Oscars: Every Best Picture Winner Ever Ranked From Worst To Best

47. Shakespeare In Love (1998)

shakespeare in love bluray2
Universal

John Madden's playful rom-com routinely gets a kicking for ridiculously defeating Saving Private Ryan for Best Picture honours, and understandably so, but if you can bring yourself to remove it from that context, it is a cheeky, smartly-written and well-acted speculation on the Bard's life.

Gwyneth Paltrow's Best Actress win is also a bit of a sore point, though - Emily Watson probably should've won for her sublime work in Hilary and Jackie - and even Judi Dench herself seemed surprised at her Best Supporting Actress victory for a mere eight minutes of screen time, making the film overall feel like it just scraped by in many key categories.

It's hard not to be bitter about the win, but it is enjoyable if you can put that to the wayside for two hours.

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Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.