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It\u2019s that time of year again, when Hollywood honors itself with the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences awards for excellence, otherwise known as the Oscars<\/strong>. Most years, the awards show is more memorable for the gowns and the teary speeches than for who won and who lost. But, not always. Sometimes, the award goes to a true masterpiece of filmmaking. Let\u2019s look at the three best \u201cBest Pictures\u201d.<\/p>\n First, let\u2019s address the problems with the whole notion of selecting a Best Picture of the Year<\/em>. I mean, it\u2019s certainly an arbitrary decision. Did you know that all voters must select three possible winners? That\u2019s right, they pick a first, a second, and a third choice. The movie with the most votes overall wins the award. This makes it more of a consensus winner. Last year\u2019s winner, Spotlight<\/a>, didn\u2019t receive the most votes as the voters\u2019 #1 choice, but it gathered more #2 place votes to make it the overall winner.<\/p>\n There\u2019s also the problem of always selecting an English language film<\/strong> as the winner. There have been many worthy films from other countries which, in some years, are far superior to the eventual winner. The 1938 winner was You Can’t Take It with You<\/a><\/strong>, which is charming, but certainly not nearly as fine as La Grande Illusion<\/a><\/strong>, one of the great cinematic classics by France\u2019s legendary director, Jean Renoir<\/strong>. I always hold out hope that, some year, a film from somewhere other than the U.S. or Great Britain will win, but that is wishful thinking.<\/p>\n Of course, it\u2019s also hard to know just which films will stand the test of time and become classics. 1953\u2019s winner, The Greatest Show on Earth<\/a>, is all but forgotten. That same year saw Singin’ in the Rain<\/a>, which wasn\u2019t even nominated for Best Picture, but would go on to be widely regarded as the best musical of all time. It\u2019s easy to criticize in hindsight.<\/p>\n Sometimes, though, the Academy gets it right. Here are my choices for the three finest films ever to win the coveted Oscar for Best Picture of the Year.<\/p>\n 1943: Casablanca<\/strong><\/p>\n You must remember this\u2026 <\/em>Is there a more romantic movie than this one? We\u2019re in Nazi occupied North Africa, and a seemingly callous American expat restauranteur named Richard Blaine comes into possession of two letters of transit, which will secure the owners safe passage to Lisbon and, finally, New York. Then, in walks the love of his life, on the arm of a man wanted by the Germans and revered by the French Resistance. The romance is rekindled, songs are sung, and heroes are made.<\/p>\n The cast was comprised of familiar Warner Brothers studio faces, including Humphrey Bogart<\/strong>, who nearly didn\u2019t get the part, and a young starlet named Ingrid Bergman<\/strong>. The script was being written as they made the movie (two very<\/em> different endings were shot), and it all came together very quickly. But the happy result is one of the most enduring films of all time.<\/p>\n