The Best Movie Casts of the Last 50 Years
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With the Achievement in Casting award debuting at the 2026 Oscars, we thought it’d be the perfect time to look back and decide what our nominees and winners would have been in this category over the last half-century of cinema.
1975
Winner: Nashville
Nominees: Dog Day Afternoon, Jaws, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
1976
Winner: Network
Nominees: All the President’s Men, The Bad News Bears, Rocky, Taxi Driver
1977
Winner: Slap Shot
Nominees: Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Suspiria, Saturday Night Fever
1978
Winner: The Wiz
Nominees: Days of Heaven, The Deer Hunter, Grease, Superman
1979
Winner: All That Jazz
Nominees: Apocalypse Now, Breaking Away, Alien, The Warriors
1980
Winner: Airplane!
Nominees: The Shining, Ordinary People, Caddyshack, 9 to 5
1981
Winner: Thief
Nominees: Raiders of the Lost Ark, Das Boot, Blow Out, Reds
1982
Winner: Tootsie
Nominees: The Thing, E.T., The King of Comedy, Fast Times at Ridgemont High
1983
Winner: The Big Chill
Nominees: The Right Stuff, Trading Places, A Christmas Story, National Lampoon’s Vacation
1984
Winner: This Is Spinal Tap
Nominees: Amadeus, Paris, Texas, Ghostbusters, Once Upon a Time in America
1985
Winner: The Goonies
Nominees: Brazil, Back to the Future, Clue, Tampopo
1986
Winner: Platoon
Nominees: The Color of Money, Down By Law, Three Amigos, Hannah and Her Sisters
1987
Winner: Broadcast News
Nominees: Moonstruck, Spaceballs, The Untouchables, Dirty Dancing
1988
Winner: Beetlejuice
Nominees: Bull Durham, Midnight Run, Twins, A Fish Called Wanda
1989
Winner: Dead Poets Society
Nominees: Do the Right Thing, Major League, Batman, Steel Magnolias
1990
Winner: Goodfellas
Nominees: Gremlins 2, Miller’s Crossing, Misery, Pretty Woman
1991
Winner: Boyz n the Hood
Nominees: The Silence of the Lambs, Barton Fink, JFK, The Addams Family
1992
Winner: A League of Their Own
Nominees: Reservoir Dogs, Unforgiven, The Player, Glengarry Glen Ross
1993
Winner: Dazed and Confused
Nominees: Schindler’s List, Jurassic Park, The Fugitive, The Sandlot
1994
Winner: Pulp Fiction
Nominees: The Shawshank Redemption, Forrest Gump, Quiz Show, Dumb and Dumber
1995
Winner: Crimson Tide
Nominees: Sense and Sensibility, Apollo 13, Seven, Die Hard with a Vengeance
1996
Winner: The Rock
Nominees: Fargo, Mission: Impossible, That Thing You Do!, Romeo + Juliet
1997
Winner: L.A. Confidential
Nominees: Men in Black, Waiting for Guffman, Titanic, My Best Friend’s Wedding
1998
Winner: The Big Lebowski
Nominees: Saving Private Ryan, Armageddon, The Truman Show, The Thin Red Line
1999
Winner: 10 Things I Hate About You
Nominees: Galaxy Quest, Magnolia, Office Space, Fight Club
2000
Winner: Almost Famous
Nominees: Remember the Titans, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Gladiator, Meet the Parents
2001
Winner: Ocean’s Eleven
Nominees: Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring, Zoolander, Y Tu Mamá También, Black Hawk Down
2002
Winner: Catch Me If You Can
Nominees: My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Signs, Gangs of New York, Road to Perdition
2003
Winner: A Mighty Wind
Nominees: Big Fish, Elf, Pirates of the Caribbean, School of Rock
2004
Winner: Anchorman
Nominees: Shaun of the Dead, Friday Night Lights, Mean Girls, The Village
2005
Winner: Pride and Prejudice
Nominees: The 40 Year Old Virgin, Brokeback Mountain, The Family Stone, The Squid and the Whale
2006
Winner: Little Miss Sunshine
Nominees: Pan’s Labyrinth, Children of Men, The Departed, The Devil Wears Prada
2007
Winner: Zodiac
Nominees: No Country for Old Men, Hot Fuzz, Juno, There Will Be Blood
2008
Winner: The Dark Knight
Nominees: Summer Hours, Burn After Reading, In Bruges, Tropic Thunder
2009
Winner: Inglourious Basterds
Nominees: A Serious Man, I Love You Man, Zombieland, Star Trek
2010
Winner: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
Nominees: The Social Network, True Grit, Inception, The Fighter
2011
Winner: Bridesmaids
Nominees: Moneyball, Midnight in Paris, X-Men: First Class, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
2012
Winner: Lincoln
Nominees: Moonrise Kingdom, The Avengers, The Cabin in the Woods, The Master
2013
Winner: 12 Years A Slave
Nominees: Snowpiercer, Prisoners, The Wolf of Wall Street, Inside Llewyn Davis
2014
Winner: The Grant Budapest Hotel
Nominees: Selma, Boyhood, Force Majeure, Birdman
2015
Winner: Mad Max: Fury Road
Nominees: Spotlight, Sicario, The Witch, The Big Short
2016
Winner: The Lobster
Nominees: Moonlight, La La Land, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Manchester by the Sea
2017
Winner: Get Out
Nominees: Call Me By Your Name, Lady Bird, The Florida Project, Phantom Thread
2018
Winner: Black Panther
Nominees: Roma, BlacKkKlansman, Shoplifters, The Favourite
2019
Winner: Knives Out
Nominees: Parasite, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Little Women, Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood
2020
Winner: Minari
Nominees: Nomadland, Lovers Rock, Another Round, Mank
2021
Winner: Dune
Nominees: The Green Knight, CODA, Licorice Pizza, The French Dispatch
2022
Winner: Babylon
Nominees: Everything Everywhere All At Once, Nope, The Banshees of Inisherin, The Fabelmans
2023
Winner: Oppenheimer
Nominees: Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret, Barbie, Killers of the Flower Moon, Society of the Snow
2024
Winner: Saturday Night
Nominees: Conclave, Anora, Challengers, Civil War
2025
Winner: Sinners
Nominees: Black Bag, One Battle After Another, Marty Supreme, Weapons