ACADEMY AWARDS
Oscar-winning films
Best Picture winner for each ceremony year from 1979 to 2025.
- Oscar2025

Best Picture
Anora
Film · Oscar 2025 · premiered 2024
- “I don't have Instagram. I'm an adult, man.”
- “I don't like this. I'm not being paid enough for this.”
- “When you give me health insurance, workers' comp, and a 401K, then you can tell me when I work.”
- Oscar2024

Best Picture
Oppenheimer
Film · Oscar 2024 · premiered 2023
- “Robert Oppenheimer's role in the development of the atomic bomb during World War II.”
- “The story of J. Robert Oppenheimer's role in the development of the atomic bomb…”
- “The world forever changes.”
- Oscar2023

Best Picture
Everything Everywhere All at Once
Film · Oscar 2023 · premiered 2022
- “An aging Chinese immigrant is swept up in an insane adventure, where she alone can save what's important to her by connecting with the lives she could have led in other universes.”
- “An aging Chinese immigrant is swept up in an insane adventure, where she alone…”
- “The universe is so much bigger than you realize.”
- Oscar2022

Best Picture
CODA
Film · Oscar 2022 · premiered 2021
- “As a CODA (Child of Deaf Adults), Ruby is the only hearing person in her deaf family.”
- “Every family has its own language.”
- “When the family's fishing business is threatened, Ruby finds herself torn between pursuing her love of music and her fear of abandoning her parents.”
- Oscar2021

Best Picture
Nomadland
Film · Oscar 2021 · premiered 2021
- “A woman in her sixties embarks on a journey through the western United States after losing everything in the Great Recession, living as a van-dwelling modern-day nomad.”
- “A woman in her sixties embarks on a journey through the western United States…”
- “See you down the road.”
- Oscar2020

Best Picture
Parasite
Film · Oscar 2020 · premiered 2019
- “Act like you own the place.”
- “All unemployed, Ki-taek's family takes peculiar interest in the wealthy and glamorous Parks for their livelihood until they get entangled in an unexpected incident.”
- “All unemployed, Ki-taek's family takes peculiar interest in the wealthy and glamorous Parks for…”
- Oscar2019

Best Picture
Green Book
Film · Oscar 2019 · premiered 2018
- “Being genius is not enough, it takes courage to change people's hearts.”
- “Inspired by a True Friendship.”
- “Tony Lip, a bouncer in 1962, is hired to drive pianist Don Shirley on…”
- Oscar2018

Best Picture
The Shape of Water
Film · Oscar 2018 · premiered 2017
- “A fairy tale for troubled times.”
- “An other-worldly story, set against the backdrop of Cold War era America circa 1962, where a mute janitor working at a lab falls in love with an amphibious man being held captive there and devises a plan to help him escape.”
- “An other-worldly story, set against the backdrop of Cold War era America circa 1962,…”
- Oscar2017

Best Picture
Moonlight
Film · Oscar 2017 · premiered 2016
- “[to Kevin] You're the only man who ever touched me. [pause] The only one. [pause] I haven't really touched anyone since.”
- “At some point, you gotta decide for yourself who you gonna be. Can't let nobody make that decision for you.”
- “Hey, these grandma rules, man. You know the deal. Your ass eat, your ass speak.”
- Oscar2016

Best Picture
Spotlight
Film · Oscar 2016 · premiered 2015
- “Break the story. Break the silence.”
- “The true story of how the Boston Globe uncovered the massive scandal of child molestation and cover-up within the local Catholic Archdiocese, shaking the entire Catholic Church to its core.”
- “The true story of how the Boston Globe uncovered the massive scandal of child…”
- Oscar2015

Best Picture
Birdman
Film · Oscar 2015 · premiered 2015
- “Look, you're beautiful and you're talented. And I'm lucky to have you.”
- “Popularity is the slutty little cousin of prestige.”
- “That’s what you always do, you confuse love for admiration.”
- Oscar2014

Best Picture
12 Years a Slave
Film · Oscar 2014 · premiered 2013
- “I don't want to survive. I want to live.”
- “I will not fall into despair. I will keep myself hardy, till freedom is opportune!”
- “Well, I don't want to survive. I want to live.”
- Oscar2013

Best Picture
Argo
Film · Oscar 2013 · premiered 2012
- “[Explaining the lack of fanfare regarding the awarding of Mendez' Intelligence Star] If we wanted applause, we would have joined the circus.”
- “[To Tony Mendez] If you're going to do a $20 million w:Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope rip-off, you need somebody who's a somebody to put their name on it. Somebody respectable. With credits. Who you can trust with classified information. Who will produce a fake movie. For free.”
- “If I'm going to make a fake movie, it's going to be a fake hit.”
- Oscar2012

Best Picture
The Artist
Film · Oscar 2012 · premiered 2011
- “A breath of fresh vintage air.”
- “Hollywood, 1927: As silent movie star George Valentin wonders if the arrival of talking pictures will cause him to fade into oblivion, he sparks with Peppy Miller, a young dancer set for a big break.”
- “Hollywood, 1927: As silent movie star George Valentin wonders if the arrival of talking…”
- Oscar2011

Best Picture
The King's Speech
Film · Oscar 2011 · premiered 2010
- “A new chapter of my life has begun. Already, I can feel the weight of this crown I wear.”
- “Find your voice.”
- “The King's Speech tells the story of the man who became King George VI, the father of Queen Elizabeth II.”
- Oscar2010

Best Picture
The Hurt Locker
Film · Oscar 2010 · premiered 2008
- “During the Iraq War, a Sergeant recently assigned to an army bomb squad is put at odds with his squad mates due to his maverick way of handling his work.”
- “During the Iraq War, a Sergeant recently assigned to an army bomb squad is…”
- “You don't have to be a hero to do this job. But it helps.”
- Oscar2009

Best Picture
Slumdog Millionaire
Film · Oscar 2009 · premiered 2008
- “A teenager reflects on his life after being accused of cheating on the Indian version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?".”
- “Start With Where You're From”
- “What does it take to find a lost love?”
- Oscar2008

Best Picture
No Country for Old Men
Film · Oscar 2008 · premiered 2007
- “Llewelyn Moss stumbles upon dead bodies, $2 million and a hoard of heroin in a Texas desert, but methodical killer Anton Chigurh comes looking for it, with local sheriff Ed Tom Bell hot on his trail.”
- “There are no clean getaways.”
- “What's the most you ever lost on a coin toss?”
- Oscar2007

Best Picture
The Departed
Film · Oscar 2007 · premiered 2006
- “Cops or criminals. When you’re facing a loaded gun, what’s the difference?”
- “To take down South Boston's Irish Mafia, the police send in one of their own to infiltrate the underworld, not realizing the syndicate has done likewise.”
- “While an undercover cop curries favor with the mob kingpin, a career criminal rises through the police ranks.”
- Oscar2006

Best Picture
Crash
Film · Oscar 2006 · premiered 2005
- “I didn't ask for your help, did I?”
- “In any real city, you walk, you brush past people, and people bump into you. In L.A, nobody touches you. We’re always behind this metal and glass. I think we miss that touch so much, that we crash into each other just so we can feel something.”
- “Sandra Bullock - Jean”
- Oscar2005

Best Picture
Million Dollar Baby
Film · Oscar 2005 · premiered 2004
- “Beyond his silence, there is a past. Beyond her dreams, there is a feeling. Beyond hope, there is a memory. Beyond their journey, there is a love.”
- “Despondent over a painful estrangement from his daughter, trainer Frankie Dunn isn't prepared for boxer Maggie Fitzgerald to enter his life.”
- “Start With Where You're From”
- Oscar2004

Best Picture
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Film · Oscar 2004 · premiered 2003
- “A new chapter of my life has begun. Already, I can feel the weight of this crown I wear.”
- “As armies mass for a final battle that will decide the fate of the world--and powerful, ancient forces of Light and Dark compete to determine the outcome--one member of the Fellowship of the Ring is revealed as the noble heir to the throne of the Kings of Men.”
- “The eye of the enemy is moving.”
- Oscar2003

Best Picture
Chicago
Film · Oscar 2003 · premiered 2002
- “If you can't be famous, be infamous.”
- “Murderesses Velma Kelly and Roxie Hart find themselves on death row together and fight for the fame that will keep them from the gallows in 1920s Chicago.”
- “Murderesses Velma Kelly and Roxie Hart find themselves on death row together and fight…”
- Oscar2002

Best Picture
A Beautiful Mind
Film · Oscar 2002 · premiered 2001
- “Find a truly original idea. It is the only way I will ever distinguish myself. It is the only way I will ever…matter.”
- “It's only in the mysterious equation of love that any logical reasons can be found.”
- “There has to be a mathematical explanation for how bad your tie is.”
- Oscar2001

Best Picture
Gladiator
Film · Oscar 2001 · premiered 2000
- “Are you not entertained?”
- “My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions and loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next.”
- “What we do in life echoes in eternity.”
- Oscar2000

Best Picture
American Beauty
Film · Oscar 2000 · premiered 1999
- “[Lying in bed fantasizing of watching Angela on ceiling partially covered in rose petals with it landing on his face] It's the weirdest thing. I feel like I've been in a coma for about twenty years, and I'm just now waking up.”
- “It's a great thing when you realize you still have the ability to surprise yourself. Makes you wonder what else you can do that you've forgotten about.”
- “Remember those posters that said, "Today is the first day of the rest of your life"? Well, that's true of every day but one - the day you die.”
- Oscar1999

Best Picture
Shakespeare in Love
Film · Oscar 1999 · premiered 1998
- “Love is the only inspiration.”
- “When lovely noblewoman Viola de Lesseps auditions for a role, they fall into forbidden love - and Shakespeare's play finds a new life (and title).”
- “Young William Shakespeare is forced to stage his latest comedy, 'Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate's Daughter', before it's even written.”
- Oscar1998

Best Picture
Titanic
Film · Oscar 1998 · premiered 1997
- “Does anything more dangerous than that lurk just beneath the surface?”
- “Draw me like one of your French girls”
- “I'm king of the world!”
- Oscar1997

Best Picture
The English Patient
Film · Oscar 1997 · premiered 1996
- “As World War II unfolds, Almásy enters into a world of love, betrayal, and politics.”
- “In love, there are no boundaries.”
- “In the 1930s, Count Almásy is a Hungarian map maker employed by the Royal Geographical Society to chart the vast expanses of the Sahara Desert along with several other prominent explorers.”
- Oscar1996

Best Picture
Braveheart
Film · Oscar 1996 · premiered 1995
- “Every man dies, but not every man really lives”
- “Every man dies, but not every man really lives.”
- “Every man dies; not every man really lives.”
- Oscar1995

Best Picture
Forrest Gump
Film · Oscar 1995 · premiered 1994
- “Don't ever let anybody tell you they’re better than you.”
- “Life is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you're gonna get.”
- “Mama always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get.”
- Oscar1994

Best Picture
Schindler's List
Film · Oscar 1994 · premiered 1993
- “The true story of how businessman Oskar Schindler saved over a thousand Jewish lives from the Nazis while they worked as slaves in his factory during World War II.”
- “The true story of how businessman Oskar Schindler saved over a thousand Jewish lives…”
- “Whoever saves one life, saves the world entire.”
- Oscar1993

Best Picture
Unforgiven
Film · Oscar 1993 · premiered 1992
- “Some legends will never be forgotten. Some wrongs can never be forgiven.”
- “To help support his two motherless children, he accepts one last bounty-hunter mission to find the men who brutalized a prostitute.”
- “William Munny is a retired, once-ruthless killer turned gentle widower and hog farmer.”
- Oscar1992

Best Picture
The Silence of the Lambs
Film · Oscar 1992 · premiered 1991
- “A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.”
- “I'm having an old friend for dinner.”
- “Oh, and Senator, just one more thing. Love your suit.”
- Oscar1991

Best Picture
Dances with Wolves
Film · Oscar 1991 · premiered 1990
- “As a reward, he's assigned to his dream post, a remote junction on the Western frontier, and soon makes unlikely friends with the local Sioux tribe.”
- “Inside everyone is a frontier waiting to be discovered.”
- “Wounded Civil War soldier John Dunbar tries to commit suicide - and becomes a hero instead.”
- Oscar1990

Best Picture
Driving Miss Daisy
Film · Oscar 1990 · premiered 1989
- “From an initial mere work relationship grew in 25 years a strong friendship between the two very different characters, in a time when those types of relationships were shunned.”
- “The funny, touching and totally irresistible story of a working relationship that became a 25-year friendship.”
- “The story of an old Jewish widow named Daisy Werthan and her relationship with her black chauffeur, Hoke.”
- Oscar1989

Best Picture
Rain Man
Film · Oscar 1989 · premiered 1988
- “A journey through understanding and fellowship.”
- “Motivated by his father's money, Charlie checks Raymond out of the facility in order to return with him to Los Angeles.”
- “When car dealer Charlie Babbitt learns that his estranged father has died, he returns home to Cincinnati, where he discovers that he has a savant older brother named Raymond and that his father's $3 million fortune is being left to the mental institution in which Raymond lives.”
- Oscar1988

Best Picture
The Last Emperor
Film · Oscar 1988 · premiered 1987
- “1500 slaves. 353,260,000 royal subjects. Warlords. Concubines. And 2 wives. He was the loneliest boy in the world.”
- “A dramatic history of Pu Yi, the last of the Emperors of China, from…”
- “last of the Emperors of China, from his lofty birth and brief reign in…”
- Oscar1987

Best Picture
Platoon
Film · Oscar 1987 · premiered 1986
- “As a young and naive recruit in Vietnam, Chris Taylor faces a moral crisis when confronted with the horrors of war and the duality of man.”
- “As a young and naive recruit in Vietnam, Chris Taylor faces a moral crisis…”
- “The first casualty of war is innocence.”
- Oscar1986

Best Picture
Out of Africa
Film · Oscar 1986 · premiered 1985
- “Based on a true story.”
- “Tells the life story of Danish author Karen Blixen, who at the beginning of the 20th century moved to Africa to build a new life for herself.”
- “The film is based on her 1937 autobiographical novel.”
- Oscar1985

Best Picture
Amadeus
Film · Oscar 1985 · premiered 1984
- “From now on we are enemies, you and I.”
- “That was Mozart. That! That giggling dirty-minded creature I had just seen, crawling on the floor!”
- “While my father prayed earnestly to God, to protect commerce, I would offer up secretly the proudest prayer a boy could think of: "Lord, make me a great composer. Let me celebrate Your glory through music and be celebrated myself. Make me famous through the world, dear God. Make me immortal.”
- Oscar1984

Best Picture
Terms of Endearment
Film · Oscar 1984 · premiered 1983
- “Aurora, a finicky woman, is in search of true love while her daughter faces marital issues.”
- “Come to laugh, come to cry, come to care, come to terms.”
- “Together, they help each other deal with problems and find reasons to live a joyful life.”
- Oscar1983

Best Picture
Gandhi
Film · Oscar 1983 · premiered 1982
- “Gandhi, a British-trained lawyer, forsakes all worldly possessions to take up the cause of Indian independence.”
- “His triumph changed the world forever.”
- “In the early years of the 20th century, Mohandas K.”
- Oscar1982

Best Picture
Chariots of Fire
Film · Oscar 1982 · premiered 1981
- “Eric Liddell, a devout Christian born to Scottish missionaries in China, sees running as part of his worship of God's glory and refuses to train or compete on the Sabbath.”
- “In the class-obsessed and religiously divided UK of the early 1920s, two determined young runners train for the 1924 Paris Olympics.”
- “This is the story of two men who run, not to run, but to prove something to the world. They will sacrifice anything to achieve their goals... except their honor.”
- Oscar1981

Best Picture
Ordinary People
Film · Oscar 1981 · premiered 1980
- “Beth, Calvin, and their son Conrad are living in the aftermath of the death of the other son.”
- “Conrad is overcome by grief and misplaced guilt to the extent of a suicide attempt.”
- “Everything is in its proper place... except the past.”
- Oscar1980

Best Picture
Kramer vs. Kramer
Film · Oscar 1980 · premiered 1979
- “His wife Joanna cannot take this anymore, so she decides to leave him.”
- “Ted Kramer is a career man for whom his work comes before his family.”
- “There are three sides to this love story.”
- Oscar1979

Best Picture
The Deer Hunter
Film · Oscar 1979 · premiered 1978
- “One of the most important and powerful films of all time!”
- “Three steelworkers enlist in the army and are sent to Vietnam, one leaving behind a rushed marriage, the others a shared love.”
- “What they encounter during the war changes their lives forever.”