Bafta Best Pictures -1947 - 2021- -

(Inconsistent, but the high notes— The Apartment , Hannah and Her Sisters , Roma —are untouchable.)

By the 1970s, BAFTA began to mirror the Academy Awards, but with better taste. The Godfather (1970? Actually The Godfather won in 1973) and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1976) are undeniable masterpieces. However, the real revelation is how often BAFTA chose the better film over the Oscar winner. In 1982, they awarded Chariots of Fire —a quintessentially British victory. But in 1986, while the Oscars went with Out of Africa , BAFTA chose Hannah and Her Sisters —a sharper, more intelligent pick. BAFTA Best Pictures -1947 - 2021-

The results were immediate and thrilling. Roma (a Spanish-language black-and-white epic). 2020: 1917 (a technical marvel, but a safe return to war epics). But then came 2021: Nomadland . Chloe Zhao became the first woman of color to win Best Director and Best Film. It was a quiet, nomadic, deeply American story that BAFTA crowned just as the world emerged from lockdown. It felt less like a prize and more like a eulogy for lost stability. (Inconsistent, but the high notes— The Apartment ,

Spanning from the post-war optimism of 1947 to the pandemic-shaped cinema of 2021, the BAFTA Award for Best Film (originally “Best Film from Any Source�) serves as a fascinating, if occasionally conservative, barometer of Anglo-American cinematic taste. Looking at the list from The Best Years of Our Lives (1947) to Nomadland (2021) is like reading a history of “quality� filmmaking—with a few delightful curveballs. However, the real revelation is how often BAFTA

The Third Man (1950), The Crying Game (1993), Nomadland (2021).