Drama
Once Upon a Time in America
(1984)
Harry Grey (novel), Leonardo Benvenuti (screenplay), Piero De Bernardi (screenplay), Enrico Medioli (screenplay), Franco Arcalli (screenplay), Franco Ferrini (screenplay), Sergio Leone (screenplay), Stuart Kaminsky (additional dialogue)
Nominated for 2 Golden Globes. Another 11 wins & 7 nominations.
A former Prohibition-era Jewish gangster returns to the Lower East Side of Manhattan over thirty years later, where he once again must confront the ghosts and regrets of his old life.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
(1975)
Lawrence Hauben (screenplay), Bo Goldman (screenplay), Ken Kesey (based on the novel by), Dale Wasserman (the play version: "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" by)
Won 5 Oscars. Another 30 wins & 13 nominations.
McMurphy has a criminal past and has once again gotten himself into trouble and is sentenced by the court. To escape labor duties in prison, McMurphy pleads insanity and is sent to a ward for the mentally unstable. Once here, McMurphy both endures and stands witness to the abuse and degradation of the oppressive Nurse Ratched, who gains superiority and power through the flaws of the other inmates. McMurphy and the other inmates band together to make a rebellious stance against the atrocious Nurse.
One Hour Photo
(2002)
Mark Romanek
6 wins & 21 nominations.
Middle aged Sy Parrish works as a technician at a one hour photo lab located in a SavMart store in a suburban mall. Sy is a lonely man, never having had any friends. He knows much about his customers through the photographs they have developed. But he knows more about the Yorkin family - specifically Nina Yorkin and her adolescent son Jake Yorkin, the two in the family who drop off and pick up the family's photofinishing - the family about whom he is obsessed, than anyone else. Nina's husband, Will Yorkin, is incidental to his obsession since Sy has only seen him in photographs. Sy's obsession includes fantasizing about being their favorite "Uncle Sy". He has even been making an extra set of prints for himself of all of their photographs since Jake was a newborn. After an incident at work and after Sy finds out more about the family through a set of photographs, he decides to right the injustices he sees in the only way he knows how. His actions demonstrate his true mental state.
Only God Forgives
(2013)
Nicolas Winding Refn
10 wins & 20 nominations.
Bangkok. Ten years ago Julian killed a man and went on the run. Now he manages a Thai boxing club as a front for a drugs operation. Respected in the criminal underworld, deep inside, he feels empty. When Julian's brother murders an underage prostitute, the police call on retired cop Chang - the Angel of Vengeance. Chang allows the father to kill his daughter's murderer, then 'restores order' by chopping off the man's right hand. Julian's mother Crystal - the head of a powerful criminal organization - arrives in Bangkok to collect her son's body. She dispatches Julian to find his killers and 'raise hell'.
Out of Sight
(1998)
Elmore Leonard (novel), Scott Frank (screenplay)
Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 13 wins & 12 nominations.
A career bank robber busts out of jail (Clooney) with the help of his buddy (Rhames) and kidnaps a US Marshal (Lopez) in the process. When the two cons head for Detroit to pull off their final big scam, the Marshal is put on their case but she finds she is attracted to one of them and has second thoughts about bringing them in.
Out of Time
(2003)
David Collard
4 wins & 7 nominations.
A Florida police chief must solve a vicious double homicide before he himself falls under suspicion.
Page Eight
(2011)
David Hare
Nominated for 1 Golden Globe.
Johnny Worricker (Bill Nighy) is a long-serving MI5 officer. His boss and best friend Benedict Baron (Michael Gambon) dies suddenly, leaving behind him an inexplicable file, threatening the stability of the organization. Meanwhile, a seemingly chance encounter with Johnny's striking next-door neighbor and political activist Nancy Pierpan (Rachel Weisz) seems too good to be true. Johnny is forced to walk out of his job, and then out of his identity to find out the truth. Set in London and Cambridge, PAGE EIGHT is a contemporary spy film for the BBC, which addresses intelligence issues and moral dilemmas peculiar to the new century.
Pan's Labyrinth
(2006)
Guillermo del Toro
Won 3 Oscars. Another 88 wins & 89 nominations.
In the falangist Spain of 1944, the bookish young stepdaughter of a sadistic army officer escapes into an eerie but captivating fantasy world.
Passengers
(2016)
Jon Spaihts
Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 1 win & 9 nominations.
The spaceship, Starship Avalon, in its 120-year voyage to a distant colony planet known as the "Homestead Colony" and transporting 5,258 people has a malfunction in one of its sleep chambers. As a result one hibernation pod opens prematurely and the one person that awakes, Jim Preston (Chris Pratt) is stranded on the spaceship, still 90 years from his destination.
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
(2006)
Andrew Birkin (screenplay), Bernd Eichinger (screenplay), Tom Tykwer (screenplay), Patrick Süskind (novel)
15 wins & 17 nominations.
Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, born with a superior olfactory sense, creates the world's finest perfume. His work, however, takes a dark turn as he searches for the ultimate scent.
Philomena
(2013)
Steve Coogan (screenplay), Jeff Pope (screenplay) , Martin Sixsmith (book)
Nominated for 4 Oscars. Another 32 wins & 76 nominations.
When former journalist Martin Sixsmith is dismissed from the Labour Party in disgrace, he is at a loss as to what do. That changes when a young Irish woman approaches him about a story of her mother, Philomena, who had her son taken away when she was a teenage inmate of a Catholic convent. Martin arranges a magazine assignment about her search for him that eventually leads to America. Along the way, Martin and Philomena discover as much about each other as about her son's fate. Furthermore, both find their basic beliefs challenged.
Picnic at Hanging Rock
(1975)
Joan Lindsay (novel), Cliff Green (screenplay)
Won 1 BAFTA Film Award. Another 3 wins & 11 nominations.
Three students and a school teacher disappear on an excursion to Hanging Rock, in Victoria, on Valentine's Day, 1900. Widely (and incorrectly) regarded as being based on a true story, the movie follows those that disappeared, and those that stayed behind, but it delights in the asking of questions, not the answering of them.
Platoon
(1986)
Oliver Stone
Won 4 Oscars. Another 20 wins & 15 nominations.
Chris Taylor is a young, naive American who gives up college and volunteers for combat in Vietnam. Upon arrival, he quickly discovers that his presence is quite nonessential, and is considered insignificant to the other soldiers, as he has not fought for as long as the rest of them and felt the effects of combat. Chris has two non-commissioned officers, the ill-tempered and indestructible Staff Sergeant Robert Barnes and the more pleasant and cooperative Sergeant Elias Grodin. A line is drawn between the two NCOs and a number of men in the platoon when an illegal killing occurs during a village raid. As the war continues, Chris himself draws towards psychological meltdown. And as he struggles for survival, he soon realizes he is fighting two battles, the conflict with the enemy and the conflict between the men within his platoon.
Predestination
(2014)
Michael Spierig (written by), Peter Spierig (written by), Robert A. Heinlein (based on the short story "All You Zombies" by)
11 wins & 18 nominations.
PREDESTINATION chronicles the life of a Temporal Agent sent on an intricate series of time-travel journeys designed to ensure the continuation of his law enforcement career for all eternity. Now, on his final assignment, the Agent must pursue the one criminal that has eluded him throughout time.
Primer
(2004)
Shane Carruth
3 wins & 7 nominations.
At night and on weekends, four men in a suburban garage have built a cottage industry of error-checking devices. But, they know that there is something more. There is some idea, some mechanism, some accidental side effect that is standing between them and a pure leap of innovation. And so, through trial and error they are building the device that is missing most. However, two of these men find the device and immediately realize that it is too valuable to market. The limit of their trust in each other is strained when they are faced with the question, If you always want what you can't have, what do you want when you can have anything?
Prisoners
(2013)
Aaron Guzikowski
Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 10 wins & 35 nominations.
How far would you go to protect your family? Keller Dover is facing every parent's worst nightmare. His six-year-old daughter, Anna, is missing, together with her young friend, Joy, and as minutes turn to hours, panic sets in. The only lead is a dilapidated RV that had earlier been parked on their street. Heading the investigation, Detective Loki arrests its driver, Alex Jones, but a lack of evidence forces his release. As the police pursue multiple leads and pressure mounts, knowing his child's life is at stake the frantic Dover decides he has no choice but to take matters into his own hands. But just how far will this desperate father go to protect his family?
Public Enemies
(2009)
Ronan Bennett (screenplay), Michael Mann (screenplay), Ann Biderman (screenplay), Bryan Burrough (book)
1 win & 13 nominations.
This is the story of the last few years of the notorious bank robber John Dillinger. He loved what he did and could imagine little else that would make him happier. Living openly in 1930s Chicago, he had the run of the city with little fear of reprisals from the authorities. It's there that he meets Billie Frechette with whom he falls deeply in love. In parallel we meet Melvin Purvis, the FBI agent who would eventually track Dillinger down. The FBI was is in its early days and Director J. Edgar Hoover was keen to promote the clean cut image that so dominated the organization through his lifetime. Purvis realizes that if he is going to get Dillinger, he will have to use street tactics and imports appropriate men with police training. Dillinger is eventually betrayed by an acquaintance who tells the authorities just where to find him on a given night.
Pulp Fiction
(1994)
Quentin Tarantino (story), Roger Avary (story), Quentin Tarantino
Won 1 Oscar. Another 54 wins & 60 nominations.
Jules Winnfield and Vincent Vega are two hitmen who are out to retrieve a suitcase stolen from their employer, mob boss Marsellus Wallace. Wallace has also asked Vincent to take his wife Mia out a few days later when Wallace himself will be out of town. Butch Coolidge is an aging boxer who is paid by Wallace to lose his next fight. The lives of these seemingly unrelated people are woven together comprising of a series of funny, bizarre and uncalled-for incidents.
Quadrophenia
(1979)
Dave Humphries (screenplay), Martin Stellman (screenplay), Franc Roddam (screenplay)
N/A
London, 1965: Like many other youths, Jimmy hates the philistine life, especially his parents and his job in a company's mailing division. Only when he's together with his friends, a 'Mod' clique, cruises London on his motor-scooter and hears music such as that of 'The Who' and 'The High Numbers', he feels free and accepted. However, it's a flight into an illusionary world.
Raging Bull
(1980)
Jake LaMotta (based on the book by), Joseph Carter (with), Peter Savage (with), Paul Schrader (screenplay), Mardik Martin (screenplay)
Won 2 Oscars. Another 23 wins & 24 nominations.
An emotionally self-destructive boxer's journey through life, as the violence and temper that leads him to the top in the ring, destroys his life outside it.