The 5 Best Picture Oscar Winners Of The 2020s, Ranked Worst To Best

The 2020s have seen some incredibly tight competition at the Oscars

, but there has been variation in the years when there was an obvious Best Picture winner and an incredibly close call. Going into the most recent Oscars ceremony, there may have still been some debate left, but at some point in the evening it became clear that Anora would sweep and win Best Picture. This was similarly the case with the two Best Picture winners before it, which won in several major categories before going home with the top prize.

The early 2020s perhaps saw more disappointing and controversial wins, and the industry coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic likely affected this. The biggest surprises and snubs of the 2025 Oscars cannot compare to some of the shocking turns in recent years. On the other hand, all these movies were driven by their performances, as there is a definitive link between the Best Picture winner and the acting categories. However, each Best Picture winner in the past five years has offered something different in terms of the evolution of cinema, impacting which stories are told and how.

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5

Nomadland (2020)

Other Wins: Best Director (Chloé Zhao), Best Actress (Frances McDormand)

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The 93rd Academy Awards was a weaker year, with several very good movies but none that emerged as the powerhouse that would take everything. The result was that Nomadland won, the offering with undeniably the most unconventional approach, with a previous Oscar winner in the lead role. Frances McDormand won Best Actress in a Leading Role for the second time in less than five years, after her undeniably stronger turn in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. McDormand was also a producer of Nomandland, meaning she also won the Best Picture award itself.

Chloé Zhao is one of only three women to win Best Director and deserves praise for being able to pull such a loose premise with unpredictable filming conditions into a coherent narrative that showcases the freedom and community found in her main character’s journey​​​​​​.

Nomadland is a slower watch and somewhat improvised as McDormand interacted with real people living a nomadic lifestyle to be filmed for the story. Chloé Zhao is one of only three women to win Best Director and deserves praise for being able to pull such a loose premise with unpredictable filming conditions into a coherent narrative that showcases the freedom and community found in her main character’s journey. The movie also touches upon themes of identity and economic struggles through the reasons Fern (McDormand) decided to hit the road and the things she shares with fellow nomads.

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Nomadland

R

Drama

9/10

9/10

Release Date

February 19, 2021

Runtime

107 minutes

Cast

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• 

  Bob Wells

• 

  Swankie

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There are some beautiful displays of the rural areas Fern traverses, earning the movie a nomination for Best Cinematography. Nomadland is a layered but ethereal movie that can be rewarding to those who take the time to pick it apart, but may still be frustratingly sluggish to many. Ultimately, it probably won because there weren’t any obvious alternatives post-2020, but doubtlessly some choices that were more engaging.

4

CODA (2021)

Other Wins: Best Supporting Actor (Troy Kotsur), Best Adapted Screenplay (Sian Heder)

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CODA is sweet and to the point, depicting a classic coming-of-age story with a happy ending of the heroine following her dreams. It covers a lot of ground in a very compact format: the main character being an awkward and bullied teenager coming into her own; the disconnect between her and her family when they don’t (initially) see her artistic passion as worthwhile; the struggles of a small business built on a generational trade against corporations and regulations; and the realities for a family almost entirely made up of deaf individuals.

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CODA

PG-13

Music

Drama

8/10

Release Date

August 13, 2021

Runtime

111 minutes

Cast

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• 

  Emilia Jones

• 

  Eugenio Derbez

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All are important topics, and they come together seamlessly in an underrated feel-good movie. CODA was an upset and somewhat ire-provoking win in its time, largely because it did not dominate the Oscars the way its co-winners have. It was never set up to be the Best Picture winner that swept all the major categories and is also a smaller-scale story than some of the massive titles that feel like the be-all, end-all offering of their year. It was only nominated in three categories, all three of which it won.

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CODA is just a bit lacking compared to some of the earth-shattering juggernauts of the 2020s, which are showing off in every technical category and career-defining performance. The characters in CODA are more down-to-earth, resulting in fewer acting nominations, although Troy Kotsur still won Best Supporting Actor. However, it is an all-around solid movie, with an important story that is well put together.

3

Anora (2024)

Other Wins: Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Editing (Sean Baker), Best Actress (Mikey Madison)

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Anora, at face value, may not seem like the type of movie to win Best Picture, and the Best Actress Award should perhaps have gone to Demi Moore rather than Mikey Madison. However, it is a riot from start to (almost) finish, building upon the motifs of Sean Baker’s previous works in a breakdown of the Cinderella story. Madison is a powerhouse as Anora “Ani,” carrying the whole thing with her magical spirit and relentless determination to hold on to her new life, snarky and confident when anyone tries to talk down to her.

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Anora captures some visuals of Brooklyn and Las Vegas that highlight everything from neon lights to derelict theme parks to ostentatious luxury, creating more character for every scene that the story finds itself in. Anora is also very funny for most of its runtime, with Ani stuck with a trio of goons working for her husband’s family that she consistently undermines with her sarcastic attitude. However, the tone of the story and performance does a complete 180 when it gets to Anora‘s now-famous final scene, and the trauma of what Ani has been through finally comes to the surface.

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Anora

Comedy

Drama

Romance

9/10

24

6.9/10

Release Date

October 18, 2024

Runtime

139 Minutes

Cast

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• 

  Mikey Madison

  Anora

• 

  Mark Eydelshteyn

  Ivan

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Anora doesn’t quite live up to some of the bigger-scale Best Picture winners of the 2020s. Its logistics are more contained and Madison is the only true force of nature among the cast — while Yura Borisov is delightful, he doesn’t compare to Robert Downey Jr. or Ke Huy Quan’s supporting performances. Yet Anora is joyous, heartbreaking, visually stunning, and tightly paced, perfectly capturing a narrative that is ultimately all about one woman, a tough survivor, and her will to live and dream.

2

Oppenheimer (2023)

Other Wins: Best Director (Christopher Nolan), Best Actor (Cillian Murphy), Best Supporting Actor (Robert Downey Jr.), Best Editing, Best Cinematography, Best Score

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Oppenheimer is a sweeping historical epic that might be called Oscar bait, if not for the fact that everyone loves it. Fans who spent years waiting for the great director to win an Oscar finally saw it happen with Christopher Nolan’s best movie. Nolan expertly plays with different visuals and styles between timelines and settings to take this movie beyond being a basic biopic. The director knows how to make a movie feel big, and this one was the culmination of everything else he had done, especially given his previous experience in the war and sci-fi genres.

Yet while this movie is grand and visually stunning, it deftly handles all the most important themes surrounding this historical narrative, of both the intellectual rewards and the terrible consequences of scientific innovation.

Yet while this movie is grand and visually stunning, it deftly handles all the most important themes surrounding this historical narrative, of both the intellectual rewards and the terrible consequences of scientific innovation. All the while, the historical characters’ choices are impacted by the realities of World War II, and the movie goes back and forth between this being a legitimate justification and enabling more horrors. Of course, the performances, namely the one given by Cillian Murphy, capture the complex psyches of the people involved with the advent of the atomic bomb.

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Oppenheimer

R

Drama

History

Biography

9/10

22

9.2/10

Release Date

July 21, 2023

Runtime

150 Minutes

Cast

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• 

  Cillian Murphy

• 

  Emily Blunt

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The one mark against Oppenheimer is that it is a bit long and a bit demanding, and it can be easy to get lost in the whole thing, especially if one is watching it at home when it was arguably meant to be seen in the fully immersive environment of a movie theater. However, few movies in the 21st century are this epic or this impactful, ending on a chilling note of what has been done and the cycle of power taking things beyond the only people who seemingly understand what’s at stake.

1

Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022)

Other Wins: Best Director, Best Original Screenplay (The Daniels), Best Actress (Michelle Yeoh), Best Supporting Actor (Ke Huy Quan), Best Supporting Actress (Jamie Lee Curtis), Best Editing

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Everything Everywhere All at Once still seems like an impossible occurrence, for a movie so wild and so different to pull together numerous vastly underappreciated artists, deliver an out-of-this-world but deeply resonant story, and go all the way to the biggest award in Hollywood. EEAAO distinctly avoids being at all like the complained-about Oscars movies that are just long and dull, with a genuinely entertaining premise that takes the audience through the multiverse and keeps them hooked for even the two-hour and 19-minute runtime. Much impressive editing and camerawork goes into all the multiverse shenanigans, as well as just clever conceptualization.

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Everything Everywhere All at Once

R

Adventure

Comedy

Action

8/10

25

8.7/10

Release Date

March 25, 2022

Runtime

132 minutes

Cast

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• 

  Jenny Slate

• 

  Ke Huy Quan

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EEAAO also swept with its performances, taking home three out of four of the acting awards (with two nominees in Best Supporting Actress), thanks to all the actors delivering wacky yet nuanced portrayals that tie all the different versions of their characters throughout the multiverse together into a singular arc. Many moments became instantly iconic in the weirdest way possible, like Jobu Topaki’s arrival in Elvis costume and “Just be a rock.” Yet, perhaps even more amazing, all the movie’s wildest imaginings are in service of a universal message.

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The point of The Daniels’ one-in-a-million movie is to appreciate every moment, to make meaning of your own life, and to love those that have been given to you. Everything Everywhere All at Once features such truly astounding things to find in a Best Picture winner, while at its core being about family and self-acceptance. The 2020s have seen some incredible movies come to the Oscars and will for the next five years, but nothing is likely to be as dazzling as this.

Oscars

8/10

Location

Los Angeles, CA

Dates

March 2, 2025

Network

ABC

Website

https://www.oscars.org/

Source: https://truongnguyenbinhkhiem.edu.vn
Category: Entertainment