Which films have won Best Picture at the Golden Globes and Oscars?

The first Golden Globes rewarded the films of 1943, so it didn’t take long for the Oscars and the Globes to match up. Additionally, it wasn’t until 1951 that the Globes had Drama and Musical/Comedy categories, so there was only one winner here. The first time these two awards matched up was for “Going My Way,” a Bing Crosby film where he plays a priest that would spawn a sequel.

Billy Wilder directed some classic comedies (this isn’t the last time we’ll see him on this list), but he also made some searing dramas. That includes “The Lost Weekend,” a film about alcoholism that helped set the template for movies of that vintage. Ray Milland was also well-rewarded for his performance as the star.

The United States was just out of World War II when “The Best Years of Our Lives” hit theaters. William Wyler directed, and he too had spent time in World War II making films for the government. This story of three veterans included a performance by a non-professional actor and real veteran Harold Russell, who actually won an Oscar for his work.

After one year of disagreement, the Oscars and Golden Globes agreed for your years in a row. “Gentleman’s Agreement” hasn’t really stood the test of time as a classic film, so even movie fans may not recall it. The movie stars Gregory Peck as a journalist who poses as Jewish to write a piece on anti-Semitism.

As we said, 1951 was the first year where the Golden Globes gave out awards for Drama and Musical/Comedy, so this was the first winner for Best Musical/Comedy. The Oscars loved musicals in the ‘50s and ‘60s, so get ready for a few more musicals on this list. “An American in Paris” made history as the first Best Musical/Comedy winner, and also took home the Oscar as well.

This is the kind of epic film that would win the ‘50s but probably would never win now. Hell, they don’t make movies like this now, and to be fair that’s probably with good reason. “The Greatest Show on Earth” is a cheesy ensemble film about the circus, but at the time the voters fell for it evidently.

On the one hand, “On the Waterfront” stars an excellent Marlon Brando and features some iconic lines and top-notch performances. On the other hand, director Elia Kazan was sort of using this movie to explain why he named names to HUAC during the hunt for Hollywood communists. If you can set aside the metatextual element, though, it’s a pretty classic working-class drama.

Movies this light and frothy don’t win Oscars anymore. Also, somehow “Around the World in 80 Days” won the Golden Globe for Best Drama? It’s not exactly what we’d call “dramatic,” or even necessarily good. Well, at least not in that Oscar-winning way. We could have seen this as a romp that succeeded at the box office, but the Best Picture winner?

OK, this is more like it. “The Bridge on the River Kwai” is a classic war film, one that is not about glorifying war or celebrating the United States military. In fact, Americans are barely involved, save for William Holden’s character. Alec Guinness is fantastic and won an Oscar in this gripping drama with a tremendous climax.

When people talk about classic Hollywood epics, “Ben-Hur” definitely comes up. It dominated at the Oscars, winning a whopping 11 Academy Awards, which is still tied for the record. Oh, and it won a few Golden Globes, of course, including Best Picture Drama.

Billy Wilder is back with a Best Musical/Comedy win, though it’s not exactly a laugh riot. However, that actually helps the quality of the film. Jack Lemmon plays a working stiff who curries favor at his job by letting executives use his apartment for their extramarital affairs. Then he meets an elevator operator played by Shirley MacLaine and has romantic visions of his own.

“Lawrence of Arabia” is a true epic. Not just in length, but in scope and ambition. All those beautiful shots of the desert are truly iconic, and David Lean deserves a ton of credit for the look of “Lawrence of Arabia.” If you can settle in for a long film, and don’t mind a war epic, there’s a lot to be said about this movie.

A lot of well-remembered films won Best Picture in the ‘60s, though “Tom Jones” probably isn’t one of them. However, it did get a little shot in the arm when star Albert Finney passed away. The British comedy was much liked at the time, though, and in addition to its Oscar and Golde Globe wins took home the BAFTA for Best Film.

This classic musical is both an adaptation of a stage musical but also the non-musical George Bernard Shaw play “Pygmalion.” Famously, Julie Andrews starred as Eliza Doolittle on stage but for the film, Audrey Hepburn starred in that role, even though she did not sing. While “My Fair Lady” won Best Picture at the Oscars, Andrews won for Best Actress for her singing performance as Mary Poppins.

Speaking of Andrews, she stars (and sings) in “The Sound of Music,” one of those movies that have strangely become a Christmas classic even though it isn’t a Christmas film. While a lot of people love this film, one person decidedly did not, and that was costar Christopher Plummer.

You might think there’d be more costume dramas on this list, but so far the Oscars and Golden Globes haven’t seen eye to eye on any of those films evidently. That changes with “A Man for All Seasons,” a biopic of Sir Thomas More, Lord Chancellor of England who refused to sign off on Henry VIII’s divorce. It did not go well for him.

The year 1967 is considered one of change in American filmmaking, with “Bonnie and Clyde” helping to chauffeur in a new era of grittier, more realistic movies. The whole “Easy Riders, Raging Bulls” thing. “In the Heat of the Night” kind of straddles Old Hollywood and New Hollywood, in that it touches on matters of racial prejudice of the era, but also is a pretty by-the-books crime procedural beyond that.

This is the end of a lengthy streak of the Oscars and Golden Globes being on the same page. The creation of the Musical/Comedy category probably helped with that, as this is the third musical to win Best Picture at the Oscars on this list. “Oliver!” is, of course, based on Charles Dickens's “Oliver Twist.”

If you like grimy crime dramas with great chase scenes and antihero cops, “The French Connection” is for you. It’s kind of a pulpy film, definitely not a costume drama, but it’s at the pinnacle of quality for that style of moviemaking.

Well, duh. Naturally “The Godfather” won Best Picture for both the Oscars and the Golden Globes. Many consider it the best movie ever made. And of course, the sequel also won both awards, right? Actually, no! While “The Godfather Part II” did indeed win Best Picture for 1974, “Chinatown” took home the Golden Globe that year.

Due to that 1974 split, the next time these two award shows were on the same page was 1975. “Chinatown” star Jack Nicholson is also the star of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” a film set in a mental hospital that somehow spawned a prequel about Nurse Ratched that felt wholly gratuitous even by prequel/sequel standards. Don’t hold that against the movie, though.

Rocky Balboa was an underdog, and so was the movie “Rocky.” Sylvester Stallone was not a star, but his film became a huge hit that spawned several sequels and surprisingly won Best Picture at the Oscars. As much as we like an underdog story, 1976 was a wild year for “Rocky” to win. It beat “Network” and “All the President’s Men.”

“Kramer vs. Kramer” is a family drama starring Meryl Streep and Dustin Hoffman, so you can probably guess that it’s a pretty heavy-acting tour de force. It feels like a real Oscar-bait movie, and apparently, it worked. Oh, and it also worked on Golden Globes voters as well, of course.

Martin Scorsese made “Raging Bull” in 1980, and the feeling of many is that it should have won the big awards, but it didn’t. Instead, Robert Redford’s family drama “Ordinary People” took home both the Oscar and the Golden Globe. Apparently, at the turn of the decade award, voters were really into frigid mothers and their children.

Speaking of mothers and children, that’s a big part of the melodramatic comedy-drama “Terms of Endearment.” James L. Brooks was making the move from television to movies, and it really worked. For his debut film, he didn’t just win Best Picture at both of these award events, but Brooks won the Best Director Oscar as well.

Do you know what’s impressive? Milos Forman made a biopic of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart that’s largely through the lens of Antonio Salieri, a much-less-famous composer, but it really works. It’s an epic film about classical music that does not feel like a chore. There aren’t many movies like “Amadeus.”

There are, on the other hand, a lot of films that feel like “Out of Africa.” It’s a fairly by-the-books romance film set in a far-flung location, in this case, Africa. That being said, it stars Robert Redford and Meryl Streep, so it’s at the upper echelon of that kind of film.

Vietnam War films were big in the ‘70s and ‘80s, and they felt a lot different than the World War II films that came out of that conflict. “Platoon” is a brutal and ugly look at war, though also an over-the-top one. After all, it was directed by Oliver Stone. Subtlety is not exactly his calling card.

“The Last Emperor” is one of the most-forgettable Oscar winners, especially for the movies from the ‘80s. It didn’t really make a cultural impact, but it was an epic and looked nice and evidently, that was enough for both the Oscars and the Golden Globes. It wasn’t a great year for movies, at least for dramas, but very few people, even film lovers, have sought out “The Last Emperor” since the ‘80s ended.

“Rain Man” has a showy, award-winning performance from Dustin Hoffman and a less showy, but impressive, turn from Tom Cruise. The two play brothers, with Hoffman playing a man on the autism spectrum who can’t take care of himself. They go to Vegas and play blackjack because Hoffman can count cards. It was a hit in the ‘80s but maybe doesn’t stand the test of time entirely.

Speaking of not standing the test of time, a lot of people have quibbles with “Driving Miss Daisy” winning Best Picture at the Oscars. It’s probably an overly congenial film about Jessica Tandy and her driver played by Morgan Freeman. It touches on race, but in a way that left many feeling dissatisfied. “Driving Miss Daisy” was actually the Comedy/Musical winner at the Golden Globes for 1989. “Born on the Fourth of July” took home Best Drama.

“Dances with Wolves” gets a lot of flak now, mostly because it beat “Goodfellas” and also because Kevin Costner then made “Waterworld.” However, “Dances with Wolves” isn’t a bad film. It was clearly popular, both with awards voters and audiences, and it’s a pretty solid epic, if maybe not the best choice for the year. Also, this ends a lengthy streak of the Oscars and Globes being of one mind.

Steven Spielberg finally got his Oscar, and also his Golden Globe. “Schindler’s List” is a Holocaust drama from a famous director, which seemed predestined to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards. Then, it did. Sometimes the obvious choices truly are obvious. Hey, it’s not like Spielberg is a slouch as a director.

The year 1994 gave us a few populist favorites, including “Shawshank Redemption” and “Pulp Fiction.” Of course, it’s “Forrest Gump” that dominated the awards that year. Time has not been kind to that movie, though some have now repositioned it as some sort of conservative Boomer fantasy that it decidedly is not, but at the time there was no arguing with “Forrest Gump,” whether you liked it or not.

On “Seinfeld,” Elaine famously hated “The English Patient.” She found it unbearably boring, the worst kind of Oscar bait. Apparently, the Academy and the Hollywood Foreign Press did not agree. Both voting bodies were happy to hand “The English Patient” the big awards.

A lot of the time, Oscar winners don’t reflect what the average filmgoer was into. Blockbusters and Best Picture winners aren’t always hand-in-hand. That was definitely not the case with “Titanic.” Not only did it become the highest-grossing movie ever at the time, but it also took home 11 Oscars and dominated the Globes as well.

In 1998, the battle seemed to be between Steven Spielberg’s “Saving Private Ryan” and “Shakespeare in Love.” Well, the Golden Globes could afford to honor them both. “Saving Private Ryan” took home Best Drama, while “Shakespeare in Love” won Best Musical/Comedy. That left it up to the Oscars, who went with the Shakespeare film.

Well, there are a few things to not like about this win. First, “American Beauty” isn’t that good of a movie. It’s heavy-handed and self-congratulatory. The film thinks more highly of itself than many viewers. Also, it stars Kevin Spacey and these days that is not going to do your movie any favors. Fortunately, we did not lose a great film from the cultural library when we had to push this one aside due to its star.

We’re in the midst of another lengthy streak of matches, but this one spans the turn of the millennium. “Gladiator” is an old-school epic with a new-school sheen, but it worked. Russell Crowe is excellent as Maximus, and this was a good choice for the first Best Picture winner from the new millennium, as it felt like a throwback in many ways.

From an action-packed, exciting Oscar and Golden Globe winner starring Russell Crowe to one that is not up to snuff. “A Beautiful Mind” is a fairly-dull biopic of John Nash directed by Ron Howard, the king of the B-minus directorial effort. Howard doesn’t get in the way of a good script or good acting, but he never seems to elevate his work as well. That didn’t stop “A Beautiful Mind” from winning this year, though.

It’s a throwback winner, because “Chicago” is a musical, and the musical definitely fell out of fashion for the Oscars. This was the first musical to win since the ‘60s, and the still the only one in that time. Of course, since the Golden Globes have a category for Best Musical/Comedy, they have rewarded more musicals in that time.

We arrive at the third movie to win 11 Oscars. It would have been weird if any of those three massive Oscar winners had not won the Best Picture from the Golden Globes. It hasn’t happened, though. Like “Ben-Hur” and “Titanic,” “Return of the King” was lauded by both voting bodies.

After a long streak of the same vote, we get one of the biggest gaps on this list. It wouldn’t be until 2008 that the Oscars and Globes agreed again. It happened in a year that wasn’t very good for film, which may be why both decided to reward “Slumdog Millionaire.” Even if you don’t love it, and few do, it’s hard to argue otherwise.

The Oscars love to reward movies about the magic of film, and they did just that with “The Artist,” a quasi-silent movie about a silent film star as movies make the move to sound. Meanwhile, the Golden Globes have a category that can reward comedies, and they decided that “The Artist” was a comedy. That allowed them to also give credit to “The Artist,” though weirdly the also comedic “The Descendents” won their Best Drama award.

Speaking of movies about the power of film, “Argo” literally features people who work in the movie industry helping to save Americans trapped in Iran during an uprising. To be fair, it’s based on a true story, and that actually happened. Ben Affleck made the jump from star actor to Oscar-winning director. How do you like them apples?

This is a harrowing drama based on a true story, the kind of uncomfortable film that is also conducive to winning Oscars. It’s a serious movie about serious things, and many award voters, especially in the Academy, like to reward seriousness. Plus, the movie has a great cast, including the breakout performance from Lupita Nyong’o.

Famously, “La La Land” was originally announced as the winner of Best Picture at the Oscars before it was announced that, in fact, “Moonlight” had actually won. The Golden Globes didn’t have that problem. They gave “Moonlight” the drama award and “La La Land” the musical/comedy award. Suddenly that decision to award two movies doesn’t feel so excessive, huh?

Unfortunately, this is the last film on this list as the last time the two award bodies rewarded the same film. “Green Book” is basically a race-swapped “Driving Miss Daisy,” but in 2018 it felt even more clunky than back in 1989. At least the Golden Globes could say it rewarded it as a comedy. The Oscars declared it the Best Picture of any movie that came out in 2018.

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