35 Best Picture Oscar Winners, Ranked From Worst to Best
and Taylor Freitas, for Metacritic – March 1, 2017
Updated March 14, 2023 with this year's winner
Over the past three decades, we've seen a diverse range of films earn the award for Best Picture at the Oscars. The winners represent all genres and epochs, from dark thrillers to historical epics to modern westerns, offering a little something for everybody.
But with such a broad selection of films, it's tough to decide which ones are really the best of the best. Each title has earned the most prestigious award in entertainment, so it's a given that they're all great — but the reality is that some are still better than others.
To determine the ultimate hierarchy of Best Picture Oscar winners in the last 30 years, we've ranked every winner by Metascore, which represents the consensus of top professional critics.
Wondering where your favorite movie landed on our list? Scroll through the slideshow on this page to see our countdown of Best Picture winners, ranked from worst to best.
Additional content by Jason Dietz.
(2005) Should Paul Haggis’ racially charged film have won the best picture award? Probably not when films like Munich 74 and Brokeback Mountain 87 were also nominated with higher Metascores.
"Ultimately, Crash succeeds in spite of itself. Its color war starts to feel obvious and schematic. Its coincidences and clichés become like a pile up on the 405 freeway, but there it is -- you find yourself rubbernecking and can't manage to look away." — Joanne Kaufmann, Wall Street Journal