Ranking the Performances from the "Big Five" Oscar Winners

Scene from The Silence of the Lambs

With Oscar Sunday mere days away, it feels like as good of a time as any to do a commemorative countdown. In this case, we are five days away from finding out if The Revenant can beat Spotlight for Best Picture or Brie Larson can beat Saoirse Ronan for Best Actress. So, how do you commemorate five days left? Why, by honoring "The Big Five": an honor held by only three films that have won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay (and strangely enough, nothing else). It's rarer than you think. For the sake of an expansive list, I have decided to rank the six performances in order of quality to highlight not only what makes a great performance, but what can enhance a great film.

Nothing But the Best: "It Happened One Night" (1934)

Scene from It Happened One Night

Welcome to the series Nothing But the Best in which I chronicle all of the Academy Award Best Picture winners as they celebrate their anniversaries. Instead of going in chronological order, this series will be presented on each film's anniversary and will feature personal opinions as well as facts regarding its legacy and behind the scenes information. The goal is to create an in depth essay for each film while looking not only how the medium progressed, but how the film is integral to pop culture. In some cases, it will be easy. Others not so much. Without further ado, let's start the show.

The Directors Project: #42 - Frank Capra

Scene from Cinema Paradiso

With the many lists and essays written on the subject of film, there has been one thing that The Oscar Buzz has tried to understand: Who is my favorite of the film world? For 10 weeks this summer, I will be exploring this with a countdown of the Top 50 names based on a numerical ranking of ratings from various sources, the following is a list of directors who rank above everyone else. With occasional upsets, this is intended as both a discussion opener as well as a better understanding of me as a film critic and fan. Please enjoy and leave any comments you have regarding the entry's selection.