Best Picture Nominees: 1950s-1960s

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.

31st Academy Awards (1958):

  1. The Defiant Ones
  2. Auntie Mame
  3. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
  4. Separate Tables
  5. Gigi*

32nd Academy Awards (1959):

  1. Anatomy of a Murder
  2. Ben-Hur*
  3. The Diary of Anne Frank
  4. The Nun’s Story
  5. Room at the Top

33rd Academy Awards (1960):

  1. The Apartment*
  2. Elmer Gantry
  3. The Sundowners
  4. Sons and Lovers
  5. The Alamo

34th Academy Awards (1961):

  1. West Side Story*
  2. Judgment at Nuremberg
  3. The Hustler
  4. The Guns of Navarone
  5. Fanny

35th Academy Awards (1962):

  1. Lawrence of Arabia*
  2. To Kill a Mockingbird
  3. The Longest Day
  4. The Music Man
  5. Mutiny on the Bounty

36th Academy Awards (1963):

  1. America America
  2. How the West Was Won
  3. Lilies of the Field
  4. Cleopatra
  5. Tom Jones*

37th Academy Awards (1964):

  1. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
  2. Mary Poppins
  3. Becket
  4. My Fair Lady*
  5. Zorba the Greek

38th Academy Awards (1965):

  1. The Sound of Music*
  2. Doctor Zhivago
  3. Darling
  4. A Thousand Clowns
  5. Ship of Fools

39th Academy Awards (1966):

  1. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
  2. A Man for All Seasons*
  3. The Sand Pebbles
  4. The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming
  5. Alfie

40th Academy Awards (1967):

  1. The Graduate
  2. Bonnie and Clyde
  3. In the Heat of the Night*
  4. Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner
  5. Doctor Dolittle