With the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival, the Venice Film Festival, and several other high-profile debut platforms for the year’s biggest movies now in the rearview mirror, the thoughts of cinephiles turn to awards season. With the likes of Ryan Coogler‘s vampire masterpiece Sinners, Paul Thomas Anderson and Leonardo DiCaprio‘s celebrated One Battle After Another, and the inevitable Wicked: For Good looking like top contenders, next year’s ceremony is shaping up to be unmissable.
With an illustrious history behind it, and with just three years until the Academy’s 100th ceremony, thoughts at this time don’t just look ahead at what’s to come but also back at what has been. As almost a century of filmmaking is celebrated, it is remarkable just how impressive these last 25 years have been. Thanks to advancements in cinematic technology and the fast development of some of the biggest stars both on and off-screen today, it’s hard to look past the 21st century as one of the finest periods in film’s relatively short history as an art form. With all that in mind, here’s a look at the Best Picture Oscar winners of the 21st century that were instant all-timers.
‘Gladiator’ (2000)
The Academy Awards opened their 21st-century account with one of the most astute picks for the Best Picture prize so far. Director Ridley Scott‘s swords-and-sandals epic Gladiator follows Maximus (Russell Crowe), a man split between loyalty to his city and his family. After those closest to him are brutally murdered and he is sold into slavery, Maximus, now a gladiator, vows to get vengeance, “in this life or the next.”
The Oscars are at their best when celebrating the best of filmmaking from several angles, with Gladiator ticking every box. From the realization of Scott’s ambitious vision to the emotionally rich central performances and the movie’s success with wider audiences beyond the Academy, Gladiator is a true champion of film and more than deserves its “all-timer” label.
‘The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King’ (2003)
Tied with Titanic and Ben-Hur for the most awarded films in Oscars history, it is simply impossible not to consider The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King a true Academy Awards all-timer. The third and final installment in this unmissable trilogy follows Gandalf (Ian McKellen) and Aragorn’s (Viggo Mortensen) attempts to distract Sauron from Frodo (Elijah Wood), Sam (Sean Astin), and the One Ring’s approach to Mount Doom.
For most, the thought of a film being almost three-and-a-half hours long is enough to put them off. When it comes to The Return of the King, though, this belief couldn’t be further from the truth, with millions of loyal viewers returning time and again to this epic final encounter. What’s more, the film feels like half this runtime as the tension and emotion beautifully build to one of cinema’s most impressive showdowns.
‘The Departed’ (2006)
With countless iconic movies under his belt, for a small portion of Martin Scorsese‘s fanbase to call The Departed his best movie should be a signal enough that it deserves its place on this list. As a gang member infiltrates the police force and a cop infiltrates an underground criminal organization, this twisted game of cat-and-mouse quickly turns devastatingly fatal.
Rarely do Western remakes of Eastern films prove so successful, but, of course, Scorsese was going to prove that trend wrong. A reimagining of the 2002 Hong Kong flick Infernal Affairs, The Departed features one of Scorsese’s finest ensembles in a career boasting some of cinema’s best. Here, the likes of Oscar winer DiCaprio, Oscar nominee Matt Damon, three-time Oscar winner Jack Nicholson, and more driving this edge-of-the-seat crime thriller to its jaw-dropping climax.
‘No Country for Old Men’ (2007)
The genius Coen Brothers crafted their magnum opus back in 2007, rightfully earning huge acclaim and a Best Picture trophy for their troubles. No Country for Old Men follows Josh Brolin‘s Llewelyn Moss as he stumbles across a drug deal gone wrong and exits with an eye-watering amount of money. However, his sinful deed hasn’t gone unnoticed, with Llewelyn soon pursued by the unflinching killer Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem).
A violent, twisting tale that both races by and revels in deafening silence, No Country for Old Men is arguably perfect from start to finish and the Coens’ magnum opus. A winner of four Oscars, including Best Picture, this revisionist Western is perhaps best remembered for the creation of one of cinema’s most terrifying villains in Bardem’s Anton Chigurh, a permanent fixture in the nightmares of many viewers.
’12 Years a Slave’ (2013)
Still stunning new viewers to this day, Steve McQueen‘s 12 Years a Slave is set in the pre-Civil War United States. This harrowing biopic follows the terrifying journey of Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a once-free Black man who is sold into slavery and battles to regain his identity, his dignity, and most of all his freedom.
A powerful, moving period piece that is just as educational as it is emotionally enthralling, 12 Years a Slave is a worthy winner of the Best Picture prize. One of the best movies of 2013, 12 Years a Slave fought off intense competition from the likes of The Wolf of Wall Street, American Hustle, and its biggest competition, Gravity, to leave victorious on Oscar night, taking home a total of three Golden Statues.
‘Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)’ (2014)
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2014 was a wonderful year for film, with the Best Picture category packed with eye-catching titles. The winner that year — although to some an unjust choice — was Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), which followed Michael Keaton‘s once acclaimed actor who starred in superhero movies, who attempts to revive his career on the stage.
Funny and intense in equal measure, Birdman is a viewing experience quite unlike most others. This success is thanks in most part to the visionary work of director Alejandro González Iñárritu and director of photography Emmanuel Lubezki, who craft a two-hour tale that appears as if it’s shot entirely in one take. A dark comedy packed with memorable performances and an infamously ambiguous ending, Birdman won a total of four Oscars.
‘Moonlight’ (2016)
After an inconsistent first 5 years of the 2010s, the Oscars began to find their footing in 2016, prompted by the Best Picture win for Barry Jenkins‘ Moonlight. The movie follows the experience of a young Black man across three pivotal periods in his life, showcasing his struggles with identity, sexuality, and socio-economic barriers in a modern America.
As the first Best Picture win for production company A24, Moonlight marks an important shift in the mid-2010s. In the past decade, the Oscars have championed small-budget independent filmmaking, with Moonlight‘s reported production budget of just $1.5 million proving it takes the collective genius of visionary creatives to make a masterpiece, not the bank accounts of higher-ups.
‘Parasite’ (2019)
Simply put, Bong Joon Ho‘s Parasite is possibly the greatest choice for a Best Picture winner in the Academy’s near-100-year history. Certainly, in the 21st century, this groundbreaking thriller is their finest decision, capturing a changing film landscape on the cusp of a new decade by awarding the prize for the first time ever to a non-English language film.
Telling the tale of an impoverished family as they slowly infiltrate the lives of the wealthy Park clan, Parasite is embedded in the class struggles of a divided modern world. Split into two defining halves, Parasite features some of the finest in horror cinematography, dark comedy writing, and social commentary, all captured in just over two hours. A winner of four Oscars, the film is widely regarded as one of the greatest ever made.
‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ (2022)
At a time when superhero fatigue was sweeping the world, a reduced-budget blend of several genres refreshingly perfected the Multiverse, earning a Best Picture prize along the way. Everything Everywhere All at Once follows a Chinese immigrant, Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh), who believes her routine life is nothing special. All that changes when she is thrust into a Multiverse-spanning adventure that proves she is anything but unimportant.
A film sure to leave its audience smiling through their tears, Everything Everywhere All at Once delivers philosophical musings through the medium of martial arts-inspired genius. Featuring some of the finest performances of the decade so far from an Oscar-winning Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan, Everything Everywhere All at Once manages to be both expansive in its ambition and intimate in its delivery.
‘Oppenheimer’ (2023)
There has perhaps been no better filmmaker this century than Christopher Nolan. The man behind several of the best films of the past 25 years, Nolan was finally awarded the Best Picture prize in early 2024 for his biopic masterpiece, Oppenheimer. Starring Cillian Murphy in the titular role, the film details several important moments in the life of the genius physicist as he plays a pivotal role in the birth of the atomic bomb.
Back in 2023, audiences flocked in their many millions to catch cinema’s strangest double-feature, lovingly dubbed Barbeinheimer. Whilst most couldn’t contain their immediate discussion of Greta Gerwig‘s Barbie, it was Oppenheimer that would age better so far, with many considering it one of the defining works of the decade so far. Among the movie’s incredible 13 nominations, Oppenheimer walked away with a huge seven wins, one of the highest totals in the ceremony’s history.
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