A Guide to Every Film That Has Won Best Picture at the Oscars
From Wings to Oppenheimer, here's how to watch every single film that has won an Academy Award for Best Picture.
The annual Academy Awards celebrate the best in film for the past year. This year's Oscars just took place on Sunday, March 10, with ten movies are competing for the prestigious Best Picture prize, and Oppenheimer triumphing in the filed. What better way to gear up for next year's Oscars than by revisiting Best Picture winners of years past? It's a movie marathon that would span days (probably weeks) as you refine your cinematic knowledge before Hollywood converges for the most glamorous awards night of the year.
Without further ado, here's where to watch every single Best Picture winner, from starting with the very first Best Picture selection from 1928's Wings, all the way to Everything Everywhere All at Once, the winner at the 2023 ceremony:
Wings
Year: 1927/28
Director: William A. Wellman and Harry d'Abbadie D'Arrast
The very first Best Picture winner starred Clara Bow alongside Charles Rogers, Richard Arlen, and Gary Cooper in a WWI-era silent film about soldiers and their loves back home. Watch for some impressive aviation sequences.
The Broadway Melody
Year: 1928-1929
Director: Harry Beaumont
The first talkie (a.k.a. film with spoken dialogue) to win an Oscar follows Vaudeville sisters Hank and Queenie Mahoney as they take their act to the Broadway stage.
All Quiet on the Western Front
Year: 1929-1930
Director: Lewis Milestone
An adaptation of the novel of the same name, the film follows a group of German schoolboys who have been talked into enlisting in the army at the beginning of the first World War, showing the tragedy of their experiences.
In 2023, another adaptation of All Quiet on the Western Front is up for Best Picture.
Cimarron
Year: 1930-1931
Director: Wesley Ruggles
A pre-code Western about a restless newspaper editor who moves to an Oklahoma settlement—and then leaves his family behind.
Grand Hotel
Year: 1931-1932
Director: Edmund Goulding
A diverse group of individuals (featuring Greta Garbo, John Barrymore, and Joan Crawford) deal with their own respective dramas while staying in a luxurious Berlin hotel.
Cavalcade
Year: 1932-1933
Director: Frank Lloyd
Cavalcade follows the tragedies and triumphs of two English families, the wealthy Marryots and the working-class Bridges.
It Happened One Night
Year: 1934
Director: Frank Capra
The definitive screwball comedy, It Happened One Night takes viewers on a romantic (and surprisingly modern) road trip with Clark Gable, who won Best Actor for his portrayal of the reporter Peter, and Claudette Colbert, who won Best Actress as heiress-on-the-run Ellie.
Mutiny on the Bounty
Year: 1935
Director: Frank Lloyd
An abused crew stages a revolt against a tyrannical ship captain—and he decides to exact revenge.
The Great Ziegfeld
Year: 1936
Director: Robert Z. Leonard
A lively musical drama that depicts the rise of theater producer Florenz Ziegfeld, who was renowned in the '20s for his lavish stage productions.
The Life of Emile Zola
Year: 1937
Director: William Dieterle
The film follows the trajectory of Zola who wrote about the unsavory side of Parisian life, generating an enormous amount of success and giving him a comfortable upper-class life. His life is disrupted when Jewish officer Alfred Dreyfus is imprisoned for being a spy, and Zola became involved with the Dreyfus affair.
You Can't Take It With You
Year: 1938
Director: Frank Capra
Sweet Alice Sycamore, played by Jean Arthur, falls for the well-to-do Tony Kirby the son of a banker. Sycamore invites her snooty in-laws-to-be to dinner to get their blessing for their marriage, and they meet her eccentric extended family.
Gone with the Wind
Year: 1939
Director: Victor Fleming
The Civil War epic is a towering achievement in American cinema, produced during a year that was a standout for studio filmmaking (see also: The Wizard of Oz, Stagecoach, Ninotchka, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, etc. etc). But Gone With The Wind swept the Oscars with eight total wins, including Best Picture, Best Actress for Vivien Leigh (she also won for A Streetcar Named Desire), Best Supporting Actress for Hattie McDaniel (the first African American to be nominated for and win an Oscar), Best Director, Screenplay, Cinematography, Art Direction, Editing, and even a special Honorary Award for use of color film.
Rebecca
Year: 1940
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Based on Daphne Du Maurier's famous novel, Rebecca is the story of a young woman who marries a widower—only to discover that she is living in the shadow of his former wide who mysteriously died. It's also notably Hitchcock's first Hollywood feature.
How Green Was My Valley
Year: 1941
Director: John Ford
The academically inclined youngest son (played by Roddy McDowall) in a family of coal miners witnesses the tumult of rapid social change.
Mrs. Miniver
Year: 1942
Director: William Wyler
A drama centered around a middle class English family as they cope with the changes to life during the first moments of WWII, told through a series of dramatic vignettes.
Casablanca
Year: 1943
Director: Michael Curtiz
We all know Casablanca: Bogart, Bergman, "play it again, Sam," "we'll always have Paris." The World War II film, set in Morocco, is an all time romantic classic.
Going My Way
Year: 1944
Director: Leo McCarey
Bing Crosby plays Father Charles O'Malley, an easy-going young priest who is received with skepticism by his neighborhood parish in Midtown Manhattan.
The Lost Weekend
Year: 1945
Director: Billy Wilder
Writer Don Birnam has been sober for only a few days, but his brother, Wick (played by Phillip Terry) is supposed to visit for the weekend—and Don is eager for a drink. He convinces his girlfriend played by Jane Wyman to take Wick to a show and heads to his local bar where he embarks on a weekend-long bender that just might be his last.
The Best Years of Our Lives
Year: 1946
Director: William Wyler
Viewers follow a family man as he navigates life at home after returning from war. It even starred real-life vet Harold Russell who'd lost his hands in a training accident and went on to win an Honorary Oscar "for bringing hope and courage to his fellow veterans."
Gentleman's Agreement
Year: 1947
Director: Elia Kazan
Journalist Phil Green takes a high-profile magazine assignment about antisemitism, and assumes the role of a Jewish man, experiencing the many forms of bigotry in the name of his piece.
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Emily Burack (she/her) is the Senior News Editor for Town & Country, where she covers entertainment, culture, the royals, and a range of other subjects. Before joining T&C, she was the deputy managing editor at Hey Alma, a Jewish culture site. Follow her @emburack on Twitter and Instagram.
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