The list of Oscar winning movies extends back to 1929, when the movie awards were first started. Also known as the Academy Awards, the prominent movie awards event is known for giving away Oscars (the little golden statues that winners are given as a symbol of their success) to those who deserve it.
About the Academy Awards
While many people tune in to the popular awards program to see which Hollywood stars are wearing what, the awards show originally began to honor the achievements of the 1927 and 1928 movie seasons. The popular little golden man is known as an award of merit. The film reel that the Oscar statue stands on illustrates five different elements: actors, writers, directors. producers and technicians. The award is seen by many as not only the mark of a strong film but also as the mark of someone who has achieved recognition from their peers. The Academy is well known for selecting only the strongest actors and actresses to receive the top nod.
A List of Oscar Winning Movies
There are numerous types of accolades that a film and the participants of the film can receive from the Academy Awards. Among these honors are Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, Best Animated Feature, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Screenplay and the Best Film Score. Perhaps the most coveted award of all, however, is the award for the Best Film. The Best Film winner normally features stiff competition from other popular films and is always debated among movie buffs. When many think of the Oscars, the Best Film of the Year title is the one award that is frequently the first to come up. Films that have earned the title of Best Film of the Year include:
- Wings
- The Broadway Melody
- All Quiet on the Western Front
- Cimarron
- Grand Hotel
- Cavalcade
- It Happened One Night
- Mutiny on the Bounty
- The Great Ziegfled
- The Life of Emile Zola
- Rebecca
- How Green Was My Valley
- Casablanca
- Going My Way
- The Lost Weekend
- An American in Paris
- Hamlet
- Around the World in Eighty Days
- Gigi
- Ben-Hur
- West Side Story
- My Fair Lady
- The Sound of Music
- The Godfather
- Rocky
- Annie Hall
- The Silence of the Lambs
- Dancing with Wolves
- Schindler's List
- Forrest Gump
- Titanic
- The English Patient
- Shakespeare in Love
- American Beauty
- Gladiator
- A Beautiful Mind
- Chicago
- The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
- Million Dollar Baby
- Crash
- The Departed
- No Country for Old Men
- Slumdog Millionaire
- The Hurt Locker
Oscar Winning Stars
Some who are interested a list of Oscar winning movies may also be interested in a few trivia facts about Oscar winning films. For example, Titanic and All About Eve currently share the highest number of nominations ever, with each title earning 14 Oscar nods. Three Oscar-winning stars were responsible for directing themselves to an Oscar (Charlie Chaplin, Laurence Olivier, and Roberto Benigni). Additionally. there are three films that have won the title of Best Picture, Best Directing, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Writing. Those three films were the Silence of the Lambs, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and It Happened One Night.
A Final Note
A list of Oscar winning movies can tell you which films have been critically successful in the past. However, it cannot tell you which films you are going to love. While the Academy is known for picking wonderful films to receive their accolades, they can't predict how you will feel about the movies. Grab your favorite Oscar winning movie, pop it into the DVD player and see if it is really worth all of the hype.
