Although this years best picture Oscar winner Slumdog Millionaire was a great film I actually think The Dark Knight is a better film. This has got me thinking so I have compiled a list of the last ten best Oscar winners along with the films I would have chosen.
2000: Winner: American Beauty (1999) – My Choice: Fight Club(1999)
2001: Winner: Gladiator (2000) – My Choice: Crouching Tiger, hidden Dragon (2000)
2002: Winner: A Beautiful Mind (2001) – My Choice: Amelie (2001)
2003: Winner: Chicago (2002) – My Choice: Hero (2002)
2004: Winner: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) – My Choice: City of God (2002)
2005: Winner: Million Dollar Baby (2004) – My Choice: Million Dollar Baby (2004)
2006: Winner: Crash (2004) – My Choice: Oldboy (2003)*
2007: Winner: The Departed (2006) – My Choice: Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) 
2008: Winner: No Country for Old Men (2007) – My Choice: Juno (2007)
2009: Winner: Slumdog Millionaire (2008) – My Choice: The Dark Knight (2008)
To summarise I agreed with the academy once. More than half my choices were foreign language films. I desperately wanted to award Lost in Translation but City of God was just that little bit better.
These would be my choices…
2000 TRAFFIC
2001 MEMENTO
2002 TALK TO HER
2003 MYSTIC RIVER
2004 ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND
2005 GOODNIGHT AND GOOD LUCK
2006 PAN’S LABYRINTH
2007 NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (The one time I agree)
2008 THE DARK KNIGHT
Ah, you picked the second most overrated film of the year rather than going for the true masterpiece in 2008: WALL-E. Makes you no better than the tools in The Academy.
Just looking at the other films nominated (in any category) I would go for…
72nd/2000 – The Insider
The best ‘corporate’ movie ever made – nuff said.
73rd/2001 – Cast Away
A film that is unfairly overlooked due to the presence of Hanks but a daring and damn successful work.
74th/2002 – Sexy Beast
Every now and then you need to be reminded that cinema is alive and kicking and this little gem does just that.
75th/2003 – Spirited Away
A beautiful film.
76th/2004 – City Of God
…again this is cinema that is alive and dazzling.
77th/2005 – Before Sunset
Heartfelt and that is all you need.
78th/2006 – Munich
A History Of Violence was the same year and handled similar themes with better success (it is a better film) but Munich wins here because it is a mainstream film that dares to talk about those issues and The Beard maintains a quite generic men on a mission thriller without ever losing sight of his goals or wallowing in adventure.
79th/2007 – The Departed
Hollywood was founded on genre and this is a great example of a top draw director getting properly stuck in – also see Spike Lee’s Inside Man
80th/2008 – There Will Be Blood
One of the greatest films America has ever produced.
81st/2009 – The Visitor
In a year when all of the big films were about big themes but looking back appear wanting and empty this fantastic little film appeared slight but was bursting with warmth, ideas and emotion.
Mad Hatter,
I love all your choices. Memento and Talk to Her nearly made my list.
Matt,
I can’t get excited about animation.
Cinemascream
I am a big fan of Michael Mann and loved the Insider. If I do one of these for best actor I may give Russell Crowe the Oscar over Kevin Spacey. Of your other choices I actually haven’t seen Cast Away or Spirited Away. Sexy Beast was brilliant but not as good as Amelie or talk to her. Before Sunset loses out for two reasons It isn’t as good as Before Sunrise and it is up angst Million Dollar Baby that was an amazing film.
I need to see There Will Be Blood again. My first impression of it was great central performance but a good film not a great film not a great film. It was also in a really strong year with: Juno, No Country for Old Men, Atonement, In the Valley of Elah, Michael Clayton, Into the Wild, The Assassination of Jesse James……, Gone Baby Gone, I’m Not There and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly all being better than some of the winners in recent years.
really good post Fandango, rightly sparked a bit of interest – we all have our opinions i suppose. unfortunately, some people’s opinions are just wrong… anyway, here is my pretty worthless list – apologies if i get some of the oscar year cut-off points mixed up
2000 – Magnolia: that it wasnt nominated was a disgrace. of the five shortlisted, only The Insider is as good.
2001 – Gladiator was a solid choice, Traffic could easily have taken it, but the film that blew me away in the cinema that year was Chopper. sorry Cinemascream, but Cast Away is a pile of goo, although strangely, i really love the ending. so maybe its not a pile of goo, and im just full of shit.
2002 – has there been a poorer Oscar year in recent memory?
My faves from that year were The Royal Tenenbaums (Wes Anderson’s last decent film) and The Fellowship of The Ring, far and away the best ring movies. Unfortunately, movies like Spy Game dont win best picture
2003 – The Hours: of the five shortlisted, it is the most powerful. it puts you through an emotional ringer, which is what great movies do. and its not even the type of film i usually go for (see Spy Game’s Best Picture Oscar above)
2004 – its pretty hard to look past Mystic River here, although City of God is a valid choice too, Fandango
2005 – i just dont get Million Dollar Baby, if it won, why didnt Eastwood also get a statue for The Rookie? Hotel Rwanda, The Bourne Supremacy and Collateral were all better films
2006 – you know what? feck it. i like Crash. its a good movie. and slagging it off cos it was a surprise winner is just petty. its probably the most emotionally manipulating film ive ever seen, but who cares if it hits you on a gut level. and Matt Dillon is great in it.
2007 – i love The Departed, its great fun. is it a better film than Little Miss Sunshine? or Pan’s Labyrinth? probably not.
2008 – a tough year to pick from, i still cant decide which i like better between No Country and Therell Be Blood. the film that affected me most though was The Diving Bell And The Butterfly, so ill be a bit pretentious and give a French film my pick
2009 – there were a lot of good movies in contention – i enjoyed Milk, The Wrestler, The Dark Knight, Wall.E and Slumdog. i felt Frost/Nixon was a bit overrated. while its not a perfect film, The Dark Knight was probably the best experience i had in a cinema last year, so i’ll follow the crowd and give it my pick.
The problem with Million Dollar Baby (and all of these films) is that 1 – 8 years later some films have stood up to repeat viewing and others have not. Million Dollar Baby is, for me, a one watch film. Nothing wrong with that but the films that grow with each viewing have overtaken it and become richer with time. American Beauty is a film that I loved upon release but now find far too smug.
re. Cast Away being ‘a pile of goo’ fair enough but I’m a big cryer plus it is a solid bit of Hollywood film-making
okay here is my list without keeping to films that were nominated….
72nd/2000 – The Limey
Still Soderbergh’s best film and the strongest in a damn strong year.
73rd/2001 –Unbreakable
I know this will be unpopular but I just love this pitch perfect film. Great direction and performances – possibly the best superhero movie.
74th/2002 – The Pledge
Nicholson at his best.
75th/2003 – City of God
76th/2004 – Oldboy
…although, if it wasn’t a TV movie and ineligible it would have to be Gus Van Sant’s Elephant.
77th/2005 – Friday Night Lights
Brutally honest high school football film with a great performance from Billy Bob Thornton
78th/2006 – Cache
Haneke’s best bit of provocation so far.
79th/2007 – The Departed
80th/2008 – There Will Be Blood
81st/2009 – Che
…as if they would.
Cinemascream… that is a cracking list, because i agree with some and not with others, but theyre all ballsy choices.
The Pledge is one of those great ‘I’ll sit up to 2am watching this movie’ films – creepy and with a great non-Jack Nicholson performance from Jack Nicholson. the ending is haunting if i remember correctly.
Friday Night Lights is just a great film. its pretty damn hard to do a sports team flick without resorting to cheese and it manages the balance just right.
Caché i finally saw recently and i enjoyed it, but i was kinda peeved off by the ending, which of course is the whole point. i have little love though for Mr Haneke having sat through Funny Games, pointless film-making at its finest.
as for crying at movies, im right there with you, i fall apart at everything – http://rossvross.com/2009/07/14/top-five-tearjerker-moments/
Cast Away might make a good ‘Mediocre films with great endings’ list – i too get a bit teary in that scene where hanks and helen hunt are in the rain at the end – brilliantly acted.
Cinemascream, I actually applied your multiple viewing/one watch theory, when choosing my films that’s why Amelie and Hero won over other films that may be better in theory but they are so watchable! By the way are A Beautiful Mind and Chicago the weakest winners in living memory?
If you like/get a film is purely personal so I won’t explain or defend Million Dollar Baby other than to say I saw it at the cinema and it really affected me. I liked things about it but didn’t actually enjoy it, I could happily never have seen it again. Then last year I turned the TV on half way through it. I immediately bought the DVD and have watched it three or four times since then. The first two thirds make it one of the best sports ever made, the last third makes it a devastating human story. Re the comments about crying at films, I am the opposite, I never really cry but this is one of the closest I have come. The interaction between the three main characters are sublime and it also has the same comedy as Gran Torino but with more subtlety.
Michael Haneke is a strange director, I actually like a lot of his films. I have only seen the original Funny Games not the US version. The ending of Cache or more to the point the reaction to it is close to geniuses. I think his best film is The Piano Teacher. Take a look at this: http://sunsetgun.typepad.com/sunsetgun/2009/06/psycho-sexual-schubert-the-piano-teacher.html I have been reading this blog for a couple of years, it is actually what inspired me start my own blog.
I agree about the pledge. Sean Penn is really underrated as a director (and Into the Wild one of the most underrated films of recent years) and Jack Nicholson is brilliant when he gives an understated performance see: https://fandangogroovers.wordpress.com/2009/07/26/i-used-to-be-someone-else-but-i-traded-him-in/
I know Che isn’t exactly going to be popular with the academy but really think Benicio Del Toro deserved a best actor nomination.
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