Sharing their thoughts and opinions on Letterboxd, movie fans can express their favorite titles with lists and star ratings. From recent releases to cinematic classics, the social platform has been able to give cinemagoers a place to rate and have a voice on a wide range of movies.
Among these lists, many focus on the movies that were nominated or won an Academy Award. Using the star ratings from among these titles, these are the most popular movies that were nominated for Best Picture over the years.
10 Sunset Boulevard – 4.4
The oldest movie on this list, Sunset Boulevard tells the story of a screenwriter named Joe Gillis, who is struggling to find writing work in Hollywood and his relationship with an old star from the silent movie era named Norma Desmond. What seemed like a dream job for Joe as her script doctor for her return to the big screen soon turns into a nightmare as not all as it seems with Ms. Desmond.
This dark dramatic look in Hollywood managed to get the movie eleven nominations from the Academy. While it won Best Screenplay and Art Direction, it didn’t win the Best Picture award. However, the movie is still celebrated today and is used in many movie history lessons and courses.
9 There Will Be Blood – 4.4
Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood stars Daniel Day-Lewis as the corrupted oilman Daniel Plainview at the turn of the twentieth century as he attempts to drill a large deposit of oil underneath a family’s land. But with a series of incidents as well as his feud with the local preacher Eli, Plainview slowly cracks under the pressure in pursuit of a profit.
As some saw Daniel Plainview as his most iconic role, it was no surprise that Day-Lewis won the Academy Award for his acting in the movie. But There Will Be Blood didn’t earn the award for that year’s Best Picture. It lost out to the Coen Brothers’ No Country For Old Men.
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8 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King – 4.4
The final movie in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Peter Jackson’s epic adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy epic concluded on a high note. Not also was it the highest-grossing movie of 2003, but it is also the 25th highest-grossing movie of all time as of writing this.
But it also dominated the award season too, earning enough trophies to make The Hobbit‘s Smaug the dragon happy. It was nominated for eleven awards in 2004 and it won every one of them, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay.
7 Schindler’s List – 4.4
Schindler’s List has remained not just one of the best movies that Steven Spielberg has directed, but one of his most acclaimed too. Based on a true story, the movie chronicles Oskar Schindler and how he saved over a thousand Jewish people from the holocaust by employing them for his factories.
Out of its twelve nominations from the Academy Awards, it won seven of them. Fans of this movie wouldn’t be surprised to know that it won Spielberg the Best Director award and the efforts from the production crew and the talented cast won it the Best Picture award too, making it one of the best-ranked war movies by Spielberg.
6 Goodfellas – 4.4
Released in 1990, Goodfellas saw Martin Scorcese return to the crime genre. Based on the incredible true story of gangster Henry Hill, it follows his rise through the mob and his dangerous associates during his life.
Joe Pesci as Tommy DeVito earned the actor his second Academy Award nomination and he even got to take it home as the winner. While Scorcese and the movie were nominated, they didn’t win the awards in the Best Director and Best Picture categories. But it’s still regarded as one of the best crime movies that Scorcese and Pesci have been a part of.
5 The Shawshank Redemption – 4.5
One of the many movies adapted from Steven King’s wide variety of books, Shawshank Redemption is one of the most celebrated and beloved of them all. Released in 1994, it tells the story of prisoner Andy Dufresne and how he hopes to leave prison for a crime he claims he didn’t commit.
While the movie received a nomination for Best Picture, it didn’t take home the award the following year. But it has become one of the most culturally significant movies and had a fair share of parodies and references made in multiple television shows and other movies.
4 12 Angry Men – 4.5
Released in 1957, Henry Fonda led a star-studded cast from the time as jurors responsible for deciding the fate of a young man and his role in a crime he may or may not have committed. The American Film Institute saw this movie as one of the best courtroom dramas of all time and has remained within the top ten list under that category.
As well as starring in the movie, Fonda was also one of the producers. While he didn’t get the nomination for the Academy Award’s Best Actor, he got one for Best Picture. Ultimately, it didn’t win the award and lost to The Bridge on the River Kwai.
3 The Godfather Part 2 – 4.5
The follow-up to its successful predecessor, Francis Ford Coppola once again returned to the Corleone family as the director and reunited with author Mario Puzo to write the sequel. Serving as both a continuation and a prequel, the movie acts as an origin story of Vito Corleone and a sequel with his son taking over the family’s business.
While it’s not common for sequels to be nominated, let alone win, an Academy Award, The Godfather Part II was able to accomplish this feat and is considered the best Oscar-winning sequel by Rotten Tomatoes. It won the Best Picture award and it also saw Robert DeNiro win one too for his portrayal as the young Vito Corleone.
2 The Godfather – 4.5
Adapted from the 1969 novel of the same name by Mario Puzo, The Godfather introduced cinemagoers to the Corleone Family, made up of criminals and gangsters led by the powerful don Vito. When it was released in 1972, audiences were captivated by one of Marlon Brando’s most intimidating characters.
While Brando may have not accepted his award due to Hollywood’s portrayal of Native Americans at the time, producer Albert S. Ruddy accepted the Best Picture award that the movie successfully won. Furthermore, Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo proved to be great writing partners as they both won the Best Adapted Screenplay award.
1 Parasite 4.6
The most recent movie on this list (2019) is also the highest-rated Oscar-nominated movie on Letterboxd. Following up on the success of Netflix’s Okja, director Bon Joon-ho’s Parasite tells the story of a poor South Korean family and their scheme involving a wealthy household.
Beating out the big-budget dramas from Western directors, the movie won the Academy Award for Best Picture, being the first non-English language to succeed at earning the golden statue. It also saw the movie winning the awards for Best Original Screenplay, Best Director, and Best International Feature Film, which Joon-ho accepted as one of the writers and producers on the movie as well.
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