We’re in the thick of awards season now, when the top contenders in each race are vying for frontrunner status as we move closer to the Oscar nominations announcement.  However, while everyone is focused on the race at hand, we thought we’d take a look at the last decade of Best Picture winners to see if they’ve stood the test of time.  Is the “best” film of 2005 still considered one of the best films of the past ten years?  Read on below as we take a trip down memory lane for this special edition of Oscar Beat, Ghosts of Oscars Past.

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King – 2003

Major Competition: Mystic River, Lost in Translation

Does It Hold Up?: Yes.  The capper in Peter Jackson’s excellent Lord of the Rings trilogy enjoyed a clean sweep at the Oscars, winning all 11 categories in which it was nominated.  While many view the Best Picture win as a win for the whole trilogy (it is one complete story, after all), it was still a warranted trophy, and the film and its companions are sure to go down as one of the great adaptations in cinematic history.

Million Dollar Baby – 2004

Million Dollar Baby – 2004

Major Competition: Sideways

Does It Hold Up?: Kind of.  Director Clint Eastwood was coming off some of his best reviews in years for 2003’s Mystic River so he had a lot of momentum coming into Million Dollar Baby.  The film’s emotional story struck a chord with Academy voters to the tune of awards for Best Picture, Director, Actress, and Supporting Actor, but it’s not necessarily heralded as a classic just yet.  Controversy erupted over the pic’s mid-film twist, and some accused Eastwood of verging on saccharine, but it’s not as lambasted as some of the filmmaker’s subsequent works (ahem, J. Edgar).

Crash – 2005

Major Competition: Brokeback Mountain

Does It Hold Up?: No. 2005 has gone down as one of the most controversial years in Academy history as they had a chance to award the heavy favorite Brokeback Mountain, a homosexual love story, and instead surprised many by handing the Best Picture trophy to the interconnected, thematically empty Crash.  Writer/director Paul Haggis’ heat from Million Dollar Baby could have been a factor as well as the Academy’s lack of comfort with the homosexuality in Brokeback Mountain, but whatever the case you’d be hard pressed to find someone who names Crash as one of the best films of the past decade.  In fact, Film Comment named it the worst film ever to win Best Picture.

The Departed – 2006

Major Competition: Little Miss Sunshine

Does It Hold Up?: Yes.  After years of being neglected an Oscar for work ranging from Taxi Driver to Goodfellas to seemingly Academy-friendly fare like Gangs of New York and The Aviator, Martin Scorsese finally got his statue for what he intended to be a purely commercial picture.  Though it’s still a bit too early to tell whether The Departed will sit in the upper echelon of Scorsese’s filmography, the film remains as brutal, funny (the Alec Baldwin/Mark Wahlberg banter is gold), and entertaining today as it was seven years ago.

 

No Country for Old Men – 2007

Major Competition: There Will Be Blood

Does It Hold Up?: Hell yes.  Arguably the first big “future classic” on this list, Joel and Ethan Coen tried something completely different for their 2007 outing, and the result was a rich, darkly complex drama.  No Country stands as one of the Coen Brothers’ best in a filmography filled with gems, and it has aged remarkably well in the ensuing years.  The film faced stiff competition in the Best Picture category by way of Paul Thomas Anderson’s excellent There Will Be Blood, but the win for No Country was a statement from the Academy itself: it was awarding its highest honor to a difficult and very, very dark film. Unfortunately that realm of thinking didn’t take root, as they turned towards more fluffy, sentimental films in subsequent years.

Slumdog Millionaire – 2008

Major Competition: Milk, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Does It Hold Up?: Not really.  Director Danny Boyle’s uniquely structured portrait of slum life in Mumbai came at a rather dark period in America’s history.  The financial system had just collapsed, the Bush presidency was ending in the midst of a seemingly unending Iraq War, and the overall mood was pretty dour.  As such, the awarding of the Best Picture trophy to Slumdog Millionaire—a feel-good film if there ever was one—seemed like a panacea for the times.  It’s a fun ride while it lasts, but there’s not really too much substance to the pic as a whole.  Again, you’re not going to find many people that count Slumdog Millionaire as one of their favorite films of the past decade.

The Hurt Locker – 2009

Major Competition: Avatar, Up in the Air

Does It Hold Up?: Mostly. In 2009, the Academy expanded the number of Best Picture nominations to 10 in an effort to appeal to a wider audience by way of recognizing more studio fare.  Ironically, The Hurt Locker is the lowest grossing Best Picture winner of all time, besting James Cameron’s highest-grossing film of all-time, Avatar.  It provided an interesting look at the Iraq War from a point of view that wasn’t overtly political, and while director Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty will probably go down in history as the more important encapsulation of America’s role in the conflict, The Hurt Locker remains a solid Best Picture winner.

The King’s Speech – 2010

Major Competition: The Social Network

Does It Hold Up?: Not really.  Three years later, this race is still frustrating.  Director David Fincher seemed poised to win his first Oscar for making arguably the quintessential film of the 2000s, The Social Network, but the Academy instead went for the nice if ultimately inconsequential The King’s Speech.  People are still regularly talking about The Social Network, but the same can’t be said for The King’s Speech save for mentions of Tom Hooper’s ridiculous shot composition.

The Artist – 2011

Major Competition: The Descendants

Does It Hold Up?: Too early to tell, but probably not.  Coming off of The King’s Speech, some thought the Academy awarding the charming albeit fluffy The Artist would feel redundant, but the Academy apparently felt different.  It’s a cute concept and, again, a nice film, but is The Artist one of the best films in recent memory?  Just a couple of years removed from the win, the film has already become a distant memory.

Argo – 2012

Major Competition: Lincoln, Zero Dark Thirty

Does It Hold Up? Too early to tell.  It was only just last year that Argo took home the Best Picture Oscar, so it’s a bit too early to know its durability.  The film was no doubt propelled to the Best Picture win after Ben Affleck was snubbed for a Best Director nomination, and while the pic is indeed impressive, Affleck could very well have an even better film up his sleeve down the road.  If that’s the case, Argo could become a solid if not “top tier” entry in Affleck’s filmography.