Oscar snubs are as much of an Academy Awards tradition as thanking your agent, and when it comes to Best Picture winners, it’s rare that critics, fans, and Academy voters agree. There have been some notable Best Picture snubs over the years, and a review of a decades worth of Best Picture winners will likely spark debate over why some movies won, while others were inexplicably passed over.
With Academy voters seemingly allergic to awarding the Best Picture Oscar to popular films, it isn’t unusual for the Best Picture winner in recent years to fly under the radar of many movie fans. During the 2010s, the Academy recognized some worthy mainstream hits, but a number of lesser-known films were surprising Best Picture winners during the decade, snubbing some audience favorites. In fact, it’s likely most film fans have not seen the majority of the Best Picture winners of the 2010s, even though most are available to stream through various services.
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In hindsight, a number of films have emerged as modern classics, which were often passed over at Oscar time. Here’s a look at the Best Picture winners from 2010 to 2019, as well as our picks for the film that should have won, and some interesting facts about each year’s Oscars. Movies are listed based on their year of release, with the Oscar ceremony held the following year.
2010
Paramount Pictures
Winner: The King’s Speech
What Should Have Won: The Social Network
Nominees: 127 Hours, Black Swan, Inception, The Fighter, The Kids Are All Right, The King’s Speech, The Social Network, Toy Story 3, True Grit, Winter’s Bone
The King’s Speech is a prime example of Academy voters giving British films too much credit just for being British. Tom Hooper’s historical drama is an interesting slice of history, but the film lacks the gravitas of a Best Picture winner. Released and promoted on Christmas Day as an Oscar contender, it became the safe choice for many Academy voters.
While The King’s Speech win may be controversial today, deciding which film deserved the Oscar instead can spark additional controversy. A small argument could be made for Inception or The Fighter, but David Fincher’s The Social Network should have won the Oscar then, and the oversight is even more obvious now. The film elevates the drama behind Facebook’s creation to the level of Shakespearean tragedy.
Movie Fact: Colin Firth, who won an Oscar for Best Actor for The King’s Speech, was not director Tom Hooper’s first choice. Paul Bettany (Vision in Avengers: Endgame) was offered the role, but declined to spend more time with his family.
2011
Warner Bros. France
Winner: The Artist
What Should Have Won: The Tree of Life
Nominees: Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, Hugo, Midnight in Paris, Moneyball, The Descendants, The Help, The Tree of Life, War Horse
Hollywood loves movies about itself, and it could be argued that The Artist rode novelty to the Best Picture Oscar. The largely silent, black-and-white film had a massive publicity campaign, including the film’s canine star, Uggie, who seemed to get more press than the other Best Picture nominees. More traditional films like Scorsese’s Hugo, Spielberg’s War Horse, and The Help, which were all superb, appeared to effectively cancel each other out in the minds of Academy voters.
That leaves a somewhat controversial choice for Best Picture: Terrance Malick’s The Tree of Life, an art-house film with A-list stars that stays with you long after the credits end. Its existential imagery left many filmgoers confused, but it’s far more profound and effecting than most of the others films nominated that year. Brad Pitt is excellent, and Jessica Chastain’s performance should have been nominated, but she was nominated for The Help instead.
Movie Fact: Hugo is the only Martin Scorsese film shot in 3D. Both The Artist and Hugo won five Oscars each, although the former won the more prestigious awards (including Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Director), while the latter won in the technical categories (Cinematography, Visual Effects, Sound Editing, etc.).
2012
Warner Bros.
Winner: Argo
Should Have Won: Amour or Argo
Nominees: Amour, Argo, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Django Unchained, Les Misérables, Life of Pi, Lincoln, Silver Linings Playbook, Zero Dark Thirty
Argo is a strong choice for Best Picture, as director Ben Affleck turned a history lesson into a satisfying, dramatic thriller. However, the winner for Best Foreign Language Film, Amour, was equally deserving of the Best Picture prize as well. It’s heartbreaking and beautiful, with exceptional performances, but it would take a few more years for the Academy to actually give a foreign language film the Best Picture Oscar (2019’s Parasite).
Django Unchained may be the most popular nominee from 2012, and rightfully so, but the competition was tough, with each film elevated by excellent acting. Every other Best Picture nominee boasts top-notch performances (Jessica Chastain in Zero Dark Thirty, Quvenzhane Wallis in Beasts of the Southern Wild, and Daniel Day-Lewis in Lincoln), making this a particularly strong year for film.
Movie Fact: Daniel Day-Lewis was Steven Spielberg’s first choice to play Lincoln, but he offered Liam Neeson the role in 2004 instead. After years researching the character, Neeson dropped out in 2008, and Spielberg offered Day-Lewis the role, but he turned it down. However, his Gangs of New York co-star Leonardo DiCaprio convinced Day-Lewis to take the role, and he won the Oscar for Best Actor.
2013
Fox Searchlight Pictures
Winner: 12 Years a Slave
Should Have Won: 12 Years a Slave
Nominees: 12 Years a Slave, American Hustle, Captain Phillips, Dallas Buyers Club, Gravity, Her, Nebraska, Philomena, The Wolf of Wall Street
2013 featured a diverse mix of Best Picture nominees, with box office hits like Gravity and Captain Phillips paired with indie-style films like Her and Philomena (although both were big studio productions). Even in a year that saw the release of Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street (and an iconic DiCaprio performance) and David O. Russell’s American Hustle, the standout film here is 12 Years a Slave.
Director Steve McQueen’s devastating look at slavery is a mesmerizing watch, with an incredible performance from Chiwetel Ejiofor. The unbelievable yet true story is a difficult but ultimately uplifting watch. Lupita Nyong’o won a well-deserved Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in her feature film debut here. The Academy got it right with this one.
Movie Fact: 12 Years a Slave was the first Best Picture winner directed by a Black filmmaker (British-born Steve McQueen) and written by a Black writer (American-born John Ridley).
2014
Winner: Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Should Have Won: Boyhood
Nominees: American Sniper, Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), Boyhood, Selma, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Imitation Game, The Theory of Everything, Whiplash
Michael Keaton may have been robbed of the Best Actor Oscar for Birdman, but the real travesty here is not recognizing Boyhood for the amazing piece of filmmaking it is. Richard Linklater’s (Dazed and Confused, Before Sunrise) amazing character study is more than its unconventional production effort (Linklater filmed over the course of 12 years to properly cover the aging of actor Ellar Coltrane from seven to 19). Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette deliver career-best performances in a film that is human drama at its purest. In a great year for cinema (American Sniper, Birdman, Selma, and Whiplash were standouts), Boyhood stood out from the rest.
Movie Fact: Oprah Winfrey became the first Black female producer to have a film (Selma) nominated for Best Picture.
2015
Open Road Films
Winner: Spotlight
Should Have Won: The Revenant
Nominees: Bridge of Spies, Brooklyn, Mad Max: Fury Road, Room, Spotlight, The Big Short, The Martian, The Revenant
The timely subject matter of Spotlight (the exposure of abuse in the Catholic Church) made it the popular choice for Best Picture, and Tom McCarthy’s film is excellent, but the years have been kinder to other films. Mad Max: Fury Road and The Martian are two rare blockbusters that deserved their Best Picture nod, but a third box office hit, The Revenant, remains the best film in the group.
An exhausting cinematic experience, director Alejandro González Iñárritu’s tale of survival and revenge in the American wilderness of the early 1800s is bold and visceral. It’s a simple tale, but Iñárritu goes deep into the psychological limits of man, while relying on stunning visuals and DiCaprio’s face to tell the story. It’s a different tale than he told the year before with Birdman, but it’s also a superior one.
Movie Fact: Leonardo DiCaprio, a vegetarian, ate an actual raw bison liver for a scene in the film, hoping for maximum realism. He won his first Oscar for his role, and Iñárritu won his second consecutive Best Director Oscar for the film.
2016
A24
Winner: Moonlight
Should Have Won: Manchester by the Sea or Moonlight
Nominees: Arrival, Fences, Hacksaw Ridge, Hell or High Water, Hidden Figures, La La Land, Lion, Manchester by the Sea
Moonlight is a deeply affecting film, with an unforgettable performance by Mahershala Ali, who took home an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. While the film is a deserving winner, another movie deserves consideration as well, and it isn’t La La Land, the film accidentally announced as the Best Picture winner at the Oscar ceremony. It’s Manchester by the Sea, Kenneth Lonergan’s insightful tale about a grieving family in New England.
Led by Casey Affleck’s Oscar-winning performance, Manchester by the Sea is a more complete film than Moonlight in some aspects, and it likely would have gotten more Oscar consideration, had past sexual harassment allegations against Affleck not resurfaced during its release. Manchester earned plenty of critical praise at the time, including from The National Board of Review.
That doesn’t diminish Moonlight’s worthiness as a winner, however, as Barry Jenkins’ often-heartbreaking story is a must-watch. 2016 had a particularly strong slate of Best Picture nominees, with each boasting strong acting performances, but both Moonlight and Manchester stand out from the rest.
Movie Fact: Moonlight producer Dede Gardner is the first woman to win Best Picture twice (after 12 Years a Slave). The film had a reported budget of $1.5 million, the smallest budget for a Best Picture winner since Rocky, which had a budget of $1.1 million in 1975.
2017
Winner: The Shape of Water
Should Have Won: Dunkirk
Nominees: Call Me by Your Name, The Darkest Hour, Dunkirk, Get Out, Lady Bird, Phantom Thread, The Post, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water wasn’t a bad choice for Best Picture, but in hindsight, it likely wasn’t the best one. His best film is 2007’s Pan’s Labyrinth, but that year was dominated by The Departed, and it was relegated to the Best Foreign Language Film category — where it lost to Germany’s The Lives of Others. In 2017, The Shape of Water seemed to capture Academy voters’ imaginations at the time, and the romantic fantasy beat out some great films that year, including Get Out, The Darkest Hour, and Three Billboards.
Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk, however, stands on a different cinematic level. Told in a non-linear fashion, it can be argued that Dunkirk would be better appreciated if moviegoers didn’t need to keep notes on the timeframe of the film’s three major plot lines just to follow along. Even so, the film is an astounding cinematic achievement, and the true story of the famous British evacuation of World War II is one that still continues to amaze.
Movie Fact: Get Out was the feature film directorial debut for Jordan Peele, and the film would make him the first African-American to win the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.
2018
Universal Pictures
Winner: Green Book
Should Have Won: Roma
Nominees: A Star Is Born, BlacKkKlansman, Black Panther, Bohemian Rhapsody, Green Book, Roma, The Favourite, Vice
Green Book was a surprise winner, as the film’s depiction of the real-life story was criticized by many at the time. The film many expected to win, Roma, would have been the first foreign language film to win Best Picture, and it richly deserved the honor. Alfonso Cuarón’s (Gravity) tale of a maid in 1970s Mexico is an absolutely beautiful and intricate look into a way of life rarely portrayed on-screen. There was some criticism of the film as a Netflix production with a limited theatrical release, which may have hurt its standing with Academy voters. AMC and Regal Theaters actually refused to book Roma for some screenings, upset over Netflix’s shortened theatrical release window at the time.
2018 was notable for seeing a number of blockbusters being nominated, including A Star Is Born, BlacKkKlansman, Black Panther (the first Marvel film to earn a Best Picture nod), and Bohemian Rhapsody.
Movie Fact: Alfonso Cuarón chose to make Roma for Netflix, as he hoped the Spanish-language film would find a wider audience through streaming, not expecting it to get much support as a Best Picture nominee. He based the story on his family’s real-life maid that he had as a child, who is still alive and now considered a member of the family. Much of the film is based on his direct memories.
2019
CJ Entertainment
Winner: Parasite
Should Have Won: Parasite
Nominees: 1917, Ford v Ferrari, Jojo Rabbit, Joker, Little Women, Marriage Story, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, The Irishman
Hilarious, insightful, and ultimately disturbing, Parasite is the type of film that American filmmakers do not (or even cannot) make. It tells the story of a con-artist family in the lower rungs of Korean society, who connive their way into a wealthy family by working as their servants and tutors. Filmmaker Bong Joon-Ho (Snowpiercer, Okja) is a cinematic visionary, and he finally received his due as a filmmaker with Parasite’s Oscar wins. It won four Academy Awards, but it arguably deserved more, as the members of the fantastic cast weren’t even nominated. Song Kang-ho in particular deserved recognition as a father willing to go to any length to provide for his family.
Movie Facts: Parasite became the first foreign language film to win Best Picture. Sam Mendes’ 1917 is presented as one continuous shot, but cuts were cleverly hidden throughout, with the actual length of shots running between 39 seconds and eight-and-a-half minutes long.
