It’s Oscar night, and all eyes are on Hollywood to see who’s going to win the Oscars tonight. A few weeks ago, we ran a poll, the results of which were very tight between One Battle After Another and Sinners, with Paul Thomas Anderson’s film winning 486 votes to Sinners’ 464. The Golden Schmoes were similar, with Sinners narrowly winning Best Film over One Battle After Another.
But when we consider which film is going to join the ranks of all-time Best Picture winners, it’s a good time to look back at the winners of the last twenty years to determine what really stands the test of time. Some of the winners are pretty outrageous, with Paul Haggis’s Crash largely considered one of the worst movies to ever win Best Picture. Another head-scratcher is The Artist, an award that was largely due to the hand of Harvey Weinstein, who for a solid twenty-year period dominated the Oscars with his movies — whether they deserved to win or not. How else do you explain the solid (but not Best Picture-worthy) The King’s Speech winning over David Fincher’s now-classic The Social Network?
Green Book is another one that proved to be controversial, so much so that it briefly contributed to a real backlash against the Academy, which hit a fever pitch during the COVID years and beyond. However, there have been some winners that are rightly considered classics now, such as Martin Scorsese’s The Departed, Ben Affleck’s Argo, and of course Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer.
As such, we want you, dear reader, to take the poll below and let us know which Best Picture winner from the last twenty years you think is the best. Take the poll, and then, if you feel like it, add your comments in the talkbacks. We look forward to hearing from you.
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