EVERY BEST PICTURE OSCAR-WINNER, RANKED:

90. Everything Everywhere All at Once (2023)

Daniels Kwan and Scheinert’s tiresome comic drama about parallel dimensions and roads not travelled tries to be everything to all audiences: a piercing portrayal of the immigrant experience, plus disquisition on generational trauma/neurodivergence/insert-issue-of-the fortnight-here, with Power Rangers fights, superhero franchise tropes, and homages to Wong Kar-wai.

Should have won: Top Gun: Maverick or Tár

89. Gandhi (1983)

Everyone felt it was important to like Gandhi – and agreed that Ben Kingsley was tremendous in it. Richard Attenborough enlisted a pedigree supporting cast (Trevor Howard, John Gielgud, John Mills, Michael Hordern) and ranks of extras (300,000 for the funeral procession alone), but the net result is a Western-centric, sanitised view of a complex life. It also goes on forever.

Should have won: Even Attenborough admitted that E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial was robbed.

Flashback: “The Gandhi Nobody Knows,” Richard Grenier 1983 Commentary article, one of the greatest film reviews/demolition jobs ever written.

UPDATE: I had forgotten a lot of the newer titles on the above list, and as it turns out, I was far from alone:

Modern movies just don't stick like they used to. We won't remember ANY of the Oscar winners 5 years from now. Honestly, we won't remember any of them 5 days from now. Everything is so ephemeral and single-serving, these days. When you saw the Matrix, it haunted you for months.… https://t.co/rrMyZXoe0p

— Mann Made Cinema (@Hotshot_Movie) March 18, 2026

Combining poor product with TDS is a recipe for disaster, Christian Toto writes: Trump Effect? Oscar Ratings Crater in Second Term.