Despite criticism to the contrary, in many years Hollywood turns out multiple great movies.
Take 2025, for example. Oscar voters have two excellent front-running films to choose from in Sinners and One Battle After Another.
Thus, when Academy members fill out their ballots, they’re often faced with a sort of Sophie’s Choice. As a result, voters and viewers often don’t agree with the Academy’s final selection.
RELATED: All The Best Picture-Winning Films Going Back To 1929
The Oscars can get it wrong, even when one film seems objectively superior. This can happen when a film gets a great campaign or rides a momentary current in the zeitgeist. Those movies generally don’t stand the test of time.
The Academy also occasionally gets it just right.
Scroll through the gallery below to see what an alternate Best Picture winners list might look like.
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CONCLAVE, 2024
Image Credit: Focus Features / Courtesy Everett Collection While Anora was the winner, Edward Berger’s Vatican-set political thriller would have been an equally good, if more traditional, choice.
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OPPENHEIMER, 2023
Image Credit: Universal Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection There really is no arguing with the Academy’s selection of Christopher Nolan’s masterful portrait of the modern prometheus.
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ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT, 2022
Image Credit: Reiner Bajo /Netflix /Courtesy Everett Collection Edward Berger’s nominated work was very different from eventual winner Everything, Everywhere, All at Once. Some say it was better.
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CODA, 2021
Image Credit: Apple TV+ / Courtesy Everett Collection A year into Covid with Hollywood on the verge of a Writer’s Strike, Apple’s film hit an emotioal chord and really didn’t have any comepteition.
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THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7, 2020
Image Credit: Niko Tavernise / Netflix / Courtesy Everett Collection A year of Covid stoppages meant very few releases and very few choices for Academy members. The Trial of the Chicago 7 was as good as any of them, including Nomadland, which won.
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ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD, 2019
Image Credit: Andrew Cooper / Columbia Pictures / courtesy Everett Collection Parasite was a worthy winner, but Once Upon a Time in Hollywood may be the best film Quentin Tarantino’s ever made.
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BLACK PANTHER, 2018
Image Credit: Matt Kennedy /Marvel / Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures /Courtesy Everett Collection Oscar voters went for a feel-good tale of race relations in The Green Book. But Ryan Coogler’s examination of latent fascism, Black power and personal responsibility went far deeper. If ever there was a Marvel film worthy of Best Picture, this was it.
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DUNKIRK, 2017
Image Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures/courtesy Everett Collection The Shape of Water was a deserving, if out-of-the-box choice for Best Picture, but Christopher Nolan’s pulsating WWII tale would have been an equally-good selection.
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LA LA LAND, 2016
Image Credit: Summit Releasing/courtesy Everett Collection Moonlight is a materpiece. However, if this category were chosen strictly on the number of No. 1 votes in stead of a 1-10 ranking, Damien Chazelle’s musical would likely have won.
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THE REVENANT, 2015
Image Credit: 20th Century Fox Film Corp./Courtesy Everett Collection Voters chose the heartrending and topical Spotlight, but Alejandro González Iñárritu’s primeval masterwork is timeless.
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BOYHOOD, 2014
Image Credit: IFC Films/courtesy Everett Collection Iñárritu won for his innovately-shot Birdman, but Richard Linklater’s epic coming-of-age film, which was shot over 10 years, was equally groundbreaking.
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GRAVITY, 2013
Image Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures/courtesy Everett Collection The Sandra Bullock-starring Gravity was probably the only film that had a shot at unseating eventual winner 12 Years a Slave.
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LINCOLN, 2012
Image Credit: 20th Century Fox Film Corp./courtesy Everett Collection Hollywood loves a movie about Hollywood, and Best Picture-winner Argo is that, plus the retelling of a real-world political rescue caper. Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln was a different kind of political picture: a historical tale of America’s greatest president starring the world’s greatest actor.
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MONEYBALL, 2011
Image Credit: Melinda Sue Gordon/Columbia Pictures/Courtes The Artist was a bold choice, but Bennett Miller’s buddy tale starring Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill about the triumph of analytics in sports is surprisingly human and watchable.
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THE SOCIAL NETWORK, 2010
Image Credit: Merrick Morton/Columbia Pictures/Courtesy Everett While The King’s Speech won as the sort of old school Academy fare that reigned for decades, The Social Network was more prescient, and is now more relevant in the era of tech broligarchs.
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AVATAR, 2009
Image Credit: 20th Century Fox/Courtesy Everett Collection James Cameron’s visionary bet was beat out by the more topical The Hurt Locker.
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SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, 2008
Image Credit: Fox Searchlight/courtesy Everett Collection In a relatively weak year, Danny Boyle’s daring look at love and poverty deserved the trophy (and got it).
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THERE WILL BE BLOOD, 2007
Image Credit: Paramount Vantage/courtesy Everett Collection What happens in a year when two of the young century’s best films are both up for Best Picture? It’s a coin flip, and No Country for Old Men won.
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THE DEPARTED, 2006
Image Credit: Warner Brothers/courtesy Everett Collection The Departed was the right choice. No argument here.
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BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, 2005
Image Credit: Focus Films/Everett Collection The poster child for the concept of “films that should have won,” Ang Lee’s groundbreaking (and heartbreaking) tale of two men in love may have been too challenging for an Academy that sometimes fell victim to its own traditions. Crash was the safe choice.
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THE AVIATOR, 2004
Image Credit: Miramax/courtesy Everett Collection Clint Eastwood’s Million Dollar Baby came out of nowhere in December 2004 to win Best Picture. It’s hard not to argue that Martin Scorsese’s lavish Howard Hughes biopic The Aviator wasn’t equally deserving.
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SIDEWAYS, 2004
Image Credit: Fox Searchlight/courtesy Everett Collection Also in the running against Eastwood’s Baby was a decidedly different type of film: a quirky buddy picture about a trip to the central coast wine country featuring two loveable, but damaged souls. Sideways was an indie and an underdog, but it’s hard to argue it wasn’t worthy.
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THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING, 2003
Image Credit: New Line/courtesy Everett Collection One of the biggest gambles in cinema history paid off with a Best Picture win for this final LOTR installment, as it should have.
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THE PIANIST, 2002
Image Credit: Focus Features/courtesy Everett Collection Chicago brought back the movie musical and was rewarded for the feat, but The Pianist very nearly took the top prize.
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MOULIN ROUGE!, 2001
Image Credit: 20th Century Fox Film Corp. One year before Chicago won, Baz Luhrmann’s even more daring musical lost to the more conventional choice, A Beautiful Mind.
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TRAFFIC, 2000
Image Credit: USA Films/courtesy Everett Collection If voters hadn’t coalesced around Ridley Scott’s sword and sandal throwback Gladiator, Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic would have been a great, forward-looking choice.
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THE SIXTH SENSE, 1999
Image Credit: Buena Vista Pictures/ Courtesy: Everett Collection American Beauty rode the zeitgeist to victory, but M. Night Shyamalan’s picture may have had a more lasting cultural impact.
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SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, 1998
Image Credit: Everett Collection After decades of war movies, Steven Spielberg found a way to break new ground with, in particular, the first 20 minutes of Saving Private Ryan. It was beat out by a masterful campaign for Shakespeare in Love. That does not, however, mean the latter is the better film.
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TITANIC, 1997
Image Credit: 20th Century Fox Film Corp./Courtesy:Everett Collection James Cameron’s classic has everything one looks for in a Best Picture winner. The Academy got this one right.
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JERRY MAGUIRE, 1996
Image Credit: Everett Collection To call Jerry Maguire one of Tom Cruise’s most indelible performances is saying something special. To add that it’s also Cameron Crowe’s best script makes it even more special. Is it better than eventual winner The English Patient? Ask yourself which film you’ve seen more times.
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