Academy Award for best picture | Years, Winners, & Facts | Britannica (2025)

award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, located in Beverly Hills, California, U.S. It honors the film deemed the best of a given year—as determined by the academy’s voting members—and is typically regarded as the most prestigious of the various Academy Awards. The prize, which was initially known as the Academy Award for outstanding picture and underwent various name changes, was presented in 1929 at the first Academy Award ceremony, and it recognized films from 1927–28. It was not until the seventh ceremony, in 1935, that the award honored movies released only the previous year. The producers of the winning film receive a gold-plated statuette known as an Oscar. However, the academy has various eligibility requirements, and only as many as three producers can receive the award. Below is a list of the winning movies and their years of release.

1920s and 1930s

• 1927: Wings (Sunrise won for best unique and artistic picture, but that category was eliminated the following year, and Wings was retrospectively named the official winner of the first Academy Award for best picture.)

• 1929: The Broadway Melody

• 1930: All Quiet on the Western Front

• 1931: Cimarron

• 1932: Grand Hotel

• 1933: Cavalcade

• 1934: It Happened One Night

• 1935: Mutiny on the Bounty

• 1936: The Great Ziegfeld

• 1937: The Life of Emile Zola

• 1938: You Can’t Take It with You

• 1939: Gone with the Wind

1940s and 1950s

• 1940: Rebecca

• 1941: How Green Was My Valley

• 1942: Mrs. Miniver

• 1943: Casablanca

• 1944: Going My Way

• 1945: The Lost Weekend

• 1946: The Best Years of Our Lives

• 1947: Gentleman’s Agreement

• 1948: Hamlet

• 1949: All the King’s Men

• 1950: All About Eve

• 1951: An American in Paris

• 1952: The Greatest Show on Earth

• 1953: From Here to Eternity

• 1954: On the Waterfront

• 1955: Marty

• 1956: Around the World in 80 Days

• 1957: The Bridge on the River Kwai

• 1958: Gigi

• 1959: Ben-Hur

1960s and 1970s

• 1960: The Apartment

• 1961: West Side Story

• 1962: Lawrence of Arabia

• 1963: Tom Jones

• 1964: My Fair Lady

• 1965: The Sound of Music

• 1966: A Man for All Seasons

• 1967: In the Heat of the Night

• 1968: Oliver!

• 1969: Midnight Cowboy

• 1970: Patton

• 1971: The French Connection

• 1972: The Godfather

• 1973: The Sting

• 1974: The Godfather Part II

• 1975: One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest

• 1976: Rocky

• 1977: Annie Hall

• 1978: The Deer Hunter

• 1979: Kramer vs. Kramer

1980s and 1990s

• 1980: Ordinary People

• 1981: Chariots of Fire

• 1982: Gandhi

• 1983: Terms of Endearment

• 1984: Amadeus

• 1985: Out of Africa

• 1986: Platoon

• 1987: The Last Emperor

• 1988: Rain Man

• 1989: Driving Miss Daisy

• 1990: Dances with Wolves

• 1991: The Silence of the Lambs

• 1992: Unforgiven

• 1993: Schindler’s List

• 1994: Forrest Gump

• 1995: Braveheart

• 1996: The English Patient

• 1997: Titanic

• 1998: Shakespeare in Love

• 1999: American Beauty

2000s and 2010s

• 2000: Gladiator

• 2001: A Beautiful Mind

• 2002: Chicago

• 2003: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

• 2004: Million Dollar Baby

• 2005: Crash

• 2006: The Departed

• 2007: No Country for Old Men

• 2008: Slumdog Millionaire

• 2009: The Hurt Locker

• 2010: The King’s Speech

• 2011: The Artist

• 2012: Argo

• 2013: 12 Years a Slave

• 2014: Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

• 2015: Spotlight

• 2016: Moonlight

• 2017: The Shape of Water

• 2018: Green Book

• 2019: Parasite

2020s

• 2020: Nomadland

• 2021: CODA

• 2022: Everything Everywhere All at Once

• 2023: Oppenheimer