Last Emperor, Broadcast News, Fatal Attraction, Hope and Glory, Moonstruck 

1986: Platoon, Hannah and Her Sisters, A Room with a View, Children of a Lesser God, The Mission

1985: Out of Africa, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Prizzi’s Honor, The Color Purple, Witness 

1984: Amadeus, A Passage to India, A Soldier’s Story, Places in the Heart, The Killing Fields 

1983: Terms of Endearment, The Right Stuff, Tender Mercies, The Big Chill, The Dresser 

1982: Gandhi, E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, Missing, The Verdict, Tootsie 

1981: Chariots of Fire, Raiders of the Lost Ark, On Golden Pond, Atlantic City, Reds 

1980: Ordinary People, Raging Bull, Coal Miner’s Daughter, Tess, The Elephant Man 

1979: Kramer vs. Kramer, Apocalypse Now, All That Jazz, Breaking Away, Norma Rae 

1978: The Deer Hunter, An Unmarried Woman, Coming Home, Heaven Can Wait, Midnight Express (Ugh.)

1977: Annie Hall, Star Wars, Julia, The Goodbye Girl, The Turning Point

1976: Rocky, Taxi Driver, Network, All the President’s Men, Bound for Glory 

1975: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Jaws, Barry Lyndon, Dog Day Afternoon, Nashville 

1974: The Godfather, Part II, Chinatown, Lenny, The Conversation, The Towering Inferno

1973: The Sting, The Exorcist, A Touch of Class, American Graffiti, Cries and Whispers 

1972: The Godfather, Cabaret, Deliverance, Sounder, The Emigrants 

1971: The French Connection, A Clockwork Orange, Fiddler on the Roof, Nicholas and Alexandra, The Last Picture Show 

1970: Patton, Airport, Five Easy Pieces, Love Story, MASH 

1969: Midnight Cowboy, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Anne of the Thousand Days, Hello Dolly!, Z 

1968: Oliver!, Funny Girl, Rachel Rachel, Romeo and Juliet, The Lion in Winter

1967: In the Heat of the Night, The Graduate, Bonnie and Clyde, Doctor Dolittle, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner

1966: A Man for All Seasons, Alfie, The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming, The Sand Pebbles, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? 

1965: The Sound of Music, Doctor Zhivago, A Thousand Clowns, Darling, Ship of Fools 

1964: My Fair Lady, Mary Poppins, Alexis Zorbas, Becket, Dr. Strangelove

1963: Tom Jones, America America, Cleopatra, How the West Was Won, Lilies of the Field 

1962: Lawrence of Arabia, Mutiny on the Bounty, The Longest Day, The Music Man, To Kill a Mockingbird 

1961: West Side Story, Fanny, Judgment at Nuremberg, The Guns of Navarone, The Hustler 

1960: The Apartment, Elmer Gantry, Sons and Lovers, The Alamo, The Sundowners 

1959: Ben-Hur, Anatomy of a Murder, Room at the Top, The Diary of Anne Frank, The Nun’s Story 

1958: Gigi, Auntie Mame, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Separate Tables, The Defiant Ones

1957: The Bridge on the River Kwai, 12 Angry Men, Peyton Place, Sayonara, Witness for the Prosecution 

1956: Around the World in Eighty Days, Giant, The Ten Commandments, Friendly Persuasion, The King and I 

1955: Marty, Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing, Mister Roberts, Picnic, The Rose Tattoo

1954: On the Waterfront, The Caine Mutiny, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, The Country Girl, Three Coins in the Fountain

1953: From Here to Eternity, Shane, Julius Caesar, Roman Holiday, The Robe 

1952: The Greatest Show on Earth, High Noon, Ivanhoe, Moulin Rouge, The Quiet Man 

1951: An American in Paris, A Place in the Sun, A Streetcar Named Desire, Decision Before Dawn, Quo Vadis 

1950: All About Eve, Sunset Blvd., Born Yesterday, Father of the Bride, King Solomon’s Mines 

1949: All the King’s Men, A Letter to Three Wives, Battleground, The Heiress, Twelve O’Clock High 

1948: Hamlet, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Johnny Belinda, The Red Shoes, The Snake Pit 

1947: Gentleman’s Agreement, Crossfire, Great Expectations, Miracle on 34th Street, The Bishop’s Wife 

1946: The Best Years of Our Lives, It’s a Wonderful Life, The Chronicle History of King Henry the Fifth with his Battell Fought at Agincourt in France, The Razor’s Edge, The Yearling 

1945: The Lost Weekend, Mildred Pierce, Anchors Aweigh, Spellbound, The Bells of St. Mary’s 

1944: Going My Way, Double Indemnity, Gaslight, Since You Went Away, Wilson 

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

1942: Mrs. Miniver, Yankee Doodle Dandy, The Pride of the Yankees, The Magnificent Ambersons, 49th Parallel, Kings Row, Random Harvest, The Pied Piper, The Talk of the Town, Wake Island 

1941: How Green Was My Valley, Citizen Kane, The Maltese Falcon, Suspicion, Sergeant York, Blossoms in the Dust, Here Comes Mr. Jordan, Hold Back the Dawn, One Foot in Heaven, The Little Foxes 

1940: Rebecca, The Grapes of Wrath, The Philadelphia Story, The Great Dictator, All This and Heaven Too, Foreign Correspondent, Kitty Foyle: The Natural History of a Woman, Our Town, The Letter, The Long Voyage Home 

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

1938: You Can’t Take it With You, La grande illusion, Jezebel, Alexander’s Ragtime Band, Boys Town, Four Daughters, Pygmalion, Test Pilot, The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Citadel 

1937: The Life of Emile Zola, A Star Is Born, Captains Courageous, Dead End, In Old Chicago, Lost Horizon, One Hundred Men and a Girl, Stage Door, The Awful Truth, The Good Earth 

1936: The Great Ziegfeld, Dodsworth, A Tale of Two Cities, Anthony Adverse, Libeled Lady, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Romeo and Juliet, San Francisco, The Story of Louis Pasteur, Three Smart Girls 

1935: Mutiny on the Bounty, Captain Blood, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Alice Adams, Broadway Melody of 1936, Les Misérables, Naughty Marietta, Ruggles of Red Gap, The Informer, The Lives of a Bengal Lancer, The Personal History, Adventures, Experience & Observation of David Copperfield the Younger, Top Hat 

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

1932-33: Cavalcade, 42nd Street, A Farewell to Arms, I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, Lady for a Day, Little Women, She Done Him Wrong, Smilin’ Through, State Fair, The Private Life of Henry VIII 

1931-32: Grand Hotel, Arrowsmith, Bad Girl, Five Star Final, One Hour with You, Shanghai Express, The Champ, The Smiling Lieutenant 

1930-31: Cimarron, East Lynne, Skippy, The Front Page, Trader Horn

1929-30: All Quiet on the Western Front, Disraeli, The Divorcee, The Big House, The Love Parade 

1928-29: The Broadway Melody, Alibi, In Old Arizona, The Hollywood Revue of 1929, The Patriot (I've only seen the winner, but it's not great.)

1927-28: Wings, 7th Heaven, The Racket