THR takes a look at which categories of film have garnered the highest honor in the 97-year history of the Academy Awards.
Illustration by The Sporting Press; Fox Searchlight/Courtesy Everett Collection (2); Courtesy Everett Collection (5); 20thCentFox/Courtesy Everett Collection (4); Columbia Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection; Universal/Courtesy Everett Collection; Miramax/courtesy Everett Collection (3); Orion Pictures Corp/Courtesy Everett Collection (2); Neon/Courtesy Everett Collection
Since the inaugural Academy Awards held in 1929, best picture (throughout variations of the category wording) has remained the highest honor of the evening. What has both changed and remained somewhat the same over the Academy’s 97-year history is voters’ perspective on the genre of film deserving of such prestige. Musicals, for instance, which reigned supreme throughout the 1950s and ’60s, have largely fizzled out among contemporary awardees, while epics broadly remain timelessly lauded, and horror and sci-fi flicks, not so much.
Trends are often a good predictor of which way voting members’ tastes may sway, so we tallied up the best picture winners of all time across the nine genres into which this year’s nominees fall to see what movies have the best chance of earning the top Oscar.
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Biographical Drama
Image Credit: Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics Like epics, biographical dramas are vast in their storytelling, with narratives that, rather than detail the totality of a single person’s life story as a biopic would, explore the larger influence of a distinct period in history on the protagonists’ lives and vice versa. To date, Oppenheimer (2023) is the most successful film in the genre, bringing in nearly $1 billion at the box office.
2025 NOMINEE I’m Still Here
PAST WINNERS Oppenheimer (2023), Green Book (2018), Spotlight (2015), 12 Years a Slave (2013), The King’s Speech (2010), A Beautiful Mind (2001), The Last Emperor (1987), Platoon (1986), Amadeus (1984)
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Biopic
Image Credit: Macall Polay/Searchlight Pictures In 1937, The Life of Emile Zola was just the second biographical film to win best picture, coming off the win of the 1936 musical The Great Ziegfeld. In 1983, Ben Kingsley’s Gandhi became both a commercial and critical success. After grossing $127.8 million at the box office against a $22 million budget, it led the Oscar race with 11 nominations that year, winning eight.
2025 NOMINEE A Complete Unknown
PAST WINNERS Ghandi (1982), The Life of Emile Zola (1937)
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Romantic Comedy
Image Credit: Courtesy of NEON It Happened One Night wasn’t just the first romantic comedy to win best picture — in 1934 it also became the first film overall to take home awards in all five major categories. It was the only movie to win both lead actor and actress for 41 years, until 1975’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the second film to win the big five — best picture, best director, best actor, best actress and best adapted screenplay.
2025 NOMINEE Anora
PAST WINNERS Shakespeare in Love (1998), Annie Hall (1977), The Apartment (1960), You Can’t Take It With You (1938), It Happened One Night (1934)
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Epic
Image Credit: Courtesy of A24 A total of 10 sequels have been nominated for best picture, yet the only two to win are epics, characterized by their sweeping themes and big-budget productions. The Godfather Part II became the first in 1974, followed by The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in 2003. Both films are also a part of the only trilogies to have all three of their films nominated in the category.
2025 NOMINEE The Brutalist
PAST WINNERS The Hurt Locker (2008), Around the World in 80 Days (2004), The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003), Gladiator (2000), Titanic (1997), The English Patient (1996), Braveheart (1995), Schindler’s List (1993), Dances With Wolves (1990), Out of Africa (1985), The Deer Hunter (1978), The Godfather Part II (1974), The Godfather (1972), Patton (1970), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Ben-Hur (1959), The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), Gone With the Wind (1939), Cavalcade (1933), Cimarron (1931), All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
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Historical Drama
Image Credit: Courtesy of Orion Pictures Wins have been few and far between in this genre which, similar to biographical dramas, is defined as a fictionalized account of specific events set in a distinct period in the past that extends beyond the focus on an individual. Mutiny on the Bounty, the first best picture winner in the category, also became the highest-grossing film of 1935.
2025 NOMINEE Nickel Boys
PAST WINNERS Argo (2012), Chariots of Fire (1981), A Man for All Seasons (1966), Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
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Horror
Image Credit: Christine Tamalet/MUBI Prior to The Substance, only six horror films had ever been nominated for best picture. In 1991, The Silence of the Lambs became the only horror flick to win the award and just the third film in history to win in each of the five major categories — a feat no movie has accomplished since.
2025 NOMINEE The Substance
PAST WINNERS The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
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Musical
Image Credit: Courtesy of Netflix; Courtesy of Universal Pictures The first sound film to ever win best picture was the 1929 musical The Broadway Melody. When Gigi swept the 1959 Oscars 30 years later, winning all nine of the categories for which it was nominationed, it broke the record for most awards won by a film. Just two years later, West Side Story nabbed 10 out of its 11 Oscar nods, setting the record for most awards won by a musical.
2025 NOMINEE Emilia Pérez / Wicked
PAST WINNERS Chicago (2002), Oliver! (1968), The Sound of Music (1965), My Fair Lady (1964), West Side Story (1961), Gigi (1958), An American in Paris (1951), Going My Way (1944), The Great Ziegfeld (1936), The Broadway Melody (1929)
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Thriller
Image Credit: Courtesy of Focus Features Alfred Hitchcock’s sole best picture win came via his first nomination in the category, for Rebecca (1940), the English director’s debut American project. Nearly 80 years later, Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite became the first South Korean film to receive Academy Award recognition and the first non-English-language film to win best picture in 2019.
2025 NOMINEE Conclave
PAST WINNERS Parasite (2019), No Country for Old Men (2007), The Departed (2006), The French Connection (1971), In the Heat of the Night (1967), Rebecca (1940)
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Sci-fi
Image Credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange was the first science fiction film to garner a best picture nomination in 1971, 43 years after the first Academy Awards. Still, it would be another 46 years before a sci-fi movie actually won: Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water, which received the top honor in 2017.
2025 NOMINEE Dune: Part Two
PAST WINNERS Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022), The Shape of Water (2017)
This story appeared in the Feb. 12 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.