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

Actually won: The English Patient.

The prevailing wisdom these days is that The English Patient is the ultimate Best Picture winner, deemed pretentious due to its length, romantic entanglements, and historical setting.

While this is all fair thanks to cinema's subjectivity, The English Patient is a gorgeous drama that makes for a strong winner, but even so the top honour of the year should have gone to the Coen Brothers' intelligent and darkly comical crime caper Fargo.

With its unconventional hero, quirky laughs and delicious twists, Fargo was the most confident and charming film of '96, and one that remains a beloved cult favourite over twenty years later.