Have You Seen These Oscar Winners?
Lesser-seen, often-quoted, forgotten, memorable—here's a list for every mood
Say what you will about the Oscars—they follow a very predictable template, are biased towards films talking they surely are any serious film lover’s initiation into cinema. So, what if you don’t have a Letterboxd account—if you know your Oscar winners from the regular stuff, you do care about what you watch. You can list the most outrageous snubs in the history of the Academy Awards, including the toast of the latest awards season, The Substance (2024). But for all its missteps, the Academy sometimes gets it right—either by accident, timing or sheer force of artistry.
Oscar Winner Movies Watchlist
This isn’t a list of all-time greats. It’s a lineup of Best Picture winners that still feel fresh, bold or quietly radical.
Birdman or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance (2014)
Alejandro González Iñárritu has a few masterpieces to his name, including Babel (2006) and Amores Perros (2000). He even got Leonardo DiCaprio his first and much-awaited Oscar with The Revenant (2015). But a year prior, he came out with this shockingly good experimental fever dream of a film starring Michael Keaton, Emma Stone and Edward Norton.
The Hurt Locker (2009)
Before Kathryn Bigelow took us through the shadowy corridors of post-9/11 geopolitics in Zero Dark Thirty (2012), she gave us this lean, near-documentary portrait of bomb defusal units in Iraq. Jeremy Renner has never been better, and Bigelow’s tight, nerve-splitting direction made her the first woman to win Best Director. It’s a war film with no jingoism, just sweat, dust and dread.
Anora (2024)
Sure, we admit that no matter how good Mikey Madison was in last year’s experimental anti-fairytale Anora, Demi Moore should have taken the golden statuette home. But Sean Baker’s icy take on the Cinderella story, set in wintry Brooklyn and frozen over with the director’s characteristic disenchantment with modern relationships, was chef’s kiss.
The Departed (2006)
Yes, it’s a remake of the Hong Kong thriller Infernal Affairs (2002), but in the legendary Martin Scorsese’s hands, it’s a Boston-set opera of violence, loyalty and very bad men trying to do the right thing. DiCaprio and Damon duel in twisted, slow-burn fashion, but it’s Jack Nicholson’s chaos agent and that brutal final act that make this more than just a crime flick—it’s a tragedy in sneakers and wiretaps.
The French Connection (1971)
William Friedkin’s gritty cop thriller made car chases art. Gene Hackman’s Popeye Doyle is racist, relentless and real—a far cry from your clean-cut TV detectives. It’s all grainy film stock, handheld shots and moral ambiguity, setting a new bar for what a Best Picture win could look like. Still shocking in its cold, dispassionate portrayal of justice.
The Apartment (1960)
Billy Wilder wrapped melancholy, romance and corporate cynicism in this sharply written dramedy about a lonely office worker (Jack Lemmon) who lets higher-ups use his apartment for their affairs. Shirley MacLaine is luminous, and the film still hits hard today for its blend of emotional honesty and whip-smart social critique. A rom-com with shadows.
On the Waterfront (1954)
Marlon Brando, mumbling and magnetic, delivers one of cinema’s most quoted monologues—“I coulda been a contender.” Elia Kazan’s dockside drama about corruption and conscience is raw, muscular and morally knotty, especially when viewed against the backdrop of Kazan’s controversial HUAC testimony. It's one of the rare Best Picture winners that carries both cinematic and historical weight.
The Godfather (1972)
Yes, it's the obvious pick. But it’s obvious for a reason. Coppola’s operatic saga about power, family, and the American dream corrupted is a masterclass in atmosphere and storytelling. Brando and Pacino—and Gordon Willis’ shadow-drenched cinematography turned the gangster film into high art. Not liking The Godfather is a personality trait. And not a good one—are you listening, Adam DiMarco from The White Lotus, season two?
Rebecca (1940)
British legend Alfred Hitchcock’s only Best Picture win, and oddly, not one of his most talked-about films. But this gothic psychodrama that is part ghost story and the rest psychological chess match, still seduces. Joan Fontaine’s wide-eyed vulnerability opposite Judith Anderson’s icy menace as Mrs Danvers is tension like you haven't really seen before, or at least too often. No blood, no screams—just dread, elegance and obsession wrapped in English fog. Last night I dreamt of Manderley again.
Rocky (1976)
It beat Taxi Driver and Network, and film buffs still wince at that (they should, as do I). But Rocky endures not just because of the underdog story—it’s how unvarnished it feels. It's the film to watch when life feels hard and you need a booster shot, but without the sophistication of a smarter film. Stallone wrote himself into the role of a lifetime, and John G Avildsen shot Philadelphia like a broken dream—I mean, the Italian Stallion jogging his way up to the Steps, with Gonna Fly Now playing the backdrop? Pure adrenaline. There’s more silence, grit and tenderness here than you remember.