The unique and extremely popular [citation needed] authority on pop culture since 2008

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written by Sam Greenspan

I joust with two movie experts on the movies that won the Oscar for Best Picture over arguably better candidates.

We’ve got a slightly longer change-of-pace episode for this week’s 11 Points Countdown episode. But it’s one of my favorites to date.

This week I’m joined by two guests, Tyler Smith and David Bax of the website and podcast Battleship Pretension. And I try to match movie wits and acumen with them as we break down the results of the poll on the 11 least deserving winners of the Oscar for Best Picture.

As always, if you enjoy, please take a moment to subscribe to the YouTube channel. Thank you very, very much.

Here are the full results of the poll. The top 11 are in white to avoid spoilers, just highlight to view. (Still weirdly un-white on iPhones.)

  1. Shakespeare In Love (1998, beat Saving Private Ryan)
  2. Chicago (2002, beat Gangs of New York, The Hours, LOTR: Two Towers, The Pianist)
  3. Forrest Gump (1994, beat Pulp Fiction, Shawshank Redemption)
  4. Titanic (1997, beat L.A. Confidential, Good Will Hunting)
  5. How Green Was My Valley (1941, beat Citizen Kane, Maltese Falcon)
  6. Crash (2005, beat Munich, Brokeback Mountain, Capote, Good Night and Good Luck)
  7. The King’s Speech (2010, beat Inception, Social Network, Fighter, Black Swan)
  8. Dances With Wolves (1990, beat Goodfellas, Ghost, Godfather 3, Awakenings)
  9. The Artist (2011, beat The Descendants, The Help, Moneyball, Midnight In Paris)
  10. English Patient (1996, beat Fargo, Jerry Maguire)
  11. My Fair Lady (1964, beat Dr. Strangelove, Mary Poppins)
  12. Rocky (1976, beat All the President’s Men, Network, Taxi Driver)
  13. Driving Miss Daisy (1989, beat Field of Dreams, My Left Foot, Born on Fourth of July, Dead Poets Society)
  14. Hurt Locker (2009, beat Avatar, Up, A Serious Man, District 9)
  15. Chariots of Fire (1981, beat On Golden Pond, Raiders of the Lost Ark)
  16. Around the World in Eighty Days (1956, beat Ten Commandments, King and I)
  17. Braveheart (1995, beat Apollo 13, Babe)
  18. Kramer vs. Kramer (1979, beat Apocalypse Now)
  19. Gone With the Wind (1939, beat Goodbye Mr. Chips, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Of Mice and Men, Wizard of Oz)
  20. In the Heat of the Night (1967, beat Bonnie and Clyde, Graduate, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner)
  21. Ordinary People (1980, beat Raging Bull, Elephant Man, Tess, Coal Miner’s Daughter)
  22. Million Dollar Baby (2004, beat Aviator, Ray, Sideways, Finding Neverland)
  23. American Beauty (1999, beat Insider, Sixth Sense, Green Mile, Cider House Rules)
  24. Gladiator (2000, beat Chocolat, Crouching Tiger, Erin Brockovich, Traffic)
  25. An American In Paris (1951, beat A Streetcar Named Desire)
  26. The Departed (2006, beat Babel, Letters From Iwo Jima, The Queen, Little Miss Sunshine)
  27. Sound of Music (1965, beat Doctor Zhivago)
  28. No Country For Old Men (2007, beat There Will be Blood)
  29. Greatest Show On Earth (1952, beat High Noon)
  30. Out of Africa (1985, beat Color Purple, Kiss of Spider Women, Witness)
  31. Amadeus (1984, beat The Killing Fields)
  32. Hamlet (1948, beat the Treasure of the Sierra Madre)
  33. Last Emperor (1987, beat Broadcast News, Fatal Attraction, Moonstruck)