griggs's - Oscar-winning films: Best Picture List

Forrest Gump is the movie triumph that became a phenomenon. Tom Hanks gives an astonishing performance as Forrest, an everyman whose simple innocence comes to embody a generation. Winner of six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director (Robert Zemeckis) and Best Actor (Tom Hanks).

"Schindler's List" tells the incredible true story of the enigmatic Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson), who saved the lives of more than 1,100 Jews during the Holocaust and whose lessons of courage continue to inspire generations.

Eastwood and Morgan Freeman play retired outlaws who pick up their guns one last time to collect a bounty. Richard Harris is an ill-fated killer-for-hire. And Hackman is a lawman of sly charm...and chilling brutality

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A psychopath known only as Buffalo Bill is kidnapping and murdering young women across the midwest. Believing it takes ones to know one, the FBI sends in Agent Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) to interview an insane prisoner who may provide psychological insights and clues to the killer's actions.

The prisoner is psychiatrist Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins). Brilliant yet psychotic, with a taste for cannibalism, Lecter will only help Starling in exchange for details and secrets about her own complicated life. This twisted relationship forces Starling not only to face her own demons, but leads her face-to-face with a demented killer, an incarnation of evil so overwhelming, she may not have the courage or strength to stop him. Horrific, disturbing, spellbinding. This thriller set the standard by which all others are measured.

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Driving Miss Daisy stars Jessica Tandy and Morgan Freeman in a simple but compelling story. Opening in 1948, when Miss Daisy (Jessica Tandy), an elderly widow, backs her Packard into her neighbour's prized garden.

Her frustrated son (Dan Aykroyd) insists she allow him to hire a driver, played by Morgan Freeman. So begins a friendship that blossoms over the next 25 years until her mid 90s.

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Charlie Babbitt (Tom Cruise) has just discovered he has an autistic brother named Raymond (Dustin Hoffman) and is now taking him on the ride of his life.

Or is it the other way around? From his refusal to drive on major highways, to his obsession with watching popular TV game-shows, Raymond first pushes hot-headed Charlie to the limits of his patience... and then pulls him completely out of his self-centred world. But what begins as a reluctant and unsentimental journey for the Babbitt brothers becomes a remarkable story which connects these two vastly different people in this poignant and powerful look at the unlimited potential of the human spirit.

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Following Pu Yi (John Lone), the last of the Emperor's of China, from his birth in 1908, through his childhood in the fortress-like Forbidden City and his later misguided collaboration with the Japanese in World War II, 'The Last Emperor' tells the history of modern China through the eyes of the

man brought up to believe that he was the country's divine ruler.

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Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen) is a young, naive American who, upon his arrival in Vietnam, quickly discovers that he must do battle not only with the Viet Cong, but also with the gnawing fear, physical exhaustion and intense anger growing within him.

While his two commanding officers (Oscar-nominated Tom Berenger and Willem Dafoe) draw a fine line between the war they wage against the enemy and the one they fight with each other, the conflict, chaos and hatred permeate Taylor, suffocating his realities and numbing his feelings to man's highest value...life.

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Out Of Africa follows the true life story of Karen Blixen (Meryl Streep), an amazingly strong-willed woman who moves from Denmark to run a coffee plantation with her philandering husband (Klaus Maria Brandauer) in Kenya around 1914.

To her astonishment she soon discovers herself falling in love with the land, its people and a mysterious British adventurer and idealist (Robert Redford).

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"Amadeus" triumphs as gripping human drama, sumptuous period epic, glorious celebration of the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It's 1781 and Antonio Salieri (F. Murray Abraham) is the competent court composer to Emperor Joseph II.

When Mozart (Tom Hulce) arrives at court, Salieri is horrified to discover that the godlike musical gifts he desires for himself have been bestowed on a bawdy, impish jokester. Mad with envy, he plots to destroy Mozart by any means. Perhaps, even murder.

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"Terms of Endearment" dazzled critics and audiences alike with its believable, insightful story of two captivating people, mother and daughter, unforgettably played Shirley MacLaine and Debra Winger.

Jack Nicholson turns in a great comic performance as MacLaine's neighbour, a boozy, womanizing former astronaut.

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Gandhi was not a ruler of nations, nor did he have scientific gifts. Yet this small, modest man did what others before him could not. He led an entire country to freedom - he gave his people hope. Gandhi, the man of the century is explored in this breathtaking, unforgettable motion picture.

After 20 years in the making, this masterful epic garnered nine 1982 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Original Screenplay. In stirring detail, Gandhi's life, principles and power explode on the screen with vivid scenes such as the horrific massacre at Amritsar, where the British opened fire on 15,000 unarmed men, women and children, and the dramatic march to the sea where Gandhi led thousands of his fellow Indians to prove that sea salt belonged to all and was not just a British commodity.

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The poignant true story of two British sprinters vying for gold in the 1924 Paris Olympic Games.

Harold Abrahams (Ben Cross), a driven athlete of Jewish ancestry, runs to overcome prejudice and to achieve personal fame; his rival, Eric Liddell (Ian Charleson), a devout Scottish missionary, competes for the glory of God. An inspirational story of spirit and strength in the face of enormous odds, the film combines the finest elements of athletic competition and human drama to create a compelling and timeless cinematic classic.

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An extraordinary motion picture, 'Ordinary People' is an intense examination of a family being torn apart by tension and tragedy.

Donald Sutherland and Mary Tyler Moore star as the upper-middle-class couple whose "ordinary" existence is irrevocably shattered by the death of their oldest son in a boating accident, suicide and guilt left by the drowning, Judd Hirsch is the empathetic psychiatrist who provides his lifeline to survival. Mary Tyler Moore gives a riveting portrayal of the inexplicably aloof mother. Robert Redford's achievement as director, after more than twenty years as a superstar in front of the camera, earned him an Oscar. Superb performances and masterful direction complement the award-winning screenplay, based upon the novel by Judith Guest.

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"Kramer vs. Kramer" is a ground-breaking drama about the heartbreak of divorce and the struggle between work and family. Young husband and father, Ted Kramer (Dustin Hoffman) loves his family - and his job, which is where he spends most of his time.

When he returns home late one evening from work, his wife Joanna (Meryl Streep) confronts him and then leaves him to take care of their six-year-old son while she goes off to find herself. Ted struggles with the demands of balancing a high-pressure career while trying to adapt to his new role of single parent. Just as Ted starts to feel like a fulfilled parent, Joanna returns, but this time she wants her son back...