And the Oscar for Best Best Picture Goes to…

You may need to be reminded that the Academy Awards is taking place on Sunday. In the late 20th century, over 50 million viewers would regularly watch the Oscars; since 2020 film’s most prestigious awards ceremony has failed to attract a TV audience of more than 20 million viewers. The decline has been attributed to a lack of interest in the films that get nominated for Oscars, the rise of streaming platforms, and the divisive cultural wars that have led many people to perceive Hollywood as increasingly being the preserve of liberal advocacy masquerading as entertainment.This year the controversy over the antics and utterances of Timothée Chalamet, front-runner for best actor for “Marty Supreme,” and the closely fought race between “One Battle After Another” and “Sinners” for best picture has led some film writers to hope things will be different. Bilge Ebiri, a film critic for New York magazine, speculated the coverage surrounding this year’s Oscars means, “it might also wind up leading to an Oscars that everyone suddenly wants to watch.”Good luck with that! The truth is that the Academy Awards now only tends to go viral for the wrong reasons — the Will Smith slap in 2022 or “Envelopegate” in 2018 when Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway mistakenly awarded the best picture Oscar to “La La Land” before having to reverse course and give the Oscar to the rightful winner, “Moonlight.”Presently being broadcast via ABC and Hulu, the Oscars will be broadcast exclusively on YouTube from 2029 in a bid to stay relevant. Time will tell if the ceremony can recover its former glory. Meanwhile, we asked critics and contributors for their favorite film from the 97 films to have previously won the Oscar for best picture. Here are the selections in alphabetical order.Jeffrey Wells“Anora” Best Picture 2024In the context of today, “Anora” was a classic best picture choice. While it’s not a big or a grand movie, the character of Anora, as played by Mikey Madison, really makes herself into something in the course of the film. It’s a film about catharsis through trauma, a deeply satisfactory movie. Mikey Madison posing with her Best Actress Oscar for ‘Anora’ with the film’s producer Alex Coco. Monica Schipper/Getty ImagesJay Strongman“Ben-Hur” Best Picture 1959“Ben-Hur” is worth watching for the chariot scene alone which is incredible — it’s the kind of thing Hollywood doesn’t do anymore without green screens or AI. But the interaction between Charlton Heston and Stephen Boyd, playing Ben-Hur and Messala in the film, is a perfect illustration of the thin line that exists between love and hate.Mario Naves“Casablanca” Best Picture 1943Unlike the majority of films that have garnered a gold statuette, Michael Curtiz’s bittersweet story of love during wartime has gained in grace and gravity since its initial, remarkably unheralded, release. You can’t say that about the winner of the first best picture, “Wings” (1929) or last year’s winner which was again . . . ? Oh, yes: “Anora.” That picture feels like forever ago. “Casablanca,” in blessed contrast, is as fresh as it is immovable.Will Friedwald“Gigi” Best Picture 1958 Ten musicals have won the best picture Oscar. Both “Gigi” and “An American in Paris” feature the collaborations of Vincente Minnelli, Leslie Caron and Alan Jay Lerner. But I’m going to go for “Gigi.”Julienne Davis “Gone With the Wind” Best Picture 1939“Gone With the Wind” is a movie that encompasses America, war, relationships, children, tragedy, love of the earth, resilience, and finding hope in tragedy. People have misunderstood the film; for example the last line in “Gone With the Wind” is not, “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn” but “After all, tomorrow is another day.”Alexander Larman“Lawrence of Arabia” Best Picture 1962The brilliance of a David Lean epic like “Lawrence of Arabia” is that he broadly did the same things with it as he did in an earlier film like “Brief Encounter,” making the metaphorical literal and vice versa. So the desert connotes repression and isolation just as middle class surburbia does in that earlier film. Absolute genius.Carlos Sousa“Midnight Cowboy” Best Picture 1969One can still feel while watching this classic how radical a choice it was for best picture as well as how timeless its themes of struggle and friendship. Director John Schlesinger, along with flawlessly scrappy performances from Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight, and New York City, crafted a moving portrait of two destitute young men that reflected the end of the idealistic sixties, the Vietnam War era, the decline of the city, the sexual revolution, “New Hollywood,” and more. Few best picture winners have been as pivotal, meaningful, and timely. Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman in ‘Midnight Cowboy.’ Photo: Liaison Dist./LiaisonCaroline McCaughey “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” Best Picture 1975“One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” is the greatest film ever to win the Academy Award for best picture. Jack Nicholson’s performance is electrifying, and the film brought public attention to the inhumane treatment of psychiatric patients, particularly the overuse of electroshock therapy. The movie helped spawn the deinstitutionalization movement, though a ride on the New York subway suggests that reform went too far. Tom Teodorczuk“Rebecca” Best Picture 1940The fact that Alfred Hitchcock never won a competitive Oscar is an oversight for which the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences will never be able to atone. But at least “Rebecca” won best picture; it’s a richly entertaining spine-chiller, boasting a quartet of richly rewarding and distinctive performances from Joan Fontaine, Laurence Olivier, Judith Anderson, and George Sanders, and shatters the oft-repeated notion that “Hitch” had no idea how to treat actors.Marie Pohl“Rocky” Best Picture 1976For all that is said about “Rocky” being a boxing movie, I like the love story. He takes you on his journey and you’re with him all the time. I like the self-made quality of Sylvester Stallone’s character, and the script.A.R. Hoffman“Slumdog Millionaire” Best Picture 2008 A propulsive, take-no-prisoners visual poem and an ode to intoxicating India that elevates a quiz show into life-or-death drama and probably would never get made today. And the music!Carl Rollyson“The Best Years of Our Lives” Best Picture 1946 This film is an epic of the immediate postwar years made at a time when it was said people were already tired of hearing about the war and its aftermath. To the contrary, this film proved popular, exploring with a heightened realism why the war was fought and what it did to returning veterans. Myrna Loy, Teresa Wright and Fredric March in ‘The Best Years of Our Lives.’ Photo by RKO Radio Pictures/Getty ImagesPaul Austin “The Deer Hunter” Best Picture 1978“The Deer Hunter” has none of the swagger or rock’n’roll soundtrack of so many other Vietnam War films. Instead the rawness of its Rust Belt origin story, through to the psychological horror of the Russian roulette torture scenes, elevate it way above its lightweight competitors.

And the Oscar for Best Best Picture Goes to…

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