Who Should Have Won: Best Picture 2000-2009

2000 was the start of a new millennium, but the film making felt like it was still stuck in the 1990s. From 1995 through 2000, there were few films made that are considered classics. Ang Lee's martial arts/fantasy film is one of the few exceptions of great film making. Not only does it contain stellar performances, but it is a unique film wows audiences, much like the Matrix a year earlier. While Gladiator, for its elaborate sets and resurrection of the sandals epic, won Best Picture, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon became a victim of being a foreign language film and simply a GREAT fantasy film.

2001 was really the start of a strong decade in quality film making (you could argue that more garbage was made in the decade too, but the best films were definitely an improvement over the late 90s and late 80s). While an incomplete film, due to it being the first part of a very extensive trilogy, Peter Jackson's Fellowship of the Ring was an beautiful and involved film. Well acted, beautifully scripted, and as visually appealing as any film ever made, it lost once again due to the Academy's disdain for fantasy films.

While the Academy awarded Chicago Best Picture for creating possibly the best musical since the 70s, it failed to even nominate the Brazilian film City of God for the Best Foreign Language Film. It is graphic, violent, gritty, and gut wrenching. However, it tells a story of survival and perseverance that few films have ever been able to capture. It is a true human drama, a message about the realities of the world we live in and the hardships that many must endure throughout their lives. It is a film that you won't look away from, even though you can't bear to watch anymore.

When The Fellowship of the Ring lost Best Picture in 2001 to A Beautiful Mind, everyone in the film community knew that it was very possible that the next two sequels could become major contenders for the award. Finally the Academy awarded Return of the King was arguably the best of the trilogy, but was not the best film in 2003.