Oscar 2012 In Review

Wow.  I know people are defending Seth McFarlane, but listing things from his childhood that existed is getting old.  I hope he doesn’t come back.  I don’t mind that there was a recognition of some history (I guess Les Miserables being a Best Picture nominee meant it would be based around musicals).  I just wish the history would go back further than 10 years to Chicago, you know, to those films that were made throughout the 20^th century...

The fact that they continue to hide their history by giving the honorary Oscars at a separate ceremony that we see only in a montage still irks me.

They did spread the wealth and split between Picture and Director.  4 awards to Life of Pi, 3 awards to Argo and Les Miserables, 2 awards to Django Unchained, Lincoln, and Skyfall. 

This year, the big six categories (Picture, Director, Actor and Actress, Supporting Actor and Actress) went to six different films.  Since the supporting acting categories were added in 1936, a six way split of those big awards has happened only three times before:

2005 (Crash, Brokeback Mountain, Capote, Walk the Line, Syriana, The Constant Gardener)

1956 (Around the World in Eighty Days, Giant, The King and I, Anastasia, Lust for Life, Written on the Wind)

1952 (The Greatest Show on Earth, The Quiet Man, High Noon, Come Back Little Sheba, Viva Zapata!, The Bad and the Beautiful)

Here are my thoughts about the main categories:

BEST PICTURE

Amour

Argo

Beasts of the Southern Wild

Django Unchained

Les Miserables

Life of Pi

Lincoln

Silver Linings Playbook

Zero Dark Thirty

 

Winner: Argo

A competent thriller, but again the Academy has to go overboard and make a bigger statement with awarding it.  They want to show respect to actor-turned-director Ben Affleck for revitalizing his career.  When the directors branch fails to nominate him in the Director category, the actors overcompensate by giving the film Best Picture.  Affleck, along with George Clooney and Grant Heslov, are now Oscar winning producers.  Actors love that career trajectory.  Argo is now only the fourth film in 85 years to win Best Picture without a Director nomination (joining Wings, Grand Hotel, Driving Miss Daisy).  I have a feeling that had Affleck been nominated for Director, he would have won too.  The idea of Hollywood actively participating in a covert action and saving lives is just too delicious.  They really love this movie, but living down a Best Picture victory seems to be the history that awaits most winners.

 

Personal preference: Amour

This and Zero Dark Thirty are the only two nominees I really considered here, but I’d have to give it to Michael Haneke’s honest depiction of a couple’s long life slowly deteriorating into death.  I’ll say more about Amour below. 

 

Snubbed for a nod (and should have WON): The Master

But my love for Amour aside, the best picture of the year wasn’t even nominated.  Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master is a sublime character study of a brute seduced by a manipulative sect leader.  The film has three actors doing career best work and a writer/director with a capable hand and eye.  Audiences and critics weren’t as sure about their feelings for The Master as they were for There Will Be Blood, but I think that’s intentional and the film is all the more rewarding for the repeat viewer looking to step into these character dynamics.

 

BEST DIRECTOR

Michael Haneke, Amour

Benh Zeitlin, Beasts of the Southern Wild

Ang Lee, Life of Pi

Steven Spielberg, Lincoln

David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook

 

Winner: Ang Lee, Life of Pi

Without Affleck nominated, there was a lot of uncertainty about who would win.  Some favored one of the old guard master filmmakers (Spielberg, Lee).  Others thought perhaps the bold foreign choice (Haneke).  A few argued for the upstart auteur (Russell).  The second win for Ang Lee is interesting.  He now has two Best Director Oscars (the other was for Brokeback Mountain in 2005), but neither film won Best Picture (Crash won in 2005).  Is this an apology for that?  Perhaps.  But the technical artists loved Life of Pi so it makes sense that they would honor a creative type who does interesting experiments with different genres, sometimes to success (Sense and Sensibility, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Brokeback Mountain), other times, failures (Hulk, Taking Woodstock).  I found the film a bit of a misstep in terms of story and performances, but the technical achievement is notable.  I don’t really mind this win.

 

Personal preference: Michael Haneke, Amour

That being said, my pick among the nominated directors would be Haneke.  His cold and calculated material puts off many viewers (Funny Games- both versions, Cache, The White Ribbon), but his staging of this dark descent for husband and wife is confined to a large apartment for most of the film.  He steps out of the way and lets the actors do what they need to do.  That type of direction usually won’t win against more flash and style, but it’s still a complete vision.  He also looks like a badass in this picture.

 

Snubbed for a nod (and should have WON): Paul Thomas Anderson, The Master

I would have honored Paul Thomas Anderson for The Master.  PT Anderson made a divisive film that says a lot about our eternal struggle for meaning and purpose, and our inability to ever be completely free of others’ influence.  He blends dream with reality, putting us in the head space of those broken and duplicitous figures.  It’s not comfortable, and that’s what he wants.

BEST ACTOR

Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook

Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln

Hugh Jackman, Les Miserables

Joaquin Phoenix, The Master

Denzel Washington, Flight

 

Winner: Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln

There are a few actors who have won 3 Oscars, but winning all of them in the lead category is difficult.  Katharine Hepburn is the big exception, with 4 wins as lead actress.  Last night, Daniel Day-Lewis became the only actor with 3 wins as lead actor.  His career has been an acting school, from Christy Brown in My Left Foot to Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood to the 16^th President of the United States.  Day-Lewis is the personification of who we imagine Lincoln to be, with enough of the human frailties to make him a mere mortal.  This is a respectable win.

    

 

Personal preference: Joaquin Phoenix, The Master

Phoenix has done some interesting work in his career, and while I’m not completely sold on his more mainstream roles in Gladiator and Walk the Line, I think the work in The Master is comparable to the method work done by Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire or Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood.  Phoenix’s work as the explosive drifter Freddie Quill is a dark mirror many of us do not want to look into.  If Day Lewis’ Lincoln is who we aspire to be, Phoenix’s Quill is who we really are.

 

Snubbed for a nod: Matthew McConaughey, Killer Joe

Another human monster that deserved some accolades was Matthew McConaughey’s police detective moonlighting as a hitman in Killer Joe.  This is an actor I had written off as doing romantic comedies with Kate Hudson and playing bongos naked.  But this year was very kind to him (I also highly recommend Bernie, and to a lesser extent, Magic Mike).  McConaughey subverts that womanizing charm to chilling effect.  You could feel the chicken grease after watching him.

I think we could have also found room for Denis Lavant in Holy Motors.
 

 

BEST ACTRESS

Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty

Emmanuelle Riva, Amour

Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook

Quvenzhane Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild

Naomi Watts, The Impossible

 

Winner: Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook

She was good in Winter’s Bone.  She was okay in that X-Men movie and The Hunger Games.  But this really won?  Again, it is a competent film like Argo.  But is it the best of the year?  No.  I hate that because there are so many trite romantic comedies and dramas that when one is a notch above those, it gets the hype.  This doesn’t come near the heights of smart, witty romantic works like The Apartment or Annie Hall.  That may not be fair, but again if this is the best of the year, you haven't seen enough movies… That sounds familiar…

"I chose the second trailer on purpose because it uses that classic song where people yell 'ho' and 'hey'..." he said with a staight face.

 

 

Personal preference: Emmanuelle Riva, Amour

It’s great the actors recognized the best female performance with a nomination at least.  Riva is an icon of the French film scene, with her roots going back to Hiroshima mon amour.  It is fitting that we find her doing a farewell of sorts in the most brutally honest way.  The decline of one’s body and mind as they meet their death is something we can all find relevance in.  Riva has no modesty about her performance, showing herself as vulnerable as she wastes away before her husband’s eyes. 

 

Snubbed for a nod: Melanie Lynskey, Hello I Must Be Going

A lot of great female performances have been ignored.  Rachel Weisz in The Deep Blue Sea.  Linda Cardellini in Return.  Mary Elizabeth Winstead in Smashed.  Michelle Williams in Take This Waltz. 

But a performance that I want to highlight is in the little seen indie film Hello I Must Be Going.  Melanie Lynskey has been a solid actress who wasn’t able to cross over to the mainstream the way her Heavenly Creatures co-star Kate Winslet did back in the 1990s.  But she has still done solid work as a supporting character actress.  Here as the lead, a divorcee in a malaise while living with her successful parents, we share in her brokenness.  And we find her relationship with a younger man a wake-up call to take control and challenge her circumstances.  It’s a performance that is much more about the mood communicated by Lynskey than dialogue.   

 

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Alan Arkin, Argo

Robert De Niro, Silver Linings Playbook

Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master

Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln

Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained

 

Winner: Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained

He won three years ago (for Inglourious Basterds) and he played both characters in a very similar way, while speaking the words of writer/director Quentin Tarantino.  This is also category fraud in that he was really a co-lead with Jamie Foxx.  I don’t usually complain except for what happened (see below).  But yeah, an unnecessary win.

 

 

Personal preference: Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master

Waltz’s win is all the more egregious when you realize how amazing PSH was in The Master.  Again, kudos to the actors for nominating the performances of the film, but the win was deserved.  Watch the processing scene between him and Joaquin Phoenix.  First, watch it as just an observer.  Then watch it as Phoenix is broken down and built up by Hoffman’s careful questioning.  Then watch it as Hoffman pushes exactly the right buttons to manipulate the reaction he wants.  He charms us and attracts us with the base human nature in us; our ability to be the one in control of another.

 

Snubbed for a nod: Leonardo DiCaprio, Django Unchained

Waltz elbowed DiCaprio out of this category.  DiCaprio was playing the showy villain role this time around, so the fact that the Academy passed on him for Waltz again is strange.  Maybe if DiCaprio becomes a producer/director… he can pull a Ben Affleck?

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Amy Adams, The Master

Sally Field, Lincoln

Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables

Helen Hunt, The Sessions

Jacki Weaver, Silver Linings Playbook

Winner: Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables

No.

 

 

Personal preference: Amy Adams, The Master

Everything I wrote about Philip Seymour Hoffman applies to Amy Adams.  Is she the title character?  Does her husband answer to her?  These are the questions to ask as you watch and rewatch the best picture of the year The Master.  Yeah, I would have given 5 of these 6 awards to The Master.  Only in my mind's eye is it a blow out. 

 

Snubbed for a nod: Juno Temple, Killer Joe

Newcomer Juno Temple has been here and there (small roles in Greenberg and The Dark Knight Rises), but she does the trailer trash Lolita act very well, the object of Matthew McConaughey’s creepy affections.  As the hitman plot compounds and twists into that memorable last 20 minutes, the relationship between her and McConaughey reaches its crescendo.  The Southern gothic roots of poverty are lived in by her character, and the assassin for hire is her Prince Charming.  Dreams do come true.

Oscar Predictions 2012

Here they are! Will update post afterwards to reflect how close my predictions were.

PICTURE: Argo
DIRECTOR: Steven Spielberg, Lincoln Ang Lee, Life of Pi
ACTOR: Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
ACTRESS: Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
SUP. ACTOR: Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained
SUP. ACTRESS: Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables
ORIG. SCREENPLAY: Amour  Django Unchained
ADAP. SCREENPLAY: Argo
ANIMATED FILM: Wreck-It Ralph Brave
FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM: Amour
PRODUCTION DESIGN: Lincoln
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Life of Pi
COSTUME DESIGN: Anna Karenina
EDITING: Argo
SCORE: Life of Pi
SONG: "Skyfall", Skyfall
MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING: Les Miserables
SOUND MIXING: Life of Pi Les Miserables
SOUND EDITING: Life of Pi Skyfall and Zero Dark Thirty (tie)
VISUAL EFFECTS: Life of Pi
DOCUMENTARY: Searching for Sugar Man
DOC- SHORT SUBJECT: Mondays at Racine Inocente
SHORT FILM- ANIMATED: Paperman
SHORT FILM- LIVE ACTION: Curfew

Life of Pi: 5 4 wins
Lincoln: four 2 wins
Argo: 3 wins
Amour: 2 1 wins
Les Miserables: 2 3 wins
Django Unchained: 2 wins
Skyfall: 2 wins

We'll see how I do. Last year, I got 16 out of 24 correct, okay, not great though.  I hope I can do better.  But it feels more uncertain this year. We will see.

17 out of 24.  Not that much better.  I would have loved Haneke winning Director, but Lee is a respectable choice.  My Amour love blinded me to Django Unchained rising.  One of the years where the most wins go to a film for its technical achievements (Life of Pi with 4 wins- winning Director, Cinematography, Score, Visual Effects) while another film slips by with Best Picture, but fewer wins (Argo with 3 wins- winning Picture, Screenplay, Editing).

Look for my more detailed reactions later this week.  And my top ten of 2012!

Oscar History Part 6: Best Picture

I would have to say the five best films made before the establishment of the Academy Awards would be The Battleship Potemkin, Greed, Intolerance, The Gold Rush and The General.

At the 1^st Academy Awards ceremony (for 1927 and 1928), there were two categories that were seen as equally the top award of the night: Outstanding Picture and Unique and Artistic Production, the previous being won by the war epic Wings, and the later by the art film Sunrise.  The awards were intended to honor different and equally important aspects of superior filmmaking.  The following year, the Academy dropped the Unique and Artistic Production award, and decided retroactively that the award won by Wings was the first Best Picture honor. 

The early years of the Oscars saw a lot of things that you don’t see anymore. For one thing, many of the Best Picture nominees only received one nomination. So the titles in orange will only appear through 1943. But in the first nine years of the Oscars, every year but one (1929-30) had at least one Best Picture nominee that got no other nominations. It happened three more times after that, with the last being The Ox-Bow Incident in 1943. In fact, since 1943 only four films have even been nominated for Best Picture with only 2 total nominations (Decision Before Dawn, Four Weddings and a Funeral, The Blind Side, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close).

Grand Hotel is the only film to win Best Picture with no other nominations. It was also the last film to win Best Picture without being nominated for Best Director until Driving Miss Daisy in 1989.

No film since Mutiny on the Bounty has won Best Picture without any other wins. Since 1935, the only films to even win Best Picture with only 2 total wins are You Can’t Take It With You, Rebecca and The Greatest Show on Earth. Every other Best Picture winner has won at least 3 Oscars (e.g. Midnight Cowboy, Rocky, Platoon, Crash).

Films started to slowly gets more wins and more nominations (with additional categories being created) but until 1939 no film had won more than 5 Oscars and The Life of Emile Zola was the only film to reach 10 nominations. Then Gone with the Wind received 13 nominations and 8 Oscars, showing the future of the epics dominating the Oscars (From Here to Eternity, On the Waterfront, Gigi, Ben-Hur, West Side Story, Lawrence of Arabia, My Fair Lady, Gandhi, Amadeus, Out of Africa, The Last Emperor, Dances with Wolves, The English Patient, Titanic, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King).

The 1950s were an odd era for Best Picture. It had some of the biggest films in Oscar history (All About Eve, From Here to Eternity, On the Waterfront, Ben-Hur), but also smaller films like An American in Paris, The Greatest Show on Earth and Around the World in 80 Days that didn’t win Best Director.

1990 saw the re-introduction of an interesting phenomenon – the split between the critics and the major awards groups. It had happened before. In 1975 and 1976, Nashville and All the President’s Men had both won Best Picture from three different critics groups, only to lose the Golden Globe, Directors Guild and the Oscar for Best Picture (to One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Rocky). Until 1990, the only other film to manage three Best Picture wins from the major critics groups was Terms of Endearment, which won the Best Picture Oscar. Then the trend came returned. Three times in the 1990s a film basically swept the major critics groups – first GoodFellas in 1990, next Pulp Fiction in 1994 and finally L.A. Confidential in 1997. The six major critics groups handed out 15 Best Picture awards, 17 Best Director awards and 11 Best Screenplay awards to these three films combined. Yet, in the end, it was Dances with Wolves, Forrest Gump and Titanic which won the Producers Guild, the Directors Guild, Best Picture and Director at the Golden Globes and Best Picture and Director at the Oscars.

We also saw some very impressive award numbers in this stretch. Titanic and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King both tied Ben-Hur’s record 11 wins, with Titanic getting a record tying 14 nominations (matching All About Eve) and Return of the King becoming the most impressive sweep (besting the 9-for-9 sweeps of Gigi and The Last Emperor).  The feat is even more impressive, considering that neither Titanic or Return of the King received any acting nominations.

1993 saw the most dominating film in awards history: Schindler’s List. It not only won Best Picture from all 6 major critics groups (the first film to accomplish that feat, though L.A. Confidential would also do it), but also the Producers Guild, the BAFTA, the Golden Globe, the DGA and the Oscar. Everyone agreed that it was the best film of the year.

Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) is a strange win.  The Informer won Director, Screenplay, Actor and Score, while Mutiny didn’t win any other Oscars.  The Informer had even won the only two precursors that existed at the time:  the National Board of Review and the initial Best Picture award from the New York Film Critics.

Some of the notable snubs: My Man Godfrey (1936) was nominated for the other big 6 awards (Director, Screenplay, all 4 acting categories), but not Picture.  Hud (1963) was nominated for 7 Oscars, including Director, Adapted Screenplay and Actor, and won Actress, Supporting Actor and Cinematography, but it did not receive a Best Picture nomination.  The Bad and the Beautiful was the most honored film of 1952, winning 5 Oscars, making it the most wins ever for a film not nominated for Best Picture, and until 1996 it was the only non-Best Picture nominee to win Best Adapted Screenplay.  They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (1969) holds the record for being the most nominated film to not receive a Best Picture nomination; it earned 9 nominations, including Director, Adapted Screenplay and 3 acting nominations.

1927-28 AA: Wings

• Seventh Heaven
• The Racket

me: Metropolis

• The Passion of Joan of Arc
• Sunrise
• The Circus
• The Crowd

1928-29 AA: The Broadway Melody

• In Old Arizona
• The Patriot (lost)
• Alibi  
• Hollywood Revue of 1929

me: Nosferatu (German release in 1922)

• Napoleon (French release in 1927)
• The Wind
• Pandora’s Box
• Steamboat Bill Jr.  

1929-30 AA: All Quiet on the Western Front

• The Divorcee
• The Love Parade
• The Big House
• Disraeli

me: All Quiet on the Western Front

• City Girl
• Hell’s Angels
• Blackmail
• Anna Christie

1930-31 AA: Cimarron

• The Front Page
• Skippy
• Trader Horn  
• East Lynne

me: City Lights

• The Public Enemy
• Dracula
• Le Million
• The Three Penny Opera

1931-32 AA: Grand Hotel

• Bad Girl
• The Champ 
• Shanghai Express  
• Arrowsmith  
• Five Star Final
• One Hour With You
• Smiling Lieutenant

me: Scarface

• Frankenstein
• Vampyr
• A Nous La Liberte
• Grand Hotel

1932-33 AA: Cavalcade

• Lady for a Day 
• Little Women
• 42nd Street 
• A Farewell to Arms
• I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang
• The Private Life of Henry VIII
• Smilin Through
• She Done Him Wrong    

me: King Kong

• M (German release in 1931)
• I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang
• Duck Soup  
• The Invisible Man

1934 AA: It Happened One Night

• One Night of Love
• The Thin Man  
• The Barretts of Wimpole Street 
• Cleopatra 
• Flirtation Walk 
• The Gay Divorcee
• Imitation of Life  
• Viva Villa  
• The White Parade    
• Here Comes the Navy
• The House of Rothschild

me: It Happened One Night

• The Thin Man
• The Gay Divorcee
• A Story of Floating Weeds
• Death Takes a Holiday

1935 AA: Mutiny on the Bounty

• The Informer  
• The Lives of a Bengal Lancer 
• Alice Adams 
• The Broadway Melody of 1936
• Captain Blood
• David Copperfield 
• Les Miserables 
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream  
• Naughty Marietta
• Top Hat
• Ruggles of Red Gap

me: The Bride of Frankenstein

• The Informer
• The 39 Steps
• Mutiny on the Bounty
• A Night at the Opera

1936 AA: The Great Ziegfeld

• Dodsworth
• Mr. Deeds Goes to Town  
• San Francisco 
• Anthony Adverse
• Romeo and Juliet
• The Story of Louis Pasteur 
• A Tale of Two Cities
• Three Smart Girls
• Libeled Lady    

me: Modern Times

• Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
• The Petrified Forest
• My Man Godfrey
• The Secret Agent

1937 AA: The Life of Emile Zola

• The Awful Truth
• The Good Earth 
• Stage Door  
• A Star is Born 
• 100 Men and a Girl 
• Captains Courageous 
• Dead End  
• In Old Chicago
• Lost Horizon    

me: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

• Make Way for Tomorrow
• A Star is Born
• The Awful Truth
• Lost Horizon

1938 AA: You Can’t Take It With You

• Boys Town
• The Citadel 
• Four Daughters 
• The Adventures of Robin Hood
• Alexander’s Ragtime Band 
• Jezebel
• Pygmalion
• Test Pilot  
• Grand Illusion   

me: Grand Illusion

• Bringing Up Baby
• Pygmalion
• The Adventures of Robin Hood
• You Can’t Take It With You  

1939 AA: Gone with the Wind

• Goodbye Mr Chips 
• Mr Smith Goes to Washington  
• Stagecoach
• Wuthering Heights
• Dark Victory  
• Love Affair 
• Ninotchka
• Of Mice and Men 
• The Wizard of Oz

me: The Wizard of Oz

• Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
• Wuthering Heights 
• The Lady Vanishes
• Gone With the Wind

1940 AA: Rebecca

• The Grapes of Wrath  
• Kitty Foyle
• The Letter
• The Philadelphia Story  
• All This and Heaven Too
• Foreign Correspondent 
• The Great Dictator  
• The Long Voyage Home  
• Our Town  

me: The Grapes of Wrath

• Rebecca
• Pinocchio
• The Great Dictator 
• The Philadelphia Story

1941: How Green Was My Valley

• Citizen Kane
• Here Comes Mr Jordan 
• The Little Foxes 
• Sergeant York
• Blossoms in the Dust 
• Hold Back the Dawn
• The Maltese Falcon  
• Suspicion  
• One Foot in Heaven  

me: Citizen Kane

• The Maltese Falcon
• Fantasia
• The Lady Eve
• Suspicion

1942 AA: Mrs. Miniver

• Kings Row
• Random Harvest 
• Wake Island
• Yankee Doodle Dandy
• The 49th Parallel 
• The Magnificent Ambersons  
• The Pied Piper 
• The Pride of the Yankees  
• The Talk of the Town  

me: Sullivan’s Travels

• Bambi
• The Magnificent Ambersons
• Yankee Doodle Dandy
• Mrs. Miniver

1943 AA: Casablanca

• Heaven Can Wait  
• The Human Comedy 
• The More the Merrier 
• The Song of Bernadette
• For Whom the Bell Tolls 
• In Which We Serve
• Madame Curie 
• Watch on the Rhine 
• The Ox-Bow Incident 

me: Casablanca

• Shadow of a Doubt
• In Which We Serve
• For Whom the Bell Tolls
• Heaven Can Wait

1944 AA: Going My Way

• Double Indemnity  
• Wilson 
• Gaslight
• Since You Went Away  

me: Double Indemnity

• Gaslight
• Hail the Conquering Hero
• Laura
• Meet Me in St. Louis

1945 AA: The Lost Weekend

• The Bells of St Mary’s
• Spellbound
• Anchors Aweigh  
• Mildred Pierce

me: The Lost Weekend

• Spellbound
• To Have and Have Not
• The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (UK release in 1943)
• Anchors Aweigh

1946 AA: The Best Years of Our Lives

• It’s a Wonderful Life
• The Yearling 
• Henry V
• The Razor’s Edge  

me: Notorious

• Children of Paradise (French release in 1945)
• Brief Encounter (UK release in 1945)
• The Best Years of Our Lives
• It’s a Wonderful Life

1947 AA: Gentleman’s Agreement

• The Bishop’s Wife 
• Crossfire
• Great Expectations  
• Miracle on 34th Street

me: La belle et la bete (French release in 1946)

• Great Expectations
• Stairway to Heaven (UK release in 1946)
• Ivan the Terrible Part I (Soviet release in 1944)
• Gentleman’s Agreement

1948 AA: Hamlet

• Johnny Belinda 
• The Snake Pit 
• Treasure of the Sierra Madre
• The Red Shoes

me: Treasure of the Sierra Madre

• The Red Shoes
• Hamlet
• Red River
• Letter from an Unknown Woman

1949 AA: All the King’s Men

• Battleground
• The Heiress 
• A Letter to Three Wives
• Twelve O’Clock High

me: The Bicycle Thief (Italian release in 1948)

• The Fallen Idol (UK release in 1948)
• All the King’s Men
• A Letter to Three Wives
• A Canterbury Tale (UK release in 1944)

1950 AA: All About Eve

• Born Yesterday 
• Sunset Boulevard
• Father of the Bride 
• King Solomon’s Mines  

me: Sunset Boulevard

• The Third Man (UK release in 1949)
• All About Eve
• The Rules of the Game (French release in 1939)
• The Asphalt Jungle

1951 AA: An American in Paris

• A Place in the Sun 
• A Streetcar Named Desire
• Decision Before Dawn  
• Quo Vadis

me: A Streetcar Named Desire

• Strangers on a Train
• Ace in the Hole
• A Place in the Sun
• The African Queen

1952 AA: The Greatest Show on Earth

• High Noon  
• Moulin Rouge 
• The Quiet Man  
• Ivanhoe  

me: Rashomon (Japanese release in 1950)

• Singin’ in the Rain
• High Noon
• The Bad and the Beautiful
• The Lavender Hill Mob

1953 AA: From Here to Eternity

• Roman Holiday
• Shane 
• Julius Caesar  
• The Robe  

me: From Here to Eternity

• Stalag 17
• The Big Heat
• Roman Holiday
• Pickup on South Street

1954 AA: On the Waterfront

• The Country Girl 
• The Caine Mutiny
• Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
• Three Coins in the Fountain  

me: On the Waterfront

• Rear Window
• Forbidden Games (French release in 1952)
• Sabrina
• A Star is Born  

1955 AA: Marty

• Picnic  
• Love is a Many-Splendored Thing
• Mr. Roberts 
• The Rose Tattoo

me: Rebel Without a Cause

• The Wages of Fear (French release in 1953)
• Bad Day at Black Rock
• To Catch a Thief
• Mr. Roberts

1956 AA: Around the World in 80 Days

• Friendly Persuasion 
• Giant
• The King and I  
• The Ten Commandments

me: The Seven Samurai (Japanese release in 1954)

• The Searchers
• The Killing
• Diabolique (French release in 1955)
• Richard III (UK release in 1955)

1957 AA: The Bridge on the River Kwai

• 12 Angry Men  
• Peyton Place
• Sayonara 
• Witness for the Prosecution

me: The Bridge on the River Kwai

• Paths of Glory
• 12 Angry Men
• Smiles of a Summer Night (Swedish release in 1955)
• Sweet Smell of Success  

1958 AA: Gigi

• Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
• The Defiant Ones
• Auntie Mame 
• Separate Tables  

me: Vertigo

• The Seventh Seal (Swedish release in 1957)
• Touch of Evil
• The Defiant Ones
• Cat on a Hot Tin Roof 

1959 AA: Ben-Hur

• The Diary of Anne Frank
• The Nun’s Story 
• Room at the Top 
• Anatomy of a Murder  

me: Some Like It Hot

• Wild Strawberries (Swedish release in 1957)
• The 400 Blows
• North by Northwest
• Ben-Hur

1960 AA: The Apartment

• Sons and Lovers  
• The Sundowners
• The Alamo
• Elmer Gantry 

me: Psycho

• The Apartment
• Ikiru (Japanese release in 1952)
• The Virgin Spring
• Spartacus

1961 AA: West Side Story

• The Guns of Navarone 
• The Hustler
• Judgment at Nuremberg
• Fanny  

me: West Side Story

• Throne of Blood (Japanese release in 1957)
• Yojimbo
• La Dolce Vita (Italian release in 1960)
• Breakfast at Tiffany’s

1962 AA: Lawrence of Arabia

• To Kill a Mockingbird  
• The Longest Day 
• The Music Man  
• Mutiny on the Bounty  

me: Lawrence of Arabia

• To Kill a Mockingbird 
• The Manchurian Candidate
• Through a Glass Darkly (Swedish release in 1961)
• Jules and Jim

1963 AA: Tom Jones

• America, America
• Cleopatra 
• How the West Was Won
• Lilies of the Field  

me: The Great Escape

• 8 1/2
• High and Low
• Winter Light
• Hud

1964 AA: My Fair Lady

• Becket
• Dr. Strangelove  
• Mary Poppins  
• Zorba the Greek

me: Dr. Strangelove

• Mary Poppins
• My Fair Lady
• Night of the Iguana
• A Hard Day’s Night

1965 AA: The Sound of Music

• Darling
• Doctor Zhivago  
• Ship of Fools
• A Thousand Clowns  

me: Doctor Zhivago

• Repulsion
• The Pawnbroker
• Darling
• The Sound of Music

1966 AA: A Man for all Seasons

• Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
• Alfie
• The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming
• The Sand Pebbles

me: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

• A Man for all Seasons
• A Man and a Woman
• The Professionals
• Red Beard (Japanese release in 1965)

1967 AA: In the Heat of the Night

• Bonnie and Clyde  
• The Graduate  
• Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner
• Dr. Dolittle

me: The Graduate

• Bonnie and Clyde
• Cool Hand Luke
• In the Heat of the Night
• Persona (Swedish release in 1966)

1968 AA: Oliver!

• The Lion in Winter  
• Romeo and Juliet
• Funny Girl  
• Rachel, Rachel  

me: 2001: A Space Odyssey

• The Lion in Winter
• The Battle of Algiers (Italian release in 1966)
• Rosemary’s Baby
• The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Italian release in 1966)

1969 AA: Midnight Cowboy

• Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
• Z
• Anne of the Thousand Days
• Hello Dolly!

me: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

• The Wild Bunch
• Z
• Once Upon a Time in the West
• Midnight Cowboy

1970 AA: Patton

• Love Story 
• M*A*S*H
• Airport 
• Five Easy Pieces  

me: M*A*S*H

• Patton
• Five Easy Pieces 
• Women in Love
• Floating Weeds (Japanese release in 1959)

1971 AA: The French Connection

• A Clockwork Orange  
• Fiddler on the Roof 
• The Last Picture Show  
• Nicholas and Alexandra

me: A Clockwork Orange

• The Last Picture Show
• McCabe and Mrs. Miller
• The French Connection
• Walkabout

1972 AA: The Godfather

• Cabaret  
• Deliverance  
• The Emigrants
• Sounder

me: The Godfather

• Tokyo Story (Japanese release in 1953)
• Deliverance
• Cabaret
• The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie

1973 AA: The Sting

• American Graffiti 
• Cries and Whispers  
• The Exorcist
• A Touch of Class

me: Cries and Whispers (Swedish release in 1972)

• The Exorcist
• Mean Streets
• American Graffiti
• Serpico

1974 AA: The Godfather Part II

• Chinatown
• Lenny 
• The Conversation  
• The Towering Inferno  

me: Chinatown

• The Godfather Part II
• Scenes from a Marriage (Swedish release in 1973)
• The Conversation
• Badlands

1975 AA: One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest

• Barry Lyndon
• Dog Day Afternoon 
• Nashville 
• Jaws

me: One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest

• Jaws
• Nashville
• Barry Lyndon
• Dog Day Afternoon

1976 AA: Rocky

• All the President’s Men
• Network  
• Bound for Glory
• Taxi Driver

me: Network

• All the President’s Men
• Taxi Driver
• Solaris (Soviet release in 1972)
• Rocky

1977 AA: Annie Hall

• Julia 
• Star Wars 
• The Turning Point 
• The Goodbye Girl 

me: Star Wars

• Annie Hall
• Close Encounters of the Third Kind
• Aguirre – The Wrath of God (German release in 1973)
• The Goodbye Girl

1978 AA: The Deer Hunter

• Coming Home
• Heaven Can Wait 
• Midnight Express  
• An Unmarried Woman  

me: The Deer Hunter

• Days of Heaven
• Midnight Express
• Autumn Sonata
• Heaven Can Wait

1979 AA: Kramer vs. Kramer

• All That Jazz 
• Apocalypse Now
• Breaking Away  
• Norma Rae

me: Apocalypse Now

• Alien
• Manhattan
• Being There
• Kramer vs. Kramer

1980 AA: Ordinary People

• The Elephant Man
• Raging Bull
• Tess
• Coal Miner’s Daughter  

me: Raging Bull

• The Elephant Man
• Ordinary People
• Kagemusha
• The Empire Strikes Back

1981 AA: Chariots of Fire

• Atlantic City 
• On Golden Pond 
• Raiders of the Lost Ark  
• Reds

me: Raiders of the Lost Ark

• Gallipoli
• Reds
• Atlantic City
• Chariots of Fire

1982 AA: Gandhi

• E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial
• Tootsie 
• The Verdict  
• Missing

me: E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial

• Das Boot
• Blade Runner
• The Verdict
• Diner

1983 AA: Terms of Endearment

• The Dresser 
• Tender Mercies 
• The Big Chill  
• The Right Stuff  

me: Fanny and Alexander

• Terms of Endearment
• The Big Chill
• The Right Stuff
• The Year of Living Dangerously

1984 AA: Amadeus

• The Killing Fields 
• A Passage to India  
• Places in the Heart 
• A Soldier’s Story  

me: Once Upon a Time in America

• Paris, Texas
• Amadeus
• Ghostbusters
• The Killing Fields

1985 AA: Out of Africa

• Kiss of the Spider Woman  
• Prizzi’s Honor 
• Witness 
• The Color Purple  

me: Ran

• Brazil
• Back to the Future
• Witness
• The Color Purple

1986 AA: Platoon

• Hannah and Her Sisters  
• The Mission 
• A Room with a View  
• Children of a Lesser God  

me: Platoon

• Blue Velvet
• Hannah and Her Sisters
• The Mission
• Stand by Me

1987 AA: The Last Emperor

• Fatal Attraction 
• Hope and Glory 
• Moonstruck 
• Broadcast News  

me: The Princess Bride

• Broadcast News
• The Last Emperor
• Full Metal Jacket
• Au Revoir, Les Enfants

1988 AA: Rain Man

• Mississippi Burning  
• Working Girl  
• The Accidental Tourist  
• Dangerous Liaisons 

me: Who Framed Roger Rabbit

• Dangerous Liaisons
• The Last Temptation of Christ
• Running on Empty
• Rain Man

1989 AA: Driving Miss Daisy

• Born on the Fourth of July 
• Dead Poets Society
• My Left Foot 
• Field of Dreams  

me: Born on the Fourth of July

• Do the Right Thing
• sex, lies, and videotape
• Dead Poets Society
• Field of Dreams

1990 AA: Dances with Wolves

• The Godfather Part III 
• GoodFellas  
• Awakenings 
• Ghost  

me: GoodFellas

• Dances with Wolves
• Miller’s Crossing
• The Godfather Part III
• Presumed Innocent

1991 AA: The Silence of the Lambs

• Bugsy 
• JFK  
• Beauty and the Beast  
• The Prince of Tides  

me: The Silence of the Lambs

• JFK
• Boyz N the Hood
• Grand Canyon
• Beauty and the Beast

1992 AA: Unforgiven

• The Crying Game  
• Howards End  
• Scent of a Woman 
• A Few Good Men  

me: Unforgiven

• The Crying Game
• The Last of the Mohicans
• Glengarry Glen Ross
• The Player

1993 AA: Schindler’s List

• In the Name of the Father  
• The Piano 
• The Remains of the Day  
• The Fugitive  

me: Schindler’s List

• The Age of Innocence
• Short Cuts
• Three Colors: Blue
• Philadelphia

1994 AA: Forrest Gump

• Pulp Fiction  
• Quiz Show 
• Four Weddings and a Funeral 
• The Shawshank Redemption  

me: The Shawshank Redemption

• Pulp Fiction
• Three Colors: Red
• Ed Wood
• Hoop Dreams

1995 AA: Braveheart

• Babe 
• Il Postino 
• Apollo 13
• Sense and Sensibility  

me: Heat

• Sense and Sensibility
• 12 Monkeys
• Dead Man Walking
• Apollo 13

1996 AA: The English Patient

• Fargo  
• Secrets and Lies 
• Shine 
• Jerry Maguire  

me: Fargo

• Lone Star
• Breaking the Waves
• The English Patient
• Jerry Maguire

1997 AA: Titanic

• The Full Monty 
• Good Will Hunting 
• L.A. Confidential  
• As Good as It Gets  

me: L.A. Confidential

• Boogie Nights
• The Ice Storm
• Jackie Brown
• Wag the Dog

1998 AA: Shakespeare in Love

• Life is Beautiful 
• Saving Private Ryan  
• The Thin Red Line  
• Elizabeth  

me: The Thin Red Line

• The Truman Show
• Out of Sight
• Saving Private Ryan
• The Big Lebowski

1999 AA: American Beauty

• The Cider House Rules 
• The Insider 
• The Sixth Sense  
• The Green Mile  

me: American Beauty

• Magnolia
• The Insider
• Eyes Wide Shut
• Three Kings

2000 AA: Gladiator

• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon  
• Erin Brockovich 
• Traffic  
• Chocolat  

me: Almost Famous

• Traffic
• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
• Requiem for a Dream
• Wonder Boys

2001 AA: A Beautiful Mind

• Gosford Park 
• The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring  
• In the Bedroom 
• Moulin Rouge!  

me: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

• Mulholland Drive
• Amelie
• Memento
• In the Bedroom

2002 AA: Chicago

• Gangs of New York 
• The Hours 
• The Pianist 
• The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers  

me: The Pianist

• Gangs of New York
• 25^th Hour
• Minority Report
• The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

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

• Lost in Translation  
• Master and Commander: Far Side of the World  
• Mystic River 
• Seabiscuit  

me: City of God (Brazilian release in 2002)

• Lost in Translation
• Mystic River
• In America
• The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

2004 AA: Million Dollar Baby

• The Aviator  
• Ray 
• Sideways  
• Finding Neverland  

me: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

• The Aviator
• Sideways
• Hotel Rwanda
• Million Dollar Baby

2005 AA: Crash

• Brokeback Mountain 
• Capote 
• Good Night and Good Luck 
• Munich  

me: Brokeback Mountain

• The New World
• Munich
• Good Night and Good Luck
• Kingdom of Heaven

2006 AA: The Departed

• Babel 
• Letters from Iwo Jima 
• The Queen  
• Little Miss Sunshine  

me: United 93

• Children of Men
• The Departed
• Pan’s Labyrinth
• The Fountain

2007 AA: No Country for Old Men

• Juno 
• Michael Clayton 
• There Will Be Blood   
• Atonement

me: There Will Be Blood

• No Country for Old Men
• Zodiac
• The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
• Once

2008 AA: Slumdog Millionaire  

• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button 
• Frost/Nixon
• Milk  
• The Reader

me: The Dark Knight

• Milk
• Rachel Getting Married
• Revolutionary Road
• Doubt

2009 AA: The Hurt Locker

• Avatar
• Inglourious Basterds
• Precious
• Up in the Air
• The Blind Side
• District 9
• An Education
• A Serious Man
• Up

me: Inglourious Basterds

• The Hurt Locker
• The White Ribbon
• In the Loop
• A Serious Man

2010 AA: The King’s Speech

• Black Swan
• The Fighter
• The Social Network
• True Grit
• Inception
• The Kids Are All Right
• 127 Hours
• Toy Story 3
• Winter’s Bone

me: The Social Network

• Black Swan
• Inception
• Carlos
• Blue Valentine

2011 AA: The Artist

• The Descendants
• Hugo
• Midnight in Paris
• The Tree of Life
• Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
• The Help
• Moneyball
• War Horse

me: The Tree of Life

• The Artist
• Drive
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
• A Separation

2012 AA:

• Amour
• Beasts of the Southern Wild
• Life of Pi
• Lincoln
• Silver Linings Playbook
• Argo
• Django Unchained
• Les Miserables
• Zero Dark Thirty

me: ?