1939 "Wizard of Oz" over "Gone With the Wind"
1941 "Citizen Kane" over "How Green Was My Valley"
1964 "Dr. Strangelove" over "My Fair Lady"
1971 "A Clockwork Orange" over "The French Connection"
1977 Either "Star Wars IV" or "Close Encounters"
1981 "Raiders of the Lost Ark" over "Chariots of Fire"
1982 "E.T. The Extra Terrestrial" over "Ghandi"
1991 "Beauty and the Beast" over "Silence of the Lambs"
1995 "Apollo 13" over "Braveheart"
2004 "The Aviator" over "Million Dollar Baby"

I agree with "Saving Private Ryan", robbed...
And if I may...
2005 "Munich" over "Brokeback Mountain"

Those are some pretty popular picks there. I'd say Star Wars over Close Encounters, and I still say Pulp Fiction is only a third of a good film, Forest Gump may not have diserved it, there had to be something else.

Ok, now I'm curious and I'm looking into it from 1970 to the present, these are my favorites (based on what was nominated and what I have in my collection, I'm sure I missed quite a bit, and I left the one's I agreed with totally blank:
1971: French Connection and Clockwork Orange are a tie for me
1973: Serpico
1974: Chinatown slightly over Godfather 2
1975: This was a tough year, Jaws, Cuckoo's Nest and Dog Day Afternoon? Tough call.
1976: Taxi Driver leaps and bounds over Rocky
1977: Star Wars over Annie Hall, Suspiria as an alternate choice.
1978: Dawn of the Dead
1979: Alien
1980: Raging Bull or Empire Strikes Back as an alternate
1981: Raiders of the Lost Ark
1982: ET
1983: Right Stuff
1984: Terminator, Repo Man or Ghostbusters
1985: Brazil
1986: The Fly
1987: Robocop
1988: Akira
1989: The Abyss (I guess)
1990: Goodfellas. of course
1993: Schindler's List eeks out The Nightmare Before Xmas
1994: Heavenly Creatures
1995: City of Lost Children, Dead Man, or Seven
1996: Trainspotting or Fargo
1997: Boogie Nights
1998: Rushmore or Saving Private Ryan
1999: Fight Club
2000: Requiem for a Dream or Crouching Tiger
2001: Fellowship of the Ring
2002: Close call between The Two Towers, Spirited Away and City of God
2003: Absolute tie between The Return of the King and Oldboy, Kill Bill 1 honorable mention
2004: Kill Bill 2 or The Incredables

You guys have to be kidding about 1977.  While Close Encounters and Star Wars are popular choices, they are in now way better than Annie Hall.

And Beauty and the Beast over Silence of the Lambs?!??!?  Silence of the Lambs has to be one of the best movies ever made in my life time.  Beauty and the Beasy is highly overrated.

not me

I pre-fer on what was nominated.  

Gabe Powers wrote: Those are some pretty popular picks there. I'd say Star Wars over Close Encounters, and I still say Pulp Fiction is only a third of a good film, Forest Gump may not have diserved it, there had to be something else.

"The Shawshank Redemption" is something else

Shawshank redemption for 1994 definitely. That was the year I lost my faith in Oscars.

Backed up by Titanic beating L.A. Confidential! (actually Titanic winning anything!)

Cheddar J. Cheese wrote: Or me, "Beauty and the Beast" was a great movie, and without an animated category back then, it still was better. "Silence of the Lambs" is a very good movie, but unless they could've made it a tie, my vote goes to "Beauty and the Beast".
"Annie Hall" was good, but it wasn't as revolutionary in film as "Star Wars IV" or "Close Encounters" was.
Also, are we allowed to put in films that weren't nominated?

Actually, neither Star Wars or Close Encounters is really as revolutionary as people make them out to people.  Star Wars stole the basic plot outline of Hidden Fortress and was bascially a western in space.  Besides the award is for best movie, not necessarily revolutionary.  There are some revolutionary movies that weren't necessarily good movies.

I'm a huge Star Wars fan, growing up with it, but there is no way as a piece of art that it comes close to Annie Hall.

Adrian, the thing that made Star Wars revolutionary was not it's originality, but its post-modern sensabilities. It's the first major mainstream film that was created strictly in reference to other films, which was something the underground scene had been doing for years. Annie Hall was also post-modern and referencial, but to more modern and Western film movements. Both pictures are true works of art, one just happened to also be "fun" enough that its artistic ambition was overlooked in favor of its spectacle, which in the end, was what made it revolutionary, at least in the eyes of modern Hollywood blockbusters.

"Secrets and Lies" over "The Englsih Patient"

I was with you up untill Mystic River, I really hated that film. I'm also not a very big fan of Dead Poets Society, but it is better than Miss Daisy, my choice stands with the Abyss, for now.

Back in 1999 I totally agreed with the choice of American Beauty for best picture, but the years have not been kind to the film, and though I still think it's pretty great, it really doesn't have the staying power of so many other films released that year (Fight Club, Magnolia, Three Kings, Sixth Sense, Being John Malkovich, Ravenous, etc, etc.).

Try telling that to Kevin Smith.

I don't understand Kevin Smith's dislike for Magnolia. It verges on geeky hyperbol, which as a respected member of filmmaking society, he should really be above...that or the rumors themselves are fanboy hyperbol.

floyd dylan wrote: hyperbol?  Does that word even exist?

There is a word called a hyperbola which means an open curve formed by a plane that cuts the base of a right circular cone

He left off the trailing E.  Hyperbole is definitely a word.