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The 80th Annual Academy Awards will be presented Sunday. But how well do you remember the 65th through 79th editions?
You have 5 minutes. How many Best Picture winners can you name from the last 15 years? (I’ll give you a hint: the Best Picture winner from the 64th Annual Academy Awards was Silence of the Lambs. So, we’re looking for everything after that.)
And the winners were…? Name the last 15 Best Pictures in 5 minutes.
Then come back and brag about your score. And if you notice any quirks, please let us know. We’re still in Beta mode here.
Hint #2: Because people had issues with the winner of the 76th Academy Awards (The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King), we’re now also accepting ‘The Lord of the Rings,’ ‘Lord of the Rings,’ ‘the Tolkien movie’ and ‘that movie with the hobbits.’
I did not do so well. but thanks for accepting my incorrect apostrophe in Schindlers’ List.
posted by evan on 2-20-2008 at 1:02 pm
I certainly wish it would take ‘Lord of the Rings’. Cause it wouldn’t take ‘Return of the King’. Which sucks.
posted by s on 2-20-2008 at 1:07 pm
Lord of the Rings III??? I spent a whole minute trying different variations of its true title- The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King before giving up on it.
posted by Johnny Cat on 2-20-2008 at 1:12 pm
It should have accepted ‘Return of the King.’ That’s in there.
We can’t accept ‘Lord of the Rings,’ because the first two didn’t win.
Also accepted: Lord of the Rings III or 3, LOTR III or 3, Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, and a few other variations with ‘The’ at the beginning.
If it wouldn’t accept your ‘Return of the King,’ give yourself a few bonus points.
posted by Jason on 2-20-2008 at 1:13 pm
Hmm… I typed in Titanic and Schindler’s List, then watched the counter tick down. I need to go to more movies, apparently. ;-) Actually, I’d seen all of them - I just don’t track the awards buzz that much.
posted by Roger on 2-20-2008 at 1:17 pm
I was sure Mystic River had won. I was going to write you an angry comment saying, “You forgot Mystic River.” Then I looked it up. My bad.
12 of 15. I can live with that.
posted by Monica on 2-20-2008 at 1:19 pm
I concur about Return of the King, I don’t think anyone calls it LOTR III haha.
posted by ack on 2-20-2008 at 1:21 pm
I just took the quiz again. ‘Return of the King’ works just fine. Maybe it was a momentary glitch.
posted by Jason on 2-20-2008 at 1:23 pm
12 out of 15. Would have been 13 but I spelled Forrest Gump with only one ‘r’
posted by Ben on 2-20-2008 at 1:52 pm
I got 9 out of 15. Much worse than I expected. How quickly we forget. If you’re still looking for feedback, there was a bit of a text-wrapping issue on mine and some of the answers got hidden by the sidebar.
I love these “name X in Y minutes” quizzes. Keep ‘em coming.
posted by Jess on 2-20-2008 at 2:17 pm
8 out of 15, 9 if I could have gotten a variation of lord of the rings right (typed it without the colon).
Haven’t even heard of Unforgiven, guess I’m younger than I thought!
posted by joman on 2-20-2008 at 2:35 pm
Yeah it didn’t take Return of the King, so I’m gonna give myself that one. I still only got six though then kicked myself hard when the rest of the answers came up.
posted by Tricia on 2-20-2008 at 2:53 pm
Return of the King worked for me. I have an inflated ago for getting them all, now. Took me almost a minute to remember Million Dollar Baby, though.
posted by Liz on 2-20-2008 at 3:49 pm
Ahhhhhhhh! Now that’s a quiz. 100% with 1 minute remaining. I like these new quizzes.
posted by Phunk on 2-20-2008 at 4:18 pm
Forgot the extra r in Forrest. Oddly, this is the one regular gift I buy my wife each year - the winner of the previous year’s best picture. Nice collection after a couple decades.
posted by Jim on 2-20-2008 at 5:26 pm
12 out of 15. Would have been 13 but I spelled Forrest Gump with only one ‘r’
You fool! Why do you think they always said “For-rest” in the movie?
Hahahahaha!
posted by Moon on 2-20-2008 at 7:29 pm
100% but only because I’m a film nerd.
posted by Sven on 2-20-2008 at 11:29 pm
All 15 in less than a minute, but when it comes to the Oscars, I’m a Rain Man.
posted by renton on 2-21-2008 at 3:01 am
I did not fare well, but I must say I have never really been disappointed with a move that won best picture. I usually enjoy them!
posted by SongLee on 2-21-2008 at 8:28 am
One minute, fifteen seconds.
Less if I hadn’t spaced on The English Patient
posted by timmyg on 2-21-2008 at 10:57 am
I got all but Braveheart. AAAAAARRRHHHH!!!!!!
posted by Marc on 2-21-2008 at 11:22 am
15 out of 15 in 43 seconds. I’m a nerd, evidently.
posted by Brian on 2-21-2008 at 2:02 pm
11 out of 15. Would have been 12 but I forgot to enter “Unforgiven” even though it’s one of the first I thought of.
posted by Joe on 2-21-2008 at 2:21 pm
All 15 with 2:59 to spare. I probably would have saved time if I’d entered them chronologically (and didn’t keep trying to enter “Driving Miss Daisy”, which was out of the time frame). Looks like I need some of that “Rain Man” mojo. “Shakespeare in Love” was the one that tripped me up for a bit. In my head, I still want to give the Oscar for that year to “Saving Private Ryan”.
posted by Ron on 2-21-2008 at 3:51 pm
I had 14 and couldn’t remember one of them.
It was Chicago. Damn musical. . .
posted by Chris B on 2-21-2008 at 4:52 pm
14 out of 15 in two minutes, but i couldn’t remember ‘million dollar baby’ - even though its winning gave the media carte blanche to give away the ending…
posted by Ross on 2-21-2008 at 6:34 pm
12 out of 15 - missed Braveheart, Schindler’s List and Million Dollar Baby. How did I miss that?
posted by Steven on 2-21-2008 at 8:42 pm
i got 14 out of 15, i forgot titanic! duh.
posted by krista on 2-21-2008 at 9:52 pm
15 out of 15. “Million Dollar Baby” tripped me up.
posted by Dan on 2-22-2008 at 7:51 am
14 out of 15 - forgot about Braveheart!
posted by Tim on 2-22-2008 at 1:31 pm
I got 13/15 before I gave up….I missed Chicago and Schindler’s List.
posted by Julie on 2-22-2008 at 6:58 pm
Had to pull “Unforgiven” out with 9 seconds to spare. And I love that movie, just re-watched it on High Def DVD recently. Which means that Clint is the only filmaker with two Best Picture statues during that time, although Speilberg has recieved two directing Oscars during the same period as well.
posted by Jon-Michael on 2-22-2008 at 11:05 pm
Got them all with 3:20 left….i am such a nerd.
posted by Tom on 2-22-2008 at 11:06 pm
13 of 15. Forgot The English Patient and American Beauty.
posted by ivamarie on 2-23-2008 at 10:53 am
ok, not so good… I only got 3 right. :-(
At least it took “Lord of the Rings” for me. My only other two were “Gladiator” and “American Beauty” - after that, I went completely BLANK !!!
Was fun to try, tho. :-)
posted by MrsDM on 2-23-2008 at 12:26 pm
that article provided us many
useful Sanger on curent blog.
The message so much necessary.
posted by Jon on 2-23-2008 at 1:55 pm
Whew. Got them all, with four seconds to spare. English Patient almost did me in.
posted by Ryan B on 2-24-2008 at 12:13 pm
2:40 to spare…wild guesses which took me way back to the 80s! :)
posted by christine on 2-25-2008 at 4:22 pm
Got them all, with 1:21 to spare. It took Lord of the Rings for me, gladly, because for the life of me, I couldn’t remember which one had actually won!!
posted by Julie on 2-25-2008 at 4:27 pm
As a younger contestant who was only 6 when Unforgiven won, I impressed myself with 9/15. I did poorly with movies I couldn’t associate to other things (IE I remembered “Chicago” because it occured to me that “Moulin Rouge” didn’t win, I remembered “Gladiator” because I had also remembered “A Beautiful Mind”)
Also I got all of them that I’ve seen the oscarcast for. (that’d be three times.)
posted by Jessica on 2-26-2008 at 2:54 pm
My brother (12 years old) and I are movie buffs, and we got all of them but The English Patient.
posted by Jenna on 4-6-2008 at 4:16 pm
All 15 in 2:24. Woot.
posted by Nathan on 4-15-2008 at 11:02 am