We Actually Fixed the Oscars | The Big Picture (Ep. 79)

Black Panther 2018

The movie the whole category seems to be invented around: over $700 million and, everyone agrees, actually great.

Avatar 2009

Nominated the year the Academy expanded Best Picture to fix a snub like this one; still lost.

The Hurt Locker 2009

Beat Avatar for Best Picture: the small movie over the giant one.

The Dark Knight 2008

Its Best Picture snub is why the field expanded to ten nominees in the first place.

Titanic 1997

Proof a giant hit can also just win Best Picture outright.

Gladiator 2000

Gone with the Wind 1939

Moonlight 2016

The small-movie winner the Oscars get accused of favoring over hits.

Get Out 2017

Nominated for Best Picture (inconceivable a decade earlier) and should have won it, per Sean.

12 Years a Slave 2013

The worry: a popular-film category could shrink Best Picture down to just movies like this.

Spotlight 2015

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri 2017

Won by 'sneaking in' last year, unlike a movie that's too successful.

Dunkirk 2017

Checked every Best Picture box and still never had a real shot.

Pretty Woman 1990

Not a Best Picture nominee: the test case for whether the Oscars owe the year's biggest hit a nod.

Aquaman 2018

Bill's December tentpole of choice, invoked as exactly what this category is for.

The Sound of Music 1965

The interpretive-dance 50th-anniversary tribute they'd cut without hesitation.

Phantom Thread 2017

Mark Bridges' costume-design win came with a genuinely fun jet-ski bit, a rare telecast moment they'd keep.

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan 2006

Nominated for Adapted Screenplay: proof the Academy isn't as stuffy as it acts.

Hustle & Flow 2005

Three 6 Mafia's Best Original Song win. The Oscars have gone populist before.

Coco 2017

Cordoned off into Best Animated Feature and never seriously in the Best Picture conversation, despite being better than the field.

Darkest Hour 2017

The Best Picture nominee Coco was 'significantly better than,' per Sean and Amanda.

The Tourist 2010

The Golden Globes' comedy/musical category once nominated this Depp-Jolie flop, Exhibit A for why 'popular' categories go sideways.

Jaws 1975

The easy pick to lead off the alternate history.

Star Wars 1977

Lost Best Picture to Annie Hall in real life; wins this one outright.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi 2017

Sean's pick: genuinely strange it missed a Best Picture nomination.

Logan 2017

The rare superhero movie the Academy did nominate, for Adapted Screenplay.

It 2017

Spider-Man: Homecoming 2017

Thor: Ragnarok 2017

Wonder Woman 2017

Amanda's self-declared 'one bad take' of 2017: she had it at No. 3 for the year and still defends loving it.

Deadpool 2016

Sean's half-serious 2016 pitch: nominate it for Best Picture to reflect what movies actually were that year.

La La Land 2016

The Oscars didn't need the stunt that year. Moonlight beating it live was drama enough.

Erin Brockovich 2000

Julia Roberts' Best Actress win: a career-achievement award, not her best performance, per Bill.

You Can Count on Me 2000

Laura Linney's performance that year, per Bill, still holds up better than Roberts'.

The Contender 2000

Joan Allen, Bill's pick for the year's actual best actress performance.

Gravity 2013

Sean's nominee for the award's most obvious use case.

The Shape of Water 2017

Sean wasn't for it even on Oscar night; likes it even less now.

Skyfall 2012

Bill's personal pick: peak Bond craft, and a movie he owns on Amazon because it's otherwise hard to watch.

Casino Royale 2006

Critic Adam Naiman's pick: 'a sin' it wasn't nominated, and would win this award every time, per Bill.

There's Something About Mary 1998

One of the funniest, most successful comedies of its year, nowhere near the Oscars.

Misery 1990

Kathy Bates' Best Actress win: exactly the popcorn-movie Oscar this category is meant to formalize.

Call Me by Your Name 2017

Timothée Chalamet's Best Actor nomination lost to Gary Oldman, the case for a separate Breakthrough Performance award.

The Devil Wears Prada 2006

Meryl Streep got nominated, but Bill argues the film itself belonged in Best Picture.

The Departed 2006

Would have cleaned up in the popcorn category too, but its real Best Picture win was a makeup call for Scorsese's long losing streak.

Taxi Driver 1976

Raging Bull 1980

Goodfellas 1990

Fast Five 2011

Bill's case for the 'greatest action movie of all time.'

Terminator 2: Judgment Day 1991

Sean's rebuttal to the Fast Five claim.