30 Greatest Best Picture Oscar Nominees Of The Last Ten Years

25. Black Klansman

Birdman Michael Keaton
Focus Features

2019 was the year Green Book, a solid but flawed drama that failed to adequately tackle its racial themes, somehow won Best Picture; this win feeling more depressing when you consider there was a truly great film about black history in the line-up: Spike's Lee remarkable, Black Klansman.

In this long-awaited return-to-form for Lee, he takes a stranger-than-fiction true story - a black cop infiltrates the local KKK chapter - and turns it into a stunning black comedy that brilliantly mixes many different moods and genres.

Sometimes hysterically funny, sometimes unbearably suspenseful, sometimes downright terrifying but always, always compelling, Black Klansman is an absolutely fascinating work that fully pulls viewers into its idiosyncratic, richly-drawn world and entertains and frightens in equal measure.

Spike Lee and his fellow writers won a hugely deserved Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar for their beautifully-written gem, although the night didn't end quite so well for Lee. When Green Book was announced as Best Picture, he tried to storm out of the auditorium but was stopped by security.

"Every time somebody's driving somebody, I lose" he remarked later, referring to Driving Miss Daisy's infamous Best Picture win in 1990.

Contributor

Film Studies graduate, aspiring screenwriter and all-around nerd who, despite being a pretentious cinephile who loves art-house movies, also loves modern blockbusters and would rather watch superhero movies than classic Hollywood films. Once met Tommy Wiseau.