13 Of My All-Time Favorite Movies That Should've Rightfully Taken Home "Best Picture"

Promising Young Woman was robbed and you can't convince me otherwise.

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It's award season so it means it's time to crown the best picture at the Oscars.

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But history tells us the *actual* best picture of the year isn't always the winner.

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Here are my favorites that weren't showered with glory they deserved:

1. The Wizard of Oz

MGM

This was the first movie I ever saw in a movie theater! And the best part is that it holds up, unlike a lot of movies from your childhood.

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2. Yankee Doodle Dandy

Warner Bros.

One of the most important figures in Broadway history gets a musical biopic about him, and starring James Cagney, no less. I consider myself a theater nerd, and I didn't know about George M. Cohan until I decided to watch this movie.

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3. Gaslight

MGM

Yes, it gave us the psychological term, but it is also terrifying. Honestly, it scared me more than some horror movies being released now. You'll start to believe that you're being gaslit right alongside Ingrid Bergman.

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4. It's a Wonderful Life

RKO Radio Pictures

It's a holiday staple for a reason, and for a movie from 1946, it doesn't feel dated one bit. It's dark and hopeful, cynical, and lovely all at once. And for someone who isn't one for sappy movies, this one gets me.

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5. Roman Holiday

Paramount Pictures

It won Audrey Hepburn her Oscar, so it's worth the watch just on that pedigree. But it's such a great romantic comedy. Hepburn and co-star Gregory Peck have great chemistry together. Shot on location in Rome, it adds even more romance to it, because you can actually see the city in all its beauty. Also, it's one of the greatest rom-com endings you'll come across, guaranteed. 

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6. 12 Angry Men

United Artists

You've heard of the bottle episode? Well this is a bottle movie as good as anyone's done it. You'd hope to have a juror like Juror #8 if you were wrongfully tried for a crime you didn't commit.

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7. All That Jazz

20th Century Fox

A movie musical like no other. Bob Fosse turns his life around in 1974 making Lenny and creating Chicago into a mesmerizing movie. It's Fosse, so no one is gonna stage a musical number better. And that finale? To die for!

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8. Broadcast News

20th Century Fox

I mean, Holly Hunter should have won an Oscar for this movie. It's the love triangle that ruined other movies about love triangles, because no others could compete. It may even be a love quadrangle, considering one of the most important relationships in this movie is each character's relationship to work.

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9. The Social Network

Columbia Pictures

As much as I wish it wouldn't, this movie becomes more important as the days go by. The central cast of Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, and Justin Timberlake are pitch perfect. This movie really should have won Best Picture. Sorry, King's Speech.

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10. Mad Max: Fury Road

Warner Bros.

People keep talking about franchise and blockbuster fatigue, but this is the exception that proves the rule. The practical effects make it a more visceral experience where you can see and feel the danger the characters are in. And also, look at those colors. You don't get vibrancy like that from CGI.

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11. Lady Bird

A24

Coming of age stories are a dime a dozen, but this film by Greta Gerwig felt fresh and new. It had one of the best depictions of a mother-daughter relationship portrayed on-screen.

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12. Black Panther

Marvel Studios

Another blockbuster exception that proves the rule. This movie just soars above the fray. My dad, who is not the biggest superhero movie fan and thinks of them as "not movies," calls this one "a real movie." I can think of no higher compliment.

Marvel Studios / Via giphy.com

13. Promising Young Woman

Focus Features

From the bright colors of Cassie's life, you wouldn't think she'd be on a mission for vengeance. But this movie rethinks the "revenge movie," and what it looks like. It's about how trauma reverberates past the inciting event, and who is forced to live with it and who is allowed to move on.

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Which movies do you think should have won Best Picture? Drop them down in the comments!

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