Best Picture of 1935

Well, I've set yet another record for a single year of review on this blog. At almost twice as long as the previous record, this one took almost four years to complete! Granted, this was one of only two Best Picture contests that consisted of 12 nominees, but that still means that, on average, I only watched one film every four months. In any case, they've all been viewed now, so let's get to the business of crowning a winner.

The nominees for Best Picture of 1935 are:

• Alice Adams
• Broadway Melody of 1936
• Captain Blood
• David Copperfield
• The Informer
• Les Misérables
• The Lives of a Bengal Lancer
• A Midsummer Night's Dream
• Mutiny on the Bounty
• Naughty Marietta
• Ruggles of Red Gap
• Top Hat

As mentioned, this is the equal largest crop of Best Picture nominees in Academy history, so as one would expect, there's something for everyone - dramas, musicals, adventures, and almost every combination thereof. With such a variety of genres, separating them is no easy task. But to start, I'll remove a handful for no other reason than I just didn't find them as all-around entertaining as the others, though they all contained at least a few entertaining elements nonetheless. So, let's say goodbye to Naughty Marietta, David Copperfield, Ruggles of Red Gap and Alice Adams.

Broadway Melody of 1936 and Top Hat are both exquisitely entertaining musicals, and A Midsummer Night's Dream is an exquisitely entertaining almost-musical. All three were in the running, but I'm foregoing them in place of heavy dramas, which I guess is precisely what the Academy often does, for better or worse. Also in the running was Captain Blood, a swashbuckling adventure, and fellow adventure flick The Lives of a Bengal Lancer, but for similar reasons to the musicals, they're being dumped too. Lastly, two captivating character-based dramas will also just miss out - Les Misérables and The Informer.

That leaves Mutiny on the Bounty, the nomination leader of this awards year, and the eventual Best Picture winner. I'm going to side with the Academy once again and name it my favourite one of the year, too.

Best Picture of 1935
Academy's choice: Mutiny on the Bounty	Matt's choice: Mutiny on the Bounty

Your choice:

After four years of the mid-1930s, let's try something a little more recent and move forward in time to my adolescence. 1991 is a year I remember well, and while there are a couple of films on this list that I've viewed multiple times, there are surprisingly a couple of other films that I've never seen at all.

And the nominees for Best Picture of 1991 are:

• Beauty and the Beast
• Bugsy
• JFK
• The Prince of Tides
• The Silence of the Lambs

Stay tuned...