News from the San Diego Becks
This is the prime award, where a group of people (or, in the case of the Nighthawk Awards, me) decide what the best film of the year is.  It was complicated right from the start, of course, because the Academy Awards, the first awards group, had two different awards: Outstanding Picture and Quality Production.  The…
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News from the San Diego Becks
This is the prime award, where a group of people (or, in the case of the Nighthawk Awards, me) decide what the best film of the year is. It was complicated right from the start, of course, because the Academy Awards, the first awards group, had two different awards: Outstanding Picture and Quality Production. The first, according to the rule book was “the most outstanding motion picture, considering all elements that contribute to a picture’s greatness” while the second was “the most artistic, unique, and/or original motion picture without reference to cost or magnitude.” The italics are my emphasis because it’s that first award that went to Wings, often considered the first Best Picture winner which shows that right from the start, the Academy was focused on large productions. That’s the reason that films like The Great Ziegfeld, The Greatest Show on Earth, Around the World in 80 Days, Out of Africa, Braveheart and Titanic have Oscars. Well, that and questionable taste from the Academy.

The first critics group (sort of) was the National Board of Review and they began in 1933, followed two years later by the New York Film Critics. They agreed in that same year but the award went to The Informer which won everything but Picture at the Oscars. The Golden Globes arrived in 1943 (before the first three groups had ever agreed) but didn’t start splitting their award up until 1951. They did complicate the idea of a “Consensus Award” by having Foreign films (including British) not eligible for Picture. After complete lack of consensus in 1943 (four different films won the four awards), 1944 gave us the first film with three awards (Going My Way). In 1946 The Best Years of Our Lives would be the first to win four awards but that still wasn’t a sweep because one of those was the new BAFTA award which would complicate things by often being on a different calendar (the award was actually in 1947). Consensus got trickier in the 50s with A Streetcar Named Desire winning because it had the most points and noms (4) but only one win while two other films had two each. Also, many years had no limit on Globe or BAFTA nominees so the Consensus list was very long. On the Waterfront would set a new points record (410) and noms records (5) and would be the first film to win both critics awards and the Oscar but it would lose the BAFTA (to a film from a different year). Bridge on the River Kwai would become the first film to sweep all 5 awards. A Man for All Seasons would win 5 awards but in the year the National Society of Film Critics added a sixth award (which often went to a Foreign film). In 1974, Day for Night would become the first film to win the Consensus without an Oscar nomination thanks to two critics wins and the BAFTA win. The LA Film Critics would another award in 1975 and the Boston Society of Film Critics another in 1980. All the President’s Men would be the first film with 6 noms while GoodFellas would set new records across the board for points (650), noms (8) and wins (6) as the Chicago Film Critics and PGA added two more awards, all of which would be thumped by Schindler’s List, the only film to ever sweep all existing awards with 10 and a points record (910) that has not been matched and the highest Consensus percentage post-1946 (49.19%) by a considerable margin. Two years later the Critics Choice finally added the 11th and final award (six critics, five awards groups) with L.A. Confidential the first to 11 nominations with only Hurt Locker (10) also managing double-digits since.

For a full list of my own 9 point films (anything high ****) see the full Top 2000 list.

note: Critical Acclaim. That’s a phrase I will use below several times. So that I don’t have to keep repeating what it means, it’s based on the Consensus Awards that I do. My feelings don’t play into those awards except by the percentages I assign. 100 points for a win, 50 for a nomination. 100% for the Oscars, SAG, BAFTA, NYFC, LAFC, 90% for the BSFC, CFC, NSFC, 80% for the BFCA, NBR, 70% for the Globes. Then, I calculate percentage of the total points. That’s because in 1943 (the first year of the Globes) there were 990 total points and in 2011 there were 2795 total points, so the percentage of the total points is the best way to account for historical changes in scores. So, the film with the highest percentage of the year’s total points has the most critical acclaim under the definition I am using.

The Academy Awards

First, I’m doing this all as one post – no summarizing the post-2011 down below. This is complete through 2021. Second, there are a lot of tables here rather than text.

Summary:

I have covered each year in this category through 2020. Just go to the search bar of the blog and enter a year and look at it to get an idea for the years themselves.

As for trends, well the Academy with its focus on large-scale productions and major studios missed the boat for quite a long time. In the first six years, the Academy picked the two worst winners ever and a third among the 6 worst and had two years (1929, 1931) that couldn’t even average a good film among the nominees. Through 1934, they had only nominated 4 of the Top 200 nominees. Things started to improve in the latter half of the 1930s with 1935 being the first year to average a deserving Best Picture nominee (76 or higher) and 1939 the first year to average over an 80 as well as the first year with five great nominees (but not all 10 – don’t believe the hype). Still, none of those years even hits the Top 60 among Oscar years and the first 12 years (through 1938) are all among the 20 weakest Best Picture slates. In 1944, the Academy dropped to 5 nominees (it was variables through 1933, 12 each in 1934 and 1935 and 10 each through 1943) but didn’t necessarily start getting better. Though 1946 had two Top 100 nominees and 1947 set a new mark for highest average nominee (86.4), neither of them could still crack the Top 30 for years. The 1950s were actually a considerable step back. Though it had two of the best winners it also had two of the worst and the average winner was just an 80.6 after an 88.4 in the 1940s. The nominees had dropped from 81.25 to 77.04. No year even cracked the Top 50 and 1956 was one of the worst years ever. The 1960s were an improvement but still mixed with 1961 the best to date and 1963 the worst since 1931. The winners averaged a 90.4 but only had three Top 100 films. The 1970s finally saw Best Picture become what it should be. The nominees averaged 84.68 and the winners averaged 93.4 with 1972 becoming the first in which the average nominee was a great film and 1973 becoming the first Top 10 year. From 1972 to 1979 only two years were outside the Top 25. The 1980s both got better with 1980 and 1982 the first with nominees averaging 90 and two top 10 finishes for years but also worse as the first decade where the worst nominee was chosen three times (1985, 1985, 1989) and an average winner was the exact same as an average nominee (86.1). The 1990s were a bit odd with one terrible year (1995) and three great years (1991, 1993, 1994). But starting in 1991 and running through 2003, the Academy either picked the best of the nominees (91-93, 96, 98, 99, 03) or the worst (the rest). 2002 exhibited that oddness with the best slate of nominees by far (96 average) and awarding the weakest of them. The oddness continued with the weakest film chosen in 2005 and then the best for the last three years of the 5 BP Era. Then in 2009 came a change to 10 films, then in 2011 back to a variable which lasted through 2020 with a switch back to 10 in 2021. The interesting bit is that in spite of not nominating The Dark Knight or Wall-E in 2008 and prompting the switch, the Academy had been doing great; from 2001 to 2007, the Academy had five of the six best years in history. Since the final switch, the nominees have mostly been solid but undistinguished. The years have ranged as high as 12th (2017) and as low as 53rd (2011). It has included mostly great films (four years averaged above 90) but also some bad ones (seven nominees outside the Top 500). What’s more, they have yet to pick the best nominee in any year since the change. They picked the 2nd best several times (2009-12, 14, 15) but lately have been much worse (7th, 5th, 7th, 7th in the last four).

Sequels:

The Bells of St Mary’s was the first to earn a nomination and The Godfather Part II was the first winner with Return of the King following years later as the second winner. Other nominated films are The Godfather Part III, The Two Towers, Toy Story 3 (the first one nominated when the original wasn’t), Mad Max: Fury Road and Black Panther (sort of).

Genres:

No Kids, Horror or Sci-Fi film has ever won. The single winners are Action (The French Connection), Adventure (Mutiny on the Bounty) and Suspense (Silence of the Lambs). The Crime films are grouped (1972 and 1974, 2006 and 2007). Fantasy never won before 2003 but has now won three times. Comedy has gone long gaps between wins (1938-1956, 1977-1989, 1998-2011). Musical won five times between 1958 and 1968 and only twice since then. War is split – two World War I films, two World War II films, two Vietnam films, one Iraq film. Western went almost 60 years between wins and then won again two years later. Drama’s nadir was the 70s – just three wins. It’s peak was the 40s – it won every year from 1941 to 1950 and 16 times from 1937-1955. Its largest gap is 6 years (1969-1975) but followed that with 10 wins in 14 years.

Genre Wins % Drama 50 52.63% Comedy 13 13.68% Musical 10 10.53% War 7 7.37% Crime 4 4.21% Western 3 3.16% Fantasy 3 3.16% Mystery 2 2.11% Action 1 1.05% Adventure 1 1.05% Suspense 1 1.05%

Of the nominees, every genre is covered. Action took until 1971 for a nomination but won with its first. It also went 26 years between noms from 1974 to 2000. After not earning a nom until 1971, Horror earned four in six years then didn’t earn another until 1999. I don’t count Silence (like many do) but count many films that others don’t (Clockwork Orange, Black Swan, Get Out). Sci-Fi took until 1977, earned another in 1982 and then jumped to 2009 but since then has seven more; they do very well with also earning Tech noms with all but one earning Sound and all but one earning Visual Effects and surprisingly well in Screenplay (only Gravity didn’t earn a nom). Kids has been grouped (one in 1939, two in the mid 40s, two in the mid 60s, two in the early 90s, two in the late 00s). Mystery has now gone 18 years since its last nomination. Fantasy earned its first nom in 1935 but didn’t get its second until 1981 and its third until 1990; only half the Fantasy films nominated for Best Picture earned a Visual Effects nom but they all won the award. Adventure earned 8 noms from 1931 to 1938 but only 6 since and only two since 1972 (Master and Commander, Revenant); it has done poorly in Director (5 noms) but very well in Editing (11 noms, 3 wins) to go with Picture. The heyday for Suspense was the 40s (seven noms from 1940-47 including three for Hitchcock films) with only seven since and none since 1993. Westerns had a huge gap from 1969-1990 without a nom and a smaller one from 1992-2010. Crime once went 30 years without a nom (1937-1967) and its best period was not the 30s (just two noms) but 1985-1996 (six noms); of the post-1937 nominees only Hell or High Water didn’t earn a Director nom, all earned writing noms and all but Atlantic City earned Supporting Actor noms (several earning multiple). In fact, the 17 Crime films nominated for Best Picture from 1967-2019 earned a combined 23 Supporting Actor noms with 4 wins. War films have had several eight year gaps between noms (1962-70, 1970-78, 1998-2006) but never more than that. Most War films earn Director, Editing and Cinematography noms as well (15 added all three of those). Musicals don’t do well in major categories; while Musicals average 6.54 noms (versus 6.45 for all Picture nominees), over half their noms don’t earn a Director nom, over half don’t earn a Writing nom and a whopping 10 (21.2%) earn no major noms outside of Picture (compared to less than 10% of all Picture nominees). Musicals have had at least one nominee in every decade but what most people think of as a Musical (people burst into song) went nearly 30 years between Cabaret and Moulin Rouge. Musicals account for just 8% of all Picture nominees but account for 19% of Picture nominees nominated for Editing, Cinematography, Score, Art Direction, Sound and Costume Design. It took until 1931 for a Comedy to be nominated and Comedies, even with more than 5 nominees in lots of years now, still average less than one nomination per year and from 1944-1949 the only nominee was The Bishop’s Wife. In 1973, three Comedies were nominated and The Sting won and in 1977 two were nominated and Annie Hall won but none were nominated in the three years between. The biggest gap is five years 1989-1994). Even with the expanded era, there were no Comedy nominees in 2016 or 2020 though Comedies have benefited from this era with 21 nominees in 14 years after just 21 in the previous 28 years. In contrast to Musicals, only three Comedies have failed to earn another major nom and none since 1936 though only two Comedies earned those six Tech noms (The Sting, Shakespeare in Love). Comedies are especially weak in Visual Effects (one nom), Sound Editing (two), Song (four) and Foreign (two). Drama films average 3.25 nominees a year and even averaged 2.67 nominees a year in the 5 BP Era (1944-2008). In the original expanded era, (1932-1943), Dramas had a whopping 67 noms including 7 just in 1939 and set a new record in 2020 with 8 (out of 9!). Dramas have never had a year without a nominee have never had a decade with fewer than 25 noms and have had several years where it had 4 of the 5 nominees. While many Dramas have had no other major noms only two have done so since 1956 (Selma, Ford v Ferrari). Though 8 Dramas have earned no other noms except Picture, Dramas as a whole average 6.48 noms for their Picture nominees while Dramas that win the Oscar average 8.78 nominations and average 5 wins.

Genre Noms % Wins % Drama 308 52.74% 50 16.23% Comedy 81 13.87% 13 16.05% Musical 47 8.05% 10 21.28% War 32 5.48% 7 21.88% Crime 21 3.60% 4 19.05% Western 16 2.74% 3 18.75% Adventure 14 2.40% 1 7.14% Suspense 14 2.40% 1 7.14% Fantasy 10 1.71% 3 30.00% Mystery 10 1.71% 2 20.00% Kids 9 1.54% 0 0.00% Sci-Fi 9 1.54% 0 0.00% Horror 8 1.37% 0 0.00% Action 5 0.86% 1 20.00%

Foreign Films:

There have been 12 nominees over the years. The first was Grand Illusion in 1938 but the next wasn’t until Z in 1969, the first to also earn a Foreign Film nomination (and win). Of the 12 films, only six also earned Foreign Film noms (they all won). Parasite became the first to win the Oscar. Two films were American made films in other languages (Letters from Iwo Jima, Minari). Of interest, while Grand Illusion received no other noms, the other 11 were all nominated for Director and Screenplay.

Single Nominations:

This was common early on; from 1928-1936 15 films received a Picture nom with no other noms with Grand Hotel even winning. After that, it was just three more (Grand Illusion, One Foot in Heaven, The Ox-Bow Incident). Just two nominations was also common early on (12 films from 1928-36 including one winner), became rare (one in 1943, one in 1951) then non-existent (none again until 1994) and then sprang back into being more common with the new expanded BP era (five since 2009).

Other Categories:

There will be four charts. This first one is Best Picture winners (of which there are 95) with how often they win in other categories. There are no current streaks as Picture was literally the only award that Nomadland and CODA shared. The last active streak of more than two years was Director from 2006-11.

Cat Wins % D 67 70.53% AS 43 45.26% Ed 34 35.79% AD 28 29.47% A 27 28.42% Ci 27 28.42% Scr 26 27.37% Sd 23 24.21% Sc 20 21.05% CD 20 21.05% SA 18 18.95% AS 13 13.68% SAS 13 13.68% VE 6 6.32% Sg 5 5.26% Mk 4 4.21% SE 3 3.16% Fo 1 1.05% An 0 0.00%

This is the number of Oscar wins in other categories for Best Picture nominees. The second number is the total number of Oscar wins ever in that category with the second percentage being what percent of all Oscar wins in that category was won by a Best Picture nominee. The last Director winner not to be Picture nominated was Divine Lady in 1929. The only Adapted Screenplay winners are The Bad and the Beautiful, Sling Blade and Gods and Monsters. The last Actor winner was Crazy Heart in 2009. As can be seen in comparing the next chart, every film nominated for Picture and Animated Film or Picture and Foreign Film has won the latter.

Cat Wins % TW % D 93 15.92% 95 97.89% AS 91 15.58% 94 96.81% Ed 74 12.67% 88 84.09% A 75 12.84% 96 78.13% Ci 88 15.07% 121 72.73% Sd 64 10.96% 90 71.11% AD 85 14.55% 120 70.83% Scr 68 11.64% 107 63.55% AS 60 10.27% 96 62.50% Sc 84 14.38% 136 61.76% SAS 53 9.08% 86 61.63% SA 50 8.56% 86 58.14% CD 48 8.22% 91 52.75% SE 21 3.60% 49 42.86% VE 26 4.45% 84 30.95% Mk 13 2.23% 42 30.95% Sg 23 3.94% 88 26.14% An 2 0.34% 21 9.52% Fo 7 1.20% 74 9.46%

This chart is the number of Best Picture nominees nominated in each category. The second number is the number of films nominated in that category (which means two or three noms for one film is counted as one film). It’s interesting that Editing has the second most overlap but far fewer total nominated films than most categories.

Cat Noms % TN % D 356 60.96% 466 76.39% Ed 290 49.66% 441 65.76% AS 277 47.43% 461 60.09% A 250 42.81% 454 55.07% SA 198 33.90% 395 50.13% SAS 178 30.48% 395 45.06% Ci 259 44.35% 614 42.18% AS 168 28.77% 407 41.28% Sd 195 33.39% 507 38.46% AD 220 37.67% 608 36.18% SE 48 8.22% 151 31.79% Scr 165 28.25% 537 30.73% Sc 233 39.90% 795 29.31% CD 127 21.75% 440 28.86% Mk 28 4.79% 126 22.22% VE 45 7.71% 264 17.05% Sg 54 9.25% 445 12.13% An 2 0.34% 90 2.22% Fo 7 1.20% 338 2.07%

10 Best Films to Not Earn an Oscar Nomination (with my all-time rank):

Children of Paradise (#2)

Rashomon (#4)

The Seventh Seal (#6)

Touch of Evil (#9)

The Princess Bride (#24)

Modern Times (#25)

M (#28)

Seven Samurai (#29)

Metropolis (#30)

The Third Man (#32)

10 Best English Language Films to Not Earn an Oscar Nomination (with my all-time rank):

Touch of Evil (#9)

The Princess Bride (#24)

Modern Times (#25)

The Third Man (#32)

Singin’ in the Rain (#33)

Paths of Glory (#42)

Ed Wood (#43)

Glory (#46)

Lone Star (#49)

Trainspotting (#50)

10 Most Acclaimed English Language Films to Not Earn an Oscar Nomination (based on Consensus Awards percentage)::

note: Films with an asterisk were nominated for Director.

Mulholland Drive *

Almost Famous

Manhattan

None But the Lonely Heart

Leaving Las Vegas *

The Player *

Wall-E

Blue Velvet *

Sunday Bloody Sunday *

Do the Right Thing

10 Most Acclaimed Films to not Win the Oscar (based on Consensus Awards percentage):

GoodFellas

L.A. Confidential

Treasure of the Sierra Madre

The Social Network

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town

The Citadel

The Grapes of Wrath

Citizen Kane

Brokeback Mountain

Saving Private Ryan

5 Least Acclaimed Films to Win the Oscar (based on Consensus Awards percentage):

Braveheart

The Godfather Part II

The Greatest Show on Earth

CODA

Casablanca

10 Least Acclaimed Films to Earn an Oscar Nomination (based on Consensus Awards percentage):

The Blind Side

The Alamo

Peyton Place

Ivanhoe

Decision Before Dawn

The 10 Commandments

Friendly Persuasion

How the West Was Won

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

The Towering Inferno / Lenny

Years in Which the Worst of the Nominees Won the Oscar:

1928-29 – The Broadway Melody

1930-31 – Cimarron

1952 – The Greatest Show on Earth

1958 – Gigi

1982 – Gandhi

1985 – Out of Africa

1989 – Driving Miss Daisy

1994 – Forrest Gump

1995 – Braveheart

1997 – Titanic

2000 – Gladiator

2001 – A Beautiful Mind

2002 – Chicago

2005 – Crash

All the Best Picture Nominees Ranked

note: Rather than do lists of the best winners, worst nominees, etc, I decided I needed to re-rank all the nominees ever so I could do the Picture by Year ranking (see the next list). So I decided to do the entire list since I’ve seen them all (except The Patriot which is lost). Winners are in bold. I’ve also added notes to make it obvious where they belong among my all-time films. Years only included if another film with the same title was nominated in a different year.

The Wizard of Oz

Sunset Blvd.

The Grand Illusion

The Godfather

Chinatown

Citizen Kane

West Side Story (1961)

Lawrence of Arabia

Cries and Whispers

Bonnie and Clyde

Raiders of the Lost Ark

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

GoodFellas

Dr. Strangelove

Casablanca

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

The Bridge on the River Kwai

A Streetcar Named Desire

Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope

Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans

The Maltese Falcon

Schindler’s List

L.A. Confidential

The Best Years of Our Lives

The Silence of the Lambs

On the Waterfront

A Clockwork Orange

Pulp Fiction

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

The Grapes of Wrath

Hannah and Her Sisters

Annie Hall

All Quiet on the Western Front

Raging Bull

West Side Story (2021)

Amadeus

A Passage to India

La La Land

Lincoln

Birdman

Good Night and Good Luck

Brokeback Mountain

The Godfather Part II

Munich

It’s a Wonderful Life

All About Eve

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf

The English Patient

American Beauty

From Here to Eternity

M*A*S*H

The Aviator

Field of Dreams

No Country for Old Men

Double Indemnity

All the President’s Men

The Apartment

Fargo

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Lady Bird

Dunkirk

Unforgiven

The Crying Game

Gravity

Gangs of New York

Atonement

all films above this point are in my Top 100 all-time

Mystic River

Platoon

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Sense and Sensibility

The Shawshank Redemption

The Killing Fields

Traffic

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood

Slumdog Millionaire

Doctor Zhivago

The Departed

The French Connection

The Last Picture Show

Inception

The Exorcist

Great Expectations

Apocalypse Now

Z

JFK

Jaws

The Favourite

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Lost in Translation

Mary Poppins

Rebecca

The Philadelphia Story

The Pianist

Roma

Terms of Endearment

High Noon

Belfast

Little Women (2019)

Moulin Rouge (2001)

Beauty and the Beast

1917

Argo

To Kill a Mockingbird

Dances with Wolves

The Music Man

The Social Network

The Hours

Born on the Fourth of July

The Wolf of Wall Street

Dog Day Afternoon

The Great Dictator

The Elephant Man

The Big Chill

A Room with a View

Inglourious Basterds

There Will Be Blood

The Adventures of Robin Hood

Henry V

Yankee Doodle Dandy

Milk

Network

The Revenant

The Lion in Winter

Jojo Rabbit

All That Jazz

A Star is Born (1937)

The Ox-Bow Incident

Gaslight

12 Angry Men

The Lost Weekend

Dangerous Liaisons

The Hustler

Hugo

The Artist

The Heiress

A Man for all Seasons

Shakespeare in Love

American Graffiti

all films above this point are in my all-time Top 250

Taxi Driver

The Shape of Water

The Hurt Locker

A Star is Born (2018)

Four Weddings and a Funeral

Kiss of the Spider Woman

True Grit

A Serious Man

Spotlight

American Hustle

Hope and Glory

Ordinary People

Gosford Park

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

The Conversation

In the Name of the Father

The Queen

BlacKkKlansman

Broadcast News

The Magnificent Ambersons

The Informer

Hamlet

Zero Dark Thirty

Cabaret

One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest

Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)

The Graduate

Parasite

In Which We Serve

A Place in the Sun

Arrival

Tom Jones

Saving Private Ryan

Manchester by the Sea

Wuthering Heights

The Thin Man

The Verdict

In the Heat of the Night

Licorice Pizza

I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang

In the Bedroom

Kramer vs. Kramer

Quiz Show

Midnight in Paris

The Deer Hunter

Reds

Moonlight

Midnight Express

The Sting

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World

The Trial of the Chicago 7

Sideways

The King’s Speech

Chicago

Les Miserables (2012)

Up

Les Miserables (1935)

Bridge of Spies

The Imitation Game

The Descendants

Mr. Roberts

The Post

mid ****

Django Unchained

It Happened One Night

Atlantic City

My Fair Lady

Captain Blood

Nightmare Alley

Tootsie

Witness

Howards End

The Defiant Ones

The Remains of the Day

Promising Young Woman

Winter’s Bone

The Martian

Nebraska

The Right Stuff

Five Easy Pieces

Roman Holiday

Michael Clayton

Up in the Air

Secrets & Lies

Good Will Hunting

Juno

An Education

all films above this point are in my all-time Top 500

Stagecoach

Tess

Anatomy of a Murder

E.T.

Judas and the Black Messiah

Marriage Story

Witness for the Prosecution

The Power of the Dog

A Few Good Men

Mississippi Burning

Missing

12 Years a Slave

Phantom Thred

The Diary of Anne Frank

The Sixth Sense

Breaking Away

The Gay Divorcee

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town

Her

Deliverance

Hell or High Water

Amour

Toy Story 3

Pygmalion

Crossfire

Black Panther

The Father

Million Dollar Baby

Black Swan

Call Me By Your Name

District 9

Selma

Get Out

Jerry Maguire

The Insider

Darkest Hour

Philomena

low ****

Fences

For Whom the Bell Tolls

The Letter

The Awful Truth

The Last Emperor

Midnight Cowboy

Barry Lyndon

Dune: Part One

Minari

A Letter to Three Wives

Sound of Metal

The Tree of Life

The Full Monty

You Can’t Take It With You

My Left Foot

Ford v Ferrari

The Kids are All Right

The Big Shot

The Irishman

Lenny

The More the Merrier

Ben Hur

Gone with the Wind

Heaven Can Wait (1978)

The Little Foxes

A Tale of Two Cities

Elmer Gantry

The Color Purple

Rain Man

Dead Poets Society

Picnic

7th Heaven

The Quiet Man

Capote

Spellbound

Miracle on 34th Street

Silver Linings Playbook

Gentleman’s Agreement

Patton

The Accidental Tourist

Finding Neverland

The Country Girl

high ***.5

Babel

all films above this point are in my all-time Top 1000

Brooklyn

Moulin Rouge (1952)

Life of Pi

All the King’s Men

Sons and Lovers

The Guns of Navarone

Prizzi’s Honor

Il postino

Moneyball

Precious

Suspicion

Top Hat

Darling

Bugsy

Here Comes Mr. Jordan

Watch on the Rhine

Five Star Final

Dodsworth

127 Hours

The Theory of Everything

The Piano

War Horse

Bohemian Rhapsody

Random Harvest

Dead End

The Caine Mutiny

Apollo 13

Stage Door

The Fugitive

Separate Tables

The Reader

Whiplash

mid ***.5

How Green Was My Valley

The Emigrants

Alfie

CODA

Captain Phillips

The Russians are Coming, the Russians are Coming

The Thin Red Line

Boyhood

The Snake Pit

American Sniper

The Godfather Part III

As Good as It Gets

Rachel Rachel

Awakenings

Elizabeth

Letters from Iwo Jima

Coming Home

Gandhi

Rocky

The Goodbye Girl

Nomadland

The Fighter

State Fair

low ***.5

Kings Row

Anchors Aweigh

Room at the Top

The Private Life of Henry VIII

Hold Back the Dawn

The Cider House Rules

The Long Voyage Home

all films above this line are in my all-time Top 2000

A Soldier’s Story

Decision Before Dawn

The Rose Tattoo

The King and I

Moonstruck

Bound for Glory

Grand Hotel

Little Women (1933)

Heaven Can Wait (1943)

Room

A Thousand Clowns

Lady for a Day

Foreign Correspondant

Babe

Life is Beautiful

high ***

The Red Shoes

Fanny

Marty

Wings

Mrs. Miniver

The Life of Emile Zola

The Sundowners

Lion

Sounder

Hidden Figures

Forrest Gump

David Copperfield

Of Mice and Men

The Pride of the Yankees

Ray

Chariots of Fire

Children of a Lesser God

Titanic

Oliver!

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Arrowsmith

The Lives of a Bengal Lancer

Libeled Lady

Drive My Car

Mildred Pierce

Ghost

Ruggles of Red Gap

Lost Horizon

Ninotchka

The Citadel

Mank

Little Miss Sunshine

The Prince of Tides

The Dresser

Julius Caesar

Johnny Belinda

The Story of Louis Pasteur

Jezebel

The 49th Parallel

Dallas Buyers Club

Beasts of the Southern Wilf

Chang

A Beautiful Mind

Julia

Going My Way

The Front Page

Around the World in 80 Days

Avatar

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Green Book

mid ***

Judgment at Nuremberg

Goodbye Mr. Chips

Seabiscuit

The Sound of Music

Bad Girl

The Human Comedy

The Talk of the Town

One Foot in Heaven

Chocolat

Tender Mercies

Lilies of the Field

Crash

King Richard

Frost/Nixon

Shanghai Express

An American in Paris

Erin Brockovich

The Bishop’s Wife

12 O’Clock High

Romeo and Juliet (1936)

Working Girl

Coal Miner’s Daughter

The Pied Piper

Gladiator

The Barretts of Wimpole St.

A Farewell to Arms

Sergeant York

Places in the Heart

The Mission

An Unmarried Woman

The Robe

King Solomon’s Mines

Smilin’ Through

Alice Adams

Giant

Fiddler on the Roof

Shine

The Help

America, America

Disraeli

Battleground

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers

Born Yesterday

The Bells of St. Mary’s

The Big House

Norma Rae

Test Pilot

The Longest Day

Sayonara

Our Town

low ***

The Great Ziegfeld

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Anne of the Thousand Days

Since You Went Away

Alexander’s Ragtime Band

The Turning Point

A Touch of Class

Romeo and Juliet (1968)

Friendly Persuasion

One Hour with You

Driving Miss Daisy

The Green Mile

Becket

Imitation of Life

The Yearling

Nashville

The Song of Bernadette

The Four Daughters

Dark Victory

The Love Parade

The White Parade

The House of Rothschild

Wake Island

Funny Girl

On Golden Pond

Out of Africa

Naughty Marietta

Madame Curie

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner

The Sand Pebbles

The Racket

Here Comes the Navy

Love Affair

high **.5

Boys Town

Vice

Mad Max: Fury Road

Shane

Ivanhoe

Hacksaw Ridge

The Blind Side

100 Men and a Girl

Three Smart Girls

Blossoms in the Dust

Auntie Mame

Hello Dolly

mid **.5

The Good Earth

Cavalcade

How the West was Won

Alibi

Anthony Adverse

One Night of Love

Gigi

Wilson

The Nun’s Story

Quo Vadis

The 10 Commandments

Kitty Foyle: The Natural History of a Woman

The Razor’s Edge

In Old Arizona

Ship of Fools

Zorba the Greek

low **.5

Captains Courageous

The Crowd

The Smiling Lieutenant

Trader Horn

Skippy

San Francisco

Braveheart

The Greatest Show on Earth

42nd Street

Father of the Bride

In Old Chicago

The Alamo

high **

Joker

Flirtation Walk

The Hollywood Revue of 1929

Three Coints in the Fountain

The Broadway Melody of 1936

East Lynne

Cimarron

Love is a Many Splendored Thing

mid **

All This and Heaven Too

Extremely Load and Incredibly Close

Viva Villa

The Towering Inferno

The Divorcee

The Champ

Peyton Place

Mutiny on the Bounty (1962)

The Broadway Melody

low **

She Done Him Wrong

Scent of a Woman

Don’t Look Up

Nicholas and Alexandra

Airport

Cleopatra (1934)

Love Story

high *.5

Fatal Attraction

Cleopatra (1963)

mid *.5

Doctor Dolittle

All the Best Picture Years Ranked

This is very different than how I rank all the other categories. Rather than rank it against the other potential nominees, I rank the years against themselves (the actual winner is irrelevant to the rank). I create two numbers: the average nominee and the average rank (ranks derived from the above list). I then divide one by the other to help even out the two lists. That system weights the rank more than the average because of how it works out. And surprisingly there can be some big differences. For instance, 1982 ranks at #9 for average (90.2) and but only #26 for rank (241.80). That’s because there are a lot of films rated 94 or above so the best 1982 films, while high in points aren’t that high in rank (it has no film above #177). Overall, it ends up at #25. But for 1992, which is much lower in average at #47 (84.0), it scores at #24 in rank (229.6) because the one bad film doesn’t bring down the rank as much as it does the average. So it ends up at #27 overall. As a result of these differences, you can also have a year like 1980 which ranks at #12 for average and #10 for rank but #9 overall.

I’m not going to list the nominees for every year because that’s a lot of typing but I will have comments. But you can find them all in the individual years (except 2021). So, here are the Best Picture slates for each year and how they rank relative to each other.

2002

the best year by far, even awarding the weakest of the nominees – the first year with 5 **** films and even the weakest is a Top 200

2007

the second year to have four **** nominees

2003

three Top 100 films brought down by one mid *** nominee

1994

very very similar to 2001 – a high *** winner with four mid to high **** nominees

2001

2005

just a little different with a slightly weaker winner but three Top 50 films (the only year to do so)

1973

if the five nominees had matched Director (Last Tango instead of A Touch of Class) this year would have ranked 2nd all-time (and closer to #1 than #2)

1991

like wise, if Thelma & Louise was nominated instead of Prince of Tides, this year would be #3

1980

1984

three Top 100 choices and then a low ***.5 and a mid ***

1993

would have been #3 all-time if they had rightly chosen The Age of Innocence instead of The Fugitive

2017

eight great films and a mid *** – pretty much as good as you will get from a year with more than 5 nominees

1976

1996

2019

eight great films and then Joker

2010

pretty much as good as you can get from 10 nominees – eight great films, two very good films – for all years with 10 nominees the best 9th and 10th nominees (127 Hours, The Fighter) – but kept down by only having one Top 100 film

2012

1974

if they had nominated Day for Night (Director nominee) instead of Towering Inferno, this would rank a very close 2nd and would have been the best year by far for a long time

1986

1979

2013

1975

rare year where the film without a Director nomination is actually the best nominee

1972

had they nominated Sleuth instead of Sounder it would be #7

2004

1982

as mentioned above, the first year to average a 90 among the nominees but has no film in the Top 175 – the only year in the Top 32 without a Top 100 nominee

2014

1992

The Player instead of Scent of a Woman would jump it to #3 but that’s the rare substitution where the bad film was nominated for Director

1989

the winner, at a 67, is -22.40 compared to the average nominee, the third worst of all-time

1990

2018

it wasn’t a great year but picking Green Book as the winner is still damn dumb

1997

2009

The Blind Side obviously didn’t belong but there wasn’t an obvious replacement (based on awards and other Oscar noms); Star Trek earned PGA and WGA noms and that would have moved this year up to #24

1961

1946

three films in the Top 120 is still this low when your other nominees are The Yearling and The Razor’s Edge; just bumping the latter for Director nominee Brief Encounter moves it to 3rd; if you also bump Yearling for Screenplay nominee Children of Paradise, it’s #1 by a long, long way

1983

2006

1981

1971

just about as low as possible to go when you have three Top 100 nominees in a 5 BP year; leaving Fiddler on the Roof and just bumping Nicholas and Alexandra for the 5th Director nominee (Sunday Bloody Sunday) moves this year to 4th

2016

2020

2015

might seem the same but they’re not – 2020 doesn’t have a mediocrity like Hacksaw Ridge or Mad Max: Fury Road but it doesn’t have anything in the Top 190 either; 2016 has a Top 40 film but three films below ***.5

1962

the rare year where Director doesn’t help at all – David and Lisa is just as bad as Mutiny on the Bounty and while Divorce Italian Style is 11 points better than Longest Day, Miracle Worker is 11 points weaker than The Music Man though a straight Mutiny – Miracle swap moves it into the Top 10 and also adding in a Longest – Divorce swap brings it to #4

1948

1947

1977

if I include Close Encounters, which absolutely belonged in the race and was nominated for Director instead of Goodbye Girl (the film without Director) it goes up to #22, but if I instead use it to replace Turning Point (the weakest nominee) it goes up to #10

1998

this is what happens when every film is at least worthy of consideration (***.5 or above) but no film manages the Top 125 and only two of the five nominees are **** – it’s worth noting that even if the five best Oscar nominated films from this year were the nominees (Out of Sight, Shakespeare, Private Ryan, Gods and Monsters, Truman Show) it still only reaches #5

1988

one of those strange years where there is a much weaker nominee (Working Girl) but it’s actually a Director nominee as well – but if you replace it with Director nominee A Fish Called Wanda, it jumps up to #20

1966

replace non-Director nominee Sand Pebbles with Director nominee The Professionals and it leaps up to #20

1964

1999

similar to 1966, replacing Green Mile with Being John Malkovich and ending up at #20

2021

it’s not all about Don’t Look Up but just replacing it with Macbeth moves this year up 25 spots

1985

ironically, the winner is the problem here so there’s no easy fix – at 22.2 points below the average nominee, the fourth worst winner in relation to the nominees in history

2011

Extremely Dumb and Incredibly Annoying brings the year down – if you just drop it and only have 8 nominees (allowable in that year), the year goes up to #29 but if you substitute Screenplay-Actor-BAFTA Pic nominee Tinker Tailor instead it goes up to #25

1978

rather than nominate Interiors, which earned Director, Screenplay and Actress noms and whose director Woody Allen, had a film that won all those awards the year before, they went with An Unmarried Woman – the substitution moves it up 25 spots

1969

two top 100 nominees are balanced out by two bottom 100 nominees

2000

2008

1957

1943

1940

1939

yes, it goes down here – no bad films but only five great ones and no very good ones – the most over-rated year in history

1941

1967

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner still keeps it from the top but dropping Dolittle for In Cold Blood moves this to just outside the Top 10

1951

1987

yes, why nominate Empire of the Sun when you can nominate Fatal Attraction? the switch cost this year 40 spots

1950

two Top 50 films and three films that can’t even make the Top 450

1960

1949

1959

1995

at 26.2 worse then the average nominee, that, in one sense, makes Braveheart the worst choice for an Oscar winner ever

1945

1944

1953

1954

only On the Waterfront is truly great (at 21.2 better than the average nominee, the fouth most deserving winner by that criteria) but just replacing Three Coins in the Fountain with Director nominee Rear Window does raise this year over 40 spots

1938

1958

1935

of the 11 best films nominated for any Oscar, 9 were nominated for Picture; unfortunately there were 12 nominees – just dropping the worst two moves it up a dozen spots

1965

1942

1952

The Greatest Show on Earth is the second worst winner based on comparison to the nominees (24.6 below the average nominee) so the year can’t be good but just replacing Ivanhoe with Bad and the Beautiful (for decades the only Adapted Screenplay winner without a Picture nom) and the year goes up 30 spots

1955

of the 7 best nominated films at the Oscars, only one (Mr. Roberts) earned a Picture nom – but it didn’t earn a Director nom – but substituting East of Eden (Director nom) for Love is a Many-Splendored Thing does make this year jump 25 spots

1970

manages to finish outside the bottom 10 in spite of two of the worst nominees ever (Airport, Love Story) – not helped by Director because the second best nominee (Five Easy Pieces) wasn’t nominated while the worst (Love Story) was plus Fellini Satyricon, the fifth Director nominee, was even worse than Love Story – still, just substituting Director nominee Women in Love for Airport moves this year up over 20 spots

1927-28

complicated by having two categories but thanks to Sunrise is the best of the early combined years

1968

going with the Director nominees instead of the Picture nominees puts this year in the Top 40 even with Oliver and Romeo and Juliet

1937

no easy fixes when you have four nominees below ***

1936

1929-30

All Quiet on the Western Front is the most deserving winner ever by the criteria of being 30.0 points better than the average nominee

1932-33

an interesting year in that every film nominated for an Oscar that was ***.5 or better was nominated for Picture but that’s still only five of the ten nominees

1931-32

no great films (one of just four), one mediocre, one bad

1934

12 nominations in a year where only three great films earned any noms (and all were nominated for Picture) – even lopping off the bottom two nominees only moves it up a few spots

1956

the only year after 1932 with no great films and it only even has one very good film (King and I) and that just barely makes that

1963

Tom Jones was the easy correct winner (29.4 better than the average nominee) – dropping non-Director nominees Cleopatra and How the West Was Won for Director-Screenplay nominees Hud (one of the most surprising snubs ever) and 8½ raises this year almost 30 spots

1930-31

a big, big drop from #92 to #93 as this has the second worst winner and only film that even reaches *** – but at least putting in the Screenplay nommed Gangster films (Public Enemy, Little Caesar) instead of Trader Horn and East Lynne would have moved it a lot of points even if only a few spots

1929-30

the worst winner, no nominee that even qualifies as good and only one Oscar nominee in any category above *** (Street Angel low ***.5), there’s no saving this year

The BAFTAs

Summary:

The BAFTAs have a strange history. They began in 1947 with just two awards with Best Years of Our Lives winning Picture and Odd Man Out winning British Film. Already that was separating things out since Best Years had won the Oscar in 1946. The next year, Picture expanded to seven nominees with Hamlet winning but losing British Film. An Oscar break came in 1949 with the BAFTA going to Bicycle Thieves. In 1950, they agreed with the Academy again with All About Eve. In 1951, came another Foreign winner and literally every film nominated for a BAFTA (17 in all) was nominated for Picture with An American in Paris becoming the first film to win the Oscar but lose the BAFTA (as opposed to not being nominated). For the next number of years there seemed to be unlimited nominees with the British Film winner always among them but only occasionally winning Picture. In 1958, Room at the Top became the first film to win the BAFTA in the year before being an Oscar nominee. Nominees dropped to four in 1964 with occasional British Film discrepencies (in 1965, for instance, when Darling won British Film without a Picture nom over two films nominated for Picture). Three Oscar winners in a row won the BAFTA for the first time (and last until the late 90s): Lawrence of Arabia, Tom Jones and My Fair Lady, all with British subjects but that wasn’t three BAFTAs in a row since Dr. Strangelove won in 1964 with Lady pushed to 1965. Director became a category in 1968 and The Graduate (a year after its Oscar win for Director) became the first film to win both, setting the trend. Because of differences in release dates, no film Oscar eligible in 1970, 1973, 1976 or 1978 won the BAFTA with three films eligible in 1974 winning the BAFTA in 1973, 1974 and 1975. In 1983, Educating Rita became the first film to win the BAFTA without a Director nom. In 1985, Purple Rose of Cairo won with just 4 total noms (and one other won) over Amadeus and Passage to India which had 9 noms each. In 1987, Jean de Florette won while losing Foreign Film to The Sacrifice which had no other noms. In 1989, Dead Poets Society was the only nominee with a Director nom and it won Picture while in 1992, Howards End won with just one other win. Four Weddings and a Funeral won while not even getting nominated for the newly revived British Film while The Full Monty won while losing British Film to the non-nominated Nil by Mouth. The King’s Speech finally set things right by winning Picture and British Film, the first to do since the 60s. It was also part of a record six year stretch where the BAFTAs agreed with the Oscars (08-13) but since then it has only agreed once (Nomadland) and in 2021, CODA wasn’t even nominated.

Genres:

Drama accounts for 63% of the 76 winners including the first 10 in a row. Comedy adds another 17%. No other genre has more than 5 wins. Drama also covers 51% of the nominees with Comedy adding another 15%. Nothing else even breaks 5%.

Single Nominees:

In the early years, Picture (and British Film) was the only category so many films won the award without another nomination (7 of the first 13 winners). Through 1964 there were 81 films that earned a Picture nomination and nothing else but it hasn’t happened since. In the same stretch there was another 21 films whose only other nomination was British Film. Since 1965, only three films have earned Picture with only one other nom: A Man and a Woman, Bonnie and Clyde, When Harry Met Sally.

Foreign Films:

In the early years when the BAFTA had split categories for British films (through 1964), there were a lot of Foreign Films that earned Best Picture noms (66 to be precise) with even several winners (Bicycle Thieves, La Ronde, Forbidden Games, Wages of Fear, Gervaise, Ballad of a Soldier). They fell off after that with just 9 more nominees and two winners (Lacombe Lucien and Day for Night back to back) before Foreign Film was introduced as a category in the early 80s. Since that was introduced, every Foreign nominee has been a Foreign Film nominee but not necessarily the winner with Jean de Florette winning Picture and losing Foreign Film. Roma is the only other Foreign winner since then. There have been seven nominees, two of which lost Foreign Film (one to another Picture nominee).

Other Categories:

Since over half the nominees come from the early years before Director was a category, the crossover with Director is much less than with other groups. Since Director began only Educating Rita and Purple Rose of Cairo have won the BAFTA without a Director nom. In the same period, only Day for Night, Last Emperor, Revenant and 1917 have won without a Screenplay nom. In the early years, films (except Hamlet) won Picture and British Film every time they were classified as the latter but since British Film was re-introduced four films won Picture and lost British Film before King’s Speech finally won both and the other two eligible films since also won both.

5 Weakest BAFTA Winners:

Gladiator

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Julia

Chariots of Fire

Gervaise

10 Worst BAFTA Nominees:

Don’t Look Up

David and Lisa

The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe

Never on Sunday

Romeo and Juliet (1954)

Joker

The Sun Shines Bright

Taking Off

Bugsy Malone

Zorba the Greek

10 Most Acclaimed Films to Not Earn a BAFTA Nomination (based on Consensus Awards percentage):

Terms of Endearment

Sideways

Ordinary People

All the King’s Men

Cries and Whispers

Nashville

Around the World in 80 Days

Raging Bull

Sunset Blvd.

The Lion in Winter

10 Most Acclaimed Films to not Win the BAFTA (based on Consensus Awards percentage):

L.A. Confidential

The Silence of the Lambs

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

The Social Network

Unforgiven

No Country for Old men

Kramer vs. Kramer

Saving Private Ryan

Pulp Fiction

All the President’s Men

5 Least Acclaimed Films to Win the BAFTA (based on Consensus Awards percentage):

Gervaise

The Sound Barrier

La Ronde

Ballad of a Soldier

Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore

10 Least Acclaimed Films to Earn a BAFTA Nomination (based on Consensus Awards percentage):

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

I, Daniel Blake

The Mauritanian

East is East

the 14 films nominated in 1962 nominated for no other award

Years in Which the Worst of the Nominees Won the BAFTA:

1972 – Cabaret over Clockwork Orange, French Connection, Last Picture Show

1974 – Lacombe, Lucien over Chinatown, Murder on the Orient Express, Last Detail

1978 – Julia over Star Wars, Close Encounters, Midnight Express

2014 – Boyhood over Birdman, Grand Budapest Hotel, Imitation Game, Theory of Everything

2017 – Three Billboards over Dunkirk, Shape of Water, Darkest Hour, Call Me By Your Name

The Golden Globes

Summary:

There’s not much for me to write here, not because the Globes have finally toppled down thanks to internal problems, but because I already wrote a whole post on the group with an in-depth look at each category. So go here and you’ll find both of their categories.

The Critics Choice Awards

Summary:

The original year (1995) just had a winner (Sense and Sensibility) but after that, they immediately jumped to 10 nominees a year. They pretty much go with the Consensus. Since they began only one film has won the award without at least two other Best Picture wins (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) while only two films with more than two wins have failed to earn a CC nom, both of them foreign (Amour, Drive My Car). No film has lost the CC that has more than 5 Picture wins and the only one with 5 not to win are Drive My Car, Parasite and Moonlight.

Three Worst CC Winners:

Gladiator

A Beautiful Mind

Nomadland

Three Best CC Nominees That Didn’t Win:

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Lone Star

Three Worst Nominees:

Don’t Look Up

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Joker

Three Least Acclaimed Winners (based on Consensus Awards Percentage):

Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood

The Shape of Water

A Beautiful Mind

The Producers Guild of America

Summary:

The PGA took until 1989 to start handing out awards, long after most of the other guilds. They began kind of oddly by having eight nominees. But they also established a strong connection to the Oscars. In that first year, all five Oscar nominees were among the PGA nominees. Only Braveheart has won the Oscar since without a PGA nom, most films win both and there is strong overlap between the nominees (72% through the end of the 5 BP Era, 87% since) with complete overlap from 1992-94. That’s because the PGA only had 5 nominees in those years. In the early years, they couldn’t seem to settle on a set number of nominations (8, 3, 6, 5 (3 years, all Oscar nominees), 6, 5 (6 years), 6, 6, 5, 5). Then, in 2005, they added an Animated category and for two years had five nominees in each and then two years of 5 in Picture and 3 in Animated. In 2009, they moved to 10 for Picture and 5 for Animated with Up getting nominated in both. Because they are producers, this is also essentially a “production” award so sometimes big films get nominations without nominations elsewhere. There has also been one tie (2013 – 12 Years a Slave and Gravity). The PGA, in 1991, did one of the strangest things when they passed over Bugsy (DGA, WGA nom, Oscar, Globe noms) for At Play in the Fields of the Lord (only nom). They have also passed over GoodFellas, Traffic and The Pianist (for My Big Fat Greek Wedding).

Three Worst PGA Winners:

Driving Miss Daisy

Gladiator

Green Book

Three Best PGA Nominees That Didn’t Win:

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Pulp Fiction

Five Worst Nominees:

Don’t Look Up

Scent of a Woman

Joker

At Play in the Fields of the Lord

Hacksaw Ridge

Five Least Acclaimed Winners (based on Consensus Awards Percentage):

The Big Short

CODA

Birdman

Little Miss Sunshine

1917

Five Most Acclaimed Films That Didn’t Win (based on Consensus Awards Percentage):

L.A. Confidential

The Social Network

Unforgiven

Pulp Fiction

Sideways

Five Least Acclaimed Films to Earn a Nomination (based on Consensus Awards Percentage):

Wonder Woman

Molly’s Game

Ex Machina

Straight Outta Compton

Blue Jasmine

Five Most Acclaimed Snubs (based on Consensus Awards Percentage):

GoodFellas

Sense and Sensibility

Mulholland Drive

Drive My Car

The Pianist

The Critics Awards

1932-1934:

The critics awards began in 1932 with the National Board of Review, which isn’t really a critics group but has been treated as one all the same, gave their initial award to I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang which already complicated the Consensus Awards because the Oscars placed that in the combined year of 1932-33. Their next award went to Topaze but in 1934, they agreed with the Oscars for the first time with It Happened One Night.

1935-1943:

The New York Film Critics began in 1935 and it immediately began an odd stretch for the two groups. They would agree six times in the first nine years and not one of those six films (The Informer, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, The Citadel, Grapes of Wrath, Citizen Kane, In Which We Serve) would win the Oscar (though all were nominated). The only Oscar winner in that stretch to win a critics award was The Life of Emile Zola in 1937 which won the NYFC. The Consensus would also be confusing since In Which We Serve won both critics awards in 1942 but earned an Oscar nom (and thus appears in the Consensus Awards) in 1943. Two films in this stretch won the NBR without an Oscar nom (Night Must Fall, Confessions of a Nazi Spy).

1944-1953:

This decade makes for an interesting time as the New York Film Critics began to align very heavily with the Oscars (7 films won both including four in a row from 1944-47) while the NBR failed to align with them at all (no winners, five films failing to be nominated). It also saw the first critics awards for a Documentary (True Glory) and for a Foreign Film (Paisan, Bicycle Thieves). No film during this era won both critics awards.

1954-1957:

This was some true synchronicity. All four years the same film won both awards and the Oscar on top of that with three of them adding the Globe and one even adding the BAFTA (Bridge on the River Kwai). 1954 had marked the first time since 1934 that an NBR winner won the Oscar. The four straight winner is tied for the longest streak by the NBR (although the later streak had two years with multiple winners). The four year streak ties the NYFC record which would be tied again later. The four year stretch is the longest streak of the two groups agreeing.

1958-1965:

The last stretch with just two critics groups. The NYFC stayed with strong Oscar crossover (5 winners, 3 nominees) and the NBR went back to weak crossover (one winner, three snubs). Sons and Lovers and Tom Jones were the only films to win both groups.

1966-1974:

The National Society of Film Critics began in 1966 with Persona (a British film from an Italian director) and then followed that up with three straight Foreign Films. In their first nine years, M*A*S*H was the only American film to win (and one of just two Oscar nominees). The NYFC started with two Oscar winners, then five straight nominees (including two rare Foreign Oscar nominees) before going with Day for Night (the first NYFC winner not to earn an Oscar nom) and then Amarcord (marking the only time in the 20th Century back-to-back NYFC winners failed to earn Oscar noms). In this stretch, the NBR picked more Oscar winners (3) than Oscar nominees (2). The NBR and NYFC agreed once (A Man for all Seasons) and the NYFC and NSFC agreed twice (Z, Day for Night). The NBR and NSFC never agreed.

1975-1979:

The LA Film Critics began in 1975 and did so by awarding two films (one of which won the Oscar), neither of which was Nashville, the first film to win the NBR, NYFC and NSFC. They followed it up the next year by doing literally the exact same thing (All the President’s Men was the trifecta winner and the first American film not directed by Robert Altman to win the NSFC). Annie Hall became the first NSFC winner to win the Oscar (and it won the NYFC). The LAFC made it three out of five at the Oscars to start off by picking Kramer vs. Kramer, the first film in which it agreed with another group (NYFC). Thanks to multiple winners from the NBR and the LAFC, four of the five Oscar nominees in 1975 won a critics Best Picture award.

1980-1988:

The Boston Society of Film Critics began in 1980 and were much more like the NSFC, awarding Foreign films (3 of their first 8) and ignoring the Oscar choices (only 4 noms, no winners). The NSFC continued their independent streak (just 2 Oscar noms, no winners, 4 films picked by no other groups), the LAFC (two Oscar winners, only Brazil failed to be nominated) and NYFC (3 winners, all others nominated) continued to have strong Oscar streaks. The NYFC and NBR actually agreed five years in a row (80-84) although the NBR had seven winners in that stretch and the NBR had its strongest Oscar showing (four straight winners, all but two films at least nominated). Also, continuing back to 1975, the longest stretch of Oscar winners that won at least one critics award (75-84).

1989-2021:

The Chicago Film Critics finally made it a big six, making things different by looking more like an awards group (more categories, nominees first, then winners). During this period, Chicago had the highest Oscar win count (12) with NYFC and LAFC having the least (6 each, a 16 year gap at LAFC from 1993 to 2009). The NBR, surprisingly, had the most Oscar noms (all but 4 of their winners) while the NSFC had the fewest (16 winners failed to be nominated). GoodFellas became the first film to win five awards (all but NBR) with Schindler’s List the first to win all six, which happened again with L.A. Confidential and The Social Network.

Best by Group

NYFC: Citizen Kane

LAFC: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

NSFC: GoodFellas

BSFC: GoodFellas

CFC: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

NBR: Sunset Blvd.

Worst by Group

NYFC: Far from Heaven

LAFC: Mad Max: Fury Road

NSFC: Goodbye to Language

BSFC: Night of Shooting Stars

CFC: Far from Heaven

NBR: The Nun’s Story

Most Critics Points Without a Picture Win:

The Piano – 1033

The Queen – 799

Lost in Translation – 680

Lincoln – 669

Happy-Go-Lucky – 643

Most Points By Group Without a Picture Win:

NYFC: The Piano – 240

LAFC: The Piano – 350

NSFC: Happy-Go-Lucky – 300

BSFC: Birdman – 260

CFC: The Master – 220

NBR: The Martian – 240

5 Most Acclaimed Post-1966 Films to not Win a Critics Award (based on Consensus Awards percentage):

Oliver!

Gladiator

The English Patient

The Graduate

Midnight Cowboy

Least Acclaimed Films to Win the Critics by Group

NYFC: First Cow

LAFC: Brazil

NSFC: Goodbye to Language

BSFC: Trainspotting

CFC: Malcolm X

NBR: A Most Violent Year

Most Critically Acclaimed Films Snubbed by a Critics Group:

NYFC: Hamlet

LAFC: No Country for Old Men

NSFC: The Silence of the Lambs

BSFC: The Silence of the Lambs

CFC: Unforgiven

NBR: Going My Way

Critical Oddities:

note: These are the films that won multiple Critics Awards but failed to earn nominations from the DGA, AA, BAFTA, CC or GG.

1983: Night of Shooting Stars (NSFC, BSFC)

1986: Blue Velvet (NSFC, BSFC)

1999: Topsy-Turvy (NYFC, NSFC)

2003: American Splendor (NSFC, LAFC)

Compared to the Oscars:

NBR

90 years

94 films

22 Oscar winners (23.4%)

48 Oscar nominees (51.1%)

24 Oscar snubs (25.5%)

most recent winners: Green Book (2018), Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

most recent snubs: Da 5 Bloods (2020), A Most Violent Year (2014), Quills (2000)

NYFC

86 years

87 films

31 Oscar winners (35.6%)

46 Oscar nominees (52.9%)

10 Oscar snubs (11.5%)

most recent winners: The Artist (2011), The Hurt Locker (2009)

most recent snubs: First Cow (2020), Carol (2015), United 93 (2006)

NSFC

56 years

57 films

9 Oscar winners (15.8%)

18 Oscar nominees (31.6%)

30 Oscar snubs (52.6%)

most recent winners: Nomadland (2020), Parasite (2019), Moonlight (2016)

most recent snubs: The Rider (2018), Goodbye to Language (2014), Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)

LAFC

47 years

50 films

11 Oscar winners (22.0%)

31 Oscar nominees (62.0%)

8 Oscar snubs (16.0%)

most recent winners: Parasite (2019), Moonlight (2016), Spotlight (2015)

most recent snubs: Small Axe (2020), Wall-E (2008), American Splendor (2003)

BSFC

42 years

43 films

11 Oscar winners (25.6%)

19 Oscar winners (44.2%)

13 Oscar snubs (30.2%)

most recent winners: Nomadland (2020), Spotlight (2015), 12 Years a Slave (2013)

most recent snubs: If Beale Street Could Talk (2018), Wall-E (2008), Mulholland Drive (2001)

CFC

34 years

34 films

12 Oscar winners (35.3%)

15 Oscar nominees (44.1%)

7 Oscar snubs (20.6%)

most recent winners: Nomadland (2020), Parasite (2019), Moonlight (2016)

most recent snubs: Wall-E (2008), Far from Heaven (2002), Mulholland Drive (2001)

The Nighthawk Awards

The Full List of Nighthawk Winners and What Other Awards They Won or Were Nominated For

note: An award followed by a small (f) like so GG(f) means that it won the award for Foreign Film but, because of that, was ineligible for the regular Best Picture award.

1912-26: Greed

1927-28: Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans

1928-29: Nosferatu

1929-30: All Quiet on the Western Front (AA)

1930-31: City Lights

1931-32: Scarface

1932-33: M

1934: The Thin Man (AA)

1935: The Informer (AA, NYFC, NBR)

1936: Modern Times

1937: A Star is Born (AA)

1938: The Grand Illusion (AA)

1939: The Wizard of Oz (AA)

1940: The Grapes of Wrath (AA, NYFC, NBR)

1941: Citizen Kane (AA)

1942: Sullivan’s Travels

1943: Casablanca (AA)

1944: Double Indemnity (AA)

1945: The Lost Weekend (AA, GG, NYFC)

1946: Children of Paradise

1947: Great Expectations (AA)

1948: La belle et la bête

1949: The Bicycle Thieves (NBR, BAFTA, GG(f))

1950: Sunset Blvd. (AA, GG, NBR)

1951: A Streetcar Named Desire (NYFC, AA, BAFTA, GG)

1952: Rashomon (BAFTA)

1953: From Here to Eternity (AA, NYFC, BAFTA)

1954: On the Waterfront (AA, NYFC, NBR, GG, BAFTA)

1955: Rebel without a Cause (BAFTA)

1956: Seven Samurai (BAFTA)

1957: The Bridge on the River Kwai (AA, NYFC, NBR, BAFTA, GG)

1958: Touch of Evil

1959: The Seventh Seal (BAFTA)

1960: Ikiru

1961: West Side Story (AA, NYFC, GG, BAFTA)

1962: Lawrence of Arabia (AA, BAFTA, GG)

1963: Winter Light

1964: Dr. Strangelove (BAFTA, AA)

1965: Dr. Zhivago (GG, AA, BAFTA)

1966: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (BAFTA, AA, GG)

1967: Bonnie and Clyde (AA, BAFTA, GG)

1968: 2001: A Space Odyssey (BAFTA)

1969: The Wild Bunch

1970: M*A*S*H (NSFC, GG, AA, BAFTA)

1971: A Clockwork Orange (NYFC, AA, BAFTA, GG)

1972: The Godfather (AA, GG)

1973: Cries and Whispers (NYFC, NSFC, GG(f), AA)

1974: Chinatown (GG, AA, BAFTA)

1975: Jaws (AA, BAFTA, GG)

1976: All the President’s Men (NYFC, NSFC, NBR, AA, BAFTA, GG)

1977: Star Wars (LAFC, AA, BAFTA, GG)

1978: The Deer Hunter (AA, LAFC, BAFTA, GG)

1979: Alien

1980: Raging Bull (LAFC, BSFC, AA, GG)

1981: Raiders of the Lost Ark (AA, BAFTA)

1982: Sophie’s Choice (GG)

1983: Fanny & Alexander (NBR, AA(f), GG(f))

1984: Amadeus (LAFC, AA, GG, BAFTA)

1985: Ran (NSFC, BSFC, GG(f))

1986: Hannah and Her Sisters (NYFC, LAFC, GG, AA, BAFTA)

1987: The Princess Bride

1988: Who Framed Roger Rabbit (GG)

1989: Glory (GG, PGA)

1990: GoodFellas (NYFC, LAFC, NSFC, BSFC, CFC, BAFTA, AA, GG)

1991: The Silence of the Lambs (AA, NYFC, BSFC, CFC, NBR, PGA, BAFTA, GG)

1992: Unforgiven (AA, LAFC, NSFC, BSFC, PGA, BAFTA, GG)

1993: Schindler’s List (AA, NYFC, LAFC, NSFC, BSFC, CFC, NBR, PGA, BAFTA, GG)

1994: Ed Wood (GG)

1995: Sense & Sensibility (BSFC, NBR, BAFTA, GG, CC, AA)

1996: Lone Star (CC)

1997: L.A. Confidential (NYFC, LAFC, NSFC, BSFC, CFC, NBR, CC, AA, BAFTA, PGA, GG)

1998: Out of Sight (NSFC, BSFC, CC)

1999: American Beauty (AA, NBR, CFC, BAFTA, PGA, GG, CC)

2000: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (LAFC, GG(f), AA, PGA, BAFTA, CC)

2001: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (BAFTA, AA, PGA, CC, GG)

2002: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (AA, PGA, BAFTA, CC, GG)

2003: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (AA, NYFC, CFC, PGA, BAFTA, CC, GG)

2004: The Aviator (PGA, BAFTA, GG, AA, CC)

2005: Good Night and Good Luck (NBR, AA, PGA, BAFTA, CC, GG)

2006: The Departed (AA, BSFC, CFC, CC, PGA, BAFTA, GG)

2007: No Country for Old Men (AA, NYFC, BSFC, CFC, NBR, PGA, CC, BAFTA, GG)

2008: Slumdog Millionaire (AA, NYFC, BSFC, PGA, BAFTA, CC, GG)

2009: Inglourious Basterds (AA, PGA, CC, GG)

2010: Inception (AA, PGA, BAFTA, CC, GG)

2011: Hugo (NBR, AA, PGA, CC, GG)

2012: Lincoln (AA, PGA, BAFTA, CC, GG

2013: Gravity (LAFC, PGA, AA, BAFTA, CC, GG)

2014: Birdman (AA, PGA, BAFTA, CC, GG)

2015: Carol (NYFC, BAFTA, CC, GG)

2016: La La Land (NYFC, BSFC, PGA, BAFTA, CC, GG, AA)

2017: Lady Bird (NYFC, NSFC, CFC, GG, AA, PGA, CC)

2018: The Favourite (AA, PGA, BAFTA, CC, GG)

2019: Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood (GG, CC, AA, PGA, BAFTA)

2020: The Personal Life of David Copperfield

2021: West Side Story (GG, AA, PGA, CC)

Consensus Awards

The Full List of Consensus Awards Winners, What They Won, and My Rank for That Film in Its Year:

film year seen AA Crt BFT GG PGA CC rt wt n w % # myR Sunrise 1928 x 100 100 100 1 1 28.57% 1t 1 Wings 1928 x 100 100 100 1 1 28.57% 1t 24 Broadway Melody 1929 x 100 100 100 1 1 33.33% 1 147 All Quiet on the Western Front 1930 x 100 100 100 1 1 33.33% 1 1 Cimarron 1931 x 100 100 100 1 1 33.33% 1 240 Grand Hotel 1932 x 100 100 100 1 1 22.22% 1 10 I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang 1933 x 50 80 130 130 2 1 18.31% 1 3 It Happened One Night 1934 x 100 80 180 180 2 2 24.66% 1 3 Informer 1935 x 50 180 230 230 3 2 27.71% 1 1 Mr Deeds Goes to Town 1936 x 50 180 230 230 3 2 31.51% 1 3 Life of Emile Zola 1937 x 100 100 200 200 2 2 27.40% 1 15 Citadel 1938 x 50 180 230 230 3 2 31.51% 1 13 Wuthering Heights 1939 x 50 100 150 150 2 1 20.55% 1 3 GRAPES OF WRATH 1940 x 50 180 230 230 3 2 31.51% 1 1 CITIZEN KANE 1941 x 50 180 230 230 3 2 31.51% 1 1 MRS MINIVER 1942 x 100 100 100 1 1 18.18% 1 15 IN WHICH WE SERVE 1943 x 50 180 230 230 3 2 23.23% 1 4 GOING MY WAY 1944 x 100 100 100 300 280 3 3 50.00% 1 19 LOST WEEKEND 1945 x 100 100 100 300 280 3 3 50.00% 1 1 Best Years of our Lives 1946 x 100 100 100 100 400 380 4 4 57.58% 1 2 Gentleman’s Agreement 1947 x 100 100 100 300 280 3 3 45.90% 1 7 Treasure of the Sierra Madre 1948 x 50 100 50 100 300 280 4 2 32.56% 1 2 All the King’s Men 1949 x 100 100 100 300 280 3 3 23.73% 1 8 All About Eve 1950 x 100 100 100 50 350 340 4 3 31.78% 1 3 Streetcar Named Desire, A 1951 x 50 100 50 50 250 240 4 1 12.63% 1 1 High Noon 1952 x 50 100 50 200 190 3 1 9.69% 1 3 From Here to Eternity 1953 x 100 100 50 250 250 3 2 19.08% 1 1 On the Waterfront 1954 x 100 180 50 100 430 410 5 4 26.62% 1 1 Marty 1955 x 100 180 50 330 330 4 3 23.74% 1 21 Around the World in 80 Days 1956 x 100 180 100 380 360 4 4 20.45% 1 38 Bridge on the River Kwai 1957 x 100 180 100 100 480 460 5 5 22.89% 1 1 Defiant Ones 1958 x 50 100 50 100 300 280 4 2 15.47% 1 5 Ben-Hur 1959 x 100 100 100 100 400 380 4 4 19.39% 1 9 Apartment 1960 x 100 100 100 100 400 380 4 4 18.36% 1 2 West Side Story 1961 x 100 100 50 100 350 330 4 3 17.65% 1 1 Lawrence of Arabia 1962 x 100 100 100 300 280 3 3 11.91% 1 1 Tom Jones 1963 x 100 180 100 100 480 460 5 5 29.30% 1 4 My Fair Lady 1964 x 100 100 100 100 400 380 4 4 27.94% 1 6 Darling 1965 x 50 100 80 230 214 3 2 17.12% 1 7 Man for all Seasons, A 1966 x 100 180 100 100 480 460 5 5 31.72% 1 2 In the Heat of the Night 1967 x 100 100 50 100 350 330 4 3 26.40% 1 3 Oliver 1968 x 100 50 100 250 230 3 2 19.17% 1t 37 Lion in Winter 1968 x 50 100 100 250 230 3 2 19.17% 1t 3 Z 1969 x 50 190 50 80 370 354 5 3 26.22% 1 5 M*A*S*H 1970 x 50 90 50 100 290 270 4 2 20.93% 1 1 Clockwork Orange, A 1971 x 50 100 50 50 250 240 4 1 16.55% 1 1 Cabaret 1972 x 50 80 100 100 330 310 4 3 28.18% 1 4 Cries and Whispers 1973 x 50 190 40 280 272 4 2 22.86% 1 1 Day for Night 1974 x 190 100 40 330 322 4 3 20.77% 1 3 One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest 1975 x 100 100 100 100 400 380 4 4 22.62% 1 3 All the President’s Men 1976 x 50 270 50 50 420 410 6 3 27.33% 1 1 Annie Hall 1977 x 100 190 100 50 440 430 5 4 28.67% 1 2 Deer Hunter 1978 x 100 100 50 50 300 290 4 2 23.20% 1 1 Kramer vs Kramer 1979 x 100 200 50 100 450 430 5 4 28.86% 1 7 Ordinary People 1980 x 100 180 100 380 360 4 4 25.90% 1 5 Chariots of Fire 1981 x 100 80 100 80 360 344 4 4 20.60% 1 16 Gandhi 1982 x 100 180 100 80 460 444 5 5 29.80% 1 20 Terms of Endearment 1983 x 100 280 100 480 460 5 5 29.30% 1 2 Passage to India, A 1984 x 50 180 50 80 360 344 5 3 23.09% 1 2 Prizzi’s Honor 1985 x 50 100 100 250 230 3 2 15.44% 1 12 Hannah and Her Sisters 1986 x 50 200 50 100 400 380 5 3 24.20% 1 1 Hope and Glory 1987 x 50 190 50 100 390 370 5 3 22.02% 1 3 Mississippi Burning 1988 x 50 170 50 270 260 4 2 18.18% 1 8 Driving Miss Daisy 1989 x 100 80 50 100 100 430 400 5 4 20.15% 1 84 GoodFellas 1990 x 50 460 100 50 660 650 8 6 38.24% 1 1 Silence of the Lambs 1991 x 100 350 50 50 100 650 630 8 6 35.90% 1 1 Unforgiven 1992 x 100 280 50 50 50 530 515 7 4 27.84% 1 1 Schindler’s List 1993 x 100 540 100 100 100 940 910 10 10 49.19% 1 1 Pulp Fiction 1994 x 50 360 50 50 50 560 545 8 4 27.53% 1 2 Sense and Sensibility 1995 x 50 170 100 100 100 520 480 6 5 23.82% 1 1 Fargo 1996 x 50 180 50 50 50 100 480 445 7 3 20.00% 1 4 LA Confidential 1997 x 50 540 50 50 50 100 840 805 11 7 36.18% 1 1 Saving Private Ryan 1998 x 50 280 50 100 100 100 680 630 8 6 28.31% 1 3 American Beauty 1999 x 100 160 100 100 100 100 660 610 7 7 25.79% 1 1 Gladiator 2000 x 100 100 100 100 100 500 450 5 5 19.15% 1 73 Mulholland Drive 2001 x 350 50 50 450 430 6 4 18.98% 1 4 Pianist 2002 x 50 180 100 50 50 430 410 6 3 17.67% 1 5 Lord of the Rings: Return of the King 2003 x 100 180 100 100 100 100 680 630 7 7 27.16% 1 1 Sideways 2004 x 50 370 100 50 100 670 625 8 6 27.00% 1 7 Brokeback Mountain 2005 x 50 290 100 100 100 100 740 690 8 7 29.81% 1 2 Departed 2006 x 100 170 50 50 50 100 520 485 7 4 20.86% 1 1 No Country for Old Men 2007 x 100 350 50 50 100 100 750 710 9 7 30.80% 1 1 Slumdog Millionaire 2008 x 100 170 100 100 100 100 670 620 7 7 25.78% 1 1 Hurt Locker 2009 x 100 460 100 50 100 100 910 870 10 9 32.77% 1 2 Social Network 2010 x 50 540 50 100 50 100 890 845 11 8 31.83% 1 2 Artist 2011 x 100 190 100 100 100 100 690 640 7 7 22.90% 1 2 Zero Dark Thirty 2012 x 50 360 50 50 50 50 610 585 9 4 20.93% 1 3 12 Years A Slave 2013 x 100 180 100 100 100 100 680 630 7 7 22.54% 1 8 Boyhood 2014 x 50 370 100 100 50 100 770 725 9 7 25.94% 1 31 Spotlight 2015 x 100 280 50 50 50 100 630 595 8 5 21.29% 1 4 La La Land 2016 x 50 190 100 100 100 100 640 590 7 6 21.42% 1 1 Lady Bird 2017 x 50 270 100 50 50 520 485 7 4 17.35% 1 1 Roma 2018 x 50 290 100 80 50 100 670 629 9 6 22.90% 1 3 Parasite 2019 x 100 280 50 80 50 50 610 579 8 5 20.70% 1 6 Nomadland 2020 x 100 270 100 100 100 100 770 720 8 8 26.21% 1 26 Drive My Car 2021 x 50 380 80 510 494 6 5 17.98% 1 54

Most Awards Points:

Schindler’s List – 910

The Hurt Locker – 870

The Social Network – 845

L.A. Confidential – 805

Boyhood – 725

Most Awards Points That Don’t Win the Consensus:

Moonlight – 585 – lost by 5 points to La La Land

Argo – 450 – lost by 135 points to Zero Dark Thirty

Green Book – 440 – lost by 190 points to 12 Years a Slave

The Power of the Dog – 435 – lost by 59 points to Drive My Car

There Will Be Blood – 415 – lost by 295 points to No Country for Old Men

Closest Second Place Finishes at the Consensus:

Moonlight – lost by 5 points to La La Land

An American in Paris – lost by 10 points to A Streetcar Named Desire

Greatest Show on Earth – lost by 10 points to High Noon

The French Connection – lost by 10 points to A Clockwork Orange

Chicago – lost by 10 points to The Pianist

Most Awards Points By Decade:

1920s: Sunrise / Wings / The Broadway Melody – 100

1930s: The Informer / Mr. Deeds Goes to Town / The Citadel – 230

1940s: The Best Years of Our Lives – 380

1950s: The Bridge on the River Kwai – 460

1960s: Tom Jones / A Man for All Seasons – 460

1970s: Annie Hall / Kramer vs. Kramer – 430

1980s: Terms of Endearment – 460

1990s: Schindler’s List – 910

2000s: The Hurt Locker – 870

2010s: The Social Network – 845

2020s: Nomadland – 720

Highest Awards Percentage (post-1947):

note: Post-1947 because that’s when the BAFTAs kicked in. Before that, the top 3 are the three Oscar / Globe / NYFC winners from 1944-1946, all at 50% or above.

Schindler’s List – 49.19%

GoodFellas – 38.24%

L.A. Confidential – 36.18%

The Silence of the Lambs – 35.90%

The Hurt Locker – 32.77%

Highest Awards Percentage to Fail to Win the Consensus

Hamlet (1948) – 30.70%

E.T. – 24.83%

Dances with Wolves – 23.53%

Amadeus – 22.15%

Rocky – 22.00%

Consensus Notes:

1928 / 1968 – the only ties for #1 (see chart below)

1933 – Cavalcade first film to win the Oscar but lose the Consensus

1944 – Going My Way first film with 3 wins

1946 – Best Years of Our Lives first film with 4 wins

1948 – Hamlet first film with 3 wins not to win the Consensus

1952 – High Noon only film to win the Consensus with less than 10%

1954 – On the Waterfront the first film with 5 noms

1957 – Bridge on the River Kwai first film with 5 wins

1971 – A Clockwork Orange last film to win the Consensus with just 1 win

1974 – Day for Night first film to win the Consensus without an Oscar nom

1988 – Mississippi Burning last film to win the Consensus with just 2 wins

1990 – GoodFellas first film with 8 noms, first film with 6 wins

1990 – Dances with Wolves first film with 4 wins not to win the Consensus

1993 – Schindler’s List first film with 10 noms, only film with 10 wins

1997 – L.A. Confidential first film with 11 noms

2000 – Gladiator last film to win the Consensus without a critics win, only one since 1968

2001 – Mulholland Drive last film to win the Consensus with Oscar nom, only one since 1974

2012 – Argo only film with 5 wins to lose the Consensus