BAFTA Best Film Winners, Ranked
The British Academy's top prize since 1948 — every BAFTA Best Film winner in our library, ranked by composite canon score rather than by ceremony year.
Award results are facts and are listed in full. The score chip is our composite canon score.
- 1Lawrence of Arabia1962 · David Lean · United Kingdom / United States · war, biography, drama7.40
Oscar Best Picture winner 1962 · BAFTA Best Film winner 1963 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1963 #1
- 2Goodfellas1990 · Martin Scorsese · United States · biography, crime, thriller6.33
BAFTA Best Film winner 1991 · Sight & Sound 2022 directors' poll #28 · Empire 500 (2008) #6
- 3Schindler's List1993 · Steven Spielberg · United States · war, biography, drama6.12
Oscar Best Picture winner 1993 · BAFTA Best Film winner 1994 · AFI 100 (2007) #8
- 4All About Eve1950 · Joseph L. Mankiewicz · United States · drama, comedy5.87
Oscar Best Picture winner 1950 · BAFTA Best Film winner 1951 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1951 #1
- 5Annie Hall1977 · Woody Allen · United States · comedy, romance, drama5.55
Oscar Best Picture winner 1977 · BAFTA Best Film winner 1978 · Siskel's annual top 10 1977 #1
- 6Bicycle Thieves1948 · Vittorio De Sica · Italy · drama4.78
BAFTA Best Film winner 1950 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1950 #1 · Sight & Sound 2022 directors' poll #20
- 7Dr. Strangelove1964 · Stanley Kubrick · United States / United Kingdom · comedy, war4.66
BAFTA Best Film winner 1965 · Sight & Sound 2022 directors' poll #46 · Oscar Best Picture nominee 1964
- 8One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest1975 · Miloš Forman · United States · comedy, drama4.63
Oscar Best Picture winner 1975 · BAFTA Best Film winner 1977 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1976 #2
- 9Midnight Cowboy1969 · John Schlesinger · United States · drama4.62
Oscar Best Picture winner 1969 · BAFTA Best Film winner 1970 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1969 #2
- 10The Bridge on the River Kwai1957 · David Lean · United Kingdom / United States · drama, war4.61
Oscar Best Picture winner 1957 · BAFTA Best Film winner 1958 · BFI Top 100 British films #11
- 11The Apartment1960 · Billy Wilder · United States · comedy, romance, drama4.38
Oscar Best Picture winner 1960 · BAFTA Best Film winner 1961 · Sight & Sound 2022 critics' poll #54
- 12The Best Years of Our Lives1946 · William Wyler · United States · war, drama4.31
Oscar Best Picture winner 1946 · BAFTA Best Film winner 1948 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1948 #2
- 13The Hurt Locker2008 · Kathryn Bigelow · United States · action, thriller, war3.95
Oscar Best Picture winner 2009 · BAFTA Best Film winner 2010 · Film Comment year-end poll 2009 #1
- 14The Last Emperor1987 · Bernardo Bertolucci · China / France / United Kingdom · drama, biography3.94
Oscar Best Picture winner 1987 · BAFTA Best Film winner 1989 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1988 #1
- 15The Graduate1967 · Mike Nichols · United States · comedy, drama, romance3.92
BAFTA Best Film winner 1969 · AFI 100 (1998) #7 · AFI 100 (2007) #17
- 16The Pianist2002 · Roman Polanski · France / Germany / United Kingdom · musical, drama, biography3.86
Palme d'Or winner 2002 · BAFTA Best Film winner 2003 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 2003 #1
- 17Shakespeare in Love1998 · John Madden · United Kingdom / United States · comedy, romance, drama3.77
Oscar Best Picture winner 1998 · BAFTA Best Film winner 1999 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1999 #1
- 18The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King2003 · Peter Jackson · New Zealand / United States · fantasy, adventure3.69
Oscar Best Picture winner 2003 · BAFTA Best Film winner 2004 · Letterboxd Top 250 #11
- 19Boyhood2014 · Richard Linklater · United States · drama3.66
BAFTA Best Film winner 2015 · Film Comment year-end poll 2014 #1 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 2014 #2
- 20The Wages of Fear1953 · Henri-Georges Clouzot · France / Italy · drama, adventure3.63
Palme d'Or winner 1953 · BAFTA Best Film winner 1955 · Berlin Golden Bear winner 1953
- 21Ben-Hur1959 · William Wyler · United States · drama, action3.61
Oscar Best Picture winner 1959 · BAFTA Best Film winner 1960 · AFI 100 (2007) #100
- 22Chariots of Fire1981 · Hugh Hudson · United Kingdom / Australia · biography, drama3.55
Oscar Best Picture winner 1981 · BAFTA Best Film winner 1982 · TIFF People's Choice winner 1981
- 23A Man for All Seasons1966 · Fred Zinnemann · United Kingdom · biography, drama3.51
Oscar Best Picture winner 1966 · BAFTA Best Film winner 1968 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1967 #4
- 24One Battle After Another2025 · Paul Thomas Anderson · United States · drama, thriller, action3.50
Oscar Best Picture winner 2025 · BAFTA Best Film winner 2026 · Film Comment year-end poll 2025 #1
- 25Brokeback Mountain2005 · Ang Lee · United States · romance, drama3.49
BAFTA Best Film winner 2006 · Venice Golden Lion winner 2005 · Oscar Best Picture nominee 2005
- 26Forbidden Games1952 · René Clément · France · war, drama3.46
BAFTA Best Film winner 1954 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1953 #1 · Venice Golden Lion winner 1952
- 27The English Patient1996 · Anthony Minghella · United Kingdom / United States · romance, war, drama3.38
Oscar Best Picture winner 1996 · BAFTA Best Film winner 1997 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1997 #5
- 28Gandhi1982 · Richard Attenborough · United Kingdom / India · biography, drama3.37
Oscar Best Picture winner 1982 · BAFTA Best Film winner 1983 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1983 #3
- 29The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring2001 · Peter Jackson · New Zealand / United States · fantasy, adventure, action3.35
BAFTA Best Film winner 2002 · Oscar Best Picture nominee 2001 · AFI 100 (2007) #50
- 30Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid1969 · George Roy Hill · United States · comedy, drama, western3.27
BAFTA Best Film winner 1971 · Oscar Best Picture nominee 1969 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1970 #4
- 31Day for Night1973 · François Truffaut · France / Italy · drama, comedy3.25
BAFTA Best Film winner 1974 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1974 #3 · Siskel's annual top 10 1974 #1
- 32Roma2018 · Alfonso Cuarón · United States / Mexico · drama3.24
BAFTA Best Film winner 2019 · Venice Golden Lion winner 2018 · Oscar Best Picture nominee 2018
- 33Oppenheimer2023 · Christopher Nolan · United States / United Kingdom · biography, thriller, drama3.23
Oscar Best Picture winner 2023 · BAFTA Best Film winner 2024 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 2024 #1
- 3412 Years a Slave2013 · Steve McQueen · United Kingdom / United States · drama, biography3.14
Oscar Best Picture winner 2013 · BAFTA Best Film winner 2014 · TIFF People's Choice winner 2013
- 35Sense and Sensibility1995 · Ang Lee · United Kingdom / United States · drama, romance, comedy3.08
BAFTA Best Film winner 1996 · Berlin Golden Bear winner 1996 · Oscar Best Picture nominee 1995
- 36Argo2012 · Ben Affleck · United States · thriller, drama, biography3.07
Oscar Best Picture winner 2012 · BAFTA Best Film winner 2013 · Ebert's annual top 10 2012 #1
- 37Hamlet1948 · Laurence Olivier · United Kingdom · drama3.00
Oscar Best Picture winner 1948 · BAFTA Best Film winner 1949 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1949 #4
- 38Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri2017 · Martin McDonagh · United States / United Kingdom · drama, comedy, mystery3.00
BAFTA Best Film winner 2018 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 2018 #1 · TIFF People's Choice winner 2017
- 39Nomadland2020 · Chloé Zhao · United States · drama3.00
Oscar Best Picture winner 2020 · BAFTA Best Film winner 2021 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 2021 #1
- 40
- 41Tom Jones1963 · Tony Richardson · United Kingdom · comedy, adventure, drama2.91
Oscar Best Picture winner 1963 · BAFTA Best Film winner 1964 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1964 #8
- 42The King's Speech2010 · Tom Hooper · United Kingdom · biography, drama2.82
Oscar Best Picture winner 2010 · BAFTA Best Film winner 2011 · TIFF People's Choice winner 2010
- 43A Room with a View1986 · James Ivory · United Kingdom · comedy, romance, drama2.81
BAFTA Best Film winner 1987 · Oscar Best Picture nominee 1986 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1987 #6
- 44Manhattan1979 · Woody Allen · United States · comedy, romance, drama2.77
BAFTA Best Film winner 1980 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1980 #5 · Sarris's annual top 10 1979 #2
- 45My Fair Lady1964 · George Cukor · United States · musical, romance, drama2.76
Oscar Best Picture winner 1964 · BAFTA Best Film winner 1966 · AFI 100 (1998) #91
- 46American Beauty1999 · Sam Mendes · United States · comedy, drama2.74
Oscar Best Picture winner 1999 · BAFTA Best Film winner 2000 · TIFF People's Choice winner 1999
- 47The Hustler1961 · Robert Rossen · United States · drama2.72
BAFTA Best Film winner 1962 · Oscar Best Picture nominee 1961 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1962 #9
- 48The Killing Fields1984 · Roland Joffé · United Kingdom · biography, drama2.70
BAFTA Best Film winner 1985 · Oscar Best Picture nominee 1984 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1985 #7
- 49Howards End1992 · James Ivory · United Kingdom · drama2.66
BAFTA Best Film winner 1993 · Oscar Best Picture nominee 1992 · Ebert's annual top 10 1992 #3
- 50Slumdog Millionaire2008 · Danny Boyle, Loveleen Tandan · United Kingdom · romance, drama, crime2.65
Oscar Best Picture winner 2008 · BAFTA Best Film winner 2009 · TIFF People's Choice winner 2008
- 51The Full Monty1997 · Peter Cattaneo · United Kingdom / United States · comedy, drama2.62
BAFTA Best Film winner 1998 · Oscar Best Picture nominee 1997 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1998 #5
- 52The Elephant Man1980 · David Lynch · United States · biography, drama2.56
BAFTA Best Film winner 1981 · Oscar Best Picture nominee 1980 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1981 #10
- 53Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?1966 · Mike Nichols · United States · drama2.54
BAFTA Best Film winner 1967 · Oscar Best Picture nominee 1966 · AFI 100 (2007) #67
- 54Gladiator2000 · Ridley Scott · United Kingdom / United States · drama, action, adventure2.52
Oscar Best Picture winner 2000 · BAFTA Best Film winner 2001 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 2000 #8
- 55Room at the Top1959 · Jack Clayton · United Kingdom · drama2.38
BAFTA Best Film winner 1959 · Oscar Best Picture nominee 1959 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1959 #9
- 56The Artist2011 · Michel Hazanavicius · France / Belgium · comedy, romance, drama2.35
Oscar Best Picture winner 2011 · BAFTA Best Film winner 2012 · César Best Film winner 2012
- 57The Purple Rose of Cairo1985 · Woody Allen · United States · comedy, romance, fantasy2.32
BAFTA Best Film winner 1986 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1986 #2 · TIME All-TIME 100
- 58La La Land2016 · Damien Chazelle · United States · romance, comedy, drama2.29
BAFTA Best Film winner 2017 · TIFF People's Choice winner 2016 · Oscar Best Picture nominee 2016
- 59The Power of the Dog2021 · Jane Campion · United Kingdom / United States / New Zealand · drama, western2.28
BAFTA Best Film winner 2022 · Oscar Best Picture nominee 2021 · Film Comment year-end poll 2021 #6
- 60The Queen2006 · Stephen Frears · United Kingdom / France / Italy · biography, drama, documentary2.27
BAFTA Best Film winner 2007 · Oscar Best Picture nominee 2006 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 2007 #4
- 61Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore1974 · Martin Scorsese · United States · romance, drama, comedy2.19
BAFTA Best Film winner 1976 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1975 #3 · Ebert's annual top 10 1975 #3
- 62Sunday, Bloody Sunday1971 · John Schlesinger · United Kingdom · drama2.14
BAFTA Best Film winner 1972 · BFI Top 100 British films #65 · Ebert's annual top 10 1971 #5
- 63Atonement2007 · Joe Wright · United Kingdom / France · drama, war, romance2.14
BAFTA Best Film winner 2008 · Oscar Best Picture nominee 2007 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 2008 #9
- 64Four Weddings and a Funeral1994 · Mike Newell · United Kingdom · comedy, romance, drama2.10
BAFTA Best Film winner 1995 · Oscar Best Picture nominee 1994 · BFI Top 100 British films #23
- 65Julia1977 · Fred Zinnemann · United States / United Kingdom · drama, biography2.08
BAFTA Best Film winner 1979 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1978 #2 · Oscar Best Picture nominee 1977
- 66The Aviator2004 · Martin Scorsese · United States · biography, drama, thriller2.06
BAFTA Best Film winner 2005 · Oscar Best Picture nominee 2004 · Film Comment year-end poll 2004 #12
- 67Gervaise1956 · René Clément · France / Italy · drama2.00
BAFTA Best Film winner 1957 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1956 #1
- 68Lacombe, Lucien1974 · Louis Malle · France / Italy · drama, war, romance1.99
BAFTA Best Film winner 1975 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1975 #7 · NYT Best 1,000 Movies
- 6919172019 · Sam Mendes · United Kingdom / United States · war, drama1.86
BAFTA Best Film winner 2020 · Oscar Best Picture nominee 2019 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 2020 #9
- 70Richard III1955 · Laurence Olivier · United Kingdom · drama1.76
BAFTA Best Film winner 1956 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1956 #4 · NYT Best 1,000 Movies
- 71Jean de Florette1986 · Claude Berri · France / Italy / Switzerland · drama1.68
BAFTA Best Film winner 1988 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1988 #9 · Siskel's annual top 10 1987 #4
- 72Dead Poets Society1989 · Peter Weir · United States · drama1.67
BAFTA Best Film winner 1990 · Oscar Best Picture nominee 1989 · Letterboxd Top 250 #112
- 73Conclave2024 · Edward Berger · United Kingdom / United States · thriller, drama, mystery1.50
BAFTA Best Film winner 2025 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 2025 #3
- 74La Ronde1950 · Max Ophüls · France · drama, comedy, romance1.47
BAFTA Best Film winner 1952 · Sarris's annual top 10 1969 #5 · Criterion Collection spine #443
- 75Ballad of a Soldier1959 · Grigori Chukhrai · Soviet Union · drama, war, romance1.45
BAFTA Best Film winner 1962 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1960 #10 · Criterion Collection spine #148
- 76The Revenant2015 · Alejandro González Iñárritu · United States · western, adventure, thriller1.45
BAFTA Best Film winner 2016 · Oscar Best Picture nominee 2015
- 77All Quiet on the Western Front2022 · Edward Berger · Germany / United States · war, drama1.45
BAFTA Best Film winner 2023 · Oscar Best Picture nominee 2022
- 78The Sound Barrier1952 · David Lean · United Kingdom · drama1.29
BAFTA Best Film winner 1953 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1953 #10
- 79The Commitments1991 · Alan Parker · United Kingdom / United States / Ireland · musical, drama, comedy1.28
BAFTA Best Film winner 1992 · BFI Top 100 British films #38
- 80Educating Rita1983 · Lewis Gilbert · United Kingdom · comedy, drama1.23
BAFTA Best Film winner 1984 · BFI Top 100 British films #84
Also nominated
A wider net than the Academy
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts has crowned a Best Film every year since 1948, and for its first two decades the category wore a revealing name: Best Film From Any Source. That phrasing was a statement of policy. Where the Academy Awards in Hollywood remained, in practice, an English-language honor until Parasite (2019) broke the seal, London had written internationalism into the prize from the start — the label survived until 1969, when it shortened to plain Best Film. The clearest proof sits in the middle of our list: The Wages of Fear (1953), Henri-Georges Clouzot's French-language nerve-shredder, took the British top award in an era when a subtitled thriller winning Best Picture was unthinkable.
That openness is the trait worth watching. Britain kept its own films in a separate lane — an Outstanding British Film category runs alongside, and since 1983 a further award has fenced off foreign-language cinema — so the main prize has stayed a genuinely mixed field of American, British and world entries rather than a home-team trophy.
How to read our list
The table is ordered by our composite canon score, not by ceremony date or by how the voters felt at the time, and the reordering is the point. A British academy might be expected to reward British films, and the summit obliges: David Lean's desert epic Lawrence of Arabia (1962) is the highest-scoring winner on the whole list, and Carol Reed's Vienna noir The Third Man (1949) sits just inside the top handful — both early, both unimpeachable. Everything between and below them interleaves American and world cinema without regard for passport, a reminder that the composite tracks accumulated standing rather than any single academy's taste.
Read down the column and the divergences between BAFTA's verdict and the wider canon come into focus. Some winners the voters and the composite agree on completely — Schindler's List (1993), Goodfellas (1990), The Apartment (1960) all place high on our list. Others the score quietly demotes: crowd-pleasers and prestige respectability that swept a ceremony can drift far down once decades of retrospective weight are added in, which is exactly where a British win and a durable reputation part company. The list rewards the second, not the first — so a Chariots of Fire (1981), a home triumph in its year, reads today as a good film rather than a great one, while an international outsider it once edged out may now outrank it.
Compared with our sibling Oscar Best Picture page, the BAFTA line is the more cosmopolitan record — smaller, later, and from the beginning more willing to let a film from any source carry off the year's biggest prize.