Oscar Best Picture

Daniel Brizuela                                                                                                                                12/1/11

Oscar Best Picture.

            Each year, for the past 83 years, one movie has won the most important movie award: the Oscar for Best Picture of the year. Since 1927, the Academy Awards have given many different films the award that proves how great, loved, and famous they were. It is the final and biggest award that’s given at the Oscars. The producers of the film are the ones who collect the award and become Oscar winners.

            Every genre, except the superhero genre, of film has been nominated for a Best Picture Oscar and at least once they’ve won, all except so far science fiction, comic book based, and animated films. So far only three westerns- Cimarron in 1932, Dances with Wolves in 1991, and Unforgiven in 1993-, one thriller, 1940s Rebecca, one horror, 1991s The Silence of the Lambs,  and only one fantasy film, the third Lord of the Rings, have won Best Picture. Other films that have won the Oscar for Best Picture include 1986s Platoon, 2010s The King’s Speech, 1959s Ben-Hur, 1970s Patton, and 1999s American Beauty. Some movies that have been nominated for Best Picture include 2009s Avatar, 1939s The Wizard of Oz, 1942s Mrs. Miniver, 1963s Cleopatra, and 1928s The Racket.

            There are many milestones and superlatives for various films that have been nominated or won the Oscar for Best Picture. These include only three films- 1934s It Happened One Night, 1975s One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and 1991s The Silence of the Lambs- winning Best Picture alongside the top Oscars for Best Director, Best Screenplay Adapted or Original, Best Leading Actor, and Best Leading Actress. 1969s Midnight Cowboy is the only film to win Best Picture and have an X rating which is now replaced by the NC-17 rating. Another superlative is that 1939s Gone with the Wind, at about three hours and fifty-four minutes is the longest film to win Best Picture. 1991s Beauty and the Beast was the first animated film to ever be nominated for Best Picture, and it wasn’t until 2002 that the Best Animated Film was added to the Oscars. From the early 1930s until 1943 when Casablanca won Best Picture, there were ten films that were nominated for Best Picture and after that it was five until 2010 when ten films were nominated again after many were angry that The Dark Knight wasn’t nominated. Now, however, the Academy has changed it again so that there could be anywhere from five to ten films being nominated. Who knows what 2012’s Best Picture nominations and/or winner will be, maybe either Hope Springs, The Avengers, or even Brave.