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

40. The Last Emperor (1987)

An enduringly weird Best Picture choice but also an agreeably unconventional one, Bernardo Bertolucci's 163-minute drama about Puyi, the last Emperor of China, performed one hell of an Oscar sweep, winning all nine awards it was nominated for (including Best Director for Bertolucci).

The film is best remembered for its stunning visuals, immaculate production design and being the first film ever allowed to shoot inside Beijing's Forbidden City, though the ensemble cast is also uniformly excellent.

In terms of historical epics, it's an easy classic and fantastically conveys the passage of time, even if its effectiveness is definitely stifled somewhat by its brutal runtime.