Editors' picks #9

Just in time for this year's Academy Awards on February 24, the Film & TV Editors have picked their favourite Best Picture winners.

Moonlight & La La Land, 2016
Dir: Barry Jenkins, Dir: Damien Chazelle
Chosen by Patrick Sullivan, Film & TV Editor

YouTube / Oscars

Warren Beatty opens the envelope and faffs around, Faye Dunaway snatches it off him and announces the Best Picture 2017 winner as La La Land! Oh wait… The most excruciating moment partway through the ever-saccharine speeches was when they realised Moonlight had won and the Beatty-Dunaway double act had supposedly been given a repeat of the Best Actress card, which Emma Stone had earlier won for the modern musical masterpiece. The reason this calamity of events is my pick is not because of the almost too staged mistake, but because the films are two of the best nominees to have graced the ceremony in the past decade.

Moonlight, an heartfelt portrait with gorgeous cinematography and a structural twist - the film is split into three stages of Chiron’s life - won its hotly-contested Oscar bout with La La Land. Barry Jenkins and Damien Chazelle both were, and still are, two of the most exciting young filmmakers around, and the films a reflection of their own personal dreams and battles. Chazelle conceived the idea for La La Land while studying at Harvard University with the film’s composer, Justin Horowitz, around ten years before it was finally realised, when he still became the youngest Best Director winner, aged 32. On the other hand, Jenkins shared similar experiences with the screenwriter and writer of the original, semi-autobiographical play, Tarell Alvin McCraney, including his mother being a drug addict. Moonlight secured victory on the night, but both films will be remembered as classics for decades to come.

Chicago, 2002
Dir: Rob Marshall
Chosen by Luke Silverman, Film & TV Deputy Editor

IMDb / Miramax

Chicago is a classic stage-to-film adaptation of one of the greatest musicals. The film follows Roxie Hart (Renée Zellweger) who, having shot her lover, is sent to jail. The film delights the audience with the colourful supporting performances of Catherine Zeta-Jones as Velma Kelly and Richard Gere as Billy Flynn. Both are brilliantly slick in both their acting role and singing role. But don’t just take my word for it: along with winning Best Picture, Zeta-Jones also won the award for Best Supporting Actress, and Zellweger was also nominated for Best Actress. If you love the film or show as I do, in collaboration with MTB I am directing Chicago at the Winston Theatre, SU from February 20-23.

Million Dollar Baby, 2004
Dir: Clint Eastwood
Chosen by James Turnbull, Film & TV Online Editor

IMDb / Warner Bros

I’d love to talk about Brokeback Mountain (2005) here, but I’ve got to stick to Best Picture winners rather than Best Picture really-should-have-won-ers. Still, Million Dollar Baby was a worthy winner the previous year. The film enters familiar boxing film territory early on, as embittered former trainer Frankie (Clint Eastwood) agrees to train Maggie (Hilary Swank), a small-town Missouri waitress with dreams of turning professional. However, it becomes something far deeper, before a devastating twist sucker-punches you. Anchored brilliantly by its central trio of lost souls - including Morgan Freeman in Oscar-winning form - Million Dollar Baby demands we explore the devastating costs of our hopes and dreams.

Dances with Wolves, 1990
Dir: Kevin Costner
Chosen by Nora Gunn, Film & TV Sub-Editor

IMDb / MGM

Dances with Wolves, directed, produced by and starring Kevin Costner, is a story of a Union Lieutenant stranded alone on the western frontier. He makes contact with a local Sioux tribe, initially they are wary of one another but eventually the Lieutenant earns their respect and is endowed with the titular name ‘Dances with Wolves’. Although the film’s live action ends with optimism, an epilogue informs the audience that within thirteen years all the remaining Sioux people would be subjugated by the American government. The film’s themes of acceptance of difference, inter-racial cooperation and resistance to unwieldy governments remain as relevant today as they were in 1990.

All About Eve, 1950
Dir: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Chosen by Miles Jackson, Student Film Correspondent

IMDb / Twentieth Century Fox

It’s testament to what a good year for film 1950 was that the Academy could award Best Picture to a film as vicious, vivacious and enduring as All About Eve over the equally well-liked Sunset Boulevard. Even so, this tragicomedy of a Hollywood star usurped by a trusted friend has more than secured its place in the canon of cinema with its gorgeous framing, note-perfect screenplay and a heaven-sent cast. Bette Davis is rightly remembered for her performance as an ageing star, by turns ferocious and heartrending, but George Sanders deserves more love for his role as a deliciously evil theatre critic, as delightfully deceptive as the hall of infinite mirrors that the eponymous Eve finds herself in at the film’s end.

Which of our Editors' Picks is your favourite?