After nine decades, the Oscars, also known as the Oscars, remain the most prestigious show in the film community. It’s the Super Bowl for movies, as Hollywood’s best and brightest stars come together under one roof to celebrate the year in cinema. Winning an Oscar, or even being nominated for an Oscar, can change someone’s career overnight.
Because the ceremony is live, anything can happen. Sometimes, a moving speech like Bong Joon-ho’s in 2020 goes viral for all the right reasons. In other cases, like the 2022 Oscars, a slap from the eventual Best Actor winner becomes one of the most talked-about moments in the show’s history for all the wrong reasons.
Ahead of the 2023 Oscars, take a look at the 10 best Oscars performances ever, ranked from 10 to 1.
10. Oscar 1987
The Oscars are famous for awarding “it’s time” Oscars to actors. Many of the greatest actors and directors had to receive multiple nominations and wait decades before the Academy awarded them the Oscar they deserved. Paul Newman (Cool Hand Luke) falls into this category. Prior to the 1987 Academy Awards, Newman had been nominated for seven Academy Awards, including six for Best Actor.
Due to his winless streak, Newman decided to stay home for the 1987 Oscars to turn his fortunes around. That year, Newman was nominated for his role as “Fast Eddie” Felson The Color of Money. 25 years ago, Newman originated the role of Felson in 1962 The Hustler, which resulted in a Best Actor nomination. The eighth time was the charm for Newman as he eventually won an acting Oscar in 1987, the feather in his cap to an illustrious career.
9. Oscar 1992
At the Oscars, the “Big Five” categories consist of picture, director, actor, actress and screenplay. Before the 1992 Oscars, only two films had won all five categories: 1934’s It happened overnight and of 1975 Cuckoo’s Nest. At the 1992 Oscars, Silence of the Lambs became the third film to win the “Big Five”, winning film, director (of Philadelphia Jonathan Demme), actor (Father’s Anthony Hopkins), actor (True Detective’s Jodie Foster) and screenplay (12 Strong’s Ted Tully).
At the ceremony, host Billy Crystal entered the ceremony in a tight jacket as an ode to Dr. Hannibal Lecter. History was written and when Beauty and the Beast became the first animated film to be nominated for Best Picture.
8. Oscars 2014
The 2014 Oscars were all about firsts. Alfonso Cuaron (Roma) won Best Director for Gravity, becoming the first person of Mexican descent to win the award. For 12 years slave, Steve McQueen became the first black director to direct a film that won Best Picture. McQueen also became the third black director to receive a Best Director nomination.
Robert Lopez (Frozen II) became the youngest EGOT winner ever at age 39 when he won Best Original Song with his wife, Kristen Anderson-Lopez (Cocoa), For Let it go in Frosted. Despite all the history, the most memorable moment of the night became a selfie orchestrated by host Ellen DeGeneres (Finding Dory), which was the most liked tweet of all time up to that point.
7. Oscar 2004
If you look up the word “dominion” in the dictionary, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King would be in the definition. The first two films, The Fellowship of the Ring and The two towers, won six Oscars from 19 nominations. The Return of the King led the field in 2004 with 11 nominations. The film did not lose in any category, winning all 11 awards. It scored the longest clean sweep in Oscar history, a record it still holds today. Additionally, The return of the king ties of 1959 Ben-Hur and of 1997 Titanic for most wins in one ceremony with 11.
Other notable moments include Keisha Castle-Hughes (Game of Thrones) became the youngest Best Actress nominee (at the time) for her role Cavalry whale. Mystic River also became the fourth film to win Best Actor (Flag Day Sean Penn) and Best Supporting Actor (Castle Rock’s Tim Robbins).
6. Oscar 2010
In the previous 81 ceremonies, no woman had ever won best director at the Oscars. At the 2010 ceremony, that changed when Kathryn Bigelow (Zero Dark Thirty) became the first woman to win Best Director The Hurt Locker. Bigelow beat her ex-husband James Cameron (Avatar: The Way of Water) for his pioneering work Avatar. Talking about Avatar, Bigelow won the sci-fi epic for best picture when The Hurt Locker got the first prize.
In Best Picture, Above became the second animated film to be nominated in the category. Jeffrey Fletcher also became the first African-American to win a screenplay Oscar, winning Best Adapted Screenplay for Precious: Based on the novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire.
5. Oscar 1977
Best Picture at the 1977 Oscars is cited as one of the best categories in the ceremony’s 95-year history. The five films nominated were; All the President’s Men, Bound for Glory, Network, Rocky, and Taxi driver. All the President’s Men and Network won four Oscars each. However, Sylvester Stallone (Rambo) the underdog story of a Philadelphia boxer fighting for the world heavyweight title reigned as Rocky won best picture. Rocky it also won Best Director and Best Editing.
In the four acting categories, Network won Best Actor (Sunday Bloody Sunday’s Peter Finch), Best Actor (of Chinatown Faye Dunaway) and Best Actress (of Poltergeist Beatrice Whitney Straight), while Jason Robards (Magnolia) won the Best Supporting Actor award for his performance All the President’s Men. Finch became the first posthumous acting winner, having died two months earlier.
4. Oscar 2007
Although he is one of the greatest living American directors, Martin Scorsese (Killers of the Flower Moon) had never won an Academy Award at the 2007 Academy Awards. Scorsese had previously received seven Academy Award nominations, but none resulted in a win. The most blatant snub came at the 1991 Oscars when Kevin Costner (Yellowstone) and Dances with the Wolves defeated Scorsese and Good friends Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Director and Best Film.
However, Scorsese finally made it at the 2007 Oscars, winning Best Director for The departed, which also won Best Picture. Steven Spielberg (The Fabelmans), Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather), and George Lucas (Star Wars) presented Scorsese with the award. Upon receiving the swarm, Scorsese jokingly asked to “check” the envelope.
3. Oscar 1998
At the 1998 Oscars, there was a king of the world and his name was James Cameron. The Canadian director was the brain behind it Titanic, the highest-grossing film of the year. The epic disaster film about the sinking of the liner RMS Titanic stars Leonardo DiCaprio (Don’t look up) and Kate Winslet (Mare of Eastown) to superstardom. Titanic received 14 nominations, tying the record set in the 1950s All about Eva and of 2016 La La Land.
Titanic won a record 11 awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, matched only by 1959 Ben-Hur and of 2003 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. In the acting categories, Jack Nicholson won best actor for his role as Melvin Udall As good as possible, becoming the fourth performer to win at least three acting Oscars. For their work above Good Will HuntingMatt Damon (The Last Duel) and Ben Affleck (Air) won Best Original Screenplay and Robin Williams (The crazy people) won the Best Supporting Actor award. The ceremony remains the highest-rated telecast in Oscar history, drawing more than 57 million viewers.
2. Oscars 2020
Until the 2020 Oscars, no non-English-language film had ever won Best Picture. Everything changed with Parasite. Proceeding to the ceremony, 1917 was the presumed favorite for best picture, while Sam Mendes (Empire of Light) was a heavy favorite for Best Director. However, Parasite gained serious momentum after a heartwarming win for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture at the SAG Awards.
After Parasite won best original screenplay earlier in the evening, while winning in the latter two categories became more likely. Bong Joon-ho upset Mendes for Best Director and gave one of the best speeches in Oscar history, paying tribute to Quentin Tarantino (Once upon a time in… Hollywood) and Martin Scorsese (The Irishman). After all, Parasite he did the impossible by upsetting 1917 for best film.
1. Oscars 2017
The top spot on the list goes to the most unfortunate ceremony of all time. At the 2017 Oscars, Warren Beatty (Heaven can wait) and Faye Dunaway (Network) presented the final award of the night, Best Film. La La Land was the favorite in the category, winning six Oscars from a record-tying 14 nominations. Beatty and Dunaway received the wrong card and announced by mistake La La Land as the Best Picture winner.
After gathering on stage and beginning their acceptance speeches, La La Land producer Jordan Horowitz (Hollywood star) announced that Moonlight won best picture. In one of the most famous images in the ceremony’s history, Horowitz held up the right envelope to the camera, declaring that Moonlight won best picture. One of the most infamous moments in Oscars history quickly became one of the best Moonlight it became the lowest-budget film ($1.5 million) to win Best Picture.
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