THE Academy Award for Best Picture has, over the decades, gone to some great movies. Here, we asked 10 people, all of them highly knowledgeable about films, to nominate their personal favourite out of all the winners.
Karen Guthrie, director of The Closer We Get
12 Years A Slave
AS an artist turned film-maker myself, director Steve McQueen is an inspiration and a role model. He shows what is possible when we ignore boundaries and follow our creative instincts, pulling off a big, Hollywood-flavour Oscar-tastic movie whilst holding onto all his integrity. McQueen renders every shot in this film exquisite, with his gift for beautiful composition and lighting, and the performances of Chiwetel Ejiofor and Michael Fassbender are mesmerising. The script, being based on a documentary source (an 1853 account by Solomon Northup, a free-born African American who was kidnapped into slavery) intensifies the film for me too. I wonder how many other unrecorded lives suffered the same fate.
Paul Leonard-Morgan, Emmy/Ivor Novello-nominated and BAFTA-winning composer
Forrest Gump
PICKING a favourite doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the best film of them. But Forrest Gump for me is a classic. Tom Hanks is just the actor of his generation and the beautiful story, combined with Alan Silvestri’s phenomenal soundtrack (it’s always about the music!), manages to make me cry every time, when he goes and meets his son for the first time sitting in front of the TV. From a music perspective, it’s very rare that we composers get to write melodies that can drive the narrative so much. Just such a classic movie.
Hope Dickson Leach, director, The Levelling
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
THERE are a few pivotal movies in everyone’s life. Films that change the way you see the world, or what you understand cinema to be, or how you figure you fit into the universe – and very rarely a film is all three. One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest is one. Winning the Academy Award in 1975, the year before I was born, I was introduced to it in a film studies class when I was 16 and never looked back. Staggering performances, exquisite storytelling and a devastating critique of society, it showcases director Milos Forman’s enormous talent at its best.
* The Levelling is released nationwide on May 12.
Rosie Ellison, Film Edinburgh
Chariots of Fire
SO many great Oscar winners over the years: The Godfather I and II, The Last Emperor, American Beauty, Birdman, Crash – but it’s my job to promote Edinburgh as a film-friendly destination so there can only be one, Hugh Hudson’s 1981 classic Chariots Of Fire, much of which filmed in Edinburgh. It’s a stunningly beautiful film that captures the essence of a bygone era and yet resonates today with its enduring themes of class and personal dignity.
* www.filmedinburgh.com
Rodge Glass, author, academic, associate editorial director at Freight Books, film fan
Slumdog Millionaire
SOME wonderful films have won Best Picture – but none with the energy, vibrancy and sheer joyfulness of Slumdog Millionaire. I'm a huge fan of Danny Boyle’s work. Partly that’s because of his variety of focus – one minute he’s in the clubs of Edinburgh, next it’s a journey to the sun, then the Juhu slums – but I also love it because Boyle transmits such compassion for his underdog characters. He’s an underdog’s director. Slumdog Millionaire has vivacity in spades, and is that rare thing, a film that is somehow ‘feel-good’ without telling too many lies about the world’s vast injustices.
Allison Gardner, co-director Glasgow Film Festival
Midnight Cowboy
MY favourite winner of Best Picture Oscar is Midnight Cowboy, the 1969 winner. It was shot on location in New York, a downbeat and very different New York from today. It's essentially a brilliant, poignant buddy film starring Dustin Hoffman as Ratso, a sickly street hustler and Jon Voight as Joe Buck, a naïve Texan who believe he is a stud whom women can’t resist. These two very different men, through hardships, disappointments and poverty, find a genuine and touching friendship. Noted for being the only X-rated film ever to win the Best Picture Oscar it’s a rare treat and stands the test of time.
* GFF finishes today
Jennifer Reynolds, Film Commissioner, Glasgow Film Office
Midnight Cowboy
I FIRST watched this film when I was 14 and, while films had made me cry before, this made me bawl uncontrollably. Repeated viewings have had the same effect. From the horror of Joe Buck’s past to his naïve attempts at being a ‘hustler’, it is relentlessly tragic. Support and kindness eventually comes in the unlikely form of Ratso Rizzo, and the two develop a loyal friendship. With Ratso’s health failing, they attempt to start a new life in Florida – creating the most heart-breaking bus journey ever committed to celluloid. If the ending doesn’t move you to tears, you are made of stone.
* www.glasgowfilm.com/
Demetrios Matheou, Sunday Herald film critic
The Godfather
PART II may be more complex, but the first of Francis Ford Coppola’s Mafia trilogy felt like history in the making – a mesmerising mixture of blockbuster popcorn movie and work of art, genre and myth. It’s not just a great gangster movie, but a complete, perfect film, with more iconic scenes than a dozen Oscar winners put together. To watch it is to be immersed in another world, dangerous and appalling and strangely seductive, after which the idea of 'family' will never be the same. And what a cast – Pacino, Duvall, Caan, Keaton and most of all Brando, who’d auditioned with cotton balls in his mouth for the most magnificent comeback in cinema history.
Mike Wiles, general manager, Cineworld Glasgow, Renfrew Street
Rocky
MOVIES have always been my biggest passion, so picking just one title was tough. That said, my favourite film to take home the Best Picture award is Rocky. which won in 1976. It's exciting, realistic, dramatic and above all, uplifting and inspiring. Whilst Rocky himself may not be an inspiration to everyone, Sylvester Stallone is really impressive as both writer and lead character, and I think the film remains a classic today. Awards season is such an exciting time in the film industry, and this year movie lovers are spoilt for choice.
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