Quiz: Can You Name All 10 of These Best Picture Winners?

Prove your knowledge on the Academy Awards ahead of this year’s ceremony in March.
Willem Dafoe, Charlie Sheen, and Tom Berenger on set of ‘Platoon’
Willem Dafoe, Charlie Sheen, and Tom Berenger on set of ‘Platoon’ | Roland Neveu/LightRocket via Getty Images

Most Best Picture winners feel obvious enough in hindsight. But when you ask people to name certain Best Picture winners of their respective years on the spot? That’s where it might get a little tricky. Was that the movie that won, or the one everyone thought should’ve won? Take our quiz below to test your knowledge:


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Best Picture is an interesting category. It rewards prestige, and the best movies usually win, sure, but sometimes external factors like timing, marketing, and momentum can also play a role. And fans of genres like horror, sci-fi, or fantasy will argue that these films get ignored.

Filmmakers With the Most Best Picture Wins

When it comes to the Best Picture, directors don’t technically win the Oscar; the producers do. That’s a little detail that not everyone knows about, and the directors aren’t always doubling as one of the producers of their own movie. 

William Wyler directed more Best Picture winners than almost anyone, at three, including Ben-Hur, which remains one of the most decorated films in Oscar history. 

Steven Spielberg also sits near the top with two wins, with films like Schindler’s List, which he directed, and The Hurt Locker, which he produced and was directed by Kathryn Bigelow. Spielberg’s movies have been nominated for Best Picture a whopping 12 times. 

On the producer side, Kathleen Kennedy holds the record for the most Best Picture nominations as a producer at eight, though she never actually won.

The Best Picture Category’s History With Genre Films

Film goers watch Heath Ledger as The Joker in The Dark Knight (2008).
Film goers watch Heath Ledger as The Joker in The Dark Knight (2008). | Paul Kane/Stringer/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images

For way too long (several decades, in fact), genre films politely got ignored. Sure, there have been exceptions, like The Lord of the Rings trilogy, but also some baffling omissions like The Dark Knight not being nominated for Best Picture. Then there was Hereditary, which was also entirely ignored by the Oscars. 

More recently, though, things have started to change for the better. Everything Everywhere All at Once did the unthinkable with its mix of genres that swept the Oscars, and many great genre movies were nominated for Best Picture, such as Get Out and Arrival. 

But this category still hasn’t attained much consistency when it comes to genre films, as both of these filmmakers' follow-ups (Blade Runner 2049 and Nope) didn’t get many nominations in those categories, despite being one of the best movies of their respective years.


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