25 Best Picture winners you may not have seen

The first Best Picture winner holds up like a piece of memorabilia. It's still shiny, tacky, and filled with history. Its story of two pilots in the Air Force is like Top Gun without the banter. 

All The King's Men tells the story of a corrupt politician who climbs the ladder, then falls to his death. It's one of the more stagey Best Picture winners to date, but the idea of making an anti-American movie in 1949 is quite ambitious. 

The Artist is a look at Hollywood's early years, seen through the eyes of a fading star and a budding ingenue. The movie has a playful tone, a black-and-white image, and a silent dance that recalls the ones in Fred Astaire's musicals. It's got a lot going for it, even though most people didn't watch it when it came out. 

Guillermo del Toro has been a well of creativity for over two decades now. Dating back to the '90s, he's been churning out fairytales that sweep the viewer up in a magical spell. In The Shape Of Water, he casts a spell that isn't broken until the credits role, and you realize just how powerful that spell really is.  

This movie is so massive it makes the Great Wall look like a lego set. Compared to this world-spanning adventure, almost everything looks quaint. There's a bullfight with stunts, a montage with countries, and nearly 100 stars. It's a bit of a mess, but what a mess it is! 

Paris has never looked better than in Vincente Minnelli's Gigi, a colorful musical that takes the plot of My Fair Lady and transports it to another time. It's one of those musicals you can watch on repeat, thanks to its good vibes, catchy songs, and bright colors. Leslie Caron's courtesan is one of the most lovable characters in all of cinema, and everyone around her is just so...nice. Only at the movies can Parisians be this kind. 

Robert Redford showed his chops as a director in this 1980 classic about a troubled teenager and the parents who try to help him. While many see this as a drag, there are some great performances from a cast that includes Donald Sutherland and Mary Tyler Moore. 

Please, sir, can I have some more...of this movie! Charles Dickens got the Oscar treatment in this 1968 classic, which sees a young Oliver Twist beg his way from an orphan to a saint. There are all the twists along the way. Plus, some really fun songs.

One of my favorite movies on this list. The Sting is why people say, "They don't make 'em like they used to." Hollywood used to put two stars in a room (Robert Redford, Paul Newman) and let them do their thing. Set to a rollicking soundtrack, this story of two con artists hitting the jackpot is really just a chance to see two actors show off. 

Two words: Sidney Poitier. That's the real reason to watch In The Heat Of The Night, a '60s drama about a Black cop in Mississippi. This movie aims to be a vicious take on racism and doubles as a chance to see one of the greatest actors do his thing.  

Better than Citizen Kane? Hardly. But the movie that beat out Citizen Kane does have some things going for it, mainly the style that John Ford brings to the table. 

One of the smartest looks at divorce in film, Kramer vs. Kramer does for children what Marriage Story  does for parents. It places you in the shoes of a boy as he tries to navigate his parents' divorce. His outlook on the whole thing allows Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep to play complicated characters who love their child but make mistakes. 

The Best Years Of Our Lives is one of the finest war movies ever made, and there isn't a single combat scene. Like the neo-realist films of its era (Rome, Open City), it's a movie about the aftermath of war and how the soldiers adjust to everyday life. It's about an entire nation dealing with shellshock. And it lands with the force of an atom bomb. 

Bernardo Bertolucci was the first Italian director to win Best Picture, as well as the first director who was allowed to film in Beijing's Forbidden City. He makes the most of it with a grand, opulent retelling of Pu Yi's life as an Emporer in Japan. The movie feels closer to Bertolucci's previous work than it does to other Best Picture winners, making it one of the outliers in Oscar history. 

One of the only pro-war movies out there, Patton is a shrine to a man who took thousands of lives. Thousands of Nazi lives, but thousands of lives nonetheless. It's one of those movies that feels like an ad for the military but is carried out with such bravado you can't help but watch in awe. As George C. Scott delivers speeches against an American flag, your entire body will be flanked by goosebumps. 

Marty is like a glass of warm tea on a stormy day. It warms your entire body to watch these lovers make it work when the rest of the world says it can't. 

This movie was rewritten as the United States entered World War II, making the story of a family in wartime even more relevant. There's a tinge of propaganda in the way that Mrs. Miniver supports the war, which actually works to the film's benefit. Sometimes it's nice to get a pat on the back and a reminder that everything will be alright. 

Gene Kelly plays an American GI who stays in Paris to be a painter and falls in love with Lise Bouvier. Tap dancing and musical numbers ensue. 

The remake just took home a number of Oscars, but the original is the one you should watch first. The movie still packs a punch today, as do the performances that give each soldier a human face. A final shot reminds you that these men have names, and there's a world out there that they are missing out on. 

Marlon Brando is a contender for the best actor ever, and this movie shows you why. Elia Kazan's story of a boxer who "coulda been somebody" is a gritty drama with knockout performances. Brando, in particular, makes you root for his character, even though he has more problems than most people have clothes. 

The first movie with sound. The first movie with songs. The first movie with more problems than Birth Of A Nation. The Broadway Melody is a movie of firsts that should be seen for its history if not much else. 

Going My Way is best known for the way it changed the Oscars when Barry Fitzgerald won Best Supporting Actor and then lost Best Actor to his screen partner Bing Crosby.  But there's much to enjoy in this musical, which sees a priest on the verge of retirement when his parish loses faith. 

Terms Of Endearment is a checklist of Oscar cliches. Someone falls in love? Check. Someone cries on the floor? Check. Someone gets in a shouting match with their spouse? Check. It's all here in James L.  Brook's first movie, which he made after directing The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Taxi. The result is a mother-daughter movie that works despite all the cliches. 

A pre-code Western about a newspaper editor who moves to Oklahoma, Cimarron has some pretty offensive stereotypes, which might be why most people haven't seen it. Still, there's enough here to justify its win at the Oscars back then. What's not justifiable? That the Academy didn't give another Western Best Picture until 1990. 

The coda to our list. Coda is a crowd-pleaser about a deaf family and the only speaking girl in that family. It's about how she navigates those issues while trying to become a musician and a woman, all of which builds to a symphony of emotions that made me burst into tears.