What Oscar Winners Have I Seen- and What are My Favorites???

Alright so keeping the Oscar themes there have been 97 Oscar Ceremonies and I have seen 21 of the best picture winners… so let’s talk about the ones I’ve seen in the order in which I like them… starting from the worst to the best. Some of these I don’t really remember all that well- so if I do this ranking again next year it will likely be different… but Crash will likely always be at the bottom of the list.

21) Crash (2005)

Yep this one is pretty bad. I’d say even if Emilia Perez won this year- this one would still be the worst oscar winner of all time… and no one was expecting THIS to be the movie that won. This was one of the only movies I had seen that year and I was a child so I felt really mature about seeing this and it winning best picture… but I watched it again recently and I understand the criticism now.

20) American Beauty (1999)

Yeah this one is a no for me too… not just because of Kevin Spacey. It’s just overall a really creepy and bad movie.

19) Birdman (2014)

This has a longer title but I don’t feel like typing it all. I don’t think this is a bad movie… it’s just really long and boring. I loved the way it was shot and I liked all the actors in the movie. This was done to look like it was all in one take- and it was interesting because this was nominated the same year as Boyhood which had several clips filmed over several years. So I think this deserved to win because of the unique filming technique but I just didn’t really like it much.

The movies I don’t really remember…

Sooo there are a few movies that I can’t really remember that well. I think there may be criticisms about these movies that I don’t feel like I’m informed enough to comment on… so I’m just going to kind of list them off… these could probably go in any order.

18) The Departed (2006)- I can’t remember if I even saw this full movie, I did see Internal Affairs- which this movie was based off of- recently and I felt like I had seen enough of The Departed that I knew what happened.

17) 12 Years A Slave (2013)- I had to see this movie for class and it was really good but I have not seen it since seeing it in theaters because this is a hard movie to watch. Lupita Nyongo totally made this movie though. She’s a great actress and I’m glad she has this big breakout.

16) Slumdog Millionaire (2008)- I think I saw this twice in theaters and once or twice at home. I haven’t seen it since then and I’m sure my opinions would differ now.

15) The Lord of The Rings: The Return of The King (2003)

Great movie and a total Oscar sweep for Lord of The Rings that year- it won everything it was nominated for. I don’t remember this one as much and I think it’s stronger as a trilogy.

14) Schindler’s List (1993)

The only reason this is so low on my list is because I don’t think I’ve seen it all or at least not all in one sitting… I’ve only seen it in class. I probably shouldn’t have really included this one but- I have seen enough of it to know it is a powerful movie and probably one of the best of all time.

13) West Side Story (1961)

This is the oldest movie on my list and the last of the “I don’t remember that well” bunch… but I do know I saw this whole movie and I remember the music so this one I remember better than the others.

Movies I’ve seen more recently…

12) Coda (2021)

I just watched this one recently and I liked it. I don’t know if it would have won Best Picture in another year… but I did enjoy it. I think it deserved its win.

11) The Godfather Part II

This movie is absolutely great it’s just very very long and I kind of feel like they could have broken it up into 2 movies. I like it still- and part of me likes it more than The Godfather- but I don’t think I can put it above The Godfather.

10) Forest Gump (1994)

This is probably the first movie that I saw that won an Oscar… unless it’s something else.

9) Oppenheimer (2023)

Loved this movie loved the Barbenheimer experience. The rest of these movies are Classics and movies I really love… so it’s hard to put this movie above those.

8) The Godfather (1972)

A classic… there are movies on this list that I’m a little surprised I am putting higher than this one… but I like Horor Movies, I like musicals… so there are some personal favorite movies I’ve got to put above this.

7) Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022)

I feel like if I saw this one again I would probably put this a little bit more. When I first saw this I was like “this is a once a year movie for me” and I have not watched it since then… so I need to watch this one again… and again. But for now it’s just not in my top 5!

6) Rocky (1976)

I’m surprised this is so high on my list… but thinking about the movie… yeah. I kind of like slice of life movies and this and although I’m not a sports fan… I do like sports movies.

5) The Shape Of Water (2017)

Omg I love this movie. I really love Michael Shannon as the villain and how he keeps getting less and less human through the movie… what an amazing actor. All the other performances in this movie are incredible too. Sally Hawkins is amazing, Octavia Spencer was great in this. I love Guillermo Del Toro and this is my favorite thing I’ve seen of his. This is a perfect movie in my opinion. I’ve got to watch this again.

I honestly do think I compare all villains to Michael Shannon because of this performance.

4) Silence of The Lambs (1991)

This is another classic- one of the best horror movies of all time and this came out the year I was born. I know this movies has problematic issues in it too… but overall I love this movie. I love Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster… really good overall.

3) Chicago (2002)

This is the first movie I saw in theaters that ended up winning an Oscar… and I love this. I listened to the soundtrack for this every day for a year or 2… I’ve seen this several times and I will probably watch it several more times. I know this probably isn’t in anyone else’s top 5… but it’s a personal preference for me and it’s sentimental.

2) Anora (2024)

Okay this years winner is another favorite of mine. This could just be because I literally JUST saw this movie it’s one of my favorites but I really thought it was a fun movie. Again I like slice of life movies, and this was kind of slice of life… I liked the adventure the characters were on. It was very funny and very sad all at once… and I’m glad not every academy award nominated movie has to be really serious. This one was a great balance.

1) Parasite (2019)

I feel like I haven’t really stopped thinking about this movie since I saw it- which was years ago. And I haven’t even watched it since then. I love Bong Joon Ho - I’m pretty sure I’ve seen all of his movies now. This one is still my favorite… I think I want to watch it again soon. I would have loved to see it in the rerelease that just came out but I missed seeing it.

Alright that’s everything. I will try to watch some of the other winners and maybe update this list again next year.

Bye!

-Shannon