Organized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Oscar is considered the most grandiose and prestigious audiovisual award. The ceremony, which is held annually, awards prizes in 24 categories, of which “Best Film” is the main one. The American website Business Insider organized a ranking with all the Oscar winning titles for Best Film over the 91 years of the award. The selection was made based on the marks attributed to the films by critics on the website specialized in cinema Rotten Tomatoes. Among the first placed are some of the greatest classics, such as “The Godfather” (1972), by Francis Ford Coppola and several others.

The Oscar for best film, is the main category of Oscar offered by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Award-winning films are usually released in the year prior to the award. But there are exceptions: it may have been the year the film was released or even the year it was submitted to festivals, as is the case with Crash. The Academy is an independent and private American organization that was created in 1926 to honor films and film industry professionals in almost all categories of awards, and the winners can be films from anywhere in the world.

In the past, the category of best film was called best production, or Oscar for the best production.

In 1932, there were no Oscar awards, which were awarded twice in 1931 (in April, for films produced between August 2, 1927 and July 31, 1928, and in November, for films produced between August 1, 1929 and July 31, 1931); in 1931 (in November, referring to films produced between August 1, 1930 and July 31, 1931); in 1932 (in November, referring to films produced between August 1, 1931 and July 31, 1932); and in 1934 (in March, referring to films produced between August 1, 1932 and December 31, 1933).

At the 2017 Oscars ceremony, which took place on the night of February 26, 2017, there was a historic blunder: When they took the stage to announce the winner of the category of best film, the actors Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway announced the film La La Land as champion category. The musical team even thanked for the supposed victory, but soon after it was informed that everything was a huge mistake: the real winner was actually Moonlight. Beatty said that he had been handed the envelope with the result of the Best Actress award, attributed to Emma Stone for her role in La La Land, and that when he read Emma's name on the card, he was extremely confused, passing the card to Dunaway , who ignored the actress's name and simply read the name of the film on the card: La La Land.

In 2020, director Bong Joon-ho's South Korean Parasite made history by becoming the first non-English film to win the Best Picture Award.