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

32. Marty (1955)

Marty Ernest Borgnine
United Artists

From the pen of screenwriting genius Paddy Chayefsky (Network), Marty is a no-bulls*** Best Picture winner, a snappy, 90-minute romantic drama with no fancy tricks: just a wonderfully earnest, charming script and a deeply affecting, Oscar-winning Ernest Borgnine performance.

Sometimes it's the smallest pictures that hit home the hardest, and Marty certainly qualifies. Perhaps in a stronger year the Academy might've opted for something a little more "substantial", but Chayefsky's masterful screenplay makes a proud, powerful humanist statement and leaves audiences on a fuzzy high without talking down to them or trading in platitudes.

By turns sad, honest and joyful, it feels like a real slice of life more than most Best Picture winners of its era or, really, ever.

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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.