The Best Picture Oscar winners from the 1990s were a strong rebound from the hit-and-miss 80s. And much like the 1970s winners, several of these films have stood the test of time, and many are pure classics. There are some heavy hitters here, especially in the early years.
That being said, the 1990s may be most well known for the nominated films that didn’t win Best Picture. If you look up and down the decade, there are so many years where the better picture (subjectively, of course) was nominated but ultimately lost out on Oscar night. It happens, but don’t worry, you can still love those movies implicitly.
Here we go…
2. Schindler’s List
Back in 1993, surprisingly, many didn’t believe the great popcorn blockbuster mastermind Steven Spielberg had this sort of emotionally-charged epic in him. It sounds absurd now. Spielberg’s story of Oskar Schindler, the man who saved 1100 Jews from concentration camps during WWII, is big and bold, but it never loses focus. Liam Neeson is terrific, but it is the blood curdling turn from a then unknown Ralph Fiennes as Amon Goeth – he’s nothing more than a serial killer working under the guise of being an SS soldier – that charges the picture with such a cold viciousness. His blind madness makes the finale all the more satisfying.
