Ranking What Was Really The Best Film Of Every Year 1990-2021

Actually won: Birdman (Or The Unexpected Virtue Of Ignorance).

Birdman has emerged over the years as one of the least popular Best Picture winners on offer, even if it's difficult not to become immersed in Alejandro González Iñárritu's surreal vision.

At the Oscars, it beat the likes of American Sniper and The Grand Budapest Hotel to the top prize, but most surprising of all is that it beat Richard Linklater's coming-of-age drama Boyhood, a movie filmed over twelve years to show the natural process of growing up on-screen.

A gutsy experimentation to be sure, but Linklater's plan paid-off big time, with Boyhood emerging as the most transfixing movie experience of the year. Intelligent and rich with character, it's a film unlike any other, and packs a mighty punch.