The tournament for the Academy Awards Best Picture winners from the past 64 years continues, moving on to the round of 32 with a few surprise films still standing.
The first round of voting in the Academy Award Best Picture tournament is complete. While a majority of the higher-seeded film advanced, the four films seeded number 11 in each region turned out to be quite the powerhouse in voting.
Parasite, The French Connection, Gandhi, and Amadeus took home victories last week in the first round. Parasite, the 2020 winner at the Academy Awards and a box office hit, had the easiest first round victory, while the other three films were involved in tight matchups that came down to the final minutes.
Of course, when seedings are based solely on domestic box office totals, upsets were bound to happen.
Quite frankly, I expected there to be a few more and was pleasantly surprised to see a lot of older films advance. Conversely, I was somewhat surprised to see 12 of the 22 Best Picture winners since the year 2000 find their way forward. Even more might have had advanced, too, if not for first-round matchups that pitted them against other films from the 2000s.
Still, it was the four 11-seeds that hold the focus for now. Parasite won Best Picture at the 2020 ceremony and won three other Oscars that year. The French Connection, the 1972 winner, took home a grand total of five Oscars while Gandhi (1983) and Amadeus (1985) each won eight Oscars.
It's entirely possibly each of these films finds a way to keep advancing, with more upsets likely on the horizon as we move into round of 32 voting....now.
Red Carpet region
Top-seed Titanic had a closer-than-expected first-round matchup but pulled through in the end. However, it could meet their match against No Country for Old Men. The region's 9-seed won with 100 percent of the votes. Much like the 11-seeds, all four 9-seeds advanced to the round of 32.
- 1) Titanic (1998)
- 9) No Country for Old Men (2008)
- 5) Silence of the Lambs (1992)
- 4) Platoon (1987)
- 11) Parasite (2020)
- 3) The Sound of Music (1966)
- 7) Million Dollar Baby (2005)
- 2) Dances with Wolves (1991)
Glamour region
The top seed in this region, Gladiator, had a much easier time than Titanic, winning with 80 percent of the votes. Another notable in this region was the 9-seed Patton, which needed extra time in defeating the eighth-seed Ben Hur.
- 1) Gladiator (2001)
- 9) Patton (1971)
- 5) One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1976)
- 4) The Departed (2007)
- 11) The French Connection (1972)
- 3) Bridge on the River Kwai (1958)
- 7) Out of Africa (1986)
- 2) Chicago (2003)
Gold Statue region
The ninth-seed My Fair Lady said good-bye to The English Patient in first-round voting. Along with Gandhi, two other double-digit seeded film advancing, giving this region more upsets than the other three.
- 1) Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (2004)
- 9) My Fair Lady (1965)
- 12) Godfather II (1975)
- 4) Argo (2013)
- 11) Gandhi (1983)
- 3) The Sting (1974)
- 10) 12 Years a Slave (2014)
- 2) Rain Man (1989)
Glitz region
It appears this region could very well belong to The Godfather, though they have a very interesting matchup in the round of 32 against Rocky. If Francis Ford Coppola, Marlon Brando, and Al Pacino can get past Sly Stallone and company, it may very well be their bracket to win. And it was also a region that saw Moonlight join Amadeus from the double-digit seed department.
- 1) Forrest Gump (1995)
- 9) The Shape of Water (2018)
- 5) Rocky (1977)
- 4) The Godfather (1973)
- 11) Amadeus (1985)
- 14) Moonlight (2017)
- 7) Schindler's List (1994)
- 2) A Beautiful Mind (2002)
Voting will take place on Twitter as we move forward to determine a winner prior to this year's Oscars ceremony on March 27.
Best Picture winners from the last 64 years: The bracket
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons
Come hang out with me on Letterboxd: Jason Haskins
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