7 Oscar Winning Movies We Nearly Forgot

Yeah, I know you probably streamed all the 2021 nominees and have placed your bets.

But even if we’re all looking forward to the next great Academy Award winner, we shouldn’t forget about some memorable classics that won an Oscar. Some movies are simply forgotten and not because they’re bad, it’s just because the Oscar ebbs and flows, leaving us with the impression that these films aren’t a big deal anymore.

Some filmes deserve to be remembered and that’s what we’re doing here. So, let’s jump in the DeLorean time machine and take a ride with Doc and Marty Mc Fly and see the 10 Academy Award-winning movies we nearly forgot.

Crash (2004)

With a long list of stars such as Sandra Bullock, Brendan Fraser, Terrence Howard and Thandie Newton, this 2004 crime drama film was nominated for six awards and won three: best picture, best film editing, and best original screenplay.

The film features racial and social tensions in LA and it follows various people’s lives as their lives interconnect through a car crash. The film earned several accolades and nominations, besides the Oscar, such as BAFTA, Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild Award.

Babel (2006)

Babel is a 2006 psychological drama film directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, who later won awards for Best Director Oscars for Birdman and The Revenant. Starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, the film follows multiple stories in Morocco, Japan, Mexico, and the United States.

Perhaps not coincidentally, Babel, just like Crash, provides a powerful story and shows us how connected we all are — no matter who or where we are.

The English Patient (1996)

The English Patient is based on a book novel of the same name, the film tells the story of four people who find themselves in an abandoned villa in northern Italy in the last months of World War II.

The film received a ton of Oscar nominations (and won 9 out of 12!), including Best Picture, Best Director for Minghella, and Best Supporting Actress for Juliette Binoche. In 2018, the writer Michael Ondaatje was named the greatest-ever winner of the Man Booker Prize for The English Patient.

Spotlight (2015)

Starring Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton and Rachel McAdams, Spotlight tells the story of a team of journalists to investigate allegations and prove a cover-up of sexual abuse within the Roman Catholic Church.It is based on a series of stories by the Spotlight team that earned The Globe the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.

The movie received widespread critical praise and won two out of six nominations — the Oscar for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay.

Casablanca (1942)

The classic of the classics, this 40’s masterpiece, has only improved with age. It's a war film that is not about the war so much as it is about people figuring out life during war circumstances.

Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), who owns a nightclub in Casablanca, discovers his old flame Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) is in town with her husband, Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid). Laszlo is a famed rebel, and with Germans on his tail, Ilsa knows Rick can help them get out of the country.

12 Years a Slave (2013)

At this brilliant look at American slavery, Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a free black man, is kidnapped and sold into slavery in the South. He struggles continually to survive and maintain some of his dignity while facing the cruelty of his owner.

The movie is a biographical period-drama film and an adaptation of the 1853 slave memoir of Solomon. It received nine Academy Award nominations, winning three: Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress for Lupita Nyong'o.

The Godfather, Part II (1974)

While Mario Puzo's Mafia saga’s first film receives most of the praises, we shouldn’t forget about Al Pacino and Robert De Niro’s outstanding performances in part II, which contrasts the life of Corleone father and son.

It follows Michael Corleone’s problems (Al Pacino) in 1958 and of a young immigrant Vito Corleone (Robert De Niro) in 1917's Hell's Kitchen. Michael survives many misfortunes and Vito is introduced to a life of crime.

The film was nominated for eleven Academy Awards at the 47th Academy Awards, won six, and became the first sequel to win for Best Picture.