★ = 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 win Best Director.
  • The first film from a female director to win Best Picture.
  • The third Best Picture winner (along with Casablanca and Crash) to have originally premiered in the year before it qualified for Academy Awards consideration.

The King's Speech (2010)

• starring Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, Helena Bonham Carter, Guy Pearce, Timothy Spall, Derek Jacobi, Jennifer Ehle, Michael Gambon
• directed by Tom Hooper
• 118 minutes, color
• Won 4/12 Oscars, including Best Actor (Firth), Best Director and Best Screenplay

The Artist (2011) ♥

• starring Jean Dujardin, Bérénice Bejo, John Goodman, James Cromwell, Penelope Ann Miller, Missi Pyle
• directed by Michel Hazanavicius
• 100 minutes, black-and-white
• Won 5/10 Oscars, including Best Actor (Dujardin) and Best Director
  • A predominantly silent film

Argo (2012) ♥

• starring Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston, Alan Arkin, John Goodman
• directed by Ben Affleck
• 120 minutes, color
• Won 3/7 Oscars, including Best Screenplay

12 Years a Slave (2013) ♥

• starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Dano, Paul Giamatti, Lupita Nyong'o, Sarah Paulson, Brad Pitt, Alfre Woodard
• directed by Steve McQueen
• 134 minutes, color
• Won 3/9 Oscars, including Best Supporting Actress (Nyong'o) and Best Screenplay
  • The first film from a black director to win Best Picture.

Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014) ♥

• starring Michael Keaton, Zach Galifianakis, Edward Norton, Andrea Riseborough, Amy Ryan, Emma Stone, Naomi Watts
• directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu
• 119 minutes, color
• Won 4/9 Oscars, including Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Cinematography
  • The first Best Picture winner with parentheses in its title.

Spotlight (2015) ★

• starring Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber, John Slattery, Stanley Tucci
• directed by Tom McCarthy
• 125 minutes, color
• Won 2/6 Oscars, including Best Screenplay
  • The credits and title cards are set in Miller, the typeface the Boston Globe uses for most headlines and body copy.

Moonlight (2016) ♥

• starring Trevante Rhodes, André Holland, Janelle Monáe, Ashton Sanders, Jharrel Jerome, Naomie Harris, Mahershala Ali
• directed by Barry Jenkins
• 111 minutes, color
• Won 3/8 Oscars, including Best Supporting Actor (Ali) and Best Screenplay
  • This is the first LGBT film, and the first film featuring an all-black cast, to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.
  • Mahershala Ali is the first Muslim to win in an acting category.

The Shape of Water (2017) ♥

• starring Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Doug Jones, Michael Stuhlbarg, Octavia Spencer
• directed by Guillermo del Toro
• 123 minutes, color
• Won 4/13 Oscars, including Best Director
  • First science fiction film to win the Oscar for Best Picture.