The first and only action movie to win ‘Best Picture’
The Oscars started back in 1929, and ever since, it has praised the greatest movies of every year. Yet, more often than not, the Academy praises romance flicks or Oscar-bait dramas, which largely consist of melodramatic biopics that feature powerhouse performances from the likes of Meryl Streep, Anthony Hopkins or Robert De Niro. Indeed, very few genre flicks have ever walked away with the award for ‘Best Picture’.
For example, even after almost a century of Oscar magic, only one horror movie has ever taken the award for ‘Best Picture’, with The Silence of the Lambs claiming the statuette in 1992. In addition to the night’s biggest prize, Jonathan Demme’s film also took home awards for ‘Best Director’, ‘Best Leading Actor’, ‘Best Adapted Screenplay’ and ‘Best Leading Actress’.
Meanwhile, only one disaster movie has ever won ‘Best Picture’, with James Cameron taking home the statuette and ten others in 1997 for Titanic. Although it’s better known as being an epic romance tale, Titanic is, no doubt, also a disaster movie, being based on the real-life catastrophe of 1912 that saw 1,517 lives being lost on the fateful cruise ship that shares its name with the film.
Yet, when it comes to action, there’s only one movie that has managed to take home the top prize of ‘Best Picture’.
In 2023, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert won ‘Best Picture’ for their manic sci-fi action flick Everything Everywhere All at Once, a genre-bending A24 film that took the Academy Awards by storm. Winning seven awards in total, Everything Everywhere All at Once also walked away with ‘Best Original Screenplay’, ‘Best Director’ and ‘Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role’ for Michelle Yeoh.
Yeoh became the first Asian actress to win the award for ‘Best Leading Actress’ at the time, adding to the film’s many marvellous accolades. The film gave a spark to Yeoh’s career, with the actor having since starred in Transformers: Rise of the Beasts and A Haunting in Venice while also being penned to star in James Cameron’s forthcoming Avatar sequels.
There have been plenty of ‘Best Picture’ nominations for action movies before, with the likes of Marvel’s Black Panther, George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road, Christopher Nolan’s Inception and Neill Blomkamp’s District 9 having each been given the nod. Miller’s 2015 masterpiece was certainly worthy of the ‘Best Picture’ win, arguably being better than Tom McCarthy’s Spotlight.
Take a look at the trailer for Everything Everywhere All at Once below, the only action movie that has won ‘Best Picture’.
