The Academy Awards are happening tonight, bringing with them the usual buzz about which films truly deserve recognition—and the inevitable surprises that often shake up the results. Writing for the Washington Post, Dan Zak and Amy Argetsinger admit they aren’t confident the Oscars will honor the movies they believe deserve it, describing the ceremony as “usually wrong.” They’ve even put together their own list of what they see as the “real best pictures” over roughly the past 50 years.
Some of their selections align with the films that actually won, but many differ, with the writers favoring blockbuster, high-energy hits over the more serious or artistic entries that took home the awards. Their top 10 picks that they feel should have won Best Picture include:
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1975: Jaws (actual winner: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest)
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1979: Apocalypse Now (actual winner: Kramer vs. Kramer)
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1981: Raiders of the Lost Ark (actual winner: Chariots of Fire)
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1985: Back to the Future (actual winner: Out of Africa)
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1990: Goodfellas (actual winner: Dances With Wolves)
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1994: Pulp Fiction (actual winner: Forrest Gump)
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1999: The Sixth Sense (actual winner: American Beauty)
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2003: Lost in Translation (actual winner: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King)
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2012: Skyfall (actual winner: Argo)
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2022: Top Gun: Maverick (actual winner: Everything Everywhere All at Once)
The full list goes back to 1974 and includes detailed explanations of why Zak and Argetsinger think these films deserved the top honor—and which movie they believe should win tonight’s award.