For years in which I’ve seen every film nominated for Best Picture, they’re ranked from best to worst in its listing. Otherwise, films are listed in alphabetical order. Titles in bold are ones I’ve seen, and the ones in italics are personal favorites. Additionally, titles marked with an asterisk are the films that won Best Picture in their given year.
1st Academy Awards (1927-1928):
The first year of the Academy Awards saw two different Best Picture categories: Outstanding Picture and Unique and Artistic Picture. The former category would go on to be recognized as the Best Picture category we know today, but I still want to include the nominees from the latter category as they’re just as worthy of mention.
Outstanding Picture:
- Wings*
- 7th Heaven
- The Racket
Unique and Artistic Picture:
- Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans*
- The Crowd
- Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness
2nd Academy Awards (1928-1929):
- Alibi
- The Broadway Melody*
- The Hollywood Revue of 1929
- In Old Arizona
- The Patriot
3rd Academy Awards (1929-1930):
- All Quiet on the Western Front*
- The Divorcee
- The Big House
- The Love Parade
- Disraeli
4th Academy Awards (1930-1931):
- Cimarron*
- East Lynne
- The Front Page
- Skippy
- Trader Horn
5th Academy Awards (1931-1932):
- Grand Hotel*
- Shanghai Express
- Five Star Final
- The Smiling Lieutenant
- One Hour with You
- The Champ
- Bad Girl
- Arrowsmith
6th Academy Awards (1932-1933):
- I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang
- 42nd Street
- Lady for a Day
- Smilin’ Through
- State Fair
- A Farewell to Arms
- Little Women
- The Private Life of Henry VIII.
- She Done Him Wrong
- Cavalcade*
7th Academy Awards (1934):
- The Barretts of Wimpole Street
- Cleopatra
- Flirtation Walk
- The Gay Divorcee
- Here Comes the Navy
- The House of Rothschild
- Imitation of Life
- It Happened One Night*
- One Night of Love
- The Thin Man
- Viva Villa!
- The White Parade
8th Academy Awards (1935):
- Top Hat
- Mutiny on the Bounty*
- Ruggles of Red Gap
- Captain Blood
- Alice Adams
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream
- The Informer
- Les Misérables
- David Copperfield
- Broadway Melody of 1936
- Naughty Marietta
- The Lives of a Bengal Lancer
9th Academy Awards (1936):
- Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
- Dodsworth
- Libeled Lady
- San Francisco
- A Tale of Two Cities
- Romeo and Juliet
- The Story of Louis Pasteur
- Three Smart Girls
- The Great Ziegfeld*
- Anthony Adverse
10th Academy Awards (1937):
- Stage Door
- A Star Is Born
- The Awful Truth
- Dead End
- Lost Horizon
- The Life of Emile Zola*
- Captains Courageous
- One Hundred Men and a Girl
- In Old Chicago
- The Good Earth