Melina Major, staff
In honour of the 84th Academy Awards this past Sunday, here is a list of the best films to ever win prestigious Oscar gold.
1. In 1995, Forrest Gump snagged six Oscars including Tom Hanks for Best Actor and Robert Zemeckis for Best Director. As if this wasn’t good enough, the film also won for the coveted title of Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Effects and Best Film Editing. This is a winding, feel good flick, with the lovable and goofy Forrest Gump played by Tom Hanks. It is a classic underdog story that most people can relate to, although Gump’s life is definitely out of the ordinary. As the famous line goes, “Life is like a box chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get”. Well what they got was six awards that will make the movie go down in cinematic history.
2. In 2011, Hurt Locker surprised many when it won Best Picture, beating out James Cameron’s Avatar. Avatar’s loss stirred a lot controversy in Hollywood since Hurt Locker had one of the lowest box office grosses for a Best Picture while Avatar was still in theatres raking in money after three months. This award caused another rivalry between exes. James Cameron and the director of Hurt Locker, Kathryn Bigelow, were previously married, so for many it was fun to see the “friendly” competition between the two. Bigelow was also the first female to ever win Best Director, so that was just the icing on the cake for her after beating her ex-husband.
3. A Beautiful Mind walked away with four of the awards at the 2002 Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress (Jennifer Connelly) and Best Director (Ron Howard). Russell Crowe was also nominated for Best Actor for his amazing portrayal of John Nash, but lost to Denzel Washington for Training Day. The movie is based on a true story about a math professor, John Nash, who develops schizophrenia. The hallucinations had by Nash are shown throughout the movie; some are even made believable to the audience, such as John’s roommate Paul (that later turns out to be a character in John’s imagination). This movie gives a revealing look into the severity of mental illness, making it credible enough to be part of this Top 5.
4. In 1997, Titanic completely changed romance movies forever, introducing one of the greatest love stories ever told. This story was rewarded a year later by winning 11 Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, which went to James Cameron. The story centralizes around a fictional couple who meet on the ship and fall in love. The entire population of Titanic lovers are still mad at Rose however, for not making enough room for Jack on that stupid floating door. It was shocking to see that Leonardo DiCaprio was not even nominated for the film, and Kate Winslet (thankfully nominated) didn’t win Best Actress.
5. Saving Private Ryan won five awards in 1999, winning for Best Director and Best Effects, although it lost to Shakespeare in Love for Best Picture. Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan deserved to win most of those awards that year including Best Picture, as it is one of the best and most famous war movies of all time. Although the acting in Shakespeare in Love was decent enough (ignoring Gwyneth Paltrow’s painful attempt at a British accent), Saving Private Ryan easily had the better cast, which should’ve been enough to trump the competition.
