★ = recommended, ♥ = personal favorite

Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927) ♥

• starring George O'Brien, Janet Gaynor, Margaret Livingston
• directed by F.W. Murnau
• 94-95 minutes, black-and-white
• Won 3/4 Oscars, including Best Actress (Gaynor) and Best Cinematography
  • Silent film
  • Won Best Picture for "Unique and Artistic Production" and is the only film to win this; therefore it's not an official Best Picture winner.

Wings (1927) ★

• starring Clara Bow, Charles "Buddy" Rogers, Richard Arlen, Jobyna Ralston
• directed by William A. Wellman
• 144 minutes, black-and-white

★ = recommended, ♥ = personal favorite

Gigi (1958)

• starring Leslie Caron, Louis Jourdan, Maurice Chevalier, Hermione Gingold
• directed by Vincente Minnelli
• 115 minutes, color
• Won 9/9 Oscars, including Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Cinematography (Color)
  • The day after the movie won nine Oscars, M.G.M telephone operators were instructed to answer all phone calls with "Hello, M-Gigi-M."

Ben-Hur (1959) ★

• starring Charlton Heston, Jack Hawkins, Haya Harareet, Stephen Boyd, Hugh Griffith
• directed by William Wyler
• 212-222 minutes, color

★ = recommended, ♥ = personal favorite

Rain Man (1988) ♥

• starring Dustin Hoffman, Tom Cruise, Valeria Golino
• directed by Barry Levinson
• 133 minutes, color
• Won 4/8 Oscars, including Best Actor (Hoffman), Best Director and Best Screenplay

Driving Miss Daisy (1989)

• starring Morgan Freeman, Jessica Tandy, Dan Aykroyd, Patti Lupone, Esther Rolle
• directed by Bruce Beresford
• 99-100 minutes, color
• Won 4/9 Oscars, including Best Actress (Tandy) and Best Screenplay
  • The last Best Picture winner with a PG rating.

Dances with Wolves (1990) ★

★ = recommended, ♥ = personal favorite

Green Book (2018)

• starring Viggo Mortensen, Mahershala Ali, Linda Cardellini
• directed by Peter Farrelly
• 130 minutes, color
• Won 3/5 Oscars, including Best Supporting Actor (Ali) and Best Screenplay
  • Mahershala Ali became the first black actor to win twice in the supporting category. He is also the second black actor to win two competitive Oscars, the first being Denzel Washington, who won in both the lead and supporting categories.
  • Ali is also the first Muslim to win in an acting category twice.

Parasite (2019) ♥

• starring Song Kang-ho, Lee Sun-kyun, Cho Yeo-jeon...

★ = recommended, ♥ = personal favorite

You Can't Take It With You (1938) ♥

• starring Jean Arthur, Lionel Barrymore, James Stewart, Edward Arnold, Spring Byington
• directed by Frank Capra
• 126 minutes, black-and-white
• Won 2/7 Oscars, including Best Director
  • The first of three films that Frank Capra and James Stewart collaborated on.

Gone with the Wind (1939) ♥

• starring Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Leslie Howard, Olivia de Havilland, Hattie McDaniel
• directed by Victor Fleming
• 234-238 minutes, color
• Won 8/13 Oscars, including Best Actress (Leigh), Best Supporting Actress (McDaniel), Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Cinematography (Color)

★ = recommended, ♥ = personal favorite

Oliver! (1968)

• starring Ron Moody, Oliver Reed, Harry Secombe, Shani Wallis, Mark Lester, Jack Wild, Hugh Griffith
• directed by Carol Reed
• 153 minutes, color
• Won 5/11 Oscars, including Best Director
  • Both the first film with an MPAA rating to win Best Picture, and the last G-rated film to be nominated for Best Picture.

Midnight Cowboy (1969) ★

• starring Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight, Sylvia Miles, Brenda Vaccaro
• directed by John Schlesinger
• 113 minutes, color
• Won 3/7 Oscars, including Best Director and Best Screenplay

★ = recommended, ♥ = personal favorite

Shakespeare in Love (1998) ★

• starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Joseph Fiennes, Geoffrey Rush, Colin Firth, Ben Affleck, Judi Dench
• directed by John Madden
• 123 minutes, color
• Won 7/13 Oscars, including Best Actress (Paltrow), Best Supporting Actress (Dench) and Best Screenplay

American Beauty (1999) ♥

• starring Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch, Wes Bentley, Allison Janney, Mena Suvari, Chris Cooper
• directed by Sam Mendes
• 121-122 minutes, color
• Won 5/8 Oscars, including Best Actor (Spacey), Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Cinematography

★ = recommended, ♥ = personal favorite

Hamlet (1948)

• starring Laurence Olivier, Basil Sydney, Eileen Herlie, Jean Simmons, Stanley Holloway
• directed by Laurence Olivier
• 155 minutes, black-and-white
• Won 4/7 Oscars, including Best Actor (Olivier)
  • This was the first British or non-American film to win the Oscar for Best Picture.
  • Laurence Olivier became the first person ever to direct themselves to a Best Actor Oscar.

All the King's Men (1949)

• starring Broderick Crawford, John Ireland, Joanne Dru, John Derek, Mercedes McCambridge
• directed by Robert Rossen

★ = recommended, ♥ = personal favorite

The Deer Hunter (1978) ★

• starring Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, John Savage, John Cazale, Meryl Streep, George Dzundza
• directed by Michael Cimino
• 183 minutes, color
• Won 5/9 Oscars, including Best Supporting Actor (Walken) and Best Director

Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) ♥

• starring Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep, Justin Henry, Jane Alexander
• directed by Robert Benton
• 105 minutes, color
• Won 5/9 Oscars, including Best Actor (Hoffman), Best Supporting Actress (Streep), Best Director and Best Screenplay

Ordinary People (1980) ★

★ = recommended, ♥ = personal favorite

Slumdog Millionaire (2008) ♥

• starring Dev Patel, Freida Pinto, Madhur Mittal, Anil Kapoor, Irrfan Khan
• directed by Danny Boyle
• 120 minutes, color
• Won 8/10 Oscars, including Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Cinematography

The Hurt Locker (2008) ★

• starring Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty, Christian Camargo, Evangeline Lilly, Ralph Fiennes, David Morse, Guy Pearce
• directed by Kathryn Bigelow
• 131 minutes, color
• Won 6/9 Oscars, including Best Director and Best Screenplay
  • Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to...