At the 1996 Academy Awards, which film won Best Picture?

Braveheart won Best Picture at the 1996 Academy Awards.

The ceremony honored films released in 1995 and took place on March 25, 1996. Braveheart, directed by and starring Mel Gibson, dramatizes the life of William Wallace, a Scottish warrior associated with resistance to English rule in the late 13th century.

Braveheart also won Academy Awards for Best Director, Cinematography, Makeup, and Sound Effects Editing. Its Best Picture victory is sometimes confused with the film’s historical accuracy: the movie takes substantial dramatic liberties with chronology, costumes, relationships, and events.

The other Best Picture nominees were Apollo 13, Babe, Il Postino, and Sense and Sensibility. Braveheart’s award was presented during a period when historical epics were prominent in Hollywood, and its success helped renew mainstream interest in large-scale medieval battle films.