30 Greatest Best Picture Oscar Nominees Of The Last Ten Years

The 2012 and 2013 Oscars had very poor Best Picture line-ups - in fact, not a single film from either of those ceremonies has made this list - but thankfully, 2014 was pretty darn great. One of the very best of that line-up was Paul Greengrass' Captain Phillips.

As he did with United 93, the best 9/11 film to date, seven years previously, Paul Greengrass delivers another absolutely masterful re-enactment of historical events that gets the balance exactly right, and he once again proves one of the few directors who can turn the oft-misused shaky-cam style into an art-form.

It's a superbly put-together thriller that's so suspenseful it's often harrowing to watch, yet it always puts the human element of the story front and centre. All of the characters, even the supposed villains of the story, are fleshed-out and unmistakably human, and this unforgettably intense film hits just as hard on the emotional scale.

Tom Hanks gives one of his greatest performances in the title role, but newcomer Barkhad Abdi actually manages to upstage him in a stunning debut performance that suggested great things for him, although unfortunately he's been pretty elusive in the years since.

All in all, this is among the finest action/thriller films ever nominated for Best Picture (a small group but one that's slowly growing); It's also got one of the most intense film endings of all time, so there's that too.