All 98 Best Picture Winners Sorted by Their Tomatometer Scores
What does Rotten Tomatoes think about each Best Picture Winner?
'Amadeus'
Some people love summer or fall, but my favorite season revolves around awards. It's that time between the Emmys and Oscars where it feels like the best films of the year are released and where I get ot live in a movie theater.
During that time, I frequently read a lot of reviews on sites like Rotten Tomatoes and Letterboxd to hear the discourse around movies.
I'm always interested not just in how I feel about a movie, but how it sits with the general public.
For an aggregate review site like Rotten Tomatoes, this is what keeps customers coming back for more. But what does the site think about all 98 Best Picture winners?
Let's see how they were reviewed.
The Top 98: Best Picture Winners Ranked
| Rank | Movie | Year | Score |
| 1 | Parasite | 2019 | 99% |
| 2 | Casablanca | 1942 | 99% |
| 3 | On the Waterfront | 1954 | 99% |
| 4 | All About Eve | 1950 | 99% |
| 5 | Moonlight | 2016 | 98% |
| 6 | Schindler's List | 1993 | 98% |
| 7 | It Happened One Night | 1934 | 98% |
| 8 | Rebecca | 1940 | 98% |
| 9 | All Quiet on the Western Front | 1930 | 98% |
| 10 | The Best Years of Our Lives | 1946 | 97% |
| 11 | Spotlight | 2015 | 97% |
| 12 | The Godfather | 1972 | 97% |
| 13 | Annie Hall | 1977 | 97% |
| 14 | The French Connection | 1971 | 97% |
| 15 | All the King's Men | 1949 | 97% |
| 16 | The Lost Weekend | 1945 | 97% |
| 17 | Argo | 2012 | 96% |
| 18 | The Godfather, Part II | 1974 | 96% |
| 19 | The Hurt Locker | 2008 | 96% |
| 20 | The Bridge on the River Kwai | 1957 | 96% |
| 21 | Unforgiven | 1992 | 96% |
| 22 | Marty | 1955 | 96% |
| 23 | Mutiny on the Bounty | 1935 | 96% |
| 24 | Hamlet | 1948 | 96% |
| 25 | In the Heat of the Night | 1967 | 96% |
| 26 | 12 Years a Slave | 2013 | 95% |
| 27 | The Artist | 2011 | 95% |
| 28 | The Silence of the Lambs | 1991 | 95% |
| 29 | An American in Paris | 1951 | 95% |
| 30 | One Battle After Another | 2025 | 94% |
| 31 | Everything Everywhere All at Once | 2022 | 93% |
| 32 | The King's Speech | 2010 | 94% |
| 33 | CODA | 2021 | 94% |
| 34 | The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King | 2003 | 94% |
| 35 | You Can't Take It With You | 1938 | 94% |
| 36 | Wings | 1927 | 94% |
| 37 | My Fair Lady | 1964 | 94% |
| 38 | Oppenheimer | 2023 | 93% |
| 39 | Nomadland | 2020 | 93% |
| 40 | Anora | 2024 | 93% |
| 41 | No Country for Old Men | 2007 | 93% |
| 42 | One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest | 1975 | 92% |
| 43 | The Sting | 1973 | 93% |
| 44 | The Apartment | 1960 | 93% |
| 45 | Lawrence of Arabia | 1962 | 93% |
| 46 | How Green Was My Valley | 1941 | 93% |
| 47 | Mrs. Miniver | 1942 | 93% |
| 48 | Rocky | 1976 | 93% |
| 49 | The Shape of Water | 2017 | 92% |
| 50 | Shakespeare in Love | 1998 | 92% |
| 51 | West Side Story | 1961 | 92% |
| 52 | The Life of Emile Zola | 1937 | 92% |
| 53 | Patton | 1970 | 92% |
| 54 | Birdman | 2014 | 91% |
| 55 | Slumdog Millionaire | 2008 | 92% |
| 56 | The Departed | 2006 | 91% |
| 57 | Oliver! | 1968 | 90% |
| 58 | Million Dollar Baby | 2004 | 90% |
| 59 | Gone With the Wind | 1939 | 90% |
| 60 | Amadeus | 1984 | 90% |
| 61 | Kramer vs. Kramer | 1979 | 90% |
| 62 | Platoon | 1986 | 89% |
| 63 | Midnight Cowboy | 1969 | 89% |
| 64 | Gandhi | 1982 | 89% |
| 65 | Ordinary People | 1980 | 90% |
| 66 | A Man for All Seasons | 1966 | 89% |
| 67 | Gigi | 1958 | 90% |
| 68 | Titanic | 1997 | 88% |
| 69 | Rain Man | 1988 | 88% |
| 70 | From Here to Eternity | 1953 | 88% |
| 71 | Chicago | 2002 | 87% |
| 72 | American Beauty | 1999 | 87% |
| 73 | Dances With Wolves | 1990 | 87% |
| 74 | Grand Hotel | 1932 | 85% |
| 75 | Ben-Hur | 1959 | 88% |
| 76 | The Deer Hunter | 1978 | 86% |
| 77 | The Last Emperor | 1987 | 86% |
| 78 | The English Patient | 1996 | 86% |
| 79 | Driving Miss Daisy | 1989 | 85% |
| 80 | Chariots of Fire | 1981 | 84% |
| 81 | The Sound of Music | 1965 | 83% |
| 82 | Tom Jones | 1963 | 83% |
| 83 | Gentleman's Agreement | 1947 | 82% |
| 84 | Terms of Endearment | 1983 | 81% |
| 85 | Gladiator | 2000 | 80% |
| 86 | Green Book | 2018 | 77% |
| 87 | Braveheart | 1995 | 74% |
| 88 | Forrest Gump | 1994 | 75% |
| 89 | A Beautiful Mind | 2001 | 74% |
| 90 | Crash | 2004 | 73% |
| 91 | Going My Way | 1944 | 85% |
| 92 | The Great Ziegfeld | 1936 | 71% |
| 93 | Around the World in 80 Days | 1956 | 72% |
| 94 | Cavalcade | 1933 | 62% |
| 95 | Out of Africa | 1985 | 62% |
| 96 | Cimarron | 1931 | 52% |
| 97 | The Greatest Show on Earth | 1952 | 50% |
| 98 | The Broadway Melody | 1929 | 42% |
A Quick Look at the Numbers
If you look at the rankings, you'll see a lot of movies that are warmly received. I am a firm believer that if you win best picture, the worst you can probably be is overrated.
In the gold standard, you have movies that become all-time classics, like Parasite, Casablanca, On the Waterfront, and All About Eve, which hold the crown for the highest critical standing among winners.
Then there's the bottom three of The Broadway Melody, The Greatest Show on Earth, and Cimarron, which remain the only Best Picture winners to sit in "Rotten" territory.
Now, if you watch these movies, you may feel different. This is highly subjective, and I actually think Cimarron is better than it gets credit for, all things considered.
Finally, it’s worth noting that recent winners like One Battle After Another (2025) and Anora (2024) have entered the list with high critical praise. And I do wonder if review culture is any different now.
Or if you're just in an all-time great spot to be at the movies.
Summing It All Up
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has crowned 98 winners since its inception in 1929, but everyone knows this is a subjective medium. So you may not know all these movies or agree with where critics ranked them.
What movies do you think deserve to be on the top or even the bottom of the list?
Let us know in the comments.
