Critically Acclaimed Films Winning Academy Awards
By Kayla Ito
Here are our top 10 choices for award-winning films that have won academy awards!
10. Moonlight (2016)
This film look at three pivotal moments in the protagonist, Chiron’s, life as a young black man growing up in Miami. The generosity, support, and love of the community that helps raise him guide him on his epic journey to manhood.
9. Gone With the Wind (1939)
Presented in the same form as when it was first released in 1939. The themes and character depictions may be objectionable and problematic to modern audiences. The life of petulant Southern belle Scarlett O’Hara is the subject of this epic Civil War drama. The film chronicles her survival through the sad history of the South during the Civil War and Reconstruction, as well as her complex love affairs with Ashley Wilkes and Rhett Butler, beginning with her beautiful childhood on a huge farm.
8. The Godfather: Part II (1974)
This film is the exciting follow-up to “The Godfather,” juxtaposing the lives of Corleone’s father and son. The film compares and contrasts the problems of Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) in 1958 and Vito Corleone (Robert De Niro) as a young immigrant in 1917’s Hell’s Kitchen. Michael gets introduced to a life of crime after a series of disasters.
7. Casablanca (1943)
Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), the owner of a nightclub in Casablanca, learns that his former flame Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) and her husband Victor Laszlo are in town (Paul Henreid). Ilsa thinks Rick can help them get out of the country because Laszlo is a well-known rebel. With Germans on his heels, Ilsa knows that because of this they may be able to escape.
6. Green Book (2018)
In 1962, Dr. Don Shirley, a world-renowned African-American pianist, is preparing to embark on a performance tour of the Deep South. Shirley hires Tony Lip, a tough-talking bouncer from an Italian-American neighbourhood in the Bronx, as a driver and security. Despite their differences, the two men form an unexpected relationship as they face racism and danger in a segregated society.
5. Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
Flashbacks illustrate how 18-year-old Jamal Malik (Dev Patel) came to where he is on the Indian version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.” Jamal and his brother, Salim, survive on the streets of Mumbai as members of a gang of adolescent thieves when their mother dies. Jamal scrapes by with little jobs until he lands a seat on the game show, while Salim enjoys the life of crime.
4. The Godfather (1972)
This mob thriller, based on Mario Puzo’s novel of the same name, is widely known as one of the best films of all time. It follows the powerful Italian-American crime family of Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando). When the don’s youngest son, Michael (Al Pacino), reluctantly joins the Mafia, he is drawn into the cycle of murder and treachery that follows. Despite his best efforts to preserve a normal relationship with his wife, Kay (Diane Keaton), Michael finds himself lured deeper into the family company.
3. Schindler’s List (1993)
Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson), a businessman, arrives in Krakow in 1939, eager to profit from World War II, which has just begun. He joins the Nazi party primarily for political reasons, and he employs Jewish workers in his factory for similar reasons. When the SS begins exterminating Jews in the Krakow ghetto, Schindler arranges for the safety of his workers in order to keep his factory running, but he soon discovers that he is also sparing the lives of innocent people.
2. Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (2003)
“The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” is the end of Peter Jackson’s epic trilogy based on the timeless J.R.R. Tolkien classic, and it depicts the ultimate battle between the forces of good and evil vying for control of the destiny of Middle-earth. In their quest to destroy the ‘one ring,’ Hobbits Frodo and Sam arrive in Mordor, while Aragorn leads the forces of good against Sauron’s evil army in the stone city of Minas Tirith.
1. Parasite (2019)
Jobless, impoverished, and, most all, miserable, Ki-taek (Kang-ho Song) and his equally unmotivated family—his loving wife, Chung-sook (Jang Hye-jin); his cynical twenty-something daughter, Ki-jung (So-dam Park); and his college-age son, Ki-woo (Woo-sik Choi)—occupy themselves in their dismal basement-level apartment by working for peanuts. Then, by chance, a profitable business opportunity will pave the way for an ingeniously devious ploy, as Ki-woo (Woo-sik Choi) musters the guts to masquerade as an English tutor for the affluent Park family’s adolescent daughter which later turns into a ploy of scams to employ the whole family.