The Academy Award for Best Picture is the most prestigious prize in Hollywood, honoring the films that define each movie year. From silent World War I epics to literary adaptations and socially conscious dramas, the early winners show how the Academy’s taste evolved alongside the film industry itself.
This first part of our Best Picture Oscar Winners (1927–2024) series looks at the founding decades, from the very first ceremony in 1929 through the end of the 1940s.
Wings (1927) is an American silent and synchronized‑sound World War I drama that won the very first Academy Award for what was then called Outstanding Picture, now recognized as Best Picture. Directed by William A. Wellman, it tells a romantic action‑war story about two fighter pilots in love with the same woman.
The screenplay by Hope Loring and Louis D. Lighton, from a story by John Monk Saunders, expanded the role of Clara Bow, then Paramount’s biggest star. Although the sound version contains no spoken dialogue, it was released with a synchronized musical score and sound effects, and the original soundtrack is preserved at UCLA.
Wellman, himself a former World War I combat pilot, was hired for his aviation experience, and the film was shot largely on location on a then‑massive budget of about 2 million dollars (roughly 28 million in 2023). At the first Academy Awards in 1929, Wings won Outstanding Picture and Best Engineering Effects, and remains the only fully silent film ever to win Best Picture.
The Broadway Melody, also known as The Broadway Melody of 1929, is a pre‑Code musical and the first sound film to win Best Picture. Directed by Harry Beaumont from a script by Norman Houston and James Gleason based on a story by Edmund Goulding, it follows two sisters trying to break into Broadway.
The score by Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown introduced several popular songs, including “You Were Meant for Me,” and the film features an early Technicolor sequence that helped spark a brief wave of color musical numbers in 1929–1930.
At the 1930 Academy Awards, The Broadway Melody earned nominations for Outstanding Picture, Best Director (Harry Beaumont) and Best Actress (Bessie Love), ultimately winning Best Picture. Because it was first released in 1929, the film entered the U.S. public domain on January 1, 2025.
All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) is an American pre‑Code anti‑war epic based on Erich Maria Remarque’s 1929 novel. Directed by Lewis Milestone, it follows a group of German schoolboys who enlist to fight in World War I and soon confront the brutal reality of trench warfare.
The film was widely praised for its stark realism and later appeared on the American Film Institute’s “100 Years…100 Movies” list, as well as AFI’s ranking of great American epics. In 1990, it was added to the U.S. National Film Registry as “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.”
All Quiet on the Western Front became the first film to win both Outstanding Production (Best Picture) and Best Director, and it is often cited as the first Best Picture winner adapted from a contemporary best‑selling novel.
Cimarron (1931) is a pre‑Code epic Western directed by Wesley Ruggles and starring Richard Dix and Irene Dunne. Adapted from Edna Ferber’s 1930 novel, it covers forty years of Oklahoma history, from the 1889 land rush through the early oil boom.
At the 1931 Oscars, Cimarron became the first film to receive more than six nominations and the first to be nominated for the so‑called “Big Five” categories: Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress and Writing. It ultimately won Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay (Howard Estabrook) and Best Art Direction (Max Rée).
It was RKO’s most expensive film to date and its first production to win Best Picture. Cimarron was also the first of only four Westerns ever to win the top Oscar, followed decades later by Dances with Wolves (1990), Unforgiven (1992) and No Country for Old Men (2007).
Grand Hotel (1932), directed by Edmund Goulding and produced by MGM, is a drama set in a luxurious Berlin hotel where the lives of several guests intersect over a brief period. The screenplay by William A. Drake adapts his own stage play, which itself was based on Vicki Baum’s 1929 novel Menschen im Hotel.
The film’s ensemble cast includes Greta Garbo, whose line “I want to be alone” later ranked among AFI’s greatest movie quotes. Its star‑studded cast and overlapping storylines helped define the template for the Hollywood ensemble drama.
Remarkably, Grand Hotel is the only film ever to win Best Picture without receiving a single other Oscar nomination, a statistical anomaly that still stands out in Academy Awards history.
Cavalcade (1933) is an epic drama directed by Frank Lloyd, adapted by Reginald Berkeley and Sonya Levien from Noël Coward’s 1931 play. Starring Diana Wynyard and Clive Brook, it traces British life from New Year’s Eve 1899 to New Year’s Day 1933 through the experiences of an upper‑class London family and their servants.
Major historical events — including the Second Boer War, the death of Queen Victoria, the sinking of the RMS Titanic and World War I — shape the characters’ lives, with title cards and a recurring “cavalcade” motif marking the passage of time.
Cavalcade won three Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director for Lloyd, and as a 1933 release is scheduled to enter the U.S. public domain on January 1, 2029.
It Happened One Night (1934) is a romantic comedy with strong screwball elements, directed and co‑produced by Frank Capra. Starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert, it follows a runaway heiress and a disgraced reporter on a cross‑country road trip.
The film is widely regarded as one of the greatest comedies ever made and was the first movie to sweep the “Big Five” Oscars: Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress and Screenplay. In 1993, it was added to the National Film Registry for its cultural, historical and aesthetic significance.
Under current U.S. law, It Happened One Night will enter the public domain on January 1, 2030.
Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) is a historical adventure drama directed by Frank Lloyd and produced by MGM, dramatizing the famous 18th‑century mutiny aboard the HMS Bounty. The screenplay adapts the novels Mutiny on the Bounty and Men Against the Sea by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall.
Despite taking liberties with the historical record, the film became one of MGM’s biggest box‑office hits of the 1930s and earned eight Oscar nominations.
It won only Best Picture, making it — along with The Broadway Melody and later Grand Hotel — one of the rare Best Picture winners with no additional competitive Oscars. It is also the only film ever to receive three Best Actor nominations in the same year, a quirk that helped prompt the creation of the separate Best Supporting Actor category.
The Great Ziegfeld (1936) is a lavish musical drama directed by Robert Z. Leonard and produced by Hunt Stromberg, recounting the life of Broadway impresario Florenz “Flo” Ziegfeld Jr. The film stars William Powell as Ziegfeld, Luise Rainer as Anna Held and Myrna Loy as Billie Burke.
Celebrated as one of MGM’s proudest achievements, it became a benchmark for Hollywood musical biographies, noted for its extravagant set‑pieces and huge ensemble numbers.
The movie won three Oscars — Best Picture, Best Actress (Luise Rainer) and Best Dance Direction — along with four additional nominations. MGM records show it earned over 4.6 million dollars worldwide, making it one of the studio’s biggest hits of the decade.
The Life of Emile Zola (1937), directed by William Dieterle and starring Paul Muni, is a biographical drama about French novelist Émile Zola and his involvement in the Dreyfus affair. The film traces Zola’s rise to fame and his later fight against injustice when he defends wrongly convicted officer Alfred Dreyfus.
At the 10th Academy Awards, it became the first film to receive ten nominations and ultimately won three: Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor and Best Screenplay.
Contemporary reviewers hailed it as the finest biographical film yet made, though modern scholars often note its reluctance to explicitly address antisemitism, reflecting Hollywood’s political caution in the late 1930s.
You Can’t Take It with You (1938) is a romantic comedy directed by Frank Capra, based on the Pulitzer Prize‑winning play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. The story follows a young man from a wealthy, conservative family who falls in love with a woman from a warm but eccentric household.
Starring Jean Arthur, Lionel Barrymore, James Stewart and Edward Arnold, the film was both a critical and commercial success.
It won Best Picture and earned Capra his third Best Director Oscar in five years, following It Happened One Night (1934) and Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936).
Gone with the Wind (1939) is an epic historical romance directed primarily by Victor Fleming, adapted from Margaret Mitchell’s 1936 novel. Set against the American Civil War and Reconstruction, it follows Scarlett O’Hara (Vivien Leigh), a headstrong plantation owner’s daughter, and her turbulent relationships with Ashley Wilkes (Leslie Howard), Melanie Hamilton (Olivia de Havilland) and Rhett Butler (Clark Gable).
At the 12th Academy Awards, the film received 13 nominations and won 10 Oscars (eight competitive and two honorary), including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actress (Leigh) and Best Supporting Actress (Hattie McDaniel, the first African American Oscar winner).
Gone with the Wind set records for wins and nominations and remains one of the most discussed — and debated — Hollywood epics ever made.
Rebecca (1940) is a romantic psychological thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock in his first American film under contract to producer David O. Selznick. The screenplay by Robert E. Sherwood and Joan Harrison, with additional work by Philip MacDonald and Michael Hogan, adapts Daphne du Maurier’s 1938 novel.
The story follows a shy young woman who marries a wealthy widower and moves into his estate, Manderley, only to find herself haunted by the lingering presence of his first wife. The film received 11 Oscar nominations and won Best Picture and Best Cinematography (Black‑and‑White), making it the only Hitchcock‑directed movie ever to win the top prize.
In 2018, Rebecca was added to the National Film Registry as “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.”
How Green Was My Valley (1941) is a drama directed by John Ford, adapted by Philip Dunne from Richard Llewellyn’s 1939 novel. Set in a Welsh mining village inspired by Gilfach Goch, it chronicles the lives of the Morgan family as industrial change and hardship reshape their community.
The film earned ten Oscar nominations and won five: Best Picture, Best Director (Ford), Best Supporting Actor (Donald Crisp), Best Cinematography (Black‑and‑White) and Best Art Direction–Interior Decoration (Black‑and‑White). It famously beat Citizen Kane, The Maltese Falcon and Sergeant York for Best Picture.
In 1990, How Green Was My Valley was selected for the National Film Registry, and the Academy Film Archive later preserved it as well.
Mrs. Miniver (1942), directed by William Wyler and starring Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon, is a romantic war drama based on Jan Struther’s 1940 novel. It follows a middle‑class English family whose quiet village life is upended by World War II, emphasizing ordinary civilians’ sacrifices on the home front.
The film became the highest‑grossing release of 1942 and received 12 Academy Award nominations, winning six: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress (Garson), Best Supporting Actress (Teresa Wright), Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Cinematography (Black‑and‑White).
Mrs. Miniver was the first Best Picture winner centered on World War II and the first film to receive five acting nominations, later inspiring the sequel The Miniver Story (1950).
Casablanca (1942) is a romantic drama directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreid. Set in Vichy‑controlled French Morocco during World War II, it centers on cynical nightclub owner Rick Blaine, who must choose between rekindling his romance with Ilsa Lund or helping her resistance‑leader husband escape the Nazis.
The screenplay is based on the unproduced stage play Everybody Comes to Rick’s by Murray Burnett and Joan Alison.
Casablanca won three Oscars: Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay. Its dialogue, characters and final fog‑shrouded airport farewell have become some of the most iconic images in Hollywood history.
Going My Way (1944) is a musical comedy‑drama directed by Leo McCarey and starring Bing Crosby and Barry Fitzgerald. Crosby plays a young, easy‑going priest who takes over a struggling New York parish from an older, traditional pastor.
The film features songs performed by Crosby, Metropolitan Opera star Risë Stevens and the Robert Mitchell Boys Choir. It became the highest‑grossing film of 1944 and received ten Oscar nominations, winning seven including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor for Crosby.
Its success solidified Crosby as the decade’s leading box‑office star and led to the follow‑up film The Bells of St. Mary’s (1945).
The Lost Weekend (1945) is a drama with noir elements directed by Billy Wilder, starring Ray Milland and Jane Wyman. Adapted from Charles R. Jackson’s 1944 novel, it offers a harrowing portrait of an alcoholic writer on a self‑destructive binge in New York City.
The film was nominated for seven Oscars and won four: Best Picture, Best Director (Wilder), Best Actor (Milland) and Best Adapted Screenplay. It also won the Grand Prix (now the Palme d’Or) at the first Cannes Film Festival.
That double triumph places The Lost Weekend among a small group of titles — including Marty (1955), Parasite (2019) and Anora (2024) — that have captured both the top Oscar and Cannes’ highest prize.
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), directed by William Wyler, follows three U.S. servicemen returning home after World War II as they struggle to readjust to civilian life. The film examines how wartime experiences reshape their relationships, careers and sense of identity.
It was a critical and commercial triumph, becoming the highest‑grossing film in the U.S. and U.K. since Gone with the Wind. The movie won seven competitive Oscars — including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Fredric March), Best Supporting Actor (Harold Russell), Best Editing, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Original Score — plus a special honorary award for Russell.
Russell’s dual recognition remains unique in Oscar history, as it is the only time two Academy Awards have been given for a single performance.
Gentleman’s Agreement (1947) is a drama directed by Elia Kazan, adapted from Laura Z. Hobson’s best‑selling novel. Gregory Peck stars as a journalist who poses as Jewish to investigate antisemitism in New York City and affluent Connecticut suburbs.
The film received eight Oscar nominations and won three: Best Picture, Best Director (Kazan) and Best Supporting Actress (Celeste Holm).
Released alongside Crossfire the same year, it was controversial for confronting antisemitism directly at a time when Hollywood studios often avoided such politically sensitive subjects.
Hamlet (1948) is a British adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragedy, directed by and starring Laurence Olivier. It was Olivier’s second film as a director and the middle entry in his Shakespeare trilogy, following Henry V (1944) and preceding Richard III (1955).
The film became the first British production to win the Best Picture Oscar and the first English‑language sound version of the play to reach cinemas. Olivier also won Best Actor for his performance as the Dane.
Highly acclaimed on release, Hamlet also took the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, though some Shakespeare purists objected to its heavy cuts and reshaped structure.
All the King’s Men (1949) is a political drama written, produced and directed by Robert Rossen, based on Robert Penn Warren’s Pulitzer Prize‑winning novel. It stars Broderick Crawford, John Ireland, Mercedes McCambridge and Joanne Dru, charting the rise and fall of Willie Stark, a populist Southern politician loosely modeled on Louisiana governor Huey Long.
At the 22nd Academy Awards, the film received seven nominations and won three: Best Picture, Best Actor (Crawford) and Best Supporting Actress (McCambridge).
It also earned five Golden Globes and a Golden Lion nomination at Venice, cementing its reputation as one of Hollywood’s defining political dramas.
- Part 1: 85 Greatest Actors Who Never Won An Oscar!
- Part 2 : Unveiling Every Best Picture Oscar Winner (1927–2024)
- Part 3 : Unveiling Every Best Picture Oscar Winner (1927–2024)
- Part 4 : Unveiling Every Best Picture Oscar Winner (1927–2024)
- Part 5 : Unveiling Every Best Picture Oscar Winner (1927–2024)
From silent World War I dogfights to political dramas and intimate family stories, the first two decades of Best Picture winners trace how quickly Hollywood expanded its ambitions. These films show the Academy gravitating toward big subjects — war, class, history, and social change — even as sound, genre and storytelling conventions were still evolving.
Looking back now, some choices feel timeless while others reflect the tastes and anxieties of their moment, but together they form the foundation of Oscar history. In Part 2, the story continues into the 1950s and beyond, as television, widescreen epics and shifting cultural values reshaped what a “Best Picture” could be.
