Dave’s Movie Database: Top 100 Films Based on Awards Points

Dave’s Movie Database: Top 100 Films Based on Awards Points

This list was created by awarding points to movies for taking home annual best-of-movie awards from a variety of organizations such as the Academy (Oscars), the Golden Globes, the National Board of Review, the Broadcast Film Critics Association, the Online Film Critics Society, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, and the Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or. Also included are awards from the Directors’ Guild of America, the Producers’ Guild of America, and the Screen Actors’ Guild. A variety of city-based critics association awards are factored in as well: Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York, San Diego, and San Francisco. See a full list of year-end movie awards by clicking on the Awards link. With an abundance of these awards coming about since the ‘90s, this list is heavily slanted toward modern films. Still, it is worth seeing what films have been celebrated most in the last three decades. 1. Schindler’s List (1993) 2. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) 3. Saving Private Ryan (1998) 4. No Country for Old Men (2007) 5. Brokeback Mountain (2005) 6. The Hurt Locker (2009) 7. The Social Network (2010) 8. Nomadland (2020) 9. American Beauty (1999) 10. The Godfather (1972) 11. L.A. Confidential (1997) 12. Fargo (1996) 13. Slumdog Millionaire (2008) 14. The Silence of the Lambs (1991) 15. 12 Years a Slave (2013) 16. Lawrence of Arabia (1962) 17. Titanic (1997) 18. Unforgiven (1992) 19. Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) 20. Ben-Hur (1959) 21. Moonlight (2016) 22. Parasite (Gisaengchung) (2019) 23. Goodfellas (1990) 24. The Sound of Music (1965) 25. On the Waterfront (1954) 26. Dances with Wolves (1990) 27. Amadeus (1984) 28. Argo (2012) 29. Pulp Fiction (1994) 30. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) 31. West Side Story (1961) 32. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) 33. All About Eve (1950) 34. Chicago (2002) 35. Forrest Gump (1994) 36. Star Wars – Episode IV: A New Hope (1977) 37. The Godfather Part II (1974) 38. Patton (1970) 39. Terms of Endearment (1983) 40. Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) 41. La La Land (2016) 42. The Artist (2011) 43. The Apartment (1960) 44. From Here to Eternity (1953) 45. Boyhood (2014) 46. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) 47. My Fair Lady (1964) 48. The Deer Hunter (1978) 49. The French Connection (1971) 50. Gladiator (2000) 51. Annie Hall (1977) 52. Spotlight (2015) 53. The Power of the Dog (2021) 54. Oppenheimer (2023) 55. Sideways (2004) 56. Rocky (1976) 57. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) 58. Platoon (1986) 59. Marty (1955) 60. Apocalypse Now (1979) 61. Ordinary People (1980) 62. The Graduate (1967) 63. It Happened One Night (1934) 64. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) 65. Gone with the Wind (1939) 66. A Man for All Seasons (1966) 67. Tom Jones (1963) 68. Cabaret (1972) 69. Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) 70. Apollo 13 (1995) 71. Driving Miss Daisy (1989) 72. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) 73. The Dark Knight (2008) 74. A Beautiful Mind (2001) 75. Citizen Kane (1941) 76. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) 77. The Sting (1973) 78. The Lost Weekend (1945) 79. Going My Way (1944) 80. A Place in the Sun (1951) 81. Casablanca (1942) 82. Sunset Boulevard (1950) 83. Midnight Cowboy (1969) 84. All the King’s Men (1949) 85. M*A*S*H (1970) 86. The Departed (2006) 87. Nashville (1975) 88. Chinatown (1974) 89. All the President’s Men (1976) 90. An American in Paris (1951) 91. Shakespeare in Love (1998) 92. The Exorcist (1973) 93. Bonnie and Clyde (1967) 94. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) 95. Gravity (2013) 96. Gandhi (1982) 97. Around the World in 80 Days (1956) 98. In the Heat of the Night (1967) 99. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) 100. All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) Resources: Dave’s Movie Database: Awards Page Originally posted 8/6/2019; last updated 2/24/2025.