The 96th Academy Awards honors the best films of 2023 – with the glittering ceremony due to be held at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on Sunday.
Fans will tune in in their millions to see blockbusters including Oppenheimer, Barbie and Western crime drama Killers of the Flower Moon facing off for the coveted Best Picture award.
Only four Westerns have ever taken home the Best Picture Oscar and it is now 16 years since a film in that genre won in the major category.
Yellowstone’s Kevin Costner famously beat Goodfellas (directed by Martin Scorsese) to Best Picture with his directorial debut – Dances With Wolves in 1990 – while 1931’s Cimarron starring Richard Dix and Irene Dunn was the first Western to ever win in the category.
As Killers of the Flower Moon aims to add to the select few triumphant Westerns – DailyMail.com looks back at the four cowboy movies who have won supreme at Hollywood’s biggest night…
Only four Western films have ever won Best Picture at the Oscars – could Killers of the Flower Moon be next? (pictured Lily Gladstone and Leonardo DiCaprio in the film)
CIMARRON – 1931
Cimarron, starring Richard Dix and Irene Dunne and directed by Wesley Ruggles won Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay (written by Howard Estabrook and based on Edna Ferber’s 1930 novel), and Best Production Design for Max Rée.
Both Dix and Dunne were nominated for Best Actor and Best Actress and Edward Cronjager for Best Cinematography, but lost out.
The film begins In 1889, as adventurous lawyer and newspaper editor Yancey Cravat (Dix) convinces his genteel wife, Sabra (Dunne), to join him in the rush to populate Osage, Oklahoma. After they begin to settle into the community, Yancey leaves to go further west. Alone, Sabra inherits his editorial duties and struggles to bring civilization to the rough frontier town.
Over a tumultuous 40 years, the couple are repeatedly separated and reunited as Oklahoma makes its long journey to statehood.
Although a critical success, the epic blockbuster – which was RKO Radio Pictures’ most expensive production of that time, flopped commercially during its initial run.
Cimarron, starring Richard Dix and Irene Dunne and directed by Wesley Ruggles won Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay (written by Howard Estabrook and based on Edna Ferber’s 1930 novel), and Best Production Design for Max Rée
DANCES WITH WOLVES – 1991
Dances With Wolves remains one of the signature projects of Costner’s career, as he took home Best Director, and the film won Best Picture at the 1991 Academy Awards among its seven overall wins
Costner scored an upset win for Best Director for Dances With Wolves over Martin Scorsese for Goodfellas. Scorsese didn’t win a Best Director trophy until 2007’s The Departed
Dances With Wolves remains one of the signature projects of Costner’s career, as he took home Best Director, and the film won Best Picture at the 1991 Academy Awards among its seven overall wins.
Costner played the role of Lieutenant John Dunbar in the 1990 Civil War era film, alongside costars Graham Greene, Mary McDonnell, Tantoo Cardinal, Rodney A. Grant and late actors Floyd ‘Red Crow’ Westerman, Maury Chaykin and Charles Rocket.
Oscars fans were left shocked when Scorsese lost out on the Best Director gong to Costner.
Three-time nominee Scorsese had been the favorite to take home the award for Goodfellas but Costner scored a shock victory.
Scorsese was long considered one of the most oft-snubbed filmmakers at the Oscars, as he was also nominated for Best Director for Raging Bull, The Last Temptation Of Christ, Goodfellas, Gangs Of New York and The Aviator, losing all of them.
It wasn’t until his nomination for his 2007 film The Departed that he finally won Best Director, and by then some critics felt it was more of an honorary award for better films that had been passed over than a legitimate win.
He has subsequently been nominated for directing Hugo, The Wolf Of Wall Street, The Irishman and Killers of the Flower Moon but the Oscar Best Picture gold has proved to be elusive for Scorsese.
UNFORGIVEN – 1993
Hollywood legend Clint Eastwood won his first two Oscars for drama Unforgiven – which he directed, starred in and produced
The film tells the tale of William Munny (Eastwood), an aging outlaw and killer who takes on one more job, years after he had turned to farming. The film co-stars Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, and Richard Harris (pictured 1993 at the Oscars)
Hollywood legend Clint Eastwood won his first two Oscars for drama Unforgiven – which he directed, starred in and produced.
The film tells the tale of William Munny (Eastwood), an aging outlaw and killer who takes on one more job, years after he had turned to farming. The film co-stars Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, and Richard Harris.
Hackman won the Best Supporting Actor award for his role as Sheriff “Little” Bill Daggett while Joel Cox won Best Film Editing.
Eastwood lost out in the Best Actor category to Al Pacino for Scent of a Woman.
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN – 2008
The Coen brothers’ blood-soaked extravaganza, No Country For Old Men, based on a grim novel by Cormac McCarthy starred Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem (pictured), and Josh Brolin
The Coen brothers’ blood-soaked extravaganza, No Country For Old Men, based on a grim novel by Cormac McCarthy starred Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, and Josh Brolin.
The film follows Llewelyn Moss (Brolin), a Vietnam War veteran and welder who stumbles upon a large sum of money in the desert; Anton Chigurh (Bardem), a hitman who is sent to recover the money and Ed Tom Bell (Jones), a sheriff investigating the crime.
The film also stars Kelly Macdonald as Moss’s wife, Carla Jean, and Woody Harrelson as Carson Wells, a bounty hunter seeking Moss.
The film also won Best Director for the Coen brothers, Best Supporting Actor for Bardem and Best Adapted Screenplay.
The most hotly anticipated movies of the past year – Barbie and Oppenheimer – lead the nominations at the 2024 Oscars.
Oppenheimer has bagged 13 nods, including best picture and best actor for Cillian Murphy – who is favorite to win the major category after scooping a BAFTA, a Golden Globe and SAG award for his role as physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer.
The impressive total – which also includes best supporting actor and actress for Robert Downey Jr. and Emily Blunt, as well as best director for Christopher Nolan – is just one nomination short of the all-time record set by Titanic in 1998.
Last year’s other smash hit movie – Barbie – was nominated for eight awards, but also fell victim to notable snubs from the Academy.
Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer was nominated for best director and a host of other awards
What Was I Made For and I’m Just Ken from Barbie received their expected nominations for best original song
Its star Margot Robbie was not nominated for best actress, while Greta Gerwig was not nominated for best director.
Another surprise saw America Ferrera nominated for best supporting actress over her role in Barbie, with pundits saying her character’s impassioned speech on feminism had sealed the deal.
Barbie’s other nominations include best picture, best supporting actor for Ryan Gosling and two nods for best song – including Gosling’s famed ‘I’m Just Ken.’
The second most-nominated movie was Poor Things, a graphic art house movie starring Emma Stone that has wowed critics but so-far failed to set the box office alight.
Stone plays a sex-crazed young woman, with her performance wowing critics. She previously won best actress in 2017 for her performance in La La Land.
For best actor in leading role Bradley Cooper and Cillian Murphy are set to duke it out for the award. Colman Domingo, Paul Giamatti and Jeffrey Wright received nominations as well.
Leonardo DiCaprio was not recognized for his acting on Killers Of The Flower Moon.
Lily Gladstone is the first Native American nominated for best actress, for her performance in Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon
Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things took home 11 Oscar nominations and Killers of the Flower Moon landed 10.
Annette Bening, Lily Gladstone, Sandra Huller, Carey Mulligan and Emma Stone have been nominated for best actress in a leading role.
Gladstone is the first Native American nominated for best actress, for her performance in Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon – and is the favorite in the category thanks to her wins at the Golden Globes and SAG Awards,
What Was I Made For by Billie Eilish and I’m Just Ken performed by Ryan Gosling from Barbie received their expected nominations for best original song.
Sterling K. Brown, Robert De Niro, Robert Downey Jr., Ryan Gosling and Mark Ruffalo received nominations for best actor in a supporting role.
Emily Blunt, Danielle Brooks, America Ferrera, Jodie Foster and Da’Vine Joy Randolph received nominations for best actress in a supporting role.
Joy already has Golden Globe. Bafta, Critics Choice and Screen Actors Guild awards and is favorite for an Oscar for her performance as a bereaved cook in The Holdovers.
Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer were nominated for best directing, snubbing Greta Gerwig’s Barbie.
Da’Vine Joy Randolph was nominated for best actress in a supporting role for her part in The Holdovers
Emma Stone and Mark Ruffalo were both nominated for their roles in Poor Things
Bradley Cooper was nominated for best actor, but was snubbed of a directing nod for Maestro
Gerwig was nominated for best director in 2018 for her solo directorial debut, Lady Bird. Only three women have won Oscars for best director – Kathryn Bigelow, Chloe Zhao and Jane Campion.
Though Nolan is regarded as the big-budget auteur of his era, he’s never won an Academy Award, nor have any of his films won best picture.
Bradley Cooper was not nominated for directing Maestro but he was recognized for his acting in that bio movie.
American Fiction, Anatomy of a Fall, Barbie, The Holdovers, Killers of the Flower Moon, Maestro, Oppenheimer, Past Lives, Poor Things and The Zone of Interest landed best picture nominations.
The 96th Academy Awards will be held on March 10 at 7 pm ET/4pm PT live on ABC, hosted for a fourth time by Jimmy Kimmel.