There is no greater honor in Hollywood—nay, the entire film industry—than to be nominated for an Oscar. And, of course, Best Picture being the biggest award that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gives out, it’s also the most coveted award for filmmakers and studios. Throughout the ’90s, all sorts of movies from all kinds of different genres chased and obtained a Best Picture nomination. Some were certainly more deserving than others, meaning that the decade’s ten highly distinct Best Picture nominee lineups are of varying degrees of quality.
Every year has different outputs of films. Some years have multiple masterworks, while others just have a few films that are really good. This was certainly true of the ’90s, one of the most important and memorable decades for cinema, both American and international. As a result, the Best Picture Oscar nominee lineups of the decade ranged from the incredible to the just-good, but one should make no mistake: Each lineup had at least one or two films that have stood the test of time as beloved modern classics. This list will rank each Best Picture lineup of the ’90s, considering the films’ individual quality, their enduring legacy in cinema, and how much they stand out as a group.
10
62nd Academy Awards (1990)
Nominees: ‘Driving Miss Daisy’ (won), ‘Born on the Fourth of July,’ ‘Dead Poets Society,’ ‘Field of Dreams,’ and ‘My Left Foot’
The 62nd Academy Awards rewarded the best films of 1989. The ’80s marked the return of studio-driven, highly marketable movies after the much more auteur-driven cinema of the ’70s, which was reflected toward the very end of the decade. Studio-driven isn’t necessarily pejorative in this context, though; indeed, 1989 had some really good films, like Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Tim Burton‘s Batman, and When Harry Met Sally… Unfortunately, these and many other great movies from 1989 went overlooked by the Academy.
By no means were the Best Picture nominees of the 1990 Oscars bad—quite the contrary. However, the fact that that year’s winner was Driving Miss Daisy, one of the most disliked of all time, speaks volumes about the quality of this group of five films. The stirring Dead Poets Society is probably the best and most beloved of the bunch. Born on the Fourth of July is a very good Vietnam War film, Field of Dreams is an iconic family film, and My Left Foot shines mainly thanks to Daniel Day-Lewis‘s powerhouse performance, but none has the artistic merit that one might expect from the Best Picture recipient.
9
64th Academy Awards (1992)
Nominees: ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ (won), ‘Beauty and the Beast,’ ‘Bugsy,’ ‘JFK,’ and ‘The Prince of Tides’
The 64th Academy Awards rewarded the best film of 1991. It wasn’t the best year of the ’90s for movies, but it was also definitely not bad. It saw the release of non-Best Picture nominees of the caliber of the legendary anime film Paprika and James Cameron‘s masterful Terminator 2: Judgment Day, as well as that year’s Best Picture winner, one of the greatest thrillers ever made: The Silence of the Lambs. The rest of the lineup is good, too, but nowhere near as great as it could have been.
The beautiful Beauty and the Beast, the first animated film ever nominated for Best Picture, is probably a close second to Silence of the Lambs. JFK is also a pretty solid historical drama, but Bugsy is too messy to be memorable, and The Prince of Tides (directed by Barbra Streisand) is terribly self-indulgent and melodramatic. The lineup’s best two films are admittedly phenomenal beyond measure, but the other three movies bring the group down significantly.
8
69th Academy Awards (1997)
Nominees: ‘The English Patient’ (won), ‘Jerry Maguire,’ ‘Fargo,’ ‘Secrets & Lies,’ and ‘Shine’
The 69th Academy Awards rewarded the best in cinema of 1996, the year of great genre films like Scream and Independence Day, as well as award-worthy works of art like The Birdcage and Trainspotting. Blockbusters definitely dominated this year (some excellent, some not so much), but there was also a lot of good stuff for fans of artsier fare. The 69th Academy Awards didn’t quite reflect this balance in the Best Picture category, but there are still some pretty great movies there.
The English Patient, despite being the clear weakest of the bunch, somehow won Best Picture (along with a whopping eight other Oscars). The equal parts hilarious and enthralling Fargo was right there, but then again, the Academy doesn’t always get it right. Jerry Maguire is also decently entertaining, Shine is good, mainly thanks to Geoffrey Rush‘s transcendental performance, and the masterful Secrets & Lies may just be one of the most underrated Best Picture nominees of the ’90s.
7
68th Academy Awards (1996)
Nominees: ‘Braveheart’ (won), ‘Apollo 13,’ ‘Babe,’ ‘The Postman,’ and ‘Sense and Sensibility’
The 68th Academy Awards rewarded the best in film of 1995, one of the best years for cinema of not just modern times but perhaps of all time. There was something there for everyone. Fans of foreign cinema had La Haine, fans of dramas had Casino, fans of animation had Toy Story and Ghost in the Shell, and thriller fans had Se7en. These five alone would have made for a solid Best Picture lineup, and that’s without even mentioning all the other great films that came out in 1995. The actual lineup of the 1996 Oscars was also mostly solid but not really as high-quality as the not-nominated films might have one believe.
The Italian film The Postman, one of the best foreign Best Picture nominees ever that deserves to be talked about a lot more nowadays, is perhaps the best of the five. However, it was the epic biopic Braveheart that won the award. There are also Apollo 13, a nail-biting thriller; Sense and Sensibility, an incredible Jane Austen adaptation; and Babe, which is cute but doesn’t really belong in the Best Picture lineup. The most unforgettable Best Picture nominees of the ’90s? Definitely not, but they’re also very far from being the worst.
Il Postino: The Postman
- Release Date
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June 16, 1995
- Runtime
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108 Minutes
6
71st Academy Awards (1999)
Nominees: ‘Shakespeare in Love’ (won), ‘Elizabeth,’ ‘Life is Beautiful,’ ‘Saving Private Ryan,’ and ‘The Thin Red Line’
The 71st Academy Awards rewarded the best films of 1998. This is one of the most infamous Oscar ceremonies of all time, where the much-maligned Shakespeare in Love won seven awards—including Best Picture, which the vast majority of people agreed then and still agree belonged to Steven Spielberg‘s Saving Private Ryan. Whatever the case, 1998 was a mostly fantastic year for movies, with classics like The Truman Show and The Big Lebowski receiving not nearly enough love from the Academy.
Saving Private Ryan is, of course, one of the most essential war films ever made, and despite its bad reputation, Shakespeare in Love is really not that bad at all. As for Elizabeth, it’s a decently good biopic of Elizabeth I, mainly memorable thanks to Cate Blanchett‘s performance. The second and third best nominees of the year, though, are another two incredible war films (for very different reasons): the Italian dramedy Life Is Beautiful, a poignant celebration of fatherhood in the face of the most nightmarish pain, and the stunning war epic The Thin Red Line, one of the genre’s best.
5
63rd Academy Awards (1991)
Nominees: ‘Dances With Wolves’ (won), ‘Awakenings,’ ‘Ghost,’ ‘The Godfather Part III,’ and ‘Goodfellas’
The 63rd Academy Awards rewarded the best in film of 1990. It was the start of the ’90s that kicked off the many changes and developments that went on to characterize the decade’s cinematic history, and it did so with some of the best films of the next ten years. From art films like John Waters‘s Cry-Baby and David Lynch‘s Wild at Heart (that year’s Palme d’Or winner at the Cannes Film Festival) to iconic genre films like Home Alone and Total Recall, 1990 was a phenomenally fun year for cinephiles.
There isn’t a single film that’s anything less than great in the 63rd Best Picture nominee lineup. That’s right: Despite its having a bad reputation due to its not being anywhere near the level of quality of its predecessors, The Godfather Part III is a great film, and one of the most underrated sequels from any major film franchise. Ghost works just as well as a supernatural romance, and Awakenings is a beautifully human and deeply moving drama. Then, of course, there are the year’s two standouts: the Best Picture winner, Kevin Costner‘s problematic but outstanding Dances With Wolves, and the one that history has been kindest to. In fact, most would argue that Martin Scorsese‘s Goodfellas was the rightful Best Picture winner of 1991.
4
65th Academy Awards (1993)
Nominees: ‘Unforgiven’ (won), ‘The Crying Game,’ ‘A Few Good Men,’ ‘Howards End,’ and ‘Scent of a Woman’
The 65th Academy Awards rewarded the best films of 1992. It wouldn’t have been particularly difficult to surpass a Best Picture nominee lineup as underwhelming as 1992’s, but the 1993 Oscars really went above and beyond. With one of the greatest R-rated Best Picture winners ever accompanied by four equally fantastic nominees, this ceremony definitely lived up to the excellence of other films that weren’t nominated that year, like Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Reservoir Dogs, and Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me.
This lineup is so consistently strong all across the board that it’s easy to call it one of the decade’s best.
The year’s Best Picture winner was Unforgiven—a very, very well-deserved victory, as this Clint Eastwood masterpiece is the most perfect and poignant swan song that the Western genre could have possibly asked for. There’s also Scent of a Woman, a great drama with a fantastic (though not necessarily Oscar-worthy) Al Pacino performance; Howards End, an exquisitely beautiful adaptation of E.M. Forster‘s novel; A Few Good Men, Aaron Sorkin‘s screenwriter debut and still one of his best scripts; and The Crying Game, a haunting film with a jaw-dropping twist. While it only presents one film that could be rightfully called an all-timer, this lineup is so consistently strong all across the board that it’s easy to call it one of the decade’s best.
3
70th Academy Awards (1998)
Nominees: ‘Titanic’ (won), ‘As Good As It Gets,’ ‘The Full Monty,’ ‘Good Will Hunting,’ and ‘L.A. Confidential’
The 70th Academy Awards rewarded the best in film of 1997, the year of Titanic, one of the best romance films ever to win Best Picture. Indeed, this James Cameron sensation ravaged the box office upon release and rightfully went on to raid the Oscars. Currently, it’s tied for the most Oscar-nominated film ever (with 14 nods) and the most Oscar-winning film ever (with 11 victories). However, it’s not all that 1997 had to offer. There was the incredibly fun Face/Off, the criminally underrated Jackie Brown, and Paul Thomas Anderson‘s masterful Boogie Nights.
And also, while Titanic dominated the Academy Awards on that fateful 1998 night, the other Best Picture nominees didn’t fall far behind in terms of quality. There’s the beautiful tearjerker Good Will Hunting, the exceptional neo-noir L.A. Confidential, the moving comedy As Good As It Gets, and the pathos- and heart-filled gem The Full Monty. Overall, this group of five was in the upper echelon of quality, largely thanks to the behemoth that was and continues to be Titanic.
2
67th Academy Awards (1995)
Nominees: ‘Forrest Gump’ (won), ‘Four Weddings and a Funeral,’ ‘Pulp Fiction,’ ‘Quiz Show,’ and ‘The Shawshank Redemption’
The 67th Academy Awards rewarded the best in 1994 cinema. Perhaps the most talked-about Oscar ceremony of the ’90s, it remains one of the greatest years in the history of cinema. But while at least four of the year’s best films received the Academy love they deserved in the Best Picture category, others, like The Lion King, Chungking Express, and Ed Wood, didn’t.
Even so, the 1995 Best Picture lineup is legendary. Though the great-but-definitely-not-Best-Picture-material Four Weddings and a Funeral sticks out like a sore thumb here, its four peers are beyond exceptional. Quiz Show, a stylish biopic directed by Robert Redford, packs quite a punch. But it’s the other three films, three of the highest-rated movies on IMDb, that are the real topic of conversation at the 67th Academy Awards thirty years later: Forrest Gump (the Best Picture winner), The Shawshank Redemption, and Pulp Fiction. While iconic and beloved, many think that Forrest isn’t really good enough to beat Shawshank and Pulp Fiction, two of the greatest films ever made. But no matter where the debate leads, this Best Picture lineup is the stuff of legends.
1
66th Academy Awards (1994)
Nominees: ‘Schindler’s List’ (won), ‘The Fugitive,’ ‘In the Name of the Father,’ ‘The Piano,’ and ‘The Remains of the Day’
The 66th Academy Awards rewarded the best of 1993. The year was incredible for film, with True Romance, Jurassic Park, and Three Colors: Blue standing out. But in a rare occurrence for the Academy Awards, there’s very little—if anything—to complain about regarding the year’s Best Picture nominees. They’re five incredible movies that stand shoulder to shoulder beautifully.
Spielberg’s Schindler’s List, of course, stands miles above most other ’90s films, being not only one of the greatest war epics ever made but one of the greatest movies in general. But then there’s also The Fugitive, an exhilarating genre film that doesn’t let up for a second; The Piano, a gorgeously complex romance with a powerhouse performance by Holly Hunter; In the Name of the Father, one of the best courtroom dramas of modern times; and The Remains of the Day, a magnificently elegant period drama that has aged like fine wine. As far as the Best Picture lineups of the ’90s go, it doesn’t get any better or more consistent than 1994.
