The Best Picture Blog

My Best Pic Picks

Here, you’ll find a breakdown of my personal picks for Best Picture each year, in descending order. This page will update each time I finish posts for a full year’s worth of films.

Enjoy!

1971

  1. The Last Picture Show
  2. A Clockwork Orange
  3. The French Connection (Academy’s choice)
  4. Fiddler on the Roof
  5. Nicholas and Alexandra

1970

  1. Love Story
  2. M*A*S*H
  3. Five Easy Pieces
  4. Patton (Academy’s choice)
  5. Airport

1969

  1. Midnight Cowboy (Academy’s choice)
  2. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
  3. Z
  4. Anne of the Thousand Days
  5. Hello, Dolly!

1968

  1. Rachel, Rachel
  2. Oliver! (Academy’s choice)
  3. Romeo and Juliet
  4. Funny Girl
  5. The Lion in Winter

1967

  1. The Graduate
  2. Bonnie and Clyde
  3. In the Heat of the Night (Academy’s choice)
  4. Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner
  5. Doctor Dolittle

1966

  1. Alfie
  2. The Russians are Coming the Russians are Coming
  3. A Man for All Seasons (Academy’s choice)
  4. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
  5. The Sand Pebbles

1965

  1. The Sound of Music (Academy’s choice)
  2. Doctor Zhivago
  3. Ship of Fools
  4. A Thousand Clowns
  5. Darling

1964

  1. Mary Poppins
  2. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
  3. Zorba the Greek
  4. My Fair Lady (Academy’s choice)
  5. Becket

1963

  1. Tom Jones (Academy’s choice)
  2. Lilies of the Field
  3. Cleopatra
  4. America America
  5. How the West was Won

1962

  1. Lawrence of Arabia (Academy’s choice)
  2. To Kill a Mockingbird
  3. The Longest Day
  4. Mutiny on the Bounty
  5. Meredith Wilson’s The Music Man

1961

  1. Judgment at Nuremberg
  2. West Side Story (Academy’s choice)
  3. The Hustler
  4. The Guns of Navarone
  5. Fanny

1960

  1. The Apartment (Academy’s choice)
  2. Elmer Gantry
  3. Sons and Lovers
  4. The Sundowners
  5. The Alamo

1959

  1. The Diary of Anne Frank
  2. Room at the Top
  3. Ben-Hur (Academy’s choice)
  4. Anatomy of a Murder
  5. The Nun’s Story

1958

  1. The Defiant Ones
  2. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
  3. Separate Tables
  4. Auntie Mame
  5. Gigi (Academy’s choice)

1957

  1. 12 Angry Men
  2. The Bridge on the River Kwai (Academy’s choice)
  3. Sayonara
  4. Witness for the Prosecution
  5. Peyton Place

1956

  1. Giant
  2. The King and I
  3. Friendly Persuasion
  4. Around the World in 80 Days (Academy’s choice)
  5. The Ten Commandments

1955

  1. Marty (Academy’s choice)
  2. Picnic
  3. The Rose Tattoo
  4. Mister Roberts
  5. Love is a Many-Splendored Thing

1954

  1. On the Waterfront (Academy’s choice)
  2. The Caine Mutiny
  3. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
  4. The Country Girl
  5. Three Coins in the Fountain

1953

  1. From Here to Eternity (Academy’s choice)
  2. Roman Holiday
  3. Julius Ceasar
  4. Shane
  5. The Robe

1952

  1. High Noon
  2. Ivanhoe
  3. The Quiet Man
  4. Moulin Rouge
  5. The Greatest Show on Earth (Academy’s choice)

1951

  1. A Streetcar Named Desire
  2. A Place in the Sun
  3. An American in Paris (Academy’s choice)
  4. Quo Vadis
  5. Decision before Dawn

1950

  1. Sunset Boulevard
  2. All About Eve (Academy’s choice)
  3. Born Yesterday
  4. King Solomon’s Mines
  5. Father of the Bride

1949

  1. All the King’s Men (Academy’s choice)
  2. Battleground
  3. A Letter to Three Wives
  4. The Heiress
  5. Twelve O’Clock High

1948

  1. The Red Shoes
  2. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
  3. Hamlet (Academy’s choice)
  4. The Snake Pit
  5. Johnny Belinda

1947

  1. Miracle on 34th Street
  2. The Bishop’s Wife
  3. Great Expectations
  4. Gentleman’s Agreement (Academy’s choice)
  5. Crossfire

1946

  1. It’s a Wonderful Life
  2. The Best Years of Our Lives (Academy’s choice)
  3. Henry V
  4. The Razor’s Edge
  5. The Yearling

1945

  1. The Lost Weekend (Academy’s choice)
  2. Mildred Pierce
  3. Anchors Aweigh
  4. Spellbound
  5. The Bells of St. Mary’s

1944

  1. Double Indemnity
  2. Gaslight
  3. Going My Way (Academy’s choice)
  4. Since You Went Away
  5. Wilson

1943

  1. Casablanca (Academy’s choice)
  2. For Whom the Bell Tolls
  3. The More the Merrier
  4. Watch on the Rhine
  5. In Which We Serve
  6. The Human Comedy
  7. Madame Curie
  8. The Song of Bernadette
  9. Heaven Can Wait
  10. The Ox-Bow Incident

1942

  1. Mrs. Miniver (Academy’s choice)
  2. The Pride of the Yankees
  3. The Invaders
  4. Kings Row
  5. Yankee Doodle Dandy
  6. The Magnificent Ambersons
  7. The Pied Piper
  8. The Talk of the Town
  9. Random Harvest
  10. Wake Island

1941

  1. Citizen Kane
  2. How Green was My Valley (Academy’s choice)
  3. Suspicion
  4. The Maltese Falcon
  5. Sergeant York
  6. Hold Back the Dawn
  7. Here Comes Mr. Jordan
  8. The Little Foxes
  9. One Foot in Heaven
  10. Blossoms in the Dust

1940

  1. Rebecca (Academy’s choice)
  2. The Grapes of Wrath
  3. The Great Dictator
  4. The Philadelphia Story
  5. Foreign Correspondent
  6. Kitty Foyle
  7. The Letter
  8. The Long Voyage Home
  9. Our Town
  10. All This, and Heaven Too

1939

  1. The Wizard of Oz
  2. Gone with the Wind (Academy’s choice)
  3. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
  4. Ninotchka
  5. Stagecoach
  6. Wuthering Heights
  7. Dark Victory
  8. Goodbye, Mr. Chips
  9. Of Mice and Men
  10. Love Affair

1938

  1. The Adventures of Robin Hood
  2. Pygmalion
  3. Grand Illusion
  4. Boys Town
  5. You Can’t Take it with You (Academy’s choice)
  6. Jezebel
  7. The Citadel
  8. Four Daughters
  9. Test Pilot
  10. Alexander’s Ragtime Band

1937

  1. The Awful Truth
  2. Lost Horizon
  3. In Old Chicago
  4. A Star is Born
  5. Dead End
  6. Stage Door
  7. Captains Courageous
  8. The Life of Emile Zola (Academy’s choice)
  9. One Hundred Men and a Girl
  10. The Good Earth

1936

  1. Three Smart Girls
  2. San Francisco
  3. Dodsworth
  4. Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
  5. The Story of Louis Pasteur
  6. The Great Ziegfeld (Academy’s choice)
  7. Libeled Lady
  8. Romeo and Juliet
  9. Anthony Adverse
  10. A Tale of Two Cities

1935

  1. Mutiny on the Bounty (Academy’s choice)
  2. Captain Blood
  3. Top Hat
  4. Ruggles of Red Gap
  5. Broadway Melody of 1936
  6. The Informer
  7. Alice Adams
  8. Les Miserables
  9. Naughty Marietta
  10. David Copperfield
  11. The Lives of a Bengal Lancer
  12. A Midsummer Night’s Dream

1934

  1. It Happened One Night (Academy’s choice)
  2. The Thin Man
  3. The Gay Divorcee
  4. One Night of Love
  5. Imitation of Life
  6. Cleopatra
  7. Here Comes the Navy
  8. The Barretts of Wimpole Street
  9. The House of Rothschild
  10. Viva Villa!
  11. Flirtation Walk
    *Not Listed: The White Parade. Since I was unable to see it, I did not rank this film.

1933: Based on the way the awards were structured, there’s nothing here.

1932

  1. State Fair
  2. Lady for a Day
  3. She Done Him Wrong
  4. Little Women
  5. Smilin’ Through
  6. 42nd Street
  7. A Farewell to Arms
  8. Cavalcade (Academy’s choice)
  9. The Private Life of Henry VIII
  10. I am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang

1931

  1. Grand Hotel (Academy’s choice)
  2. Arrowsmith
  3. Shanghai Express
  4. The Smiling Lieutenant
  5. One Hour with You
  6. Bad Girl
  7. The Champ
  8. Five Star Final

1930

  1. The Front Page
  2. East Lynne
  3. Skippy
  4. Cimarron (Academy’s choice)
  5. Trader Horn

1929

  1. All Quiet on the Western Front (Academy’s choice)
  2. The Divorcee
  3. Disraeli
  4. The Love Parade
  5. The Big House

1928

  1. In Old Arizona
  2. Alibi
  3. The Broadway Melody (Academy’s choice)
  4. Hollywood Revue
    *Not Listed: The Patriot. Since I was unable to see it, I did not rank this film.

1927

  1. Wings (Academy’s choice)
  2. 7th Heaven
  3. The Racket