The biggest night in the movie calendar is almost upon us. So as we prepare for the 97th Academy Awards, JustWatch has sifted through the history of the ceremony to come up with the 20 best movies to win Best Picture at the Oscars, and we can tell you where to watch them, too.
Since 1929, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has been the go-to awards body for separating the good (and the not so good) from the great. The Oscars, as they are more commonly known, offers film fans and film stars the chance to reflect on the best work of the past year, with the Best Picture award being the most coveted prize of all.
This year, the likes of Anora, Conclave, The Brutalist, and The Substance are fighting it out for the big awards as the leading nominees at the 2025 Oscars. But, we’re here to look back in time and determine the best Best Picture winner ever.
Rocky
Who would ever have thought that a scrappy little film about an amateur boxer would make it all the way to the Oscars, let alone scoop the Best Picture award? Just like its titular character, Rocky defied all the odds in 1977, picking up a massive ten nominations, winning in the Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Editing categories.
Sylvester Stallone’s script is far from your paint-by-the-numbers sports story; Rocky is a tale steeped in heart and humour, and while the action in the ring is brilliant, it’s the gritty realism on the streets of Philadelphia that truly makes Rocky fly.
Moonlight
A24 movies are expected to succeed these days, but back in 2016, Moonlight gave the studio its first real breakthrough moment. The Barry Jenkins flick didn’t just please the indie crowd, it reached the masses, and the 2017 Academy Awards helped cement it into film folklore after the infamous (but very entertaining) La La Land mix-up.
Nominated for eight Oscars and winning Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actor (Mahershala Ali), and Best Picture, Moonlight was justly rewarded for its harrowing and heartfelt depiction of sexuality, adolescence, and finding family when you need them the most, whether they are blood relatives or not.
The Departed
Should Martin Scorsese have more Oscars on his mantlepiece? Yes, probably. But, with The Departed, the legendary filmmaker was given his flowers (and a lovely, little gold statue) at the 2007 Academy Awards, as were the rest of the team involved. The crime-thriller won in four of its five nominated categories, including Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Editing.
You could say that, as a remake of the Hong Kong film series, Infernal Affairs, Scorsese was already working with golden material. But, what the master filmmaker does with that story, and the performances he gets out of his incredible ensemble cast, is nothing short of magic.
The Silence of the Lambs
It is so rare to see horrors and dark, psychological thrillers getting love from the Academy, but The Silence of the Lambs was simply too good to ignore back in 1992. Not only did this chilling film pick up the Best Picture award, it also won for Best Actor and Actress (Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster), Best Director (Jonathan Demme), and Best Adapted Screenplay.
That makes The Silence of the Lambs one of only three movies to win the so-called ‘big five’ at the Academy Awards, with One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and It Happened One Night also achieving that very special feat.
Parasite
There has perhaps never been a more popular and beloved Best Picture winner than Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite back in 2020. The film had earned mass praise from critics and audiences alike upon its release for its twisted and darkly comic story of class conflict, but it was still not expected to be such a big hit at the Oscars.
Nominated in six categories, and winning four including Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best International Feature, Parasite would go on to make history by becoming the first ever film not in the English language to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards.
The Godfather
When you think of the most revered films of all time – like The Shawshank Redemption, Citizen Kane, and 2001: A Space Odyssey – the only one that can say it actually won the top prize is The Godfather. Francis Ford Coppola’s epic mafia masterpiece was nominated in a massive 11 categories, but took home only three awards: Best Picture, Best Actor (Marlon Brando), and Best Adapted Screenplay.
The Godfather is as violent as it is poetic, a rich tale of how powerful one man and one family can become, and the price that has to be paid to achieve such power. It’s a gorgeous, enthralling picture, and fully deserving of the decades of praise it has received.
Amadeus
Another film to receive 11 nominations is Milos Forman’s quirky, comical Amadeus, a film detailing the envy-driven vendetta of composer Antonio Salieri against his rival, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Amadeus won a whopping eight awards on the night, including big prizes like Best Director and Best Actor (F. Murray Abraham), and also the more technical awards like Best Costume Design and Best Sound. It’s a triumph in all aspects of filmmaking, and though it boasts a huge 180-minute runtime, Amadeus is one of those special movies that you cannot help but to want to spend even more time in its world.
Lawrence of Arabia
Speaking of technical achievements, Lawrence of Arabia is perhaps the most stunning, inch-perfect film not just of its period, but of all time. It earned ten nominations back in 1963, and managed to bring home seven of those awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography, and Best Music.
Those last two are particularly justified, with Lawrence of Arabia being a veritable delight for the eyes and ears. The vistas in this sprawling journey across the Arabian desert are truly breathtaking, while the music of Maurice Jarre still stands as one of the finest scores to ever accompany the silver screen.
The Sound of Music
Somehow, ten nominations still doesn’t quite feel like enough for The Sound of Music. Nor does the fact it only won in 50% of those categories. No, this is a film which deserved every award going, and one that has stood the test of time to this day as one of the most splendid musicals ever made.
But, what appears to be a charming and sweet musical on paper, actually turns out to be a fascinating depiction of defiance in the face of Nazism. It’s also a film that delivers some of the most astounding frames ever put to the screen, and it’s a travesty that The Sound of Music failed to win in the cinematography and art direction categories at the time – in fairness, losing out to the equally sublime Doctor Zhivago is not the worst snub imaginable.
Oppenheimer
The big winner at the 2024 Oscars ceremony was Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, and rightly so. This engrossing biopic picked up a jaw-dropping 13 nominations, winning seven of the categories including Best Director, Best Lead Actor and Support Actor (Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr.), Best Cinematography, and Best Editing. Frankly, it could and should have won all 13.
The exploration of the father of the atomic bomb, J. Robert Oppenheimer, saw Nolan excel himself – which is an extraordinary feat in itself – as he crafted an intricate and intimate retelling of one of the most pivotal periods of human history. It’s a film imbued with flair and creativity, while Cillian Murphy’s portrayal of the man at the heart of it all is simply spellbinding.
Honourable mentions
- Titanic
- The Hurt Locker
- The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
- The French Connection
- The Apartment
- It Happened One Night
- Gone with the Wind
- Everything Everywhere All at Once
- Schindler’s List
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Where to watch the greatest movies to win Best Picture online
Check out the list below on where to watch all these titles streaming on services like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and more!
