Academy Award for Best Picture facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Academy Award for Best Picture
Sean Baker, Samantha Quan (pictured) & Alex Coco: co-recipients
Presented by	Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS)
Country	United States
First awarded	May 16, 1929; 96 years ago (1929-05-16) (for films released during the 1927/1928 film season)
Currently held by	Anora (2024)

The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the most important Academy Awards, also known as the Oscars. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) has given out this award every year since 1929. It goes to the people who produce the best movie of the year. This award is special because every member of the Academy can suggest and vote for the winner. It's usually the last award given out at the ceremony and is seen as the biggest honor.

At the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, where the Oscars have been held since 2002, you can see the names of all the Best Picture winners on the Grand Staircase columns. So far, 97 films have won this award, out of 611 that have been nominated.

History of the Best Picture Award

How the Award Name Changed

When the first Academy Awards happened in 1929, there were two top awards: "Outstanding Picture" and "Unique and Artistic Picture." Wings, a war movie, won "Outstanding Picture." Sunrise, an art film, won "Unique and Artistic Picture." These awards were meant to celebrate different kinds of great filmmaking. A movie called The Jazz Singer was so new because it had sound, that it got a special award instead of competing.

The next year, the "Unique and Artistic Picture" award was removed. The Academy decided that the award Wings won was the highest honor. Movies with sound were then allowed to compete. The award's name changed a few times over the years:

• 1927/28–1928/29: Academy Award for Outstanding Picture
• 1929/30–1940: Academy Award for Outstanding Production
• 1941–1943: Academy Award for Outstanding Motion Picture
• 1944–1961: Academy Award for Best Motion Picture
• 1962–present: Academy Award for Best Picture

Since 1962, it has simply been called Best Picture.

Who Gets the Award?

Until 1950, the award went to the movie's production company. Then, the rules changed so that all the credited producers of a film would receive the award. In 1999, they set a limit of three producers per film, after five producers for Shakespeare in Love all received the award.

As of 2020, the rules say that only producers who have a "producer" or "produced by" credit on screen can receive the award. They must also have done most of the producing work. Sometimes, two people who work together a lot can be counted as one "producer." The Academy can make exceptions, like when Anthony Minghella and Sydney Pollack were included for The Reader after they had passed away.

Steven Spielberg has been nominated for Best Picture 13 times, which is the most for any individual. He has won once. Kathleen Kennedy has the most nominations without a win, with eight. Sam Spiegel and Saul Zaentz have won the most times, with three wins each.

Best Picture and Best Director Awards

The Best Picture award and the Best Director award often go together. Out of 96 Best Picture winners, 69 also won Best Director. Only a few films have won Best Picture without their director being nominated for Best Director:

• Wings (1927/28)
• Grand Hotel (1931/32)
• Driving Miss Daisy (1989)
• Argo (2012)
• Green Book (2018)
• CODA (2021)

More Nominees for Best Picture

On June 24, 2009, the Academy announced that the number of Best Picture nominees would increase from 5 to 10, starting with the 82nd Academy Awards (2009). Many people thought this change happened because popular movies like The Dark Knight and WALL-E (both from 2008) weren't nominated. The Academy said it was a return to how things were in the 1930s and 1940s, when 8 to 12 films were nominated.

AMPAS President Sid Ganis said that having 10 nominees would let voters recognize more great movies that might have been missed before. In 2011, the rule changed again to allow between 5 and 10 nominees. This system lasted until 2021, when the Academy went back to a set number of ten nominees from the 94th Academy Awards onward.

Movies Not in English

Nineteen films not in English have been nominated for Best Picture. Parasite (Korean, 2019) was the first film not in English to win Best Picture.

Ten films that were fully funded outside the United States have won Best Picture. Eight of these were from the United Kingdom. The Artist (2011) was from France, and Parasite (2019) was from South Korea.

Movie Ratings

Since 1968, most Best Picture winners have been rated R.

• Oliver! (1968) is the only G-rated film to win.
• Midnight Cowboy (1969) is the only X-rated film (now called NC-17) to win. It was later changed to an R rating.
• Eleven films with a PG rating have won, from Patton (1970) to Driving Miss Daisy (1989).
• Eleven films with a PG-13 rating (which started in 1984) have won, from The Last Emperor (1987) to CODA (2021).

Different Types of Films and Stories

• Animated Films: Three animated films have been nominated for Best Picture: Beauty and the Beast (1991), Up (2009), and Toy Story 3 (2010). None have won.
• Comic Book Films: No comic book film has won, but three have been nominated: Skippy (1931), Black Panther (2018), and Joker (2019).
• Fantasy Films: Two fantasy films have won: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) and The Shape of Water (2017).
• Horror Films: The Silence of the Lambs (1991) is the only horror film to win Best Picture. Six others have been nominated.
• Science-Fiction Films: Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) was the first science-fiction film to win Best Picture.
• Disaster Films: Titanic (1997) is the only disaster film to win Best Picture.
• Documentaries: No documentary has been nominated for Best Picture. A special category for Best Documentary Feature was created in 1941.
• Musicals: Several musical movies based on non-musical stories have won Best Picture, including Gigi, West Side Story, and Chicago.
• Epic and Historical Films: Many epic or historical films have won Best Picture, such as the first winner Wings, Gone with the Wind, Ben-Hur, Schindler's List, and Oppenheimer.

Sequels and Remakes Nominated

• Sequels: Ten direct sequels have been nominated for Best Picture. Only The Godfather Part II (1974) and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) have won. The Godfather series is the only one with two Best Picture winners.
• Remakes: Ben-Hur (1959) was a remake of a 1925 silent film and won Best Picture. The Departed (2006) was the first remake of a non-English film to win. CODA (2021) was the second.

Silent Film Winners

The very first Best Picture award went to the silent film Wings in 1927/28. The Artist (2011) was the first mostly silent film to win Best Picture since Wings. It was also the first Best Picture winner made entirely in black-and-white since 1960's The Apartment.

Movie Availability

No Best Picture winner has been completely lost. However, some, like All Quiet on the Western Front and Lawrence of Arabia, exist in versions that are different from their original release. This is usually because they were edited for re-release.

Diversity Standards

The Academy has created new rules called Academy Aperture 2025. Starting with the 96th Academy Awards (for films released in 2023), a movie must meet at least two of four standards to be considered for Best Picture. These standards are about:

• Who is shown on screen and in the story.
• Who is in charge of the creative team and project.
• Opportunities for people in the industry.
• How the movie reaches its audience.

These rules are meant to create more chances for people from groups that haven't been well-represented, like different racial and ethnic groups, women, LGBTQ+ people, and people with disabilities. These standards only apply to the Best Picture category.

2017 Ceremony Mistake

At the 89th Academy Awards on February 26, 2017, there was a big mistake. Presenter Faye Dunaway announced La La Land as the Best Picture winner. But she and Warren Beatty had been given the wrong envelope, which was for "Best Actress" (which Emma Stone had won for La La Land). While accepting the award, La La Land producer Jordan Horowitz realized the error and announced that Moonlight had actually won.

Winners and Nominees

In the lists below, the winner is always shown first in a gold row. The other nominated films follow. The year shown is when the film was first released in Los Angeles. This is usually the year before the Oscar ceremony. For example, a film released in 2005 would be considered for the 2005 Best Picture Oscar, which was given out in 2006.

Until 1950, the Best Picture award went to the production company. From 1951 onwards, it has gone to the producer or producers. The Academy now allows any number of producers to be nominated if they are considered eligible.

The number of nominated films has changed over time:

• First ceremony: 3 films nominated.
• Next three years: 5 films nominated.
• 1933: Expanded to 8.
• 1934: Expanded to 10.
• 1935: Expanded to 12.
• 1937: Dropped back to 10.
• 1945: Reduced to 5.
• 2009: Raised to 10.
• 2011-2020: Varied between 5 and 10.
• Since 2022: A full 10 nominees.

For the first six ceremonies, films released over two years were eligible. Since 1935, films released in the previous calendar year (January 1 to December 31) have been eligible.

     indicates the winner

1920s

1930s

1940s

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

2010s

2020s

People with Multiple Wins

People with Multiple Nominations

Film Companies with Many Nominations and Wins

Columbia Pictures and United Artists have won the most Best Picture awards, with 12 each. 20th Century Studios has had the most nominations, with 64.

See also

In Spanish: Anexo:Óscar a la mejor película para niños

• BAFTA Award for Best Film