Paramount Home Media announced this past week that Mar. 23 will be the street for the Blu-ray set titled Best Picture Essentials: 10-Movie Collection.
Timed to be in place at retail prior to this year’s Oscar telecast on Apr. 25 (postponed as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic), the collection features a selection of ten Best-Picture winners, kicking off with the only silent film to win the Best Picture Oscar, director William A. Wellman’s 1927 World War I fighter pilot saga, Wings, starring Clara Bow, Charles 'Buddy' Rogers and Richard Arlen. The first Oscar award ceremony took place at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel on May 16, 1929 (films eligible for the years 1927 and 1928).
Chronologically, the next film in the collection is director George Cukor’s 1964 musical, My Fair Lady, teaming Audrey Hepburn with Rex Harrison. The film was nominated for 12 Oscars, winning for Best Picture, Rex Harrison captured the Best Actor Oscar (he was nominated the previous year for Cleopatra), George Cukor was named Best Director (his only win of five nominations in that category … Born Yesterday, A Double Life, The Philadelphia Story, Little Women being his other Best Director nominations) and film won in five of the production categories … of note, Audrey Hepburn was not nominated and both Gladys Cooper and Stanley Holloway lost out in the Supporting Actress and Actor categories.
One of the great films ever made is the 1972 film release of The Godfather. Nominated for 11 Oscars, The Godfather won Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Actor for Marlon Brando (his sixth of eight Oscar nominations, with his only other win for On the Waterfront).
Ironically, director Francis Ford Coppola lost the Best Director Oscar to Bob Fosse (Cabaret), but did not go home empty handed, since he shared Oscar laurels with Mario Puzo for the script … Robert Duvall, James Caan and Al Pacino were all nominated in the Best Supporting Actor category, but likely saw their support divided allowing Joel Grey to collect the award for his performance in Cabaret.
We next jump to 1983 and director James L. Brooks’ film adaptation of the Larry McMurtry best-seller, Terms of Endearment, which was nominated for 11 Oscars, winning Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay Oscars for James L. Brooks … as producer, director and writer). Jack Nicholson won the Oscar for Best Support Actor (nominated for a dozen Oscars for acting, capturing wins for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and As Good as It Gets) and Shirley MacLaine and Debra Winger went head-to-head in the Best Actress category, with MacLaine walking away with the gold (her only win after five previous attempts).
It’s the 1995 Oscar telecast (for the 1994 films nominated) and director Robert Zemeckis’ film adaptation of the Winston Groom novel, Forrest Gump, was the big winner that night, winning Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor for Tom Hanks (his second Oscar win, Philadelphia the previous year … how he didn’t win Best Actor for Saving Private Ryan is one of those Oscar mysteries that crop up from time to time) and Eric Roth won for Best Adapted Screenplay.
It should be noted, the 1994 crop of Best Picture nominees included both Pulp Fiction and The Shawshank Redemption … wow, what a year!!
Next up in this ten-film collection is director Anthony Minghella’s 1996 film adaptation of Michael Ondaatj’s 1992 best-seller, The English Patient, starring Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche, Kristin Scott Thomas and Willem Dafoe. The film was nominated for 12 Oscars, winning for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Supporting Actress (Juliette Binoche) … Ralph Fiennes and Kristin Scott Thomas were nominated in the Best Actor and Best Actress categories respectively and Minghella as nominated for this script.
The story of the ill-fated maiden voyage of the RMS Titanic got the James Cameron treatment in 1997 with the Christmas-season super-blockbuster release of Titanic, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet and Billy Zane, with stellar supporting performances from Kathy Bates (as Molly Brown), Frances Fisher, Gloria Stuart and Cameron regular Bill Paxton. The film received 14 Oscar nominations and recorded wins for Best Picture, Best Director and just about every technical award possible, but both Kate Winslet and Gloria Stuart both lost out for playing the same character is the Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress categories.
Rounding out the collection are director Sam Mendes’ American Beauty (1999 … Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor for Kevin Spacey and Best Screenplay for Alan Ball’s original script), filmmaker Ridley Scott’s Gladiator (2000 … Best Picture and Best Actor for Russell Crowe) and finally the Coen Brothers’ 2007 gem, No Country for Old Men, which saw brothers Joel and Ethan Coen win Oscars for producing, directing and writing (adaptation), with Javier Bardem chilling performance as Anton Chigurh capturing the Best Supporting Actor Oscar.
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