Oscars: Every Best Picture Nominee Of The 2010s - Ranked Worst To Best

14. Black Swan

Though it's essentially a companion to The Wrestler, Black Swan swaps that film's grounded melodrama for something as equally emotionally heightened, but far more abstract and surreal.

About ballet dancer Nina's total consumption of her art and career, and a crisis of identity brought on in no small part by her overbearing mother and militaristic tutors and colleagues, director Darren Aaronofsky dives into her fractured psychology and begins to pull it apart, all set to the bordering-on-unravelling rhythm of dance itself.

There's a level of rising dread throughout even the most mundane scenes, and each actor brings an ugliness to their role that rounds out their superficial charm, creating a duality that perfectly fits the narrative themes. What makes it even better is, like The Wrestler, Black Swan is so obviously fuelled by a deep appreciation and understanding of ballet as a practice. The physicality and mental fortitude that it takes to perform at a top level. The all-encompassing nature of it. And, of course, the toll it can have on the psyche.

JB

13. Toy Story 3

Given the ridiculous creative highs that Pixar have achieved over the years, calling something their best film is high praise indeed. There have been other moments in their catalogue of movies - like the opening montage of Up - that stake their claim as incredible pieces of art - but no other complete Pixar film is as entertaining or as well put together as Toy Story 3.

Not only is it a culmination of the entire arc of the first Toy Story trilogy and its ruminations on abandonment, rejection and mortality (yay for kids films!), but it's also a great action film in its own right, which is funny, sad, haunting and joyful at times.

If you want further evidence of this, look to the hipsters who proclaim it a disappointment. They're always a good sign.

SG

12. The Revenant

The Revenant might not have been the best movie nominated for Best Picture at the 2017 Academy Awards, but it was probably the most movie. Three hours of tough men grunting and going through constant punishment - both of the physical and mental variety - Alejandro Inarritu's adaptation of legendary frontiersman Hugh Glass' experiences is intentionally exhausting, and unrelentingly visceral in its portrayal of survival.

Still, it's spectacular in its grittiness, with the director's signature sweeping camera capturing the action with total clarity, yet in a way that also evokes the realism of a grounded documentary. Everything is photographed very matter-of-factly and the narrative itself is delivered in an episodic manner, which ironically awards it with the kind of grandiosity and scale that most other filmmakers would try to constantly draw attention to through flashy editing and obvious angles.

It's an epic in all senses of the word, and while not every element coalesces into satisfying whole, as a tapestry of pure, abject pain, The Revenant more than succeeds.

JB

11. Mad Max: Fury Road

Firstly, let’s take a step back and applaud the Academy for even nominating THIS. George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road is two-hours of a pure adrenaline rush; a balls-to-the-wall, breakneck action flick that puts pedal to the metal and never slows down.

It’s a thrilling feat, and the action captured by Miller makes for some of the most blistering, high-octane entertainment of a generation. But for all its insane stunts, it also ensures characters and a story worth investing in too, led by a ferocious performance from Charlize Thereon.

JH