By David Caballero
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The Academy Awards are the industry's greatest acknowledgment for movies. For almost a hundred years, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has rewarded the best in cinema with the Oscar statuette. Indeed, many classic movies like Gone with the Wind, Casablanca, The Godfather, The Silence of the Lambs, Titanic, and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King have claimed the ceremony's most prestigious award: Best Picture.
The 2020s have been surprisingly strong for Best Picture winners. Unlike categories like Best Actor and Best Actress, which have decidedly more mixed, Best Picture has been full of genuine bangers with one or two exceptions that don't really live up to the standard. This list will rank all five winners for Best Picture in the 2020s so far. The ranking will consider the film's overall quality, how they compare to their fellow nominees, and how they measure against each other. All these are good movies, and three are outright masterpieces, meaning the ranking might not be as easy or straightforward as expected.
6 'CODA' (2021)
Won Best Picture at the 94th Academy Awards
The well-meaning and sweet CODA gets far more flak than it deserves. A remake of the 2014 Belgian-French movie La Famille Bélier, the film stars Emilia Jones as a young woman who is the only hearing member of her family. As she attempts to pursue her musical ambitions, she must also deal with her family's struggling fishing business.
CODA is an effective, albeit overly sentimental, film about the importance of family and the tough path toward pursuing one's dreams. The cast is brilliant, especially Troy Katsur in an Oscar-winning performance. It does little to challenge the confinements of the coming-of-age genre; indeed, it actually makes a pointed effort to stick within them. However, the narrative remains poignant and affecting, delivering a classic and well-told message about unity and hope. Crowd-pleasing movies have always been favorites of the Academy, and it's easy to see why this particular piece of sentimental entertainment claimed the big prize. It might be too harsh to say CODA was undeserving of the Oscar; however, comparing it to the decade's other winners, it becomes clear that it is the inferior winner by a considerable margin.
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CODA
PG-13
Music Drama- Release Date
- August 13, 2021
- Cast
- Emilia Jones, Eugenio Derbez, Troy Kotsur, Ferdia Walsh-Peelo, Daniel Durant, Marlee Matlin
- Runtime
- 111 minutes
- Director
- Sian Heder
- Writers
- Sian Heder
5 'Nomadland' (2020)
Won Best Picture at the 93rd Academy Awards
The 93rd Academy Awards were quite bizarre. The first to take place following the worldwide lockdown that forever changed the lives of millions, the ceremony acknowledged many movies that were more intimate and small-scale in nature, including the Best Picture winner, Chloé Zhao's Nomadland. Three-time Oscar winner Frances McDormand stars as Fern, a widow who abandons her possessions and begins life as a nomad traveling the United States in her van.
An ode to middle America and those struggling to live by, Nomadland is a loving and deeply revealing picture of those who seldom see themselves reflected on the big screen. McDormand is stellar in her Oscar-winning role, and the visuals are lush and utterly stunning, painting a vivid portrait of the vastness of rural America. At its core, Nomadland is a character study and a look at the long-term consequences of the Recession. More a collection of vignettes than a proper cohesive narrative, Nomadland is a melancholy film that might test the patience of many viewers. However, it's hard to contend with its Best Picture status, partly because it's genuinely impressive that such an intimate movie claimed the big prize and partly because none of its direct competition was particularly impressive.
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Nomadland
R
Drama- Release Date
- February 19, 2021
WHERE TO WATCH
Streaming
- Cast
- Bob Wells, Swankie, Frances McDormand, Linda May, Derek Endres, David Straitham
- Runtime
- 107 minutes
- Director
- Chloé Zhao
- Writers
- Chloé Zhao
4 'Anora' (2024)
Won Best Picture at the 97th Academy Awards
Sean Baker's Anora is such a bizarre Best Picture winner. The independent film, made for only $6 million, stars Mikey Madison as the titular character, a sex worker who enters a whirlwind romance with the son of a Russian oligarch. The two quickly get married, but word of the union reaches his parents, who send the boy's godfather and his goons to secure an annulment.
Like many of Baker's other movies, Anora is an indictment of the trappings of the American Dream and how it uses people only to discard them without a care. In many ways, the film doesn't really fit with the typical mold for a Best Picture winner: it's far from flashy and is instead a quite sobering look at how easy it is to fall prey to delusion when the stakes are that high. Anora doesn't even have a proper genre classification, starting as an unconventional rom-com and becoming an outright screwball comedy in the middle before descending to the depths of psychological drama. Perhaps this mighty trick is what convinced Academy members of the film's worth as 2024's Best Picture, and it's hard to argue with them. Anora is many things at once, playing with themes, genres, and emotions in a way that's both unforgettable and impactful.
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Anora
Comedy
Drama Romance9 10
9/10
- Release Date
- October 18, 2024
- Cast
- Mikey Madison, Mark Eydelshteyn, Karren Karagulian, Yuriy Borisov, Vache Tovmasyan, Ivy Wolk, Luna Sofía Miranda, Ross Brodar, Lindsey Normington, Darya Ekamasova, Emily Weider, Alena Gurevich, Masha Zhak, Paul Weissman, Charlton Lamar, Aleksey Serebryakov, Ella Rubin, Vincent Radwinsky, Michael Sergio, Brittney Rodriguez, Sophia Carnabuci, Anton Bitter, Zoë Vnak
- Runtime
- 139 Minutes
- Director
- Sean Baker
- Writers
- Sean Baker
3 'Everything Everywhere All at Once' (2022)
Won Best Picture at the 95th Academy Awards
The Daniels' delightfully unhinged and wacky Everything Everywhere All at Once might be the most daring and original Best Picture winner of the 21st century. Michelle Yeoh leads the cast as Evelyn Quan-Wang, a hard-working woman on her wits' end operating a laundromat with her kind but often ineffective husband, Waymond (Ke Huy Quan). While being audited, Evelyn is contacted by a version of Waymond from another universe, who tells her she is the key to saving the multiverse from a dangerous enemy known as Jobu Tupaki.
Everything Everywhere All at Once is delightfully unhinged, truly groundbreaking, and unlike anything the Academy has ever crowned. This genre-defying masterpiece is the result of two singular minds operating at full speed in service of a classic tale of family, love, forgiveness, and acceptance. Yeoh, Quan, and a stellar Stephanie Hsu are incredible as the Wang family, while the Daniels' screenplay jumps from one world to another, each more absurd than the one before. Maximalist in the best way possible and absurd to a fault, Everything Everywhere All at Once is a profound and unforgettable cinematic experience that never once compromises its vision. It's as challenging and ridiculous as it's emotionally rewarding and heartwarming, a true work of art and one of the most deserving Best Picture winners ever.
2 'Oppenheimer' (2023)
Won Best Picture at the 96th Academy Awards
Iconic and acclaimed director Christopher Nolan is behind some of the 21st century's most acclaimed and successful movies, from Inception to his Dark Knight trilogy. However, his crowning achievement is the 2023 epic historical thriller Oppenheimer, a biopic about the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer, played by a career-best Cillian Murphy. The film chronicles Oppenheimer's life from his days as a student to his involvement in Project Manhattan, which resulted in the creation of the atomic bomb, to his 1954 security hearing.
A near-perfect blend of the tense and riveting approach of the thriller and the high-stakes, revealing nature of the period drama, Oppenheimer is a true cinematic triumph. The film paints a detailed and compelling portrait of the titular character, depicting both his drive to create and his profound regret at the consequences of his creation. Every element in Oppenheimer comes together to create a modern classic, from Nolan's directing and screenplay to the performances of the cast, haunting score, detailed production values, and impactful imagery. A magnificent experience that engages the senses without ever overwhelming them, Oppenheimer is a testament to the power of cinema and the theatrical experience and one of the greatest Best Picture winners of all time.
1 'Parasite' (2019)
Won Best Picture at the 92nd Academy Awards
Bong Joon-ho's 2019 black comedy masterpiece Parasite is among the all-time greatest Oscar winners for Best Picture. The film stars an ensemble of outstanding performers and follows an impoverished but ambitious family who slowly infiltrates the life of a wealthy family by posing as highly qualified individuals.
Like Bong's previous movies, Parasite deals with themes of class, struggle, social outcasts, ambition, and the secrets inherent to the human experience. However, it balances them with a healthy dose of satirical and biting wit, crafting a singular cinematic masterwork that is equal parts thought-provoking, haunting, and riotously entertaining. Parasite is the product of one of modern cinema's greatest and most uncompromising creators operating at the peak of his abilities. An eat-the-rich fable with a bite that's far stronger than its already mighty bark, Parasite is a brilliant, topical, and timely work of modern artistry and one of the most important Best Picture winners of all time.
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Parasite
R
Comedy
Thriller Drama- Release Date
- November 8, 2019
WHERE TO WATCH
Streaming
RENT
BUY
Greed and class discrimination threatens the newly formed symbiotic relationship between the wealthy Park family and the destitute Kim clan.
- Cast
- Yeo-Jeong Jo, Myeong-hoon Park, Jeong-eun Lee, Sun-kyun Lee, Ji-so Jung, So-dam Park, Keun-rok Park, Kang-ho Song, Ji-hye Lee, Woo-sik Choi, Seo-joon Park, Hye-jin Jang
- Runtime
- 132 minutes
- Director
- Bong Joon Ho
- Writers
- Jin Won Han, Bong Joon Ho
NEXT: Every Best Actress Oscar Winner of the 2020s, Ranked
- Oscars
- Oppenheimer
- Parasite
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