Ranking: Oscar Best Picture Winners Since 2000
Oppenheimer is the most recent winner of Best Picture at the Academy Awards! Oppenheimer was my favorite movie of 2023 and my favorite of the Best Picture nominees. Christopher Nolan finally got his due and, along with Best Picture, the film won seven total Oscars, including Best Director for Nolan, Best Actor for Cillian Murphy, and Best Supporting Actor for Robert Downey Jr., as well as a few technical awards. It was a great night for a great movie in one of the best Oscar telecasts in years.
Here is my ranking of the Best Picture winners since 2000, from worst to best. Let’s see where Oppenheimer lands.
Green Book is far and away the worst Best Picture winner I have seen in my life. This bland, formulaic, borderline offensive movie has one redeeming quality to it and that is Mahershala Ali (who deserved his win for Best Supporting Actor). Green Book‘s win will go down as one of the worst in Academy history and was a step back in terms of progression for the Academy.
What Should Have Won: A Star is Born
I remember liking this movie when I saw it in 2001. I was only thirteen at the time. This movie does not hold up on repeated viewings. It has good performances, but it’s rather boring and leans on the melodramatic side.
What Should Have Won: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
This movie is all over the place. Some of it is good, and some of it is bad. The whole movie itself is a preachy melodrama about race in modern society. It tries to light the fire Do the Right Thing (1989) lit sixteen years before it, but barely conjures a spark.
What Should Have Won: Brokeback Mountain
Ridley Scott’s rousing sword and sandal film is as epic as movies get. The ultimate revenge flick delivers exhilarating action sequences, great direction from Scott, and a lead performance by Russel Crowe that earned him the Oscar for Best Actor.
What Should Have Won: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Anybody who tells you they don’t like The Artist is either not a fan of classical cinema or is out of their mind. The Artist puts a smile on your face from ear to ear. It’s a perfect ode to the silent films of the early years and features marvelous performances and dance numbers.
What Should Have Won: Moneyball
Chloé Zhao became the second woman ever, and the first woman of color, to win Best Director for her heartfelt look at lost America and the people who inhabit it. Zhao masterfully blends fiction with reality, using real nomads and locations to tell this incredible story. This is a quiet, sublime, gorgeous film and a great film to kick off the decade.
What Should Have Won: Minari
Emilia Jones in CODA (Apple TV+)
18. CODA (2021, Sian Heder)
CODA is a very nice movie. It features a charming, lovely cast featuring Best Supporting Actor winner Troy Kotsur, the second deaf actor to win an Oscar after Marlee Matlin, his co-star in the film. It has tons of heart, and humor, and is a beautiful look at the importance of family. It lacks any excellence on a technical level, but it was the emotion of the film that drove it to the Best Picture victory.
What Should Have Won: Licorice Pizza
The King’s Speech gets a bad rap for its Best Picture win because of the films that it beat (The Social Network, Black Swan, Inception, The Fighter, and the list goes on). But this is a really good movie. It’s charming, and captivating, and features a trio of great performances from Oscar winner Colin Firth and Oscar nominees Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham Carter. This is the best movie of Tom Hooper’s career.
What Should Have Won: The Social Network
Clint Eastwood’s late entry in the 2004 race is one of the director’s best efforts to date. Only a few movies have had such an emotional effect on me. This is a masterclass in subtle filmmaking and acting.
What Should Have Won: The Aviator
Danny Boyle’s fairy tale love story took everybody by surprise in 2008. Mixing classical romance with Bollywood touches and a bit of grit, this lively and entertaining film pulls at the heartstrings.
What Should Have Won: Milk
2014’s winner shows the power of a great director. The ballsy move to shoot it all in nearly one take puts a lot of pressure on the actors, cinematographer, and director, and they all nailed it. It’s a mesmerizing movie and an experience unlike any other.
What Should Have Won: Whiplash
13. ARGO (2012, Ben Affleck)
If you had any questions about Ben Affleck as a director before Argo, all doubts were gone after it. This is a thrilling true story about a CIA operation in the 1970s. Affleck puts us in the era and gives us an exciting, well-made, and extremely entertaining spy thriller.
What Should Have Won: Lincoln
Michael Fassbender, Lupita Nyong’o, and Chiwetel Ejiofor in 12 Years a Slave (Searchlight Pictures)
12. 12 YEARS A SLAVE (2013, Steve McQueen)
One of the most beautiful and harrowing movies I have ever seen, Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave is a masterpiece I never want to see again. This is the most unflinching look at slavery in a film I have ever seen and shows just how great of a director McQueen is.
What Should Have Won: The Wolf of Wall Street
Guillermo del Toro’s monster movie is one of the best love stories in recent memory. Led by an all-star cast, stunning visuals, a beautiful score, and some of the best direction I’ve ever seen from del Toro, The Shape of Water is a beautiful movie about outsiders and a movie that proves love has no bounds.
What Should Have Won: Dunkirk
This high-energy, dazzling musical will make your heartbeat and your toes tap. Great musical numbers, several excellent performances, and terrific sets and costumes make this one of the best musicals of the 2000s.
What Should Have Won: Gangs of New York
Barry Jenkins’s heartbreaking coming-of-age story features some spectacular acting, particularly by Oscar winner Mahershala Ali, beautiful writing, and expert filmmaking. This is a movie that gets better with every repeat viewing and one that’s power lasts beyond the credits. This is a stunning achievement and a great Oscar win.
What Should Have Won: La La Land
One of the most unprecedented Best Picture winners ever, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s sci-fi action comedy swept the 2023 show, winning seven Oscars, including three acting Oscars, Best Director, and Best Picture. This is a one-of-a-kind movie with mind-blowing visuals, an original story, and a huge heart at its core.
What Should Have Won: The Banshees of Inisherin
7. THE HURT LOCKER (2009, Kathryn Bigelow)
Katheryn Bigelow became the first woman to win a Best Director Oscar for her efforts on The Hurt Locker and rightly so. This is a nail-biting, heart-racing film that throws the viewer on the front lines of the war in Iraq and never lets up.
What Should Have Won: Inglorious Basterds
6. SPOTLIGHT (2015, Tom McCarthy)
Spotlight is a classic procedural. This is a spellbinding, fascinating look at the Boston Globe’s investigation into priest molestation in the early 2000s. This is the best movie about journalism since All the President’s Men (1976).
What Should Have Won: Mad Max: Fury Road
Martin Scorsese won his long-overdue Best Director Oscar for his Boston cat-and-mouse thriller. Featuring an all-star cast, a tight script, speedy editing, and a shocking ending, The Departed is a gangster classic and Scorsese at his finest.
What Should Have Won: The Departed
With the number of movies I see, rarely do they surprise me anymore. That wasn’t the case with Bong Joon-Ho’s masterpiece. This is a creative, smart, funny, thrilling, heart-breaking look at classism and humanity. Led by a terrific ensemble, brilliant direction from Joon-Ho, and an ending you won’t forget, Parasite is a game-changing Best Picture winner and one that gives me hope for progressive change in the Academy.
What Should Have Won: Parasite
3. THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING (2003, Peter Jackson)
I’ve come around to really loving the Lord of the Rings trilogy, having gone over a decade not liking the series. Though I feel Fellowship should have won in 2001, I loved that Return of the King completely dominated in 2003, winning each of its 11 nominations, including Best Director and Best Picture, the finishing touch to one of the greatest trilogies ever made.
What Should Have Won: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
The Coen Brothers are true masters of cinema and this might be their most complete work ever. This neo-western is scarier than most horror films today, thanks in large part to Javier Bardem’s, terrifying, Oscar-winning performance as Anton Chigurh. The script is immaculate, filled with tension, humor, mystery, drama, and an ending you’ll be thinking about for days. This is a monumental masterpiece and one of the best films the Academy has ever rewarded.
What Should Have Won: No Country for Old Men
1. OPPENHEIMER (Christopher Nolan, 2023)
Christopher Nolan finally got his due with his masterful biopic about scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer (played by Oscar-winner Cillian Murphy) and his creation of the atomic bomb. A biopic only Nolan could make, the film is masterfully crafted and features a stacked ensemble that brings Nolan’s brilliant screenplay to life. Oppenheimer dominated the 2024 ceremony, winning seven total Oscars, and was not only the best film of 2023, but is one of the best films of the 2000s and the best Best Picture winner this century.
What Should Have Won: Oppenheimer
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