All horror films nominated for best picture that won an Oscar

While horror While films typically aren't in contention for the film industry's highest-profile awards, there have been several notable exceptions over the years, especially when it comes to the Best Picture Oscar. The horror genre has undergone a renaissance in recent years, with high-concept horror narratives usurping cheap blood and jump scares. Hollywood stars have begun to embrace the horror genre as a more respected form of cinema, with film icons such as Halle Berry, Nicolas Cage, Hugh Grant and Al Pacino all involved in horror films in the past year.

As well-received as some of the best horror films of all time have been, the genre in general has typically remained excluded from the most prestigious awards lists. However, the tide may be changing with some of the latest horror releases. Robert Eggers vampire film Nosferatus has already been entered into some Oscar lists, and Coralie Fargeat's shocking body horror film The substance There is also news about the first awards. It remains to be seen whether any of the films can join the short but impressive list of horror films that have been nominated for Best Picture in the past.

Nominated for Best Film: The Exorcist (1973)

Directed by William Friedkin

While it's far from the first horror film to receive any kind of Oscar nomination, William Friedkin The Exorcist is the first to receive a nomination for the most prestigious award of all, Best Film. The supernatural horror film stars Ellen Burstyn, Max Von Sydow and then-newcomer Linda Blair as the possessed Regan MacNeil. The Exorcist is still considered one of the scariest films of all time more than fifty years after its release, and the sheer terror made it a viral hit during the winter of 1973.

A production plagued by mysterious accidents resulted in several serious injuries and even some deaths, leading people to believe the film was cursed. When it finally arrived in theaters, some audience members fainted or vomited due to the shocking and disturbing nature of the content on screenleading to some of the best word of mouth marketing any film has ever experienced. Reviews at the time were mixed thanks to public outrage over the film's religious blasphemy and the disturbing nature of Regan's inauguration, but it ended up grossing nearly $200 million in its original theatrical run.

The Exorcist received a Best Picture nomination largely due to its impact on the cultural conversation at the time of its releasealthough it lost to Robert Redford's famous heist film The sting. The film's production team and cast also received nine other nominations, including Best Director, Best Actress and Best Sound (which it won). It has since been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry thanks to its cultural significance and remains one of the most influential horror films of all time.

Nominated for Best Film: Jaws (1975)

Directed by Steven Spielberg

Steven Spielberg Jaws it still holds a spot on many best monster movie lists nearly fifty years after its release, and for good reason. Its release is treated as a milestone in the history of cinema, as its exceptionally wide release yielded the first true blockbuster of the summer. Jawstogether with Star Wars (which was released two years later) helped establish Hollywood's current business model of releasing large-scale, expensive action/adventure films in the summer, when recreational interest is at its peak.

Starring Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss, Jaws was an adaptation of the popular novel of the same name by Peter Benchley. The simple story of three men working to protect a resort town from a huge man-eating shark worked extremely well thanks to Spielberg's minimalist approach to the monster, which drew on John Williams' famously simple soundtrack obscured the creature for most of the film. It was a huge success with audiences in the United States and broke many box office records upon its release.

Jaws It remains among the highest-rated horror films today and was nominated for Best Picture at the 48th Academy Awards. Ultimately lost to Miloš Forman's iconic psychological comedy-drama starring Jack Nicholson One flew over the cuckoo's nest. As The Exorcist, Jaws was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry, and inspired an entire subgenre of horror around killer sharks and other invisible aquatic monstrosities.

Nominated for Best Film: The Sixth Sense (1999)

Directed by M. Night Shyamalan

M. Night Shyamalan has become famous for including a major twist in almost all of his films, with some being received better than others. This trend was born with The Sixth Sensestarring Bruce Willis as a child psychologist and Haley Joel Osment as his young patient who is able to see and speak with the dead. Upon its release, audiences everywhere were shocked to learn that Bruce Willis' character was a ghost throughout the film, which earned Shyamalan praise for his writing and direction, as well as praise for the cast's performances.

The Sixth Sense it was nominated for Best Picture along with five other Academy Awards, including Best Director for Shyamalan. At the 72nd edition of the Oscars, it fell short of the Best Film award, which went to Sam Mendes. American Beauty. It was a box office success in 1999 and outperformed every film that year except Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. The Sixth Sense became a cultural phenomenon and evolved into one of the most parodied and imitated horror films of the last fifty years in other media.

Nominated for Best Film: Black Swan (2010)

Directed by Darren Aronofsky

Darren Aronofsky Black Swan and one of the most celebrated psychological horror films of all timeand its influence on the horror genre in general has been notable in the years since its release. It stars Natalie Portman in the lead role as a ballerina caught up in intense competition for the lead role in the New York City Ballet's production of Swan Lakewho eventually loses her grip on reality and slowly descends into madness due to the pressure she puts on herself.

In fact, Portman won the Oscar for Best Actress at the 83rd Academy Awards, and Black Swan it ultimately received five nominations that year, including Best Picture (which it lost to Tom Hooper The King's Speech). It was also an incredible box office success due to its relatively small budget; it grossed $329 million on a budget of just $13 million. No matter how good the narrative is, Black Swan is notable on this list for how much acclaim was given to the film's performances as opposed to the script.

Nominated for Best Film: Get Out! (2017)

Directed by Jordan Peele

Jordan Peele has become one of the most praised directors of the last decade and his rise to fame began with To go out. Previously an actor and comedy writer, Peele made his directorial debut with the psychological horror film which received widespread acclaim for its social critiques told through a horror lens and wildly original script. To go out offers scathing critiques of post-racial America and neoliberalism, which Peele disseminates through a script that deftly balances horror and humor.

To go out it also served as a breakout role for Daniel Kaluuya, who has since earned many other award nominations in addition to his Best Actor Oscar nomination for critical and box office success. To go out earned a total of four Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, which it lost to Guillermo del Toro The shape of the water. It has yet to gain any long-term preservation-level recognition from the National Film Registry, but To go out is among the most influential Best Picture nominees of the last 30 years, thanks to the cultural dialogue it generated.

Best Film Winner: The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

Directed by Jonathan Demme

The only true horror film to win the Oscar for Best Picture is Jonathan Demme's The Silence of the Lambs. Starring Sir Anthony Hopkins as cannibalistic serial killer Hannibal Lecter and Jodie Foster as FBI intern Clarice Starling, The Silence of the Lambs is widely considered one of the most influential films of the 20th centuryand Hannibal Lecter among his greatest villains. It was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry due to the impact it made on culture and cinema.

Hopkins and Foster's psychological cat-and-mouse interactions are often cited as some of the best dialogue and acting in any film, let alone any horror film. Both Hopkins and Foster have received Oscar nominations and film wins, as well as The Silence of the Lambs, making the duo one of the most decorated duos in cinema history. Ted Levine also received acclaim for his performance as the evil serial killer “Buffalo Bill,” who serves as the film's true main villain.

The film is based on the 1988 novel of the same name by Thomas Harris, making The Silence of the Lambs one of the greatest literary adaptations of all time too. The Silence of the Lambs It is particularly notable how one of only three films to win Oscars in five of the major categories: Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay. The Silence of the Lambs remains the only true horror film that already won the Oscar for Best Picture and, despite the growing acceptance of horror, it seems likely that it will continue to do so.