Bafta Best Pictures -1947 - 2021- Instant

The 1990s brought the “Prestige Plague.” Schindler’s List (1994), The English Patient (1997), and Shakespeare in Love (1999) won both sides of the Atlantic. Yet, BAFTA’s most inspired choice of the decade was The Crying Game (1993)—a daring, twisty IRA thriller that Hollywood wouldn’t touch. That win alone justifies BAFTA’s existence.

The Third Man (1950), The Crying Game (1993), Nomadland (2021). BAFTA Best Pictures -1947 - 2021-

Reviewing 75 years of BAFTA winners is an exercise in contradictions. They gave us The Apartment (1961) but also Mississippi Burning (1989—a deeply problematic choice). They championed The French Connection (1972) but ignored Pulp Fiction (1995—it lost to Forrest Gump ). The 1990s brought the “Prestige Plague

The new millennium saw BAFTA embrace spectacle— Gladiator (2001) and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2004) were predictable. But the shock came in 2007: BAFTA gave Best Film to The Queen (a small, BBC-style drama about royal grief) over The Departed and Little Miss Sunshine . It was a patriotic choice that felt small, yet historically significant. The Third Man (1950), The Crying Game (1993),

(Inconsistent, but the high notes— The Apartment , Hannah and Her Sisters , Roma —are untouchable.)

The late 2010s were BAFTA’s most controversial period. #BAFTAsSoWhite became a real crisis. In 2018, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri won—a film about American racism made by a white Irish director, while Get Out wasn’t even nominated. The backlash forced a complete overhaul of voting rules.