Every Best Picture Oscar Movie Winner Of 21st Century Ranked Worst To Best

20. Argo (2012)

What should have won: Amour. 

Argo is a predictable Best Picture winner - a bracing political thriller that doubles as a wink-wink Hollywood satire - but it's such an entertainingly well-crafted yarn you can't really hate the Academy for going for it. 

The story of CIA extraction specialist Tony Mendez (director Ben Affleck, miscast but otherwise fine) and his daring mission to get US embassy staff out of a war-torn Tehran, Argo's various characters and plotlines never fully come together, but it does sweep through its procedural thrills with gusto and intensity. 

There are other issues - silly dialogue not even co-stars like Alan Arkin, John Goodman, and Bryan Cranston can entirely sell - and there’s a good chance it would be better remembered as a confident thriller had it not won the Academy’s highest honour, somehow defeating Michael Haneke's stunning Amour and Steven Spielberg's sweeping historical masterwork Lincoln in the process. 

Further proof that Affleck is no slouch behind the camera, Argo is a fine picture, but maybe not a Best Picture.