Six Academy Awards Films You Must Watch
Watching the latest Academy Awards gala makes people reminisce about award-winning films. Even though this year’s winner, the South Korean film Parasite, made history, every single one of the winners made history in their own special way.
Some of these films are brave because they addressed controversial topics, such as feminism or religion. All of them won an Academy Award, even if only for entertaining the public with their incredible special effects, such as Titanic or The Lord of the Rings.
The Academy Awards gala is a controversial event. While for some it’s just a crude, superficial promotion of films, for others, it’s the ultimate expression of entertainment and the magic of films. For this reason, we decided to pay tribute to this award show by remembering six films that won the Best Picture title.
“So tonight, enjoy yourselves because nothing can take the sting out of the world’s economic problems like watching millionaires present each other with golden statues.”
-Billy Crystal-
The Apartment
This is possibly the best romantic comedy of all time. Jack Lemmon plays the lonely C.C. Baxter in The Apartment. The irony of the movie is that this character usually loans his apartment to the executives of the company he works at so they can a place to take their lovers.
Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine), the charming elevator girl whom Baxter loves, secretly dates big boss Jeff Sheldrake. Jeff wants to rekindle his romance with her, even though he’s still married. And to get her back, he asks Baxter for the keys to his apartment.
The young employee has no choice but to accept… so his boss seduces the woman he likes. But a small misfortune makes Baxter and Kubelik coincide in the apartment, which allows them to get to know each other better.
The Godfather
Robert De Niro himself was rejected by Coppola after a memorable audition for the role of Sonny. But two years later, he had accomplished enough while working with Scorsese that Coppola called him to play the young Vito.
The scene in which the young Vito runs through the roofs represents a before and after in the character’s history. Also, in Robert De Niro’s career and in the history of cinema. It was the beginning of the De Niro-Pacino comparison.
As it were, The Godfather Part II is much better than the first, according to the audience. Thanks to the flashbacks, the viewer discovers the rise to power of the great Vito Corleone. Also, the price he had to pay to get where he got to be.
Robert De Niro took the mission very seriously. He even traveled to Sicily to learn the local dialect and used a prosthetic mouth similar to Brando’s in the first film. In addition, he grew a mustache.
All About Eve
This is a masterpiece about the world of Broadway theater. Its 14 nominations for the Academy Awards set a record that’s only been matched by Titanic and La La Land. In the end, it won six Academy Awards.
Based on a true story, All About Eve is an elegantly perverted backstage story that revolves around aspiring actress Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter). The phrase Bette Davis says in the film went down in history: “Fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy night”.
Spotlight
Based on real events, this film tells the story of the Spotlight section of The Boston Globe, which consisted of a group of journalists who are experts in doing in-depth reports. Before a new director arrives, they seek a strong case and put the best journalists at the forefront.
What begins with a draft article on various priests accused of childhood abuse by different people became a thorough investigation by this team of journalists. What they finally found is an enormous network of pedophilia. One that’s consensual and hidden within the Catholic Church in various states of the United States. The film is a tribute to journalism and to the investigations that change the course of history.
Forrest Gump
This comedy-drama tells the story of Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks), a young man from the fictional town of Greenbow, Alabama, who has a slight intellectual disability.
The man’s name is Forrest and he sits at a bus stop and tells his adventures to various people who sit next to him because they’re waiting for their bus.
To the rhythm of the now indelible “Run, Forrest, run!”, the film continued to win favor with viewers and critics alike. Not surprisingly, it won six Academy Awards (including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor, which all went to Hanks). Also, it overcame other acclaimed films, such as Pulp Fiction, The Shawshank Redemption, and Four Weddings and a Funeral.
The English Patient
The English Patient, released in 1996, received rave reviews and nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture. It also won four BAFTA Awards, including Best Picture, as well as the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama.
The film takes place during the previous years of World War II and during it. It begins with a seriously burned man, rescued by Bedouins. Meanwhile, the viewer learns that Hana (played by Juliette Binoche), a nurse working for Allied forces in North Africa, lost her boyfriend and another friend in the war.
The burn victim speaks English but remembers nothing of his past. He’s placed under Hana’s care in the ruins of a villa in Italy. Hana cares for him and, as his memories return, the patient reveals his life in a series of flashbacks.
The English patient is Count László Almásy (Ralph Fiennes), a Hungarian cartographer who led a mapping expedition into Libya and Egypt in the late 1930s. There, he met a married woman, Katharine (Kristin Scott Thomas), whom he completely fell in love with.
As you can see, these six exceptional films that received Academy Awards are well worth watching at least once. This is because doing so will increase your cultural knowledge and delight your senses.
