79 Academy Award Best Picture Winners Trivia Questions with Answers
79 public questions with answers, drawn from the well. How many can you answer?
Academy Award Best Picture trivia spans Hollywood history from the early 1930s through the modern awards era. Questions cover milestone winners, literary adaptations, wartime dramas, sports films, political thrillers, and records such as the first streaming-service release to win Best Picture.
This set includes films such as the 2011 mostly silent winner, the 1955 romantic drama that won both the Palme d’Or and Best Picture, the Iran rescue thriller Argo, and Rocky. With 79 questions, it suits movie buffs, Oscar-season gatherings, classroom film studies, pub quizzes, and game nights that reward knowledge of directors, plots, years, and award history.
Which 1947 drama about a journalist posing as Jewish won Best Picture?
Answer
Gentleman's Agreement
Which 1932 ensemble drama set at a Berlin hotel won Best Picture?
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Grand Hotel
Which 1985 Sydney Pollack film set largely in Kenya won Best Picture?
Answer
Out of Africa
Which 1978 Vietnam War drama won Best Picture and Best Director for Michael Cimino?
Answer
The Deer Hunter
Which 1953 Army drama set in Hawaii won Best Picture?
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From Here to Eternity
Which 2018 road-trip drama about pianist Don Shirley won Best Picture?
Answer
Green Book
Which 2008 film about Mumbai quiz-show contestant Jamal Malik won Best Picture?
Answer
Slumdog Millionaire
Which 1991 thriller about Clarice Starling and Hannibal Lecter won Best Picture?
Answer
The Silence of the Lambs
Which 1986 Oliver Stone Vietnam War film won Best Picture?
Answer
Platoon
Which 1964 musical starring Audrey Hepburn as Eliza Doolittle won Best Picture?
Answer
My Fair Lady
Which 1965 musical about the von Trapp family won Best Picture?
Answer
The Sound of Music
Which 1997 James Cameron disaster romance won Best Picture?
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Titanic
Which 1945 Best Picture winner centers on alcoholic writer Don Birnam?
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The Lost Weekend
Which 1944 Best Picture winner stars Bing Crosby as Father Chuck O'Malley?
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Going My Way
Which 1937 Best Picture winner dramatizes the Dreyfus affair through writer Émile Zola?
Answer
The Life of Emile Zola
Which 1936 Best Picture winner is a biographical musical about Florenz Ziegfeld Jr.?
Answer
The Great Ziegfeld
Which 2004 sports drama directed by Clint Eastwood won Best Picture?
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Million Dollar Baby
Which 1981 Best Picture winner follows runners Eric Liddell and Harold Abrahams?
Answer
Chariots of Fire
Which 1967 Best Picture winner stars Sidney Poitier as Virgil Tibbs?
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In the Heat of the Night
Which 1951 musical Best Picture winner features music by George Gershwin?
Answer
An American in Paris
What 1995 historical drama about William Wallace won Best Picture?
Answer
Braveheart
What 2002 musical set in Jazz Age Illinois won Best Picture?
Answer
Chicago
What 1993 Steven Spielberg film about Oskar Schindler won Best Picture?
Answer
Schindler's List
What 1972 crime drama about the Corleone family won Best Picture?
Answer
The Godfather
Which 1975 film set in a psychiatric hospital won the Big Five Oscars?
Answer
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Which Martin Scorsese crime thriller won Best Picture and Best Director?
Answer
The Departed
Which Coen brothers Best Picture winner centers on a stolen drug-money satchel?
Answer
No Country for Old Men
Which 1961 musical won Best Picture and 10 Oscars total?
Answer
West Side Story
Academy Award Best Picture Winners trivia — quick answers
What are good Academy Award Best Picture trivia questions?
Good Best Picture trivia questions identify winning films from plot descriptions, years, actors, source material, records, and historical milestones. Examples include recognizing the first streaming-service winner, identifying the 2012 thriller about a CIA rescue mission in Iran, and naming the 1947 drama about a journalist posing as Jewish.
How hard is Best Picture trivia?
Best Picture trivia ranges from accessible to challenging. Popular winners such as Rocky and Argo are often easier to identify, while questions about films from the 1930s or 1940s, literary adaptations, festival awards, and distinctions between release years and ceremony years require deeper Oscar knowledge.
What was the first streaming-service film to win Best Picture?
Nomadland became the first film released by a streaming service to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Directed by Chloé Zhao and distributed by Searchlight Pictures, the 2020 film stars Frances McDormand as a woman traveling through the American West after the economic collapse of her town.
Which film won Best Picture for its story about a CIA rescue mission in Iran?
Argo won Best Picture at the 85th Academy Awards for films released in 2012. Directed by Ben Affleck, the thriller dramatizes a covert operation to extract six American diplomats from Iran during the 1979 hostage crisis by disguising the rescue effort as a science-fiction film project.