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Best Picture at the Academy Awards, the highest honor a film can achieve (well, at least in America). From 1927's Wings to 2022's Everything Everywhere All at Once, we are giving you one fun fact about every Best Picture Oscar winner. Which film was the first to win all five of the major Oscar awards? And which was the only movie to have an X rating? And which film crew accidentally ate PCP-laced chowder?? Grab your popcorn, we've got nearly a century of movies to cover! Don't miss a video! Subscribe NOW: https://www.youtube.com/@MentalFloss?sub_confirmation=1 About Mental Floss: Mental Floss is where curious people come for trivia-tastic information. Mental Floss produces lists of fun facts, debunks common misconceptions, and tells untold stories from history, science, culture and more. Website: http://www.mentalfloss.com Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/mental_floss Facebook: https://facebook.com/mentalflossmagazine Discord: https://discord.io/mentalfloss Copyright Notice: This video and YouTube channel contain dialog, music, and images that are property of Mental Floss. You are authorized to share the video link and channel, and embed this video in your website or others as long as a link back to this YouTube Channel is provided. 2025 Mental Floss Fascinating Facts About All 95 Best Picture Oscar Winners | Mental Floss https://www.youtube.com/@MentalFloss
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0:00
Here's a good fact to know for your next pub trivia game
0:02
The first ever winner for Best Picture, or as it was known in the 1920s, Outstanding Picture
0:08
was Wings, a silent film from the 1927-1928 season. It's an action war romance film about two military pilots vying for the love of a woman
0:17
The reason the director, William A. Wellman, was chosen to helm this movie
0:21
He had actual military flying experience, piloting fighter planes in World War I
0:25
Bonus fact, the film also won Best Engineering Effects at the 1929 Academy Awards, which
0:30
is the only year they gave out that award. Hi, I'm Erin McCarthy, Editor-in-Chief of MentalFloss.com, and Wings is just the first
0:37
film on this list I'm going to be sharing with you today. We are going to get a fact from every single Best Picture Oscar winner to date, from Gone
0:44
with the Wind to Lord of the Rings. Also, a reminder that Academy Awards ceremonies are usually titled after the year the movie
0:50
was released, which is generally the year before the ceremony takes place, which can
0:55
get confusing. Someone should really look into that. Anyway, roll the tape
1:06
The second winner for Outstanding Picture was A Talkie, the 1929 musical called The
1:10
Broadway Melody, about two sisters trying to make it on the Great White Way. It was
1:14
actually MGM's first full-talking motion picture. The original film contained what was, at the
1:19
time a very exciting musical number done in Technicolor, in contrast to the rest of the film
1:24
which was black and white. Unfortunately, the Technicolor sequence was lost, meaning that only
1:29
the people who originally saw the movie in theaters saw the true version of the film
1:33
Now, in 1930, the Academy switched the name of the award to Outstanding Production. That year
1:39
the award was given to All Quiet on the Western Front, a war epic that was remade in 2022 and is
1:44
based on the book of the same name. The movie went through many changes before its official release
1:49
One is that the original movie featured comedian Zazu Pitts in a serious dramatic role
1:54
But according to a contemporary account, as soon as she appeared on screen, the audience started
1:58
laughing. Not because she did anything funny, just because they were expecting to laugh
2:03
The production ended up reshooting all of her scenes with a different actress
2:07
The epic Western Cimarron holds a few distinctions, some more impressive than others
2:12
First, it was the first Western to win Best Picture. One of only four, surprisingly. Can you
2:17
name the other three? Second, when the studio bid for the rights to adapt the book of the same name
2:22
into a film, it was, at the time, the most amount of money ever paid for literary rights. The studio
2:27
bid $125,000 for them. Adjusted for inflation, that's about a trillion dollars today. Well
2:34
really about $2.8 million, but still. And lastly, Cimarron was one of the biggest box office losses
2:39
ever for the time. The movie ended up costing over $1.4 million to make, which was well over budget
2:45
In its initial release, it lost a cool half-million bucks. I suppose winning the highest
2:50
award offered by the Academy might help ease the pain of that sting? No, this isn't the prequel to
2:56
Wes Anderson's 2014 film, though it is sometimes cited as an inspiration. Grand Hotel is a 1932
3:01
drama based on a successful Broadway play, which was itself based on the novel Mention Im Hotel
3:07
The film has been described as the Ocean's Eleven of its time, in reference to its impressive cast
3:11
of stars, which included Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, and John Barrymore. One of its most
3:16
enduring influences is one of Garbo's lines, the famous, I want to be alone, which is considered
3:21
one of the most notable quotes in film history. Cavalcade is an epic film told over multiple
3:27
decades, covering one British family's life with backdrops like The Sinking of the Titanic
3:31
and World War I. It ended up winning Outstanding Production, Best Direction, and Best Art Direction
3:37
and was critically acclaimed, but it faced a few speed bumps along the way. Cavalcade falls into
3:42
the category of pre-code films, which refers to movies released after the implementation of Talking
3:48
but before the Hays Code was strictly enforced. If you're unaware, the Hays Code was a set of
3:53
rules and regulations that films had to follow for a few decades that would censor things like
3:57
profanity, sexual innuendo, and even interracial romance. But before 1934, it was a little loose
4:04
Cavalcade tested the waters here. It included words like, wait for it, hell, and damn, scandalous
4:11
There was a lot of pushback from representatives at Fox, the studio behind the film, as well
4:15
as Hays Code authorities. But the filmmakers stood their ground, stating that the profanity was important to the tone
4:22
of the picture. Some were worried that this would set a bad precedent for future movies
4:25
But even the president of Fox, upon seeing the film, stated that the words used could
4:30
not offend any person. And, after all, that was the real purpose of the code
4:35
And as far as the use creating a precedent which might be followed by other producers is concerned
4:40
the best answer would be that anyone who can make a picture as good as Cavalcade
4:43
might be justified in following the precedent. Damn, hell of a review
4:48
It Happened One Night might sound like a modern A24 horror film with a vague, scary title, but no
4:55
It's a rom-com starring Clark Gable. In fact, its official genre on AFI is listed as screwball comedy
5:01
And while screwball comedies aren't really respected by the Academy anymore, this movie
5:05
hit a huge milestone. It was the first film in history to win all five major categories—Best Picture, Best
5:12
Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and both Best Actor and Actress. Let's bring back the screwball
5:18
It was a heck of a time for Clark Gable. He followed the success of his previous Oscar-winning movie with Mutiny on the Bounty, a naval drama
5:25
that also won Outstanding Production. The film was based on a novel which was about the real-life mutiny of the HMS Bounty
5:32
While some have criticized the film for very clear and obvious historical inaccuracies
5:37
other parts have been lauded for being incredibly spot-on. For example, the detail that went into Captain Bly's costume
5:43
According to AFI, actor Charles Lawton, who played Bly, discovered that the Jeeves Company
5:48
the very same London tailoring establishment that outfitted Captain Bly a century and a
5:52
half earlier, still possessed one of Bly's original transaction records, which contained
5:57
the price, as well as the measurements, and type of material of his uniforms. At Lawton's request
6:03
the tailor used the records to reproduce Bly's uniforms for the picture. How cool is that
6:08
If you're into Broadway history, you probably know the theatrical impresario Florence Ziegfeld Jr.
6:14
who was responsible for the Ziegfeld Follies, among many other things. The great Ziegfeld acted
6:18
as a musical biography of the man and wowed audiences across the world for its elaborate
6:23
musical numbers and sets. Most notable is the number A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody
6:28
an enormous set piece featuring 180 performers that took weeks to rehearse and cost over $220,000
6:34
to produce. Apparently, all of that work and investment paid off. The scene consistently
6:39
received applause and cheers in movie theaters. The Life of Emile Zola is a biographical film
6:44
about the, well, life of Emile Zola, a French writer. While it was highly acclaimed in its day
6:49
and now serves as an interesting tableau of Hollywood and American politics at the time
6:54
Part of the film deals with Zola's involvement in the Dreyfus Affair, a French scandal involving
6:58
a Jewish officer being falsely convicted of a crime and subsequent cover-ups and backlash
7:03
While the film includes this important historical event, it doesn't really address the anti-Semitism
7:07
at the heart of the conflict. Studio heads even chose to remove the word Jew from the script
7:13
entirely. This is indicative of a time in history where American art, film especially
7:17
was hesitant to speak out too harshly against Nazi actions or foreign antisemitism in general
7:22
It wouldn be until the US involvement in World War II that movies took any sort of firm stance Don worry screwball comedies were still in vogue in 1939 You Can Take It With You another zany romantic comedy took home the award that year
7:37
The film was also directed by Frank Capra, who helmed It Happened One Night, as well as Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, both of which he won Best Director for
7:43
You Can't Take It With You marked Capra's third win for Best Director in just five years
7:48
which hasn't happened since. Ah, Gone With the Wind, an American classic
7:53
Clark Gable and Vivian Leigh tearing up the screen for three hours and 40 minutes
7:57
And just like the runtime itself, the making of this movie was also very long
8:01
There were a few speed bumps, to put it nicely. The film ended up having a total of three directors
8:06
George Cukor was the original director, but he ended up leaving after 18 days of shooting
8:11
Next, Victor Fleming came in for the majority of the shoot, but had a nervous breakdown and left for a few weeks to combat exhaustion
8:17
In the interim, Sam Wood took over. Writing the screenplay was apparently such an ordeal
8:21
that the producer, David Selznick, ended up locking himself in a room with Fleming and the
8:26
script doctor, Ben Hecht, until it was finished. He only fed them peanuts and bananas because
8:31
apparently other food would be too distracting. The writing process was such a mess that the story
8:35
was turned into a play, Moonlight and Magnolias. Alfred Hitchcock is considered one of the greatest
8:41
and most influential filmmakers of all time, but only one of his films ever won Best Picture
8:46
Rebecca, based on Daphne Demure's 1938 novel, came out in 1940 and stars Laurence Olivier as a brooding
8:53
widower and Joan Fontaine as his new wife. The movie was a hit around the globe. In Spain, it was
8:58
so popular that the type of coat that Fontaine wears throughout the movie became colloquially
9:02
known as Rebecca's. Even today, if you walk into a clothing store in Spain and ask for a Rebecca
9:07
they'll point you toward one of those classic coats. The 1942 Academy Awards were a doozy
9:12
The films in contention for top honors included some of the greatest classics of all time
9:17
Looking back on it, it feels like a pretty easy win for what is often considered the greatest film
9:21
of all time, Citizen Kane. I mean, no film school class is complete without at least one
9:26
mandatory viewing of it. And if not Citizen Kane, then clearly the runner-up is the Maltese Falcon
9:31
no? One of the most influential noir films in American cinema? Well, the award went to neither
9:36
and ended up going to How Green Was My Valley, a working-class drama about a Welsh family
9:40
No shade to this film, it's still considered a great movie, and was even inducted into the National Film Registry in 1990
9:47
But The Maltese Falcon? Citizen Kane? In hindsight, it feels like a pretty big upset
9:54
The 1943 Academy Awards took place in an interesting time in America
9:58
The U.S. was fully involved in World War II, and audiences and filmmakers were faced with a very different reality than in previous years
10:05
The winner that year was an inspiring film entitled Mrs. Miniver, which is about the life of a British housewife at the start of the war
10:12
This marked the first World War II film to win Best Picture, and it surely wouldn't be the last
10:17
Speaking of, Casablanca ended up taking home the prize the following year
10:21
Set during World War II, this enduring romance has become a major part of cinema history
10:25
It is also arguably the most quoted movie of all time. He is looking at you, kid
10:31
Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. We'll always have Paris
10:38
Of all the gin joints and all the towns and all the world, she walks into mine
10:42
Play it again, Sam. But Ingrid Bergman never actually says that line
10:47
That's a common example of the Mandela effect. Like how Darth Vader never actually says
10:52
Luke, I am your father. She does say, play it, Sam. Play as time goes by
10:58
But those are, in fact, different words. Bing Crosby starred in 1944's Going My Way
11:03
a musical comedy-drama about a young priest. The movie went on to become Paramount's highest-grossing
11:08
movie to date. That was due in part to their push for what was called the Fighting Front premiere
11:13
65 prints of the movie were distributed around the globe so that soldiers who were battling in
11:17
World War II could see it. According to an article published at the time, an arrangement for the
11:22
simultaneous worldwide showing to the troops in combat areas was made by the Army Pictorial Service
11:27
from Alaska to Italy and from England to the jungles of Burma. The film made about $10 million
11:32
dollars internationally. Obviously, the Academy Awards are THE movie awards to pay attention to
11:38
for people in America, but internationally, there are a few other options that are just as
11:42
if not more, acclaimed. One of them is the Cannes Film Festival, which was known as the
11:47
International Film Festival until 2003, and often features the cream of the crop of the film world
11:52
In 1946, the American movie The Lost Weekend ended up taking home the Academy Award for Best
11:57
Picture, along with three other Oscars. That same year, it also became one of the first films to win
12:02
the highest prize awarded at Cannes, which at the time was the Grand Prix but is now the Palme d'Or
12:08
This would make it the first film in history to win both Best Picture and the top prize at Cannes
12:13
Only two other movies have done it since. Apparently, after World War II was over
12:17
filmmakers decided it was time to make movies about how World War II was over. In 1946, we got
12:24
The Best Years of Our Lives, a story about three men coming home from the war and trying to readjust
12:28
to normal life. It's based on the book Glory for Me, but interestingly the idea for the book came
12:33
from the movie's producer Samuel Goldwyn. The story goes that Samuel's wife Frances, after reading a
12:38
Times Magazine article about soldiers readjustment to society, suggested it would make a compelling
12:43
movie. Samuel then contacted McKinley Cantor, a novelist who had had many books adapted into
12:48
movies. Cantor got to work on the story and before long the book was being turned into a movie
12:52
Sort of a roundabout way of getting a story onto the screen, but hey, whatever works
12:57
The 1947 film Gentleman's Agreement was pretty impressively controversial for the time
13:02
The story follows a journalist, played by Gregory Peck, exposing the shocking truths of anti-Semitism in America
13:08
The film received generally high praise and won Best Picture, but that didn't mean it was smooth sailing
13:12
Reportedly, several influential Hollywood elites tried to convince the filmmakers to not make the movie
13:17
claiming it would cause too much trouble. The movie was even banned in some places, like the entire country of Spain
13:23
Are you as surprised as I am that it took 21 Academy Awards for a Shakespeare adaptation to win Best Picture
13:28
Laurence Olivier's Hamlet finally sealed the deal in 1949, which was an exciting, albeit much shortened, version of the Bard's most famous drama
13:36
Olivier had already established himself as the world's undeniable Shakespeare aficionado, and this Oscar, along with the Venice International Film Festival's top prize, would lock that reputation in
13:45
One of the more unique accolades this film holds is the first British film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards
13:51
Sorry, America, but the UK really does do Shakespeare better. On another note, Olivier was almost 41 when this movie came out
13:58
Guess how old Eileen Hurley, who played his mother Gertrude, was? 30. 30 years old. Hollywood
14:06
In 1950, All the King's Men took home the top prize. It was written, directed, and produced by Robert Rawson, and based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book
14:13
And it would actually be, at least as the recording of this video, the last time a movie
14:18
based on a Pulitzer-winning book would win Best Picture. Though works in other Pulitzer Prize categories like drama and journalism would get a few
14:25
more wins in. Anyway, All the King's Men is a political drama that's loosely based on former Louisiana
14:29
governor and U.S. Senator Huey Long. Long was assassinated in 1935. Rawson was a member of the American Communist Party for many years, and after this movie
14:38
was released, he was called in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee
14:42
Twice. After the first, where he invoked the fifth, he was essentially blacklisted in Hollywood
14:47
In his second appearance, he named a few dozen other communists to appease the committee
14:51
The film studio Columbia severed all ties with Rawson and bought all the rights and residuals to all the King men All About Eve is often considered one of the finest films of the 20th century It follows the story of an aging Broadway star and her young fan
15:05
It's the only film in Academy Awards history to have four women nominated for a Best Acting Oscar
15:09
Anne Baxter and Betty Davis for Lead Actress, and Celeste Holm and Thelma Ritter for Supporting
15:14
Actress. Surprisingly, none of them won. Musicals with elaborate dance numbers were
15:19
back in 1951, with An American in Paris leading the charge. This Best Picture winner featured
15:24
many whimsical and exciting musical sequences, choreographed in part by star Gene Kelly
15:29
The most lauded and extensive dance number is the climactic An American in Paris ballet
15:34
which runs nearly 20 minutes long. The set decoration was meant to evoke the styles of
15:39
famous European artists. As described in an outline by Gene Kelly and director Vincent Minnelli
15:44
the decor of the ballet will be its most distinguishing feature as to uniqueness and
15:48
originality. For each individual scene will be done in the styles of different painters
15:52
which we will denote in the synopsis of the libretto. The ballet visually should reflect
15:56
an artist's viewpoint, and both the scenery and the costumes should be done as they painted
16:01
In essence, the entire ballet is a representation of a painter thinking about Paris
16:05
If you haven't seen it, I recommend watching it as soon as possible. Finally, some circus representation. The Greatest Show on Earth, which is set in the Ringley Brothers
16:14
Barnum & Bailey Circus, won Best Picture and Best Motion Picture Story at the Academy Awards
16:19
While the film features Hollywood actors taking on the lead roles—Charlton Heston plays the
16:23
circus manager, for example—it also featured the actual circus troupe, including over a thousand
16:28
performers and hundreds of animals. The 1892 Ridyard Kipling poem Gentlemen Rankers indirectly
16:34
provided the title for this next Oscar winner. From Here to Eternity followed three soldiers
16:39
played by Montgomery Clift, Burt Lancaster, and Frank Sinatra, in the time leading up to and just
16:44
after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Reportedly, Clift went above and beyond to prepare for the
16:49
role. He took boxing lessons and learned to play the bugle. The director Fred Zinneman later recalled
16:54
Clift forced the other actors to be much better than they really were. That's the only way I can
16:58
put it. He got performances from the other actors, he got reactions from the other actors that were
17:03
totally genuine. A crime drama about corruption and violence along the New Jersey waterfront
17:07
starring Marlon Brando. Yeah, that sounds like a Best Picture winner to me. On the Waterfront is
17:12
still considered one of the best American films in history, with many citing Brando's performance
17:17
as a main selling point. The film's score, however, is also worth noting. It was composed
17:22
by Leonard Bernstein, who was the focus of last year's Bradley Cooper-led maestro
17:26
While Bernstein was a highly prolific composer, this is the only instance in which he wrote an
17:31
original score for a film. Marty was the directorial debut of Delbert Mann. It's a pretty rare
17:37
occurrence for someone's first feature film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards, but
17:41
it's a very rare occurrence for someone's first film to also win the top prize at Cannes
17:46
Joining the very short list along with The Lost Weekend of Best Picture Cannes winners
17:50
Marty also holds the distinction of being the first to win the Palme d'Or Grand Prize
17:55
which temporarily replaced the Grand Prix that year. No, not the 2004 Jackie Chan movie
18:00
Or the 1914 silent film. It's 1956's Around the World in 80 Days that took home the coveted statue
18:06
Based on the classic Jules Verne novel, the movie follows an adventurer who makes a claim
18:10
that he can circumvent the globe in 80 days flat. It's a fun adventure around the world
18:14
which features, of course, the famous balloon scene as part of the protagonist's journey
18:18
If you've ever seen an image from this movie, or the poster, or anything, it's probably
18:22
the balloon. But did you know that the balloon isn't in the original novel? While a fair
18:26
amount of the movie stays true to Vern's vision, the filmmakers decided to add in at
18:30
least one exciting new addition. And let's be honest, wouldn't every story be made better
18:35
if there was a balloon scene in it? Drop in the comments below which movie you think would
18:38
improve the most from a random balloon. I can't wait to hear about how Glengarry Glen
18:42
Ross should have had its climax take place up in the sky. The Bridge on the River Kwai is an epic war film based loosely on the construction of
18:50
the Burma Railway during World War II. It was extremely popular during its time, and
18:54
is still recognized as one of the most important movies of the 20th century. It's based on
18:59
the book by Pierre Boulle, who also won the Academy Award for its screenplay. But the
19:03
screenplay was actually secretly penned by two other men. Carl Foreman was the original writer, but director David Lean apparently hated his version of the
19:11
script, so he brought in another writer. That writer didn't last long, so Lean brought in
19:16
Michael Wilson. Both Foreman and Wilson were on the Hollywood blacklist, and their names weren't
19:21
on the movie. They were later both given an honorary Oscar posthumously to honor their achievement
19:26
Director Vincent Minnelli returned to the awards stage with his 1958 movie Gigi
19:30
How could you top the impressive and masterful An American in Paris? By making another musical
19:35
that somehow does even better than before. Gigi was nominated for nine Academy Awards, and it won them all
19:41
It held the record for highest clean sweep in Oscars history for decades, until a little movie called Lord of the Rings Return of the King came out
19:48
That's over 40 years. Everything about the Charlton Heston-led 1959 epic film Ben-Hur was big
19:55
Big sets, big costumes, big awards, and an astonishingly big price tag
19:59
Ben-Hur cost approximately $15 million to make and was considered the most expensive movie ever made up until that point
20:06
And nothing tops its infamous chariot race sequence. The shoot lasted for weeks and involved thousands and thousands of extras
20:12
The set for the chariot race was vast, too. It took roughly six months to construct, stretched over 18 acres, and was about five stories high
20:21
A comedy drama about a lowly office lackey who lets his bosses use his apartment to meet up with side chicks
20:26
couldn't have gotten made during the heyday of the Hays Code. It was starting to crack by the late 1950s, which gave The Apartment's director, Billy Wilder
20:34
a chance to bend the rules even further. Wilder drew inspiration from real life as well as David
20:39
Lean's 1945 British drama Brief Encounter, about an affair that never quite takes off
20:43
Apparently Wilder's story note read, Movie about the guy who climbs into the warm bed left by two lovers
20:49
The movie is a poignant tale about love, office politics, and adultery, and some of the heavier
20:53
themes, like an attempted death by suicide within the film, were considered very controversial when
20:58
it was released. Casting for the 1961 big-screen adaptation of West Side Story was a veritable
21:03
who's who of Hollywood up-and-comers and established megastars. For the part of Tony
21:08
the charismatic former bad boy turned good, producers considered everyone from Warren Beatty
21:13
who would go on to make his film debut later that year in Elia Kazan's Splendor in the Grass
21:18
to Burt Reynolds, Anthony Perkins, and, according to rumors, even the king of rock and roll himself
21:23
Elvis Presley. Even the lineup for the part of the hopeful, starry-eyed Maria was stacked with
21:27
heavy hitters. While Natalie Wood, who also appeared in Splendor in the Grass and later
21:31
got an Oscar nod for her work in it, landed the role, there were other big names in the running
21:36
including Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, and future Bond girl Jill St. John. Wood didn't sing
21:41
though. Her voice was dubbed by Marnie Nixon. Lawrence of Arabia leading man Peter O'Toole
21:45
loved being in the desert, but the veteran Shakespearean actor, who had by then already
21:50
established himself via his work on television and the stage, wasn't a big fan of camels
21:54
and later complained that learning how to ride one for the film was impossible. So impossible, in fact, that he revealed in a 1993 interview that
22:02
his bottom was bleeding from bouncing up and down on this snorting great dragon
22:06
And considering he had to be riding on camels a lot for the sweeping, nearly four-hour-long adventure saga, it was kind of a problem
22:13
Fortunately, O'Toole figured out a workaround. He took a trip to Beirut, bought some sponge rubber, and stuffed it under his saddle
22:20
It made the rides a lot more comfortable for him. Tom Jones the British comedy starring Albert Finney charmed audiences in a major way raking in multiple Oscar wins at the 36th Academy Awards including Best Music Score and a Best Director Award for Tony Richardson
22:35
But the movie is very important in British film history for another reason. When the film was
22:39
pitched to British film company Brianston Films, they knew it was going to be pricey
22:44
so they brought in an external funding source. Then Richardson revealed that it was going to be
22:48
even pricier than he had originally predicted, and everyone kind of panicked. Richardson then went
22:53
went to United Artists, who offered to fund the film in full, which was a financially very wise
22:58
move. But why did it change British film history? According to film historian Charles Barr, the
23:03
success of Tom Jones opened unlimited American money to British films, which completely changed
23:08
the landscape of the country's film industry. Before it became known as My Fair Lady, Alan J
23:13
Lerner and composer Frederick Lowe's 1956 Broadway production of this tale actually went
23:18
through a number of name changes. The musical, which was inspired by George Bernard Shaw's
23:22
1913 play Pygmalion and its 1938 film adaptation starring Leslie Howard was first known as Liza
23:29
but was then rechristened Lady Liza. Ultimately, Lerner and Lowe took it in a different direction
23:34
because the film's star was Rex Harrison, and they didn't want a marquee to read Rex Harrison
23:38
in Liza. The title they finally settled on, My Fair Lady, was taken from the enduring nursery rhyme
23:44
London Bridge is Falling Down. It was used for the stage musical and again in 1964 for the big
23:49
screen version starring Harrison alongside Audrey Hepburn, whose singing voice was also
23:53
dubbed by Marnie Nixon. Although it was partly based off of Maria von Trapp's 1949 memoir
23:58
about her family, The Sound of Music actually bears a lot of other musical influences outside
24:03
of the famous Austrian singing group. Before being adapted for The Silver Screen in 1965
24:08
the tale first opened at the Lundfontein Theater on Broadway in 1959
24:12
helmed by none other than Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein II. It ended up being the
24:17
final collaboration between the powerhouse pair, who had dominated the musical theater landscape
24:21
throughout the 1940s and 50s with iconic productions like Oklahoma, Carousel, and The King and I
24:27
And by the way, Christopher Plummer's vocals were also dubbed by Marnie Nixon
24:31
Just kidding, it was Bill Lee who stepped in to sing the part of Captain Von Trapp
24:35
but a version of the movie's soundtrack was recently released featuring some songs with
24:39
Plummer's vocals intact. Actress Vanessa Redgrave has some unique distinctions in the history of
24:44
Hollywood. And no, it's not just for being one of the rare thespians to achieve the coveted triple
24:49
crown of acting, as in winning an Oscar, an Emmy, and a Tony Award in a competitive acting category
24:54
The English-born actress has actually appeared on screen as multiple famous figures from the
24:59
Tudor and Stewart dynasties in England and Scotland. In 1966's A Man for All Seasons
25:04
she makes a brief, unbilled cameo as Henry VIII's divisive second wife, Anne Boleyn
25:08
But Redgrave doesn't have any lines in this Oscar-winning historical drama, and in fact, she wasn't even paid for her appearance
25:15
Then, in 1971, she starred in Mary, Queen of Scots, as the eponymous Stuart ruler
25:20
who, incidentally, was Henry VIII's great-niece, and also the mother of James VI and I
25:25
who would go on to inherit the throne of England from Elizabeth I after her death in 1603
25:30
And speaking of Elizabeth I, Redgrave has played her too. She appeared in Roland Emmerich's 2011 period drama Anonymous as the Virgin Queen
25:37
Maybe she's a major 16th century British history lover, or perhaps it's all just a funny coincidence. Either way, you be the judge
25:45
For this 1967 neo-noir about a Philly-based homicide detective roped into investigating a
25:50
grisly murder in the Deep South, star Sidney Poitier had a few stipulations. The leading man
25:56
had already made Oscar history as the first Black man to receive an Academy Award nomination for
26:00
Best Actor for 1958's The Defiant Ones, and for becoming the first Black man to actually win that
26:06
Award for James Poe's comedy drama Lilies at the Field in 1964. Sadly, he would remain the only
26:11
black actor to have that Oscar until Denzel Washington won it in 2002 for his performance
26:16
in Training Day. But as part of agreeing to work on In the Heat of the Night, Poitier demanded that
26:20
the film, which was based on John Ball's 1965 novel of the same name, be shot up north in Illinois
26:26
not in Mississippi, where most of the plot is technically based. The reason? He was concerned
26:30
about racial violence and the Ku Klux Klan, which he'd already had an unsettling run-in with back in
26:36
Mississippi in 1964, alongside his friend Harry Belafonte. Poitier's request was honored by
26:42
director Norman Jewison, except for a three-day shoot in Tennessee, during which Poitier reportedly
26:46
slept with a gun under his pillow. Oliver, the coming-of-age 1968 musical, is an adaptation of
26:52
an adaptation. It was directly based off of Lionel Bart's musical of the same name, which premiered
26:57
at the Wimbledon Theater in London in 1960, before hopping over to the West End and eventually moving
27:01
Across the Pond, where it ended up on Broadway by 1963. Carol Reed, who directed the 1968 film
27:07
version, cast mostly unknown actors to play the plucky youngsters featured in it, with one notable
27:12
exception. Jack Wild, a child actor who had appeared in the West End production of Oliver
27:16
back in 1964, was cast in the flick as the artful Dodger. He ended up being nominated for Best
27:22
Supporting Actor at the 41st Academy Awards. And while Wild, who was 16 years old at the time
27:27
ultimately didn't win the award, he's still one of the youngest Oscar contenders in the event's
27:32
history. When it comes to Oscar-winning films, you probably don't imagine a big old X rating
27:36
appearing right on the poster for the flick. But in director John Schlesinger's adaptation of
27:41
Midnight Cowboy, which was based on a 1965 novel of the same name by James Leo Herlihy
27:46
that's exactly what you got. The salacious tale of two hustlers, one consumptive con man played
27:51
by Dustin Hoffman, the other a dewy-eyed sex worker played by John Boyt, earned the Best Picture
27:56
Oscar at the 42nd Academy Awards, and an X rating. Surely that rating came from those Puritans at the then MPAA objecting to the depictions
28:04
of homosexuality, right? Well, maybe not. According to film historian Tino Ballio, the MPAA had actually rated it R. United Artists
28:13
then decided it wasn't a movie for children, so just gave it an X themselves, largely because
28:18
of the depictions of homosexuality. In a way, this heavy drama about two reluctant pals trying to make it on the mean streets
28:24
of Gotham, made history as the first, and only, X-rated film to earn such high accolades
28:29
from the Academy. And in 1971, United Artists, the film's distributor, resubmitted Midnight
28:34
Cowboy to the MPAA for a new rating, after the organization retooled its grading system
28:39
It was then re-released for audiences with an R rating, and the rest is movie history
28:43
The opening monologue, spoken by George C. Scott in the 1970 war biopic Patton
28:49
wasn't a work of pure fiction. In fact, it was lifted from a series of speeches at the
28:53
celebrated U.S. general gave to the Third Army in 1944, ahead of the Allied invasion of France
28:59
There are some notable differences, though. Old Blood and Guts, as Patton was colorfully
29:03
known among his men, used curse words throughout those speeches, but a lot of his language had to
29:08
be toned down in the opener so the film could retain a PG rating. One thing the production
29:13
did follow to the letter was Patton's overall look. The ivory-handled revolvers that Scott
29:17
sports in the film are replicas of the 45 Colt single action and 357 Magnum Smith & Wesson
29:23
the Patton often carried. Plus all the medals seen on Scott's uniform were recreations
29:27
of the ones Patton earned for his service. Even though Gene Hackman seems like a shoe-in now for the gritty part of Popeye Doyle, the
29:34
hardscrabble narcotics detective who has to bend some rules in order to catch a few perps
29:38
in this classic neo-noir thriller, he wasn't the actor that director William Friedkin initially
29:43
had in mind for The French Connection. Friedkin actually talked about Paul Newman for the role
29:48
but when Newman's salary demands were too high, other stars like Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson
29:53
and even Jackie Gleason, yes, that Jackie Gleason, were considered. Friedkin even briefly cast columnist Jimmy Breslin
29:59
but fired him after discovering he didn't know how to drive. After Hackman, a former Marine, was cast, he spent time shadowing Eddie Egan
30:07
the real-life inspiration for Doyle. Egan even ended up in the film, co-starring as Doyle's supervisor
30:12
Hackman walked away with Oscar glory after winning the Best Actor prize at the 44th Academy Awards for his work in this film
30:18
Adapted for Mario Puzo's best-selling 1969 novel of the same name, this initial foray into the gripping yet sordid world of the Corleone family
30:26
feels like a quintessential piece of New York cinema, especially considering director Francis Ford Coppola shot a lot of it on location throughout
30:33
the city. But if Paramount Pictures had their way, The Godfather wouldn't have been filmed in the
30:37
Big Apple at all, or even set in the 1940s and 50s. The studio actually wanted to make it a
30:43
contemporary film, filmed in St. Louis, Missouri, but Coppola resisted and ultimately won that fight
30:48
For director George Roy Hill, it wasn't enough that The Sting was set in the 1930s. For this
30:53
period piece about a couple of charming grifters looking to make one great big score
30:57
Hill wanted the film to look and feel like part of that era too. To do that, Hill and artist
31:02
Yaroslav Gieber created intertitle cards modeled after the old illustrations that were on display
31:08
throughout the 1930s in the Saturday Evening Post. He also asked composer Marvin Hamlisch to recreate
31:13
some classic ragtime tunes by Scott Joplin for the film's score, including The Entertainer
31:18
And the director avoided using extras, claiming the 1930s crime capers he watched for inspiration
31:23
didn't feature them at all. With this 1974 follow-up to the critically acclaimed crime saga
31:28
The Godfather, Francis Ford Coppola really wanted to shake things up, and in more ways than one
31:33
After having a notoriously difficult time on the set of the first Corleone family film
31:37
Coppola was eager to pass off directorial duties to someone else. In his view, he had the perfect
31:42
candidate in mind in director Martin Scorsese. The only hiccup? Even though Scorsese was quickly
31:47
becoming the poster child for the movie Bratz in the new Hollywood scene, Paramount, the studio
31:52
behind The Godfather Part II, wouldn't go for it. So instead, Coppola resumed directorial duties for
31:57
the sequel. While Scorsese directed Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, the 1974 drama that ultimately
32:03
earned Ellen Bernstein an Oscar for Best Actress at the 47th Academy Awards. And reportedly
32:08
Burstyn handpicked Scorsese to direct the picture based on Coppola's glowing recommendation of the
32:13
young director. As only the second film in the history of the Oscars to sweep all five of the
32:17
major categories, including a Best Actor win for Jack Nicholson and Best Actress Award for
32:21
Louise Fletcher, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is notable in a number of ways. Apart from serving
32:27
as an early showcase for rising stars like Danny DeVito and Brad Dourif, the 1975 drama featured
32:32
several cast members who weren't actually trained actors at all. Will Sampson, the six-foot-seven-inch
32:37
tall bronco-busting rodeo performer who co-starred as Chief Bromden, had never acted before. The same
32:42
was true for Dr. Dean Brooks, who was the real-life superintendent of Oregon State Hospital
32:47
where director Milos Forman shot much of the film. Brooks even got several of his patients
32:52
to serve as extras and crew members on the set, but it wasn't until much later that producer
32:56
Michael Douglas learned that many of them were technically considered criminally insane
33:01
Ever wonder how many sequels Rocky has actually spawned? From 1979's Rocky II to spinoff entries
33:06
like 2018's Creed II, there are eight follow-ups to the original 1976 rags-to-riches sports drama
33:12
The first six scripts were also written completely by Sylvester Stallone, although he only directed four of them, including 1982's Rocky III and 2006's Rocky Balboa
33:22
And in a very Stallone-like move, actor Michael B. Jordan, who stars as Apollo Creed's son Adonis
33:27
in the Creed series, took over the director's chair for Creed III. Is this a true Rocky sequel
33:32
or merely a part of the Rocky cinematic universe? This is an actual argument I had
33:36
and I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments. Woody Allen struck pay dirt with his
33:40
let's call it sixth film, Annie Hall, the 1977 romantic comedy that was partly based on his past
33:46
romance with co-star Diane Keaton. Keaton later nabbed the Best Actress Oscar at the 50th Academy
33:51
Awards, and sparked a major fashion craze, with her turn as the titular Annie, a klutzy, menswear-loving
33:57
manic pixie dream girl who audiences couldn't help but lerve, loave, and luff. But for all of
34:02
the film's future acclaim, Alan actually struggled to come up with a name for it. He shot it without
34:06
an official title, although he originally wanted to call it Anhedonia, after a mental health
34:11
disorder that makes individuals unable to feel pleasure. Ultimately, Alan made it a real-life
34:15
ode to Keaton, as the flick's title is a play on Diane Hall, her birth name
34:20
Russian Roulette is a recurring theme in the 1978 war drama The Deer Hunter. But according
34:25
to director and co-writer Michael Cimino, one scene in particular went pretty method
34:29
when star Robert De Niro requested a live round for his revolver to be used in a Russian Roulette
34:34
scene with co-star John Kazali. Cimino claimed that Kazali agreed to it and didn't bat an eye
34:39
However, he did demand that the gun get checked between takes to make sure that a live round
34:43
wasn't next up in the chamber. Although she'd end up winning her first Oscar for her work in
34:48
the 1979 divorce drama Kramer vs. Kramer, actress Meryl Streep wasn't director Robert Benton's first
34:54
choice to play the part of Joanna, the litigious ex-wife to Ted, star Dustin Hoffman's single dad
34:58
character in the flick. Several other leading ladies, including Kate Jackson of Charlie's Angels
35:03
fame were offered the part first, but declined. Streep, who was originally brought in for
35:07
a smaller role, envisioned Joanna as more sympathetic than she was originally depicted
35:11
in Avery Corman's 1977 novel on which the film was based. But Streep's softer take
35:16
clearly won out with Academy voters and audiences alike. For his directorial debut, Robert Redford opted to adapt Ordinary People, Judith Guest's
35:24
bestselling 1976 novel of the same name, about a family falling apart at the seams. Though
35:29
Though his adaptation earned multiple awards at the 53rd Academy Awards, including a Best
35:34
Director Oscar for Redford, the book itself was and remains highly controversial. There
35:38
were attempts to ban it from school libraries throughout the 1980s, and it actually made
35:42
the American Library Association's list of the 100 most challenged books of the 1990s
35:46
stemming from its graphic depictions of sexuality and references to death by suicide. Redford
35:51
purchased the rights to the book before it hit shelves. He and writer Alvin Sargent worked
35:55
the script for three years, consulting guests along the way. The highly evocative name of the
36:00
celebrated 1981 sports drama Chariots of Fire might seem like a stroke of good luck, like
36:05
screenwriter Colin Wellen just figured out a killer turn of phrase that immediately captures the vibe
36:10
of two Olympic athletes competing for eternal glory, as seen in the film. But in truth, the
36:14
title was actually inspired by verses in the King James Bible, and also a poem usually called
36:19
Jerusalem that was written by William Blake in the early 19th century. Gandhi, the sprawling 1982
36:25
biopic about the life and times of Mohandas Gandhi was director Richard Attenborough's
36:29
passion project, and his third attempt at trying to get a movie about the Indian independence
36:33
movement leader off the ground. His first effort was in 1952, but it failed to launch
36:38
He tried again around 1963, and even gained the support of Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first
36:44
prime minister. But after Nehru's death in 1964, that project stalled out as well
36:49
It wasn't until 1980 that Attenborough finally secured the support and financing needed to bring
36:53
his vision of the revered figure to life. Deborah Winger and Shirley MacLaine were both nominated for the Best Actress Oscar in 1984
37:01
for the moody tearjerker Terms of Endearment, which earned a total of five Oscars at the
37:05
56th Academy Awards including a Best Supporting Actor win for Jack Nicholson But when it came time for the duo who played mother and daughter on screen and reportedly had a pretty contentious relationship off of it to face off for the gold things got even more heated As McClane made her way down
37:21
the aisle after seizing the victory, she reportedly whispered to Winger, you deserve half of this. To which Winger replied, I'll take it. In the end, McClane still thanked
37:31
her outspoken co-star in her acceptance speech, but made a point of adding in the end
37:34
I deserve this. Thank you. You might not know it, but there are actually two versions of the 1984
37:41
period drama Amadeus. The flick, which takes its cues from playwright Peter Schaeffer's Tony
37:46
award-winning stage play about the life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, was initially released in PG
37:51
format. In 2002, Milos Forman released an R-rated director's cut, which pushes the film's length up
37:57
to roughly three hours. Robert Redford ran into some trouble early into the making of the 1985
38:02
romantic drama Out of Africa, which was based on the 1937 memoir by Karen Blixen, a Danish author
38:08
writing under the pseudonym Isak Dinesen. Blixen's tome captures her tumultuous relationship with
38:14
British aristocrat Dennis Finch Hatton, whom Redford stars as in the adaptation. But if you
38:19
watch the film, you'll notice that Redford doesn't speak with a British accent. This unexpected move
38:24
was the work of director Sidney Pollack, who felt that audiences might be thrown by Rob as an
38:29
Englishman. So he nixed it. The 1986 war drama Platoon wasn't Oliver Stone's first attempt at
38:35
making a film inspired by his experiences in the Vietnam War. In 1969, the director and screenwriter
38:40
penned Break, a semi-autobiographical, albeit psychedelic, look at his time serving in active
38:46
combat. Stone actually sent a copy of Break to Jim Morrison of The Doors. He envisioned the iconic
38:51
frontman playing the lead role, and that the soundtrack would be set to classic tracks like
38:55
break on through to the other side. Morrison never responded, but had a copy of the script
39:00
with him in Paris in 1971. It was found by one of his managers in his apartment after he died
39:05
In 1990, the wife of that manager returned the script to Stone, who would go on to direct a
39:10
1991 biopic inspired by the late singer. The Last Emperor, a drama about Pu Yi, the last emperor of
39:16
China, courted major acclaim upon its release in 1987, and some major controversy. A 30-second
39:22
sequence that focused on the Nanjing Massacre, a brutal mass murder of Chinese civilians by the
39:27
Imperial Japanese Army, which began in late 1937 and stretched on for six weeks in what was the
39:32
capital city of the Republic of China, was removed by the Sochukwu Fuji Company ahead of its
39:37
distribution in Japanese theaters. The company feared it would be too gruesome for audiences
39:43
Director Bernardo Bertolucci was reportedly livid over the censorship, claiming it was
39:48
revolting, and that he wasn't involved in the decision. The distribution company ultimately
39:52
restored the scene, referring to the whole episode as a big misunderstanding. After starring in the
39:57
1988 hit Rain Man, star Dustin Hoffman, who scored a Best Actor award at the 61st Academy Awards for
40:03
his work in the film, actually walked away with an arguably even bigger prize, one of the two 1949
40:08
Buick Roadmaster convertibles used during production. There are a number of Oscar firsts
40:13
connected with the 1989 drama Driving Miss Daisy, which scooped up multiple awards at the 62nd
40:19
Academy Awards, including for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay. Among those firsts
40:24
actress Jessica Tandy nabbed the Oscar for Best Actress for Driving Miss Daisy
40:28
and at 80 years old became the oldest winner of the award in the show's history
40:33
1990s Dances with Wolves tells the story of a Civil War lieutenant who connects with a Lakota
40:37
tribe in the American West. The Best Picture winner didn't rely on CGI to bring its impressive
40:42
set pieces to life. When the script called for 3,500 bison, the filmmakers had to find 3,500
40:47
real animals to set loose on the prairie, which they got from a local ranch. Rounding them up was
40:52
so time-consuming that the crew had just one opportunity to film the stampede per day. With
40:57
help from 20 wranglers, a helicopter, and 10 pickup trucks, they recorded the footage they
41:01
needed in eight days. For close-ups of the animals, they acquired two domesticated buffalo
41:06
Neil Young's pet named Mammoth, and the mascot of a South Dakota meat manufacturer named Cody
41:11
Cody had a taste for Oreos, which his handler used to get him to charge at the camera. Fun fact
41:15
that is also how the Mental Floss video team gets me to perform. In The Silence of the Lambs
41:20
an FBI trainee played by Jodie Foster turns to a cannibal serial killer named Hannibal Lecter for
41:25
insights into her search for a different killer known as Buffalo Bill. Anthony Hopkins channeled
41:29
some unlikely muses for his Oscar-winning portrayal of Lecter. He revealed that one was a combination
41:34
of HAL 9000 from 2001 A Space Odyssey and a submarine, because he was like a machine who
41:39
comes in like a silent shark. The other was a teacher he had years ago who would slice you up
41:44
intellectually. And apparently after the movie premiered, the teacher recognized himself in the
41:49
performance. Clint Eastwood was already a Hollywood legend by 1992. He had directed and starred in
41:55
dozens of movies by that point. But Unforgiven, which follows a geriatric bandit in the Old West
42:00
who comes out of retirement for a bounty hunting gig, was the first to garner him recognition from
42:04
the Academy with Oscar nominations for Best Actor, Best Picture, and Best Director
42:09
After dropping out of college in 1968, Steven Spielberg had no trouble finding success as a
42:15
filmmaker. It was only after directing multiple blockbusters and collecting several Oscars that
42:19
he decided to go back to school and finish his degree. In 2002, he enrolled at Cal State Long
42:23
Beach and earned his credits by turning in assignments under a pseudonym. For his advanced
42:27
filmmaking class, he submitted Schindler's List. That easily makes it the most lauded student film
42:32
of all time. Forrest Gump is an unlikely source of wisdom, as he experiences the major pop-cultural
42:38
and political events of the latter half of the 20th century throughout his titular film
42:43
It's not a stretch to think he said something profound in his anti-Vietnam rally speech
42:48
but the exact content of that speech was a pain point for filmmakers. Director Robert Zemeckis was
42:52
dissatisfied with what screenwriter Eric Roth had written, so Roth asked Billy Crystal and Robin
42:57
Williams to punch up the section. When those drafts didn't work, Zemeckis came up with a simple
43:01
workaround, having the microphone plug be pulled as soon as Farah starts talking
43:05
Though his speech doesn't make it into the film, alternate footage released in A Making Of reveals he says
43:10
There's only one thing I can tell you about the war in Vietnam. In Vietnam, your best good friend can get shot
43:15
That's all I have to say about that. If you're familiar with one element of Braveheart, it's likely the iconic blue paint that Mel
43:22
Gibson wears as William Wallace. While the circa 1300 Scottish warrior he portrays leading a revolt against England before he's
43:28
ultimately executed was real, there's no evidence he wore face paint into battle. The movie's makeup
43:33
department decided to ignore the anachronism, and the decision paid off. In addition to winning
43:38
Best Picture that year, Braveheart secured an Oscar for Best Makeup. Kristen Scott Thomas wasn't
43:43
a huge name in Hollywood when she went out for the female lead in The English Patient
43:47
but she was determined to get the part. After she nailed her audition, director Anthony Mangiella
43:52
promised Kristen Scott Thomas the role, which caused friction with studio executives. They wanted
43:58
to mean more for Katherine, and were so adamant about casting her that they delayed production
44:02
Mangiello was equally stubborn, and he ended up moving the project to a new studio to get
44:06
it made. His instincts were spot on, and Kristen Scott Thomas landed a Best Actress Oscar nomination
44:11
for her work in the film. Titanic grossed nearly billion during its initial run making it the most successful movie ever at the time not adjusted for inflation I did my part by seeing it seven times in theaters and yes that true James Cameron historic disaster film is seen as a high mark in Hollywood today
44:29
But it wasn't always seen as money in the bank. The director wanted to center the 1912
44:33
maritime disaster around a star-crossed love story between a wealthy young woman in first
44:37
class and a starving artist in steerage. The studio executives wanted something action-packed
44:43
more along the lines of Cameron's previous works, and they doubted that such a romance-forward
44:47
story would appeal to a wide audience. Despite their hesitations, they greenlit the movie based
44:52
on the director's stellar track record. As filming began, Cameron didn't succeed in instilling
44:56
confidence. The already massive production went over schedule and over budget, and the movie drew
45:01
comparisons to the doomed voyage that inspired it in the press. The cast and crew were also drugged
45:06
with PCP via some spiked chowder during filming, but that's a story for a different day
45:11
Skeptics were proven wrong at the box office as well at that year's Academy Awards
45:15
Titanic won a record-tying 11 Oscars, including Best Picture. We don't know much about the personal life of William Shakespeare
45:22
but Shakespeare in Love imagines a fictional love affair for the writer that was as romantic as his plays
45:28
The film won seven Oscars its year, including a Best Supporting Actress trophy for Dame Judi Dench
45:33
Her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth I took just a few minutes of screen time
45:37
and she acknowledged the awkwardness of being recognized for such a small part in her acceptance speech
45:41
Cate Blanchett was nominated in the lead actress category that year for playing the titular part in
45:45
Elizabeth, marking the first time in Oscars history that two actresses were nominated the
45:49
same year for playing the same character in separate films. In American Beauty, Lester Burnham's
45:54
new lease on life is spurred by a disturbing crush on his teenage daughter's best friend
45:59
We see the infatuation develop in real time during the film's infamous cheerleading scene
46:03
This sequence was choreographed by none other than Paula Abdul. A few years before becoming
46:07
a judge on American Idol, the pop star lent her talents to 1999's Best Picture winner
46:12
For the project, Abdul channeled her days as a cheerleader and head choreographer for
46:16
the Los Angeles Lakers cheerleading team. Gladiator tells the story of a Roman general who loses everything when he's betrayed by
46:22
the son of the Emperor. He ends up enslaved, but through his fighting skills in the arena, he's able to avenge
46:27
the murders of his family. Though he was never forced to fight to the death, Russell Crowe endured plenty of abuse
46:33
while filming Gladiator. Following a sword fight scene, the actor lost all feeling in his right forefinger for two years
46:40
A Beautiful Mind is the biopic of John Nash, a mathematician who did Nobel Prize-worthy work
46:45
while struggling with a mental illness eventually diagnosed as schizophrenia. Though the average viewer would likely never notice, the mathematical equations Russell Crowe's
46:53
character writes in the movie actually make sense. Filmmakers hired Bernard College math
46:58
professor Dave Baer to consult on the movie's complicated mathematics. His academic expertise
47:02
wasn't the only thing that made him a good fit for the project. After hiring him to be a consultant
47:07
filmmakers noticed that Beyer's hands and handwriting were similar to Crow's. With some
47:11
help from the makeup department, he acted as Crow's hand double in close-up shots where John Nash
47:15
scribbles equations on a chalkboard. Based on the Broadway show of the same name, Chicago follows two
47:21
female performers each facing trial for murder during the Roaring Twenties. When the movie won
47:25
the Oscar for Best Picture in 2002, it became the first musical to do so in over three decades
47:31
The last musical to receive the honor was the movie adaptation of Oliver in 1969
47:35
More than 20 years later, the Academy has yet to bestow its most prestigious award upon another musical
47:41
Unless you count La La Land's two minutes in the limelight during the 2016 Best Picture fiasco
47:47
In The Return of the King, Frodo and Sam must finish their quest to destroy the one ring they started at the beginning of the epic fantasy series
47:54
The scene in the third and final film where Frodo orders Sam to go home
47:58
is one of the most heart-wrenching moments of the Lord of the Rings franchise
48:02
It's even more impactful when you know that Sean Astin and Elijah Wood's dialogue was filmed a year apart
48:07
The three installments were filmed together as part of one long production, and as is the case with most movie shoots, scenes were filmed out of order
48:15
This led to some quirks in the shooting schedule, with the year-long gap between Sam and Frodo's parts in the same scene being the most extreme example
48:24
Alongside Best Picture, Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby scored him another record
48:28
His movie about an underdog female boxer training under a jaded mentor
48:31
earned him the Oscar for Best Director at age 74. He still holds that distinction two decades later
48:37
though if Martin Scorsese claims the Best Director award at this year's ceremony, he will have beaten the record by seven years
48:43
Crash beat out Brokeback Mountain, Capote, Good Night and Good Luck, and Munich to win the Best Picture Oscar for 2005
48:50
a decision that's often regarded as one of the Academy's biggest blunders
48:54
The film follows the overlapping stories of seemingly unrelated characters in Los Angeles
48:58
who find themselves embroiled in social and racial tensions. It regularly tops the list of worst Best Picture winners
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and when Academy members were polled in 2015, they admitted they would have awarded Brokeback Mountain instead if given the chance
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Even director Paul Haggis agrees that his film wasn't necessarily the best of the year
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He told HitFix in 2015, I'm very glad to have those Oscars. They're lovely things. But you shouldn't ask me what the best film
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of the year was because I wouldn't be voting for Crash, only because I saw the artistry that was
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in the other films. Elsewhere, he's commented that he's Canadian, so he can't call the other films
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losers. Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese are frequent collaborators, and the pair nearly teamed
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up for The Departed. The movie is about a Boston cop who goes undercover to gain access to the
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Irish mob, while, unbeknownst to him, the mob plants a spy in his police unit. Robert De Niro
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was offered his choice of playing either mob boss Frank Costello or police captain Quinen
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and declined both roles to pursue his own directing project. But the duo has continued
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to work together since then, and in total they've worked on 10 films, including 2023's Killers of the
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Flower Moon. When a Vietnam vet finds millions of dollars in the desert, his path crosses with the
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cattle stun gun-wielding murderer looking for the cash and the sheriff looking for them both
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No Country for Old Men is known for its matter-of-fact violence, and the Coen brothers didn't skimp
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on the realistic gore. Special fake blood had to be shipped from the UK, and it cost around $800 a
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gallon. The expensive prop wasn't necessarily chosen for how it looked on camera. Because the
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bloodiest scenes were shot in the desert, the cheaper corn syrup solution that's typically used
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on movie sets would have attracted flies. The director spared their actors by splurging on
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sugar-free fake blood that pests weren't interested in. In Slumdog Millionaire, an 18-year-old game
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show contestant from the slums of Mumbai reflects on his life story against the backdrop of answering
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questions on the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. The unique story wasn't the only
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thing that set it apart as an Oscars darling in 2008. Slumdog Millionaire was the first best
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picture winner to be shot mostly on digital. The portions that were shot on film used Fuji
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also making it the first best picture recipient since 1928 not to use Kodak Film. A digital copy
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of the movie came with the DVD purchases, which was another first in Oscars history
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Director Catherine Bigelow took great pains to bring authenticity to the set of The Hurt Locker
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The movie about a bomb disposal unit facing dangers during the Iraq war was shot in Jordan
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where temperatures averaged around 120 degrees Fahrenheit, according to Jeremy Renner. So when you see the star sweating through his 100-pound bomb suit during tense scenes
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that isn acting The King speech centers around King George VI struggle with the speech impediment in light of his coronation so Colin Firth vocal performance was crucial to the story success His younger sister Kate Firth is a professional voice coach and he leaned on her expertise when preparing for the role She acted as
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his consultant, occasionally visiting him on set, and some of her suggestions even made
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it into the script. According to Colin, a lot of the routines that you see, the bizarre
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stuff, were her ideas. Silent films don't have much representation on the list of Best Picture Oscar winners
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After Wings received the accolade at the first-ever Academy Awards in 1929, it would take over
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80 years for another mainly silent film to win the top honor
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The artist explores a relationship between an up-and-coming starlet and a veteran silent
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film star as the talkies become the preferred mode in Hollywood. Its near-total lack of dialogue wasn't the only way the artist recreated 1920s cinema
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It was also the first Best Picture winner presented in the 4x3 aspect ratio since 1953
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and the first fully black and white film to win since 1960. Argo is inspired by the true story of the Iran hostage crisis of 1979
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After escaping a hostage situation in Tehran and finding shelter with the Canadian ambassador
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six American refugees were trapped, waiting for help. To get them out alive, a CIA agent concocted a fake movie production as a cover for the rescue operation
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The actors who played the refugees in Argo didn't check into a hotel after a day of filming
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Director Ben Affleck arranged for them to stay in the same house that served as the Canadian ambassador's home in the film
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To further emphasize the feeling of being trapped in the building, Affleck forbade the performers from using their phones or contacting anyone on the outside
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According to actor Rory Cochran, the forced method acting was a surprisingly pleasant experience that helped him get into character
53:08
Based on the 1853 memoir of the same name, Twelve Years a Slave tells the harrowing story of how Solomon Northrup was kidnapped and sold into slavery before ultimately regaining his freedom
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The movie has been praised for its historical accuracy, and that commitment to authenticity comes through in the details
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It was shot on real antebellum plantations, and costume designer Patricia Norris used dirt
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from the sights to make the clothing look worn. Some of the costumes that appear in the film were
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historical garments once worn by actual enslaved people. These aesthetic details, as well as the
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story itself, garnered praise from historians upon the film's release. In a delightfully meta
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performance, Michael Keaton plays an aging superhero actor hoping for a comeback on Broadway
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in 2014's Birdman. One of the most memorable scenes in The Best Picture winner involves Keaton
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walking through Times Square in his underpants. Walking through Times Square is already challenging
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even for non-celebrities, and options open to filmmakers would have cost more money than
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Birdman could really afford, so they had to get creative. They hired a street drumming band to
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distract the tourists so that their attention wasn't focused on Keaton. Most of the crowd
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following Keaton are actually extras. Spotlight won the Oscars' top honor for its riveting portrayal
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of the real-life Boston journalist who investigated the widespread child abuse covered up by the
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Catholic Church. If a movie wins the Oscar for Best Picture, it's almost guaranteed to clean up
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in other categories. Despite being nominated for six Oscars in 2015, Spotlight only won for Best
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Original Screenplay in addition to being named the Best Film of the Year. The last time a Best
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Picture winner went home with just one additional Oscar was in 1953, when The Greatest Show on Earth
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received Best Picture and the since-retired Best Motion Picture Story Award. Moonlight proved that
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you don't need to spend a lot of money to win recognition from the Academy. The movie, which
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focuses on a black American boy growing into a young man and coming to terms with his sexuality
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became the lowest budget Best Picture winner in Oscars history, adjusted for inflation when it
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took home the final award of the night. Barry Jenkins made the movie for just $1.5 million
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For comparison, Best Picture nominee from the previous year, Mad Max Fury Road
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had a budget of $150 million, and a 30-second ad that ran during the Oscars broadcast was made for
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almost $2 million. Doug Jones is the king of transforming for a part. After playing the
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Pale Man in Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth and Abe Sapien in his Hellboy movies, he collaborated
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with the director again to play the amphibian man in The Shape of Water. His character wins the heart
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of a mute janitor played by Sally Hawkins, who falls in love with him and helps him escape a
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research facility in the 1960s. He didn't have any lines, so to prepare for the part, Jones studied
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the body language of dogs responding to their owners. He also mimicked the movements of Spanish
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matadors to bring some sensuality to the cold-blooded creature. Green Book is based on the real-life
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story of the relationship the black pianist Don Shirley developed with his white driver and bodyguard
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while touring the American South in 1962. Director Peter Farrelly wanted to avoid cliche choices when
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selecting the movie's early 60s soundtrack. Lucky for him, his wife's friend was dating Robert Plant
56:02
at the time, and he used a double date as an opportunity to get the former Led Zeppelin
56:06
frontman's advice. Deep cuts on the soundtrack like Pretty Little Thing by Sonny Boy Williamson
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and Goodbye My Lover Goodbye by Robert Mosley came directly from that conversation. English
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English-language movies, particularly ones made in America, tend to dominate the major
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Oscars categories. So when Bong Joon-ho's Parasite won the top prize for 2019, it made history many times over
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The movie centers on a poor family who devise a plot to infiltrate a wealthy household by replacing its current servants and lying about their identities
56:35
It was the first South Korean film to win any Oscar, including Best Picture
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It was also the first Asian motion picture and the first one in a language other than English to receive the Academy's highest honor
56:46
Adapted from the non-fiction book Nomadland, Surviving America in the 21st Century, Nomadland
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follows a widow who abandons her old life to travel the country and live out of her van
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Frances McDormand is the only big-name actor that appears in Nomadland. Virtually the rest
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of the cast is made up of non-professional actors playing fictionalized versions of themselves
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Many of the nomads in the film were also featured in the book it's based on, and their names in the movie are also their names in real life
57:11
An English-language remake of a French-Belgian film from 2014, Coda tells the story of a hearing child of deaf adults who balances supporting her family's
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struggling business with her own career aspirations. The movie earned Apple its first
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Oscar for Best Picture, a sentence that would have made zero sense a couple decades ago
57:28
Apple acquired the film after it premiered at Sundance and released it through Apple TV+
57:32
making it the first movie distributed by a streaming service to win Best Picture
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Coda did play in theaters as well, but not many people saw it there. It also made history as the
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lowest earning Best Picture ever adjusted for inflation, and nearly not adjusted for inflation
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with a box office gross of just $1.2 million at the time of its win. In Everything Everywhere All
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at Once, the owner of a laundromat is pulled into an interdimensional adventure that forces her to
57:55
jump between different versions of herself from alternate universes. Instead of working with a
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post-production house, The Daniels, directing team Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, gathered a small
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team of filmmakers to create the movie's unique visual effects. Visual effects lead Zach Stoltz
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was a friend of the Daniels, but it was his first time supervising the effects of a feature-length
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film. In the end, more than 80% of the visual effects on screen was the work of just five
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artists. The process was made more unconventional by the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced the team
58:23
to work separately from their homes. And if you want a fact about the Best Picture winner from
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2023, well, so do I, as soon as we find out what it is. That ends another super, supersized episode
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of The List Show. And if you've made it this far, you like me. You really like me. What movie do
58:39
you believe got snubbed for Best Picture? Let us know in the comments
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