The 1992 Western directed by Clint Eastwood that won the Academy Award for Best Picture is Unforgiven. Eastwood directed the film and also starred as William Munny, a retired gunslinger drawn back into violence.
Unforgiven was released in 1992 and deliberately questions the romantic image of the heroic Western gunfighter. Its story follows Munny as he accepts one final bounty job after two cowboys disfigure a prostitute in the town of Big Whiskey, Wyoming. The film treats violence as traumatic, consequential, and morally complicated.
At the 65th Academy Awards, Unforgiven won four Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director for Eastwood. It also won Best Supporting Actor for Gene Hackman and Best Film Editing for Joel Cox.
The other choices belong to different Western traditions. The Outlaw Josey Wales was an Eastwood-directed 1976 film, Tombstone was released in 1993, and Dances with Wolves won Best Picture two years earlier, at the 1991 ceremony.