Entertainment
10 21st-Century Oscar Wins That Keep Getting Better
The nominations have been announced, and the stage is almost set for the 98th Academy Awards, which takes place at the Los Angeles Dolby Theatre on March 15. Paul Thomas Anderson’s politically poignant One Battle After Another, Ryan Coogler’s acclaimed vampire flick Sinners, and the quietly stunning Danish-Norwegian drama Sentimental Value lead the way as favorites, although, as the recent BAFTAs have proven, anything can happen on awards night.
Of course, taking home a gold statue is certain to cement someone’s legacy in the annals of cinema history. However, as years pass, the respect and reputation of any given win can fluctuate, with many now being considered to have aged like milk. Instead of focusing on those negatives, here’s a look at ten 21st-century Oscar wins that keep getting better with age, proving the Academy very often gets it really right.
10
Peter Jackson – Best Director for ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King’ (2003)
Nominated, but not winning, for The Fellowship of the Ring, and being entirely snubbed for The Two Towers, director Peter Jackson went into the 76th Academy Awards in 2004 as the overwhelming favorite to take home the Best Director prize, with many seeing a triumph as collective adulation for the trilogy as a whole.
As one of Return of the King‘s record-tying 11 Academy Awards that night, Jackson’s victory for Best Director was arguably the most deserved, the long-overdue recognition for one of modern cinema’s most impressive visionaries. Over 20 years on, as shown by the trilogy’s recent hugely successful box office re-release, love for the Lord of the Rings franchise hasn’t faltered, making Jackson’s win all the sweeter.
9
Christoph Waltz – Best Supporting Actor for ‘Inglourious Basterds’ (2009)
Twice Christoph Waltz has been nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the Academy Awards, and twice he has won. His first victory, three years before triumphing for Django Unchained, came at the 82nd Academy Awards in 2010, as he swept aside the competition to take home a golden statue for his intelligently deceptive portrayal of S.S. Colonel Hans Landa in Quentin Tarantino‘s revisionist WWII epic, Inglourious Basterds.
Oozing with charisma and frighteningly evil, Hans Landa is one of Tarantino’s best creations. As time has passed, it has become evermore clear that no one could’ve nailed this duplicitous and challenging role quite like Waltz. The Austrian actor’s methodical approach to the art of acting is able to squeeze every last ounce of menace out of an already wicked character.
8
‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’ (2004) – Best Original Screenplay
In the past 27 years of cinema, there’s perhaps no better screenwriter than Charlie Kaufman. Despite being involved in some of the most intriguing philosophical movie musings in modern memory, the genius behind the likes of Being Jon Malkovich and his directorial debut, Synecdoche, New York, has only ever won one Academy Award.
For his simply stunning screenplay for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Kaufman carved a story that was ahead of its time. The film itself has become iconic, a defining piece of 21st-century romance that has inspired waves of creatives and become a masterpiece in the eyes of audiences. It is because of this that the Academy’s choice to declare it as the best in class at the 77th Oscars in 2004 is so impressive, and it has aged like a fine wine.
7
J. K. Simmons – Best Supporting Actor for ‘Whiplash’ (2014)
Few actors could turn a bitter jazz instructor into one of the scariest villains in modern movie history. That’s exactly what J.K. Simmons did with Terence Fletcher in Damien Chazelle‘s pulse-pumping masterpiece Whiplash, as he goes head-to-head with budding young drumming prodigy Andrew Neiman (Miles Teller).
Against a stacked 2015 line-up, Whiplash entered the 87th Academy Awards unsure of victory in any category. However, if anyone deserved a golden statue, it was Simmons, with this most likely his career-best work. A decade on, and no Supporting Actor winner can really come close to this stunning performance from Simmons, and thankfully, the Academy recognized it.
6
‘Spirited Away’ (2001) – Best Animated Feature
The success of an anime at the Academy Awards might not look so surprising today, especially in light of The Boy and the Heron‘s 2024 win, but back in 2003, it was unheard of. Against tough competition in the form of Treasure Planet, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, Ice Age, and Lilo & Stitch, Spirited Away left the 75th Academy Awards as the surprise winner of the Best Animated Feature prize.
Today, anime has boomed from a niche interest to a global phenomenon, and, through that simple fact, this win for Spirited Away back in 2003 is truly one of the best the Academy has ever awarded. It goes without saying that Hayao Miyazaki’s modern fairytale masterpiece is worthy of this Oscar and many other accolades.
5
Charlize Theron – Best Actress for ‘Monster’ (2003)
Of all the 21st century Best Actress victories, none have proven as enduring as Charlize Theron‘s in Patty Jenkins’ 2003 crime drama Monster. Completely unrecognizable as serial killer Aileen Wuornos, Theron’s performance is the epitome of an actor losing themselves to a role, with people still shocked to this day to learn that it is the Bombshell star behind the dental prosthetics.
The best performance in a career stacked with great turns, Theron’s work is simply spectacular. The Academy’s choice to award Theron the victory might’ve been unsurprising given the star’s victories at the Golden Globes, SAG Awards, and Critics’ Choice Awards, but let that take nothing away from how well this has aged. If Roger Ebert calls it “one of the greatest performances in the history of the cinema,” who are we to argue?
4
Bong Joon-ho – Best Director for ‘Parasite’ (2019)
There are few superlatives left to attribute to Parasite. Ever since the genius South Korean thriller debuted in 2019, it has been praised to the highest degree by anyone with even the slightest interest in film. Despite all that acclaim, director Bong Joon-ho‘s win for Best Director in 2020 is an easy choice for this list.
Although Alfonso Cuarón won Best Director for the Spanish-language film Roma in 2019, Joon-ho’s win a year later will forever be heralded for ushering a new Academy appreciation for non-English language filmmaking. There is plenty more to be said about the movie itself, although that should be saved for later in the list.
3
‘Moonlight’ (2016) – Best Picture
For a few moments on February 26, 2017, the winner of the Best Picture Oscar was the colorful, romantic musical La La Land. Thankfully, although La La Land is an excellent movie, the mistake made by Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway was quickly rectified, Barry Jenkins‘ Moonlight was announced the winner, and the rest is history.
One of the best coming-of-age drama tales of all time, Moonlight won three of its eight Oscar nominations, with Mahershala Ali‘s Best Supporting Actor triumph almost worthy of a place in this list. However, given the film’s minuscule budget of just $4 million and the impressive success of small-budget indie flicks since, it is fair to say that today’s film landscape would look considerably different without Moonlight‘s Best Picture win.
2
Daniel Day-Lewis – Best Actor for ‘There Will Be Blood’ (2007)
Daniel Day-Lewis is undeniably one of the greatest actors of all time, and his Best Actor win for There Will Be Blood is the best of his three Academy Award victories. As the misanthropic oil baron Daniel Plainview, Day-Lewis combines with the genius of Paul Thomas Anderson to craft one of modern cinema’s greatest performances.
Many actors go to extreme, seemingly performative lengths to prove their ability. Day-Lewis’s two-year isolation in Ireland to prepare for this role is one of the only times such radical methods paid off. Earning a plethora of best actor nominations from various award boards for this performance, There Will Be Blood is Day-Lewis’s magnum opus, and his Best Actor win is one of the best decisions the Academy has ever made.
1
‘Parasite’ (2019) — Best Picture
As the first non-English language film to win Best Picture, Parasite‘s win at the 2020 ceremony marked a huge shift in the Academy. Today, the likes of The Secret Agent and I’m Still Here are easy considerations for Best Picture nominations, and the Academy itself now boasts a much more international blend of members.
Whether you believe it is one of the greatest movies of all time or not, the film undeniably changed Western attitudes to international filmmaking for the better. Reported to be the most-logged movie on Letterboxd, Parasite‘s popularity continues to grow thanks to the increase in attention to non-English language films — a movement the movie itself helped propel forward.