Without a doubt, there are a fair number of Best Picture Oscar-winning movies that areexceedingly long, even reaching three hours or more. Epics have done well at the Oscars since the event’s first ceremony back in 1929, and it’s probably reasonable to say that there are more long winners than comparatively short winners. Indeed, no Best Picture winner so far has come in at under 90 minutes (and a movie canstill be feature-length below that runtime), but some winners have come close at least.
The following films rank among the shortest to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, and all come easy torecommend to viewers who want to experience some Oscar favorites, though find themselves pressed for time. Some of these winners still hold up, and others are relatively obscure today, by Oscar-winning standards. Still, quality’s not a factor when movies are being ranked by runtime, or lack thereof, with these Best Picture winners ranked below from short to shortest.
10’Kramer vs. Kramer' (1979)
Runtime: 105 minutes
Featuringtwo great performances from Dustin Hoffman andMeryl Streep (both winning Acting Oscarsfor their roles here),Kramer vs. Krameris a grounded and understandably downbeat movie about divorce. A couple with a child decides to separate, and the film follows this rather strenuous process, mostly focusing on the once-distant father who, due to a series of circumstances, finds himself having to care more often for his child than he used to.
Like various acclaimed dramas from the 1970s,Kramer vs. Kramertakes its time and doesn’t exactly have a strong emphasis on narrative, but captures an overall situation and the attached emotions well. It’s extremely well-acted and polished overall, meaning that it largely holds up when watched today. If it’s not quite on the same level as comparable films likeScenes from a Marriage,A Separation, orMarriage Story, then it’s at least close.
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9’The French Connection' (1971)
Runtime: 104 minutes
Not only canThe French Connectioncount itself among the shortest of all Best Picture winners, but it also has the distinction ofbeing one of the fewaction movies to win the top prizeat the Academy Awards.Gene Hackmanalso earned Oscar goldfor playing the fiercely determined and rough-around-the-edges protagonist of the film, a detective who’s willing to go all-out (and then some) to take down a wide-scale drug operation.
Its short runtime largely comes from the fact that it’s super fast-paced overall, differentiating itself from many other acclaimed 1970s movies in the process. YetThe French Connectiondoes have the kind of griminess and authenticity often associated with films of this era, and boasts an overall thrilling story punctuated with some bursts of incredible action throughout (including an all-time great car chase).
The French Connection
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8’Casablanca' (1942)
Runtime: 102 minutes
Casablancamay have premiered in 1942, but it ended up competing against movies released throughout 1943 (and, as such, was awarded Best Picture at the Academy Awards ceremony held in 1944). Nevertheless,it was made, released, and awarded at the Oscarswhile World War II was still ongoing, and the global conflict plays heavily into the plot throughout.
ThatCasablancais also a great romantic film, a movie with a good amount of comedic relief and memorable side characters, and a screenplay that doesn’t waste a secondmeans it’s essentially a perfect film. It’s understandable why it won Best Picture, but what’s harder to wrap one’s head around is how much it crams into a runtime that clocks in at well under two hours. There’s so much toCasablanca, and it’s all communicated so succinctly and in a way that remains emotionally resonant, even more than eight decades on from its release.
Casablanca
7’The Lost Weekend' (1945)
Runtime: 101 minutes
As a character-focused drama centered onone man and his battle with addiction,The Lost Weekenddoesn’t need a huge runtime to get its point across. It’s a fairly straightforward film, but it turns its simplicity into a strength, and few people would call it under-baked or underwhelming (especially considering its age, as it’s all quite confronting by the standards of American cinema in the 1940s).
Ray Millanddoes some of the best work of his career in the lead role, portraying a man who breaks a significant period of sobriety, with the ensuring multi-day bender placing his physical and mental health in immense jeopardy.The Lost Weekendretains a good deal of the power it surely held back in the mid-1940s, as it’s still easy to appreciate the way it honestly explores alcoholism and the impact it can have on one man, as well as all those around him.
6’The Broadway Melody' (1929)
Like the aforementioned Best Picture winners,The Broadway Melodyis relatively short, clocking in at just over 100 minutes in length. However, unlike the aforementioned Best Picture winners,The Broadway Melodydoes not feel well-paced, nor does it feel like it passes by quickly, as it’s got a rather ordinary story filled with forgettable characters, bland drama, and an overall sense of not much going on.
It’s an early talkie, andthe first musical to win Best Picture, so there’s every chance critics and viewers alike were too impressed by seeing such things on screen to resist giving it acclaim back in the day. While some of the earliest Best Picture winners hold up surprisingly well,The Broadway Melodyunfortunately doesn’t, and it’sonly really worth checking out if you want to one day be able to claim that you’ve seen every Best Picture Oscar winner.
5’The Artist' (2011)
Runtime: 100 minutes
The Artistis a movie set in the late 1920s, and is about a star of the silent era worrying about the transition from silent films to talkies. Its premise is therefore similar toSingin' in the Rain, but it has the novelty ofplaying out like a silent film, complete with black-and-white visuals and an aspect ratio of 4:3(looking almost like a square, rather than a more obviously rectangular wide-screen aspect ratio). It’s also a romance film. It also has a very cutedog (Uggie) who largely steals the show.
It’s not a deep movie, and it does seem mostly concerned with being a throwback to the sorts of charming films that entertained audiences some 80-90+ years earlier. Yet as a homage,The Artistdoes work, and feels both authentic and sincere in its simplicity. It doesn’t overstay its welcome by any means, and proves to be a breezy watch for fans of this era of Hollywood keen to see a loving, modern-day replica of it.
The Artist
4’Driving Miss Daisy' (1989)
Runtime: 99 minutes
Not all Oscar-winning movies age well, andDriving Miss Daisyfeels like something of a relic. It’s a Best Picture winner that deals with race, following the unlikely friendship that builds up between an elderly widow and her Black driver, and does ultimately stand out as something of an unfortunate winner because the same year it came out, so too didSpike Lee’sDo the Right Thing(which somehow wasn’t even nominated, yet it holds up significantly better today).
Driving Miss Daisystill seemed to do the job for Academy voters, and nearly 30 years later, another somewhat safe and arguably bland film with a similar premise also won an Oscar for Best Picture (Green Book). At leastJessica TandyandMorgan Freemangive good performances, despite the shortcomings of the screenplay. And, if nothing else,Driving Miss Daisywon’t waste too much of one’s time, given it comes in at just under 100 minutes long.
3’Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans' (1927)
Runtime: 94 minutes
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humansis an unusual example of a Best Picture winner, because it won alongside another film -the romantic war epic,Wings- at the very first Academy Awards.Wingsgot an award for “Outstanding Picture,” andSunrise: A Song of Two Humanswon for “Unique and Artistic Picture,” with the former being recognized as the more “official” Best Picture winner, seeing as the “Unique and Artistic Picture” award was retired after the first ceremony.
Still,Sunrise: A Song of Two Humansdid win big at the first Oscars, and is an overall extremely well-made silent film, deserving its sort-of win for being a straightforward and powerfully told story about love, heartbreak, and redemption. It’s beautifully shot and well put together, and moves well for a film of its age, at least in part thanks to the runtime that ensures it wastes very little, if any, time.
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2’Annie Hall' (1977)
Runtime: 93 minutes
There wereplenty of great movies from 1977, including one set a long time agoin a galaxy far, far away, but the biggest winner at the Oscars for that year wasAnnie Hall.It’s a very down-to-earthmix of comedy and romance, telling the story of two unusual people who fall in love, though find their relationship challenged in various ways over time. That’s about it; it’s the film’s sense of humor and engaging characters that help keep things interesting.
Woody Allen’sbrand of neurotic comedy can be divisive, to say the least, but there’s a strong argument to be made thatAnnie Hallis his funniest and most emotionally resonant film, even if it still might not be for everyone.Diane Keaton’scertainly great as the titular character, and the supporting cast is wonderfully eclectic,featuring the likes of Carol Kane, Paul Simon, Shelley Duvall, and even Christopher Walken. It’s only 93 minutes, too, so viewers don’t have much to lose by watching this one.
Annie Hall
1’Marty' (1955)
Runtime: 90 minutes
Theshortest Best Picture winner of all timegoes for exactly one-and-a-half hours:Marty.It’s one of its decade’s best films, even though it’s quite unassuming and doesn’t appear to be too flashy or special on the surface,more or less functioning as a straightforward drama. Its titular character is an unmarried man who finds those around him constantly telling him to get married, only for many of the same people to disapprove of the woman he does eventually fall for.
It’s a movie about ordinary people and a rather ordinary, non-Hollywood kind of romantic love, and there’s something remarkably fresh and honest about it. Perhaps it’s comparable to the grounded drama that won Best Picture the previous year,On the Waterfront, with this pair of movies standing out in contrast to thelarger (and often longer) epic spectaclesof the time that also found themselves success at the Oscars.
