I take it you decided to watch Nomadland, haha.
Anyway, since we’re all sharing:
1976 - one of the strongest line-ups ever. I’d go with Network but no denying Rocky captured the attention of the general public and scenes from it have been imitated and parodied in pop culture for forever. Taxi Driver was amazing though. Honorable mentions to Face to Face and Carrie.
1977 - I’m good with Annie Hall winning even though I think Allen would explore the themes here much better in subsequent films. However, if I were to go beyond the nominees, then Cassavetes’s Opening Night would take it all and Robert Altman’s 3 Women would get honorable mentions.
1978 - Among the nominees, An Unmarried Woman. Among others, Interiors and Autumn Sonata.
1979 - I can see Apocalypse Now winning, but my vote would go to All That Jazz.
1980 - I wasn’t as affected by Ordinary People as I wanted to be but it gave me some great versions of Pachelbel’s Canon in D to download. My vote would go to Raging Bull. I loved Coal Miner’s Daughter before the second half where it became a formulaic biopic. Shout out to Melvin and Howard (probably my personal favorite) and Gloria, and 9-to-5. Now I have the best song category in my head and am thinking about Fame as well.
1981 - Definitely Reds followed by Atlantic City. I don’t get Chariots of Fire at all. If the movie was only that opening segment then I’d get it, but there’s like two hours more following that just isn’t a very compelling watch for me.
1982 - I don’t know. Most of these movies are meh to me. I have to say I find Tootsie a bit problematic these days and even back then I didn’t find it very funny. I think Soapdish is funnier. I guess I’d go with E.T. because why not?
1983 - I’m good with the winner, Terms of Endearment.
1984 - I’m good with Amadeus but would probably give my vote to the documentary feature winner The Times of Harvey Milk.
1985 - Among the nominees, Prizzi’s Honor. Beyond, The Purple Rose of Cairo and Ran.
1986 - Hannah and Her Sisters. Honorable mention to Sid and Nancy.
1987 - don’t really care.
1988 - Working Girl with Dangerous Liasons second among the nominees. My personal best film is Another Woman. Of the non-nominated: The Unbearable Lightness of Being and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.
1989 - Do the Right Thing! And Sex, Lies, and Video Tape.
1990 - Goodfellas
1991 - Agree with Silence of the Lamb’s win. I enjoy the hell out of Thelma and Louise as well and Beauty and the Beast is so classic. Shout out to: Barton Fink, Naked Lunch, Paris is Burning, Madonna: Truth or Dare.
1992 - I’m good with the Unforgiven win though I wouldn’t have minded Howard’s End or The Crying Game winning. My Cousin Vinny is the best lawyer movie ever. It just is. Honorable mention to Passion Fish, Husbands and Wives and Raise the Red Lantern.
1993 - My pick is The Piano. I also love Three Colors: Blue, The Age of Innocence, The Remains of the Day, Naked, Farewell My Concubine, The Wedding Banquet, and The Story of Qiu Ju. Honorable mention to Mrs. Doubtfire for personal reasons and making me feel better at my parents eroding marriage and me being a small child trying to figure out what was going on. I will say it is super impressive Spielberg had Schindler’s List and Jurassic Park in the same year. All the modern action movies and later installments of Jurassic Park make me appreciate the original so much more as art. Oh and Addams Family Values.
1994 - Out of the nominees, Pulp Fiction by some way. Outside of that, Hoop Dreams is one of the best movies of all time but I’d give it to Chungking Express. Shout out to Vanya on 42nd St., Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle, Bullets Over Broadway, Little Women, Eat Drink Man Woman, and Three Colors: White and Red.
1995: Sense and Sensibility. Although if I’m going to be real, Clueless was the more inspired and clever Austen adaptation. Like Babe as well. Dead Man Walking would be a worthy winner. Safe, Georgia, and Crumb are my personal faves along with the aforementioned films as well. Nixon is next tier. Bridges of Madison County is the last lead Meryl Streep performance that I can say I truly love.
1996: Out of the nominees Fargo by a long shot. Including non-nominees, I consider 1996 to be the year of Fargo, Secrets and Lies, and Breaking the Waves followed by Portrait of a Lady. I consider those four to be some of the best movies ever. I Shot Andy Warhol was also interesting. I remember One Fine Day being on HBO A LOT at the time and enjoying that as a kid.
1997 - My brain says L.A. Confidential. The PTA fan in me says Boogie Nights. The Ang Lee fan in me says The Ice Storm. The cinephile in me says Happy Together. But the movie that really haunted me was Atom Egoyan’s The Sweet Hereafter.
1998 - I wouldn’t pick any of the actual nominees but if I had to I’d pick Shakespeare in Love. At least it has wit and nice gowns. I find Saving Private Ryan basic outside the opening and full of tropes and stereotypes. The Thin Red Line is pretty and an experience but I wouldn’t sit through it again. Life is Beautiful...yuck. Elizabeth is one of the trashiest films ever and not in a good way. My actual Best Film was Rushmore followed The Big Lebowski. Affliction deserved more accolades. I would round out the category with Central Station, High Art and Out of Sight. I know that’s 6 nominees but whatever.
1999 - like 1998, I wouldn’t have chosen any of those nominees. My pick is Being John Malkovich. That would be joined with All About My Mother, Election, Topsy-Turvy, The Talented Mr. Ripley, and The Straight Story. Again that’s six nominees but whatever.
Not that anyone is waiting with baited breath, but I’ll do the next twenty years tomorrow. I’m tired.
For 1999, I forgot
Toy Story 2. Let's face it, it probably aged the best out of all the films.
2000 - Of the nominees:
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is the only choice.
Yi Yi is the actual best movie of the year though as it's my favorite film of all-time.
Almost Famous and
You Can Count on Me should have been nominated above
Chocolat and
Gladiator.
Traffic actually hasn't aged well with me with time.
Erin Brockovich is enjoyable though there's a fat-shaming line in it and I no longer buy her aggressive attitude towards the other attorneys who partnered with Albert Finney to help them win the case. Shout out to
Best in Show.
2001 -
In the Mood for Love is the best film of the year but wasn't nominated for anything deserved Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Costume, Cinematography, and would have deserved Score but the main theme is from another source but I knew this movie had no way in hell of getting any nominations as the reputation of this film grew years after it came out.
In the Bedroom would be my choice among the nominees with
Gosford Park second (the pre-
Downton Abbey but better due to Robert Altman).
Mulholland Drive or
The Royal Tenenbaums deserved
Moulin Rouge's nomination. I used to love
Ghost World until I read the original graphic novel and realized they ruined the material by making the main characters too "cool" and mean. Start of my Harry Potter obsession, and also notable for the start of the Lord of the Rings film franchise.
Honorable Mention:
Millennium Mambo is one of my fave films ever but Hou Hsiao-Hsien movies aren't for everyone.
2002 - Of the nominees,
Chicago. Love the staged version and I actually find Renee Zellwegger winning as Roxie. I found Catherine Zeta-Jones overrated and Richard Gere to be personality-less. Queen Latifah re-envisioned her role and now Broadway hires black female belters as Matron Mama Morton. My personal nominees would have been:
About a Boy,
Adaptation,
Far From Heaven,
Spirited Away, and
Y Tu Mama Tambien. With
About Schmidt,
Chicago,
Gangs of New York,
Lovely and Amazing,
Personal Velocity, Secretary,
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (my personal fave LOTR film and the only one I'd consider giving a Best Pic win to but the first one is nomination worthy as well) and
The Piano Teacher following.
2003 -
Lost in Translation. Then
American Splendor. Then
City of God. Then
Finding Nemo. Then
Elephant. Shout out to
Pieces of April,
The Station Agent,
A Mighty Wind,
The Fog of War,
21 Grams (the only Inarritu film I like), and
School of Rock.
2004 -
Million Dollar Baby is a deserving winner.
Before Sunset deserves Best Film as well (I forgot to put
Before Sunrise whoops) but my vote goes to
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I tried, but I don't think I'm able to like
Sideways.
Vera Drake and
The Incredibles are worthy films as well.
2005 - If not
Three Times, then
Brokeback Mountain. Shout out to
Capote; 2046; Howl's Moving Castle,
Good Night, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, The New World, A History of Violence, and Good Luck; Junebug; and
Me You and Everyone We Know.
2006 -
Volver. Oh that was nominated? I guess
The Queen as it shows both sides of monarchist and Republicanism ideology and the power of the over-emotional mob to pressure someone to do something. That's pretty relevant these days. Though I don't think Helen Mirren made a good Queen actually. The Oscar belonged to Cruz or Dench for the thrilling
Notes on a Scandal. I actually never saw
Letters from Iwo Jima. Also, Alan Arkin is a great actor with a respectable career full of good performances but for
Little Miss Sunshine, he won an Oscar for doing nothing. It was more of an anti-Eddie Murphy thing.
2007 - Both
No Country for Old Men and
There Will be Blood are worthy winners and that has been debated TO DEATH. The latter usually has more supporters but I think it tends to attract film enthusiasts (nerds) who like to fight on the Internet more so than the former.
Away from Her is a film I still think about today.
Persepolis is great but the graphic novel is much much better.
Once was a great musical for the film medium. Regarding another musical, the less I think about the horrific
Sweeney Todd adaptation and how they murdered the score, the better.
Ratatouille was kind of the end of my love affair with Pixar. It was much better than
Cars but I felt something missing from it. Still love the
Juno soundtrack.
2008 -
Happy-Go-Lucky! Oh wait, that was nominated...not even for Best Actress (and she should have swept!)....
Wall-E (my Pixar love is back!)...oh, not nominated? Ok how about
Frozen River? Oh, that wasn't nominated either.
Rachel Getting Married...me loving the film but not Anne Hathaway's performance
...oh shoot, I'm 0-4 here.
Wendy and Lucy? No?
Waltz with Bashir? Vicky Cristina Barcelona? Oh, neither was that. JK I don't think VCB should have received a nomination, I just wanted to give a Penelope Cruz shout out.
Synecdoche, New York? Ok fine, I'll pick any of the nominees
EXCEPT for
The Reader. What an awful film.
2009 -
Bright Star. Of the nominees:
Inglorious Basterds or
A Serious Man (my fave Coen Bros. film).
The Hurt Locker and
Up in the Air are my next choices. I loved the first half of
District 9 before it had a plot and it became a chase film. I lied before. Meryl Streep in
Julie & Julia was the last Meryl lead performance I loved but I wonder how much of that was Julia Child.
Up had the best first ten minutes - the rest of it was only ok.
2010 -
The Social Network has proved to be the most relevant film out of these. I also love
Black Swan and
Toy Story 3. Animal Kingdom, Winter's Bone (honestly the only Oscar nomination I'd give Jennifer Lawrence), and
The Kids are All Right are a tier below. Loved the way the Coen Bros. adapted
True Grit. Shout out to Nicole Kidman for my fave Kidman performance in
Rabbit Hole. Lesley Manville deserved all the supporting actress awards for
Another Year.
2011 -
Melancholia,
Poetry, or
A Separation. Out of the nominees, the only ones I actually thought were more than "good" were
Hugo and
The Descendants. So one of them.
Tree of Life was an experience...and
The Artist was nice at the time.
2012 -
Amour - incredibly heartbreaking. I actually love almost the nominees (I only "like"
Argo, I don't really like
Les Miserables, and I LOATHE LOATHE LOATHE
Silver Linings Playbook (yuck yuck yuck!)).
Zero Dark Thirty is superior to
The Hurt Locker in every way and suffered from a smear campaign.
Lincoln is my favorite Spielberg. He's at his most sophisticated and mature here.
Life of Pi - Ang Lee showed how to make 3D technology art and immersive unlike most other 3D experiences...and the story was compelling.
Beasts of the Southern Wild captured the world through the eyes of child surviving in a Gulf island impeccably and has one of the best film scores this decade.
Django wasn't as good as
Inglorious but it was still top tier.
The Master should have been nominated.
HONORABLE MENTION:
Frances Ha came out that year, and it's my favorite film of that decade.
2013 -
Her (and the only Scarlet Johansson performance that I think is good)
. Shout out to
Inside Llewyn Davis, Before Midnight,
Nebraska, and
Short Term 12 (Brie Larson gives a superior performance here than she did in
Room).
2014 -
Boyhood followed by
The Grand Budapest Hotel.
Inherent Vice was incredible: I felt like I was high watching it. I enjoyed
Nightcrawler as well. Xavier Dolan's
Mommy and the main cast of three deserved to be nominated with Antoine Olivier Pilon winning all the Supporting (or Lead...it's borderline) prizes.
Whiplash was exciting.
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya deserved all the animation prizes as it is sheer art.
2015 -
Mistress America,
Clouds of Sils Maria, and
The Assassin. Ok, with regard to Oscar....
Brooklyn, Mad Max: Fury Road, and
45 Years followed by
Carol.
2016 -
Moonlight or Manchester by the Sea.
20th Century Women deserved more attention. Shout out to Isabelle Huppert for the double whammy of
Elle and
Things to Come, Adam Driver for
Paterson, and Rebecca Hall for
Christine. Certain Women deserved SOME attention. Best trailer:
The Handmaiden.
2017 -
Lady Bird all the way. Special mentions to
Phantom Thread, Get Out, Call Me By Your Name, The Florida Project, The Big Sick, and
BPM (Beats Per Minute). People didn't like me saying this in the Tonya thread, but
I, Tonya did some things well, but overall I hated it. Special props to Frances McDormand for somehow making me like her despite me absolutely despising
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.
2018 - My pick would be
Madeline's Madeline for giving me an incredible visceral experience that I needed because I was getting so bored of film by this time. My second choice would be
The Rider, in some ways, it's superior to Chloe Zhao's follow-up,
Nomadland. My third choice would be
Burning is an all-around top tier film that is a bit more accessible (but not totally).
Paddington 2 is my third choice. Other great pics for Best Film would have been:
Minding the Gap, an incredible documentary;
Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse, the best superhero movie ever IMO;
If Beale Street Could Talk, poetic;
First Reformed, which deserved some real awards attention;
Shoplifters, an excellent film, and
Can You Ever Forgive Me? for capturing real life for many people out there right now before the whole criminal enterprise Lee Israel entered into. I love
Private Life for introducing me to Kayli Carter, who was such a bright presence in that film.
Ok, out of the actual Best Pic nominees...I guess I would choose
BlacKkKlansman followed by
Roma and then
The Favourite. I won't talk about the movie that I truly hated among the Best Pic nominees (outside of
Green Book) as I felt it was truly a messy and low-quality film.
2019 - I have to say I was going through a tough personal time and didn't watch many films that year. I will say I loved loved loved
Parasite and I was in total awe of what Greta Gerwig was able to do with
Little Women.
2020 - I watched a few but I need to watch more. However, I can safely say
Nomadland is the only film I felt was worthy of a Best Pic win and will grow in relevance as our economy and industry keeps moving towards automation and AI. That said I also enjoyed
Minari,
Promising Young Woman, and
The Sound of Metal but I had issues with all three. Maybe not SoM so much but it didn't hit the way
Nomadland did. The more I think about
Promising Young Woman, the more flawed I think it is. I wish
First Cow and
Never Rarely Sometimes Always got awards attention.
The Father is good watch with an excellent performance at the center of great performances. I thought
The Trial of the Chicago 7 needed a real director. It was hokey. Honestly, my favorite watch was probably
The 40-Year-Old-Version with Radha Black and
Shiva Baby.
It was a fun movie but
The movie is about a state park worker who volunteers for duties that day which are above her skill level. But these duties will enable her to have contact with her cute co-worker. Trouble ensues…or does it? What is real and what is a daydream - or her imagination - or a nightmare? The director won’t tell you, even by the end of the movie. And the director even keeps what really happened to herself throughout the DVD commentary. So if you like to watch movies where you don’t know what happened…and never will…watch this one! 
