Ben-Hur in 4K

Peter Jackson followed his epic adaptation of the Lord of the Rings trilogy with this loving remake of the 1933 classic. Naomi Watts plays Ann Darrow, a starving starlet in Depression-era Manhattan, who finds herself joining showman Carl Denham (Jack Black) and screenwriter Jack Driscoll (Adrien Brody) to the mysterious Skull Island, where the eighth wonder of the world awaits. The Oscar-winning visual effects created by Joe Letteri, Brian Van’t Hul, Christian Rivers, and Richard Taylor brought both islands to vivid screen life, with Andy Serkis lending his motion capture performance artistry to the computer-generated Kong. The film was also nominated for its art direction and won Oscars for its sound editing and sound mixing.

A 1922 short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald was the inspiration for this offbeat romantic fantasy about a man born with a mysterious condition that causes him to age in reverse. Brad Pitt was nominated for his sensitive lead performance, with Benjamin’s transformation aided by the Oscar-winning makeup of Greg Cannom and visual effects created by Eric Barba, Steve Preeg, Burt Dalton, and Craig Barron. The film also won for Art Direction (Donald Graham Burt, Victor J. Zolfo) and was nominated in 13 categories including Best Picture, Directing (David Fincher), Best Supporting Actress (Taraji P. Henson), and Original Score (Alexandre Desplat).

The long-awaited sequel to Ridley Scott’s sci-fi noir is set three decades later, as a replicant cop named K (Ryan Gosling) investigates a mystery involving a missing blade runner (Harrison Ford, reprising his 1982 role) and a brilliant tycoon (Jared Leto) that threatens to “break the world.” Director Denis Villeneuve and his team of remarkable craftsmen managed a seamless continuation of the world created for the original 1982 film. Roger Deakins received his first Oscar for his evocative cinematography, and the Oscar-winning visual effects team of John Nelson, Gerd Nefzer, Paul Lambert, and Richard R. Hoover created a future Los Angeles equally dazzling and menacing.

Filmmaker Christopher Nolan’s thrilling combination of international espionage and mind-bending science-fiction pits its nameless “Protagonist” (John David Washington, in an effortlessly charismatic performance) against a ruthless international arms dealer (Kenneth Branagh) who has the power to change the direction of time. The film was nominated for its production design (Nathan Crowley, Kathy Lucas) and won for the remarkably realistic visual effects created by Andrew Jackson, David Lee, Andrew Lockley, and Scott Fisher, who manage to make the impossible utterly believable.

Janet Gaynor is Esther Blodgett, an aspiring actress from North Dakota, who falls for charismatic star Norman Maine (Fredric March), only to see her fortunes rise as his plummet in this archetypal Hollywood romance directed by William A. Wellman (Wings), which inspired three big-screen musical remakes. The film earned seven Oscar nominations, including nods for the moving performances of Gaynor (who had won the very first Best Actress Oscar in 1929 for 7th Heaven) and March. The film’s original story won an Oscar for director Wellman and Robert Carson, and W. Howard Greene’s color cinematography received a Special Award.

Joan Crawford earned the Best Actress Oscar for her heartfelt portrayal of a woman trying to run a business and raise two daughters while coping with the unsatisfactory men in her life, with Eve Arden and Ann Blyth nominated for their supporting roles. The film received six Oscar nominations including Best Picture. Ranald MacDougall’s nominated screenplay added thriller elements not present in the original novel by noir legend James M. Cain (Double Indemnity).

Writer-director Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s witty look at the backstage lives of actresses and the people in their inner circle was, fittingly enough, the first film to earn two Best Actress nominations—for Anne Baxter’s insinuating Eve, and Bette Davis’s virtuoso performance as the volatile yet vulnerable Broadway legend Margo Channing. All About Eve ties with Titanic (1997) and La La Land (2016) as the most nominated film in Oscar history, earning 14 nominations. The film won six Oscars, including for Mankiewicz’s directing and writing, and for George Sanders’s acerbic performance as the critic Addison DeWitt.

Audrey Hepburn’s effortlessly charming performance as a European princess who plays hooky on her royal duties with a handsome journalist (Gregory Peck) established her as one of Hollywood’s most appealing imports and won her a Best Actress Oscar. This romantic comedy classic earned 10 nominations including Best Picture and Directing (William Wyler) and also won for Edith Head’s black-and-white costume design and the original story by Dalton Trumbo (initially awarded to Ian McLellan Hunter, the “front” for the blacklisted Trumbo).

Director Robert Wise’s film version of the hit Rodgers and Hammerstein Broadway musical, inspired by the true story of the musical von Trapp family, surpassed Gone with the Wind (1939) as the highest-grossing film of all time, earning 10 nominations and 5 Oscars, including Best Picture. Best Actress nominee Julie Andrews proved her winning performance in Mary Poppins (1964) was no fluke, and the film remains an audience favorite sixty years after its release.

This original screenplay by Oscar nominee Arthur Laurents (The Turning Point) paired two top stars in roles tailor-made to their unique talents. Best Actress nominee Barbra Streisand is Katie Morosky, a liberal firebrand in 1930s New York who falls for her college classmate Hubbell Gardiner (Robert Redford), beginning an attraction that will span several tumultuous decades of American history. Composer Marvin Hamlisch made Academy history when he became the only person to win all three music awards in one year, earning Oscars for The Way We Were’s original score and title song (with lyricists Alan and Marilyn Bergman), as well as for The Sting’s adapted score.

Alice Walker’s best-selling novel about the struggles and eventual triumphs of a mistreated young woman in early 20th-century Georgia became an emotionally stirring epic under the direction of Steven Spielberg, with Whoopi Goldberg earning a Best Actress nomination for her touching portrayal of Celie, a remarkable starring debut. The film’s 11 nominations include Best Picture, as well as the supporting performances of Margaret Avery as the singer Shug Avery, and Oprah Winfrey (in her film debut) as Sofia.

Marlee Matlin earned a Best Actress Oscar for her first feature film role in this emotional adaptation of Mark Medoff’s Tony Award–winning play about a new teacher at a school for the deaf and his relationship with a former student working as a custodian. The film, which earned five nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actor (William Hurt), and Supporting Actress (Piper Laurie), was a major cinematic breakthrough in its depiction of the deaf community, and Matlin’s powerful performance launched a remarkable career that is still going strong four decades later.

Alfonso Cuarón’s lovingly detailed drama inspired by his childhood in Mexico earned the filmmaker Oscars for his directing and cinematography, but his expertly chosen cast was a key factor in bringing his story to vivid cinematic life. Best Actress nominee Yalitza Aparicio is Cleo, the devoted housekeeper who faces her own challenges while helping to keep the family together, and Supporting Actress nominee Marina de Tavira is Sofia, the mother of the family, struggling with the breakup of her marriage.

The second feature from filmmaking duo Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (Swiss Army Man) is a surreal fantasy/science fiction/action/comedy/drama about a Chinese American family that owns a laundromat and learns they must explore the multiverse to save their own universe. Michelle Yeoh won a Best Actress Oscar for her dazzling performance in a challenging role, which paid homage to her career as an international film star while basing her character in a complex emotional reality. The film earned 11 nominations and 7 Oscars, including Best Picture, Supporting Actor (Ke Huy Quan), and Supporting Actress (Jamie Lee Curtis).