Best Black & White Best Picture Oscar Nominee
by urbanemovies | created - 25 Nov 2018 | updated - 05 Mar 2019 | PublicWhich of these select* Oscar-nominated Best Picture movies initially released entirely or mostly in black & white is the best?
* Well-deserving movies were selected based on these combined factors: IMDb vote totals (well seen), popularity, Meta Critic Scores, AFI 100 rank, IMDb ratings rank, iconic status, and other top ranks on established all-time lists. (minimum 30,000 IMDb votes)
Cast your vote here or Discuss the topic here.
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1. Schindler's List (1993)
PA | 195 min | Biography, Drama, History
In German-occupied Poland during World War II, industrialist Oskar Schindler gradually becomes concerned for his Jewish workforce after witnessing their persecution by the Nazis.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Kingsley, Caroline Goodall
Votes: 1,174,023 | Gross: $96.90M
2. 12 Angry Men (1957)
PG | 96 min | Crime, Drama
A jury holdout attempts to prevent a miscarriage of justice by forcing his colleagues to reconsider the evidence.
Director: Sidney Lumet | Stars: Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, Martin Balsam, John Fiedler
Votes: 662,144 | Gross: $4.36M
3. Casablanca (1942)
G | 102 min | Drama, Romance, War
A cynical American expatriate struggles to decide whether or not he should help his former lover and her fugitive husband escape French Morocco.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains
Votes: 506,462 | Gross: $1.02M
4. It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
G | 130 min | Drama, Family, Fantasy
An angel is sent from Heaven to help a desperately frustrated businessman by showing him what life would have been like if he had never existed.
Director: Frank Capra | Stars: James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Thomas Mitchell
Votes: 385,596
5. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
PG | 95 min | Comedy
An insane general triggers a path to nuclear holocaust that a War Room full of politicians and generals frantically tries to stop.
Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden, Keenan Wynn
Votes: 438,186 | Gross: $0.28M
6. The Great Dictator (1940)
PG | 125 min | Comedy, Drama, War
Dictator Adenoid Hynkel tries to expand his empire while a poor Jewish barber tries to avoid persecution from Hynkel's regime.
Director: Charles Chaplin | Stars: Charles Chaplin, Paulette Goddard, Jack Oakie, Reginald Gardiner
Votes: 195,601 | Gross: $0.29M
7. Citizen Kane (1941)
G | 119 min | Drama, Mystery
Following the death of publishing tycoon Charles Foster Kane, reporters scramble to uncover the meaning of his final utterance; 'Rosebud'.
Director: Orson Welles | Stars: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Comingore, Agnes Moorehead
Votes: 386,443 | Gross: $1.59M
8. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
PG | 129 min | Crime, Drama
Atticus Finch, a lawyer in the Depression-era South, defends a black man against an undeserved rape charge, and his children against prejudice.
Director: Robert Mulligan | Stars: Gregory Peck, John Megna, Frank Overton, Rosemary Murphy
Votes: 287,214
9. Sunset Blvd. (1950)
PG | 110 min | Drama, Film-Noir
A screenwriter develops a dangerous relationship with a faded film star determined to make a triumphant return.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim, Nancy Olson
Votes: 193,948
10. The Apartment (1960)
PG | 125 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A man tries to rise in his company by letting its executives use his apartment for trysts, but complications and a romance of his own ensue.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Fred MacMurray, Ray Walston
Votes: 157,273 | Gross: $18.60M
11. Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
PG | 116 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A veteran British barrister must defend his client in a murder trial that has surprise after surprise.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Tyrone Power, Marlene Dietrich, Charles Laughton, Elsa Lanchester
Votes: 103,120 | Gross: $8.18M
12. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
PG | 126 min | Adventure, Drama, Western
Two Americans searching for work in Mexico convince an old prospector to help them mine for gold in the Sierra Madre Mountains.
Director: John Huston | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Walter Huston, Tim Holt, Bruce Bennett
Votes: 110,558 | Gross: $5.01M
13. All About Eve (1950)
PG | 138 min | Drama
A seemingly timid but secretly ruthless ingénue insinuates herself into the lives of an aging Broadway star and her circle of theater friends.
Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz | Stars: Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, George Sanders, Celeste Holm
Votes: 116,757 | Gross: $0.01M
14. Raging Bull (1980)
18A | 129 min | Biography, Drama, Sport
The life of boxer Jake LaMotta, whose violence and temper that led him to the top in the ring destroyed his life outside of it.
Director: Martin Scorsese | Stars: Robert De Niro, Cathy Moriarty, Joe Pesci, Frank Vincent
Votes: 311,382 | Gross: $23.38M
15. Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
179 min | Drama, War
In 1948, an American court in occupied Germany tries four Nazis judged for war crimes.
Director: Stanley Kramer | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Marlene Dietrich
Votes: 66,703
16. On the Waterfront (1954)
PG | 108 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
An ex-prize fighter turned longshoreman struggles to stand up to his corrupt union bosses.
Director: Elia Kazan | Stars: Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb, Rod Steiger
Votes: 137,342 | Gross: $9.60M
17. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
G | 129 min | Comedy, Drama
A naive man is appointed to fill a vacancy in the United States Senate. His plans promptly collide with political corruption, but he doesn't back down.
Director: Frank Capra | Stars: James Stewart, Jean Arthur, Claude Rains, Edward Arnold
Votes: 103,787 | Gross: $9.60M
18. Double Indemnity (1944)
G | 107 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
An insurance representative lets himself be talked by a seductive housewife into a murder/insurance fraud scheme that arouses the suspicion of an insurance investigator.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson, Byron Barr
Votes: 138,297 | Gross: $5.72M
19. The Maltese Falcon (1941)
PG | 100 min | Film-Noir, Mystery
A private detective takes on a case that involves him with three eccentric criminals, a gorgeous liar, and their quest for a priceless statuette.
Director: John Huston | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Gladys George, Peter Lorre
Votes: 146,073 | Gross: $2.11M
20. Roman Holiday (1953)
G | 118 min | Comedy, Romance
A bored and sheltered princess escapes her guardians and falls in love with an American newsman in Rome.
Director: William Wyler | Stars: Gregory Peck, Audrey Hepburn, Eddie Albert, Hartley Power
Votes: 123,830
21. The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
PG | 129 min | Drama, History
A poor Midwest family is forced off their land. They travel to California, suffering the misfortunes of the homeless in the Great Depression.
Director: John Ford | Stars: Henry Fonda, Jane Darwell, John Carradine, Charley Grapewin
Votes: 84,257 | Gross: $0.06M
22. High Noon (1952)
G | 85 min | Drama, Thriller, Western
A town Marshal, despite the disagreements of his newlywed bride and the townspeople around him, must face a gang of deadly killers alone at high noon when the gang leader, an outlaw he sent up years ago, arrives on the noon train.
Director: Fred Zinnemann | Stars: Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly, Thomas Mitchell, Lloyd Bridges
Votes: 95,058 | Gross: $9.45M
23. Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
PA | 161 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
In a murder trial, the defendant says he suffered temporary insanity after the victim raped his wife. What is the truth, and will he win his case?
Director: Otto Preminger | Stars: James Stewart, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara, Arthur O'Connell
Votes: 57,918 | Gross: $11.90M
24. The Hustler (1961)
14+ | 134 min | Drama, Sport
An up-and-coming pool player plays a long-time champion in a single high-stakes match.
Director: Robert Rossen | Stars: Paul Newman, Jackie Gleason, Piper Laurie, George C. Scott
Votes: 73,645 | Gross: $8.28M
25. It Happened One Night (1934)
PG | 105 min | Comedy, Romance
A spoiled heiress running away from her family is helped by a man who is actually a reporter in need of a story.
Director: Frank Capra | Stars: Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert, Walter Connolly, Roscoe Karns
Votes: 90,570 | Gross: $4.36M
26. Rebecca (1940)
130 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
A self-conscious woman juggles adjusting to her new role as an aristocrat's wife and avoiding being intimidated by his first wife's spectral presence.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, George Sanders, Judith Anderson
Votes: 118,288 | Gross: $4.36M
27. From Here to Eternity (1953)
118 min | Drama, Romance, War
In Hawaii in 1941, a private is cruelly punished for not boxing on his unit's team, while his captain's wife and second-in-command are falling in love.
Director: Fred Zinnemann | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Deborah Kerr, Donna Reed
Votes: 42,046 | Gross: $30.50M
28. All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
152 min | Drama, War
A young soldier faces profound disillusionment in the soul-destroying horror of World War I.
Director: Lewis Milestone | Stars: Lew Ayres, Louis Wolheim, John Wray, Arnold Lucy
Votes: 56,002 | Gross: $3.27M
29. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
170 min | Drama, Romance, War
Three World War II veterans return home to small-town America to discover that they and their families have been irreparably changed.
Director: William Wyler | Stars: Myrna Loy, Dana Andrews, Fredric March, Teresa Wright
Votes: 55,962 | Gross: $23.65M
30. The Lost Weekend (1945)
PG | 101 min | Drama, Film-Noir
The desperate life of a chronic alcoholic is followed through a four-day drinking bout.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Ray Milland, Jane Wyman, Phillip Terry, Howard Da Silva
Votes: 32,550 | Gross: $9.46M
31. The Artist (I) (2011)
PG | 100 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
An egomaniacal film star develops a relationship with a young dancer against the backdrop of Hollywood's silent era.
Director: Michel Hazanavicius | Stars: Jean Dujardin, Bérénice Bejo, John Goodman, James Cromwell
Votes: 226,234 | Gross: $44.67M
32. Roma (2018)
14A | 135 min | Drama
A year in the life of a middle-class family's maid in Mexico City in the early 1970s.
Director: Alfonso Cuarón | Stars: Yalitza Aparicio, Marina de Tavira, Diego Cortina Autrey, Carlos Peralta
Votes: 132,676
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