Oscar Winning Classic Movies

Hollywood's first decade with sound gave rise to a number of staple genres like the screwball comedy, which featured rapid-fire dialogue laced with wit and whimsy, and lavish musicals. In the 1930s, Oscar rewarded these films with its highest honor. Also in the decade was the first Western to win Best Picture, the first-ever film to win the...

Al Pacino delivered the best performance of his career in Sidney Lumet's 1975 classic that combined a thrilling real-life bank heist and hostage situation with searing social commentary on police brutality and the three-ring circus mentality of the media. It starred Al Pacino as Sonny Wortzik, a desperate Vietnam War veteran who tries robbing a...

Every year during Oscar season, there are countless arguments over what film or actor has been snubbed by the Academy. While most complaints are dismissible, there have been a few omissions over the years that have been mystifying, and in some cases unforgivable. Here are nine classic movies that could easily have been nominated for Best...

Hollywood in the 1970s was markedly different than the one that existed in the previous three decades. The old studio system was gone thanks to financial struggles and a seismic cultural shift that saw the rise of the youth-oriented counterculture. Hollywood responded by opening the doors wider to more experimentation, resulting in a second...

Folks in the entertainment industry love to hand out awards, and the Oscar, the Academy Award, is the great-grand-daddy of them all. Here are lists of the classic movie Oscar winners from Hollywood's golden past.

The 1960s offered meaty dramatic roles for women, and featured nominees in several foreign films, something of rarity for Oscar. Except for one sunny musical role – 'Mary Poppins' – the Best Actress Oscars in the 1960s went to actresses for dramatic parts.

Actresses new to the silver screen did well among the Best Actress Oscar winners of the 1950s, But in a decade filled with strong roles for women, some great actresses were never recognized.

Oscar seemed to like his women, drunk, disabled, deranged or in immediate danger (often at the hands of their husbands) during the 1940s. As always, dramatic roles dominated the Best Actress Oscar winners of the 1940s, and many fine comic performances were bypassed.

The 1950s were part of Hollywood’s Golden Age, but some great performances were justly rewarded, while others never received their due. The Academy finally made up its long snub of Humphrey Bogart with a Best Actor award in the 1950s.

The Academy posted a very uneven record in the 1940s, recognizing some wonderful male performances with the Best Actor statuette and utterly ignoring roles in classics that would stand the test of time. Among the greats snubbed in the 1940s were Cary Grant, Humphrey Bogart and John Wayne.

Oscar tends to favor big, dramatic performances in big, “important” films. While many worthy performances were best Actor Oscar winners in the 1960s, the academy sometimes missed the mark, failing to honor or even nominate many of the most memorable and groundbreaking performances of the decade.

As the Best Picture Oscar winners of the 1940s prove, sometimes the Academy hits – and sometimes it misses by a mile. 1941 may have seen the most controversial Best Picture dust-up of all time, when the immortal 'Citizen Kane' was beaten by 'How Green Was My Valley'.

In the 1950s, Oscar favored a mix of big-time epics, sunny musicals and dark melodramas for its top award. Here are the classic movies that captured the Best Picture Oscar in that decade of American post-war prosperity - and the movies that lost.

Big musicals were the big Best Picture Oscar winners of the 1960s, along with tough social dramas and British epics with wit and high style. It was a decade that brought forth both frothy entertainment and sharp social commentary.