Which Movies Were Best Picture Oscar Winners? Quiz

Answer:

On April 3rd, 1930, the 2nd Academy Awards ever was held at the Cocoanut Grove in Los Angeles. "The Broadway Melody" became the first sound film to take home the Best Picture Oscar. The year before, the first ever Best Picture winner, "Wings", was a silent film.

At the 4th Academy Awards ceremony, on November 10th, 1931, "Cimarron" became the first Western to win a Best Picture Oscar. It would almost six decades later before another Western would win (Nope, not "High Noon", but "Dances With Wolves" instead).

At the 6th Academy Awards, on March 16, 1934, at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, "Cavalcade" (1933) won 20th-Century Fox Studio's first Best Picture Oscar. In February 2012, a Los Angeles auction house sold a collection of 15 Oscar statuettes from Hollywood's Golden Age (pre-1950) and auctioneer Nate D. Sanders sold "Cavalcade's" Best Picture statuette for $332,165.

At the 9th Academy Awards, on March 4th, 1937, "The Great Ziegfeld" became the first Best Picture winner with a real person's name in the title. The very next year at the 10th Academy Awards, "The Life of Emile Zola" would become the second such Best Picture winner. It would be another 25 years before another one would occur: Not "Rebecca" and not "Ben-Hur" because they were both fictional people. "Lawrence of Arabia" was based on the real person, T. E. Lawrence.

At the 17th Academy Awards, on March 15th, 1945 at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, "Going My Way" became the first film to win both Best Picture, and Best Original Song (Bing Crosby sang "Swinging on a Star" written by Jimmy Van Heusen, and sung by Bing Crosby). Some sources you will come across will tell you that "The Godfather" was the first Best Picture Oscar winner to have a sequel. This is not true. "Going My Way" had a sequel; it came out the following year and was called "The Bells of St. Mary's". And it's debatable, but maybe some consider "Broadway Melody of 1936" a sequel to Oscar winner "The Broadway Melody" but it really doesn't continue any storyline from that film. It just uses the title. But hey, I'm not the Oscar police so go ahead and call that one the first Best Picture with a sequel if you want.

The following Oscars, the 18th, held on March 7th, 1946, saw "The Lost Weekend" win Best Picture, a groundbreaking film in terms of its serious treatment of alcoholism, that was mostly played for comedic effect in the history of Hollywood. But the sobering subject matter won the film the Best Oscar at the Academy Awards and also made it a winner at Cannes.

The 68th Academy Awards were held on March 25th, 1996, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. "Braveheart" won Best Picture, one of the few Best Picture winners not to have any acting nominations. There are about a dozen such cases, including, "Argo", "The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King" and others.

At the 76th Academy Awards, on February 8, 2004, at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles, "The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King" tied "Ben-Hur" and "Titanic" for the most Oscar wins (11), including Best Picture. On top of winning Best Picture, it was also the top grossing film at the box office that year.

On March 10, 2010, at the 82nd Academy Awards, the first film by a woman director (Kathryn Bigelow) to win Best Picture was "The Hurt Locker". It is the lowest box office grossing Best Picture, which is ironic as it defeated the highest grossing box office nominated Best Picture..."Avatar" directed by Ms. Bigelow's ex-husband James Cameron.

"Argo" is one of those relatively rare Best Picture winners that didn't win Best Director. In fact, at that 85th Academy Awards on February 24, 2013, "Argo" became the first Best Picture winner in 81 years at the Oscars to not even get a Best Director nomination or a nomination for Best Actor and Best Actress. "Grand Hotel" (1932) was the last time that happened.

The following year, on March 2nd, "12 Years a Slave" became Oscar's first Best Picture winner directed by a black director (Steve McQueen). It was the second year in a row, that the Best Picture winner did not also win Best Director.

At the 88th Academy Awards, on February 28, 2016, at the Dolby Theatre, the real-life based drama about Boston Globe reporters, "Spotlight" won Best Picture, and only two awards in total. Only three other Best Pictures won fewer total awards, that is to say, won Best Picture and nothing else: "Grand Hotel" (1932), "The Broadway Melody" (1929), and "Mutiny on the Bounty" (1935).

On March 4, 2018, at the 90th Academy Awards, "The Shape of Water" won Best Picture despite what many called more critically acclaimed audience favorites such as "Get Out", "Lady Bird", "Three Billboards Outside Ebbings, Missouri". There's no denying however, that it might be the best fantasy romance between a mute woman and an amphibious creature. Ever.

On February 28, 2021, "Nomadland" won Best Picture at the 93rd Academy Awards. It also gave Frances McDormand her third Best Actress win. The film premiered on Hulu at the same time as its theatrical release, so more people were able to see the film during the pandemic.