The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King won the Oscar for Best Picture in 2004. The award was presented at the 76th Academy Awards ceremony on February 29, 2004, honoring films released during 2003.
The victory marked the first Best Picture win for a fantasy film and completed an extraordinary awards run for Peter Jackson’s trilogy. The Return of the King received 11 nominations and won all 11, including Best Director for Jackson, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Original Song for “Into the West.”
A common mix-up is the difference between the film’s release year and the Oscar year. The movie premiered in December 2003, but the ceremony took place in 2004, so both years appear in references. The previous films, The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers, had also received major nominations but did not win Best Picture. The Return of the King tied Ben-Hur and Titanic for the record of 11 Oscars won by one film at the time.