Oscars: 10 Best Pictures That Actually Were The Best

5. The Silence Of The Lambs - 1992

Genre films rarely get much love in the major categories at the Oscars, horror and related genres even less so. However, the grand guignol of this cannibals and serial killers thriller proved surprisingly right for the Academy's appetites in 1992. The Silence of the Lambs was only the third film to win all five major awards at the Oscars: Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress and Screenplay. Dark and gothic, with two memorable and complex leads who have an intriguing chemistry, The Silence of the Lambs is deserving of its spot as the Academy's most favoured horror. Other nominees: If the Oscars have never cared much for horror, then that counts double for animation. In 1992 Beauty and the Beast became the first animated film to be nominated for Best Picture (and remains the only one during the era of just 5 nominees). Disney fairytale storytelling at its most charming, with beautiful visuals and catchy songs, Beauty would have been a worthy winner. Barbra Streisand weepie The Prince of Tides was a rare Best Picture nominee with a female director, but a lack of a directing nod for Streisand herself suggested it had little chance of winning. Other deserving contenders: Ridley Scott's feminist road movie Thelma & Louise and Terry Gilliam's urban Holy Grail fantasy The Fisher King picked up acting nods, but were somewhat surprising omissions from the Best Picture list. Palme d'Or winner Barton Fink was brilliant, but maybe too weird for such a mainstream award, while The Silence of the Lambs' cannibal theme didn't open the door for other man-eating films like dystopian French satire Delicatessen.