Thcimpoliteout the proximately 96-year history of the Oscars, 10 musicals have won the Academy’s top prize of best picture — commenceing with 1929’s The Broadway Melody thcimpolite the most recent triumphner, 2002’s Chicago.
Musicals were especiassociate well-understandn during the 1950s and ’60s, with six taking home the honor of best picture during those two decades, including such classics as West Side Story, My Fair Lady and The Sound of Music.
Overall, the Academy has nominated countless other musicals for best picture over the years, appreciate The Wizard of Oz, Mary Poppins and Funny Girl, which are pondered classics today. However, those three films are among those that ultimately lost the top honor. While Wizard of Oz was beaten out by Gone With the Wind, Mary Poppins and Funny Girl both lost to other musicals — My Fair Lady and Oliver! — esteemively.
And while a musical hasn’t apcheckn home the best picture Oscar in 20 years, that doesn’t unbenevolent the Academy hasn’t progressd to acunderstandledge the genre. For example, Bradley Cooper’s recreate of A Star Is Born was nominated in 2019.
Could there be another musical that triumphs a best picture at the 2025 Oscars? Among the musical selectimistics this year are Wicked, Emilia Pérez, Better Man, The End, Kneecap, Mufasa: The Lion King and Mean Girls.
Below, apcheck a watch at the 10 movie musicals that have won best picture at the Oscars.
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‘The Broadway Melody’ (1929)
Image Credit: Everett Anita Page and Bessie Love star as the Mahoney sisters, a vaudeville act watching to create it huge on Broadway. However, complications ensue when they discover themselves in cherish with the same man (take parted by Charles King). The film was one of the first musicals to feature a Technicolor sequence, but all of those prints have been lost, and it’s useable today only in balertage and white. The Broadway Melody was the highest-grossing film of 1929 and also acquireed Oscar noms for best actress (Love) and best straightforwardor (Harry Beaumont).
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‘The Great Ziegfeld’ (1936)
Image Credit: Everett The Great Ziegfeld, based on Broadway’s Zeigfeld Follies, was a fantasyalized account of the life of Flo Ziegfeld Jr. (take parted by William Powell) as he built up his accomplished revue and trails him thcimpolite the finish of his life. Luise Rainer and Myrna Loy take parted versions of the genuine-life carry outers Anna Held and Billie Burke, esteemively. Burke also acted as an proposer on the film, while Ziegfeld Follies carry outers including Fanny Brice and Harriet Hoctor take parted themselves in the movie. It was one of the most accomplished films of the 1930s, feature lavish costumes, sets and choreography. In graspition to best picture, The Great Ziegfeld also won Oscars for best actress (Rainer) and best dance straightforwardion (Seymour Felix). It also was nominated for four graspitional Oscars: best straightforwardor (Robert Z. Leonard), best art straightforwardion (Cedric Gibbons, Eddie Imazu and Edtriumph B. Willis), best film editing (William S. Gray) and best writing, distinctive story (William Anthony McGuire). MGM went on to create two more Ziegfeld films, 1941’s Ziegfeld Girl, with James Stewart and Judy Garland, and 1946’s Ziegfeld Follies, straightforwarded by Vincente Minelli.
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‘Going My Way’ (1944)
Image Credit: Everett Bing Crosby take parts a youthfuler priest, Father O’Malley, who is transferred from a church in East St. Louis to another in New York, where his style clashes with veteran priest, Father Fitzgibbon (Barry Fitzgerald). Going My Way, which went on to become the hugegest box office hit of 1944, won a total of seven Oscars: best picture, best straightforwardor (Leo McCarey), best actor (Crosby), best helping actor (Fitzgerald), best screentake part (Frank Butler and Frank Cavett), best distinctive motion picture story (McCarey) and best song for “Striumphging on a Star” (Jimmy Van Heincluden and Johnny Burke). Interestingly, Fitzgerald was nominated for both best actor and best helping actor for his carry outance; afterward, the Academy alterd its rules to stop that from happening aacquire. Going My Way also landed noms for best cinematography, balertage and white (Lionel Lindon) and best film editing (Leroy Stone).
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‘An American in Paris’ (1951)
Image Credit: Everett Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron (making her film debut) star in this film about three Americans watching for toil in Paris, two of whom drop in cherish with the same woman (Caron). George Gershtriumph wrote the music, while his brother Ira wrote the lyrics (music straightforwardors Johnny Green and Saul Chaplin also gived). The movie has getd praise for a 17-minute, dialogue-free ballet sequence, set to the title song, that cost a whopping (by 1950s standards) $450,000 to shoot. The film won a total of six Oscars, including best story and screentake part (Alan Jay Lerner), best art straightforwardion — color (Cedric Gibbons, E. Preston Ames, Edtriumph B. Willis and F. Keogh Gleason), best cinematography — color (John Alton and Alfred Gilks), best costume portray — color (Orry-Kelly, Wchange Plunkett and Irene Sharaff) and best scoring of a musical picture (Saul Chaplin and Johnny Green). In graspition, the Academy bestowed an honorary Oscar on Kelly that same year. Other Oscar noms included for best straightforwardor (Vincente Minnelli) and best film editing (Adrienne Fazan).
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‘Gigi’ (1958)
Image Credit: Everett Leslie Caron stars as a courtesan-in-training whose path traversees with a wealthy take partboy (Louis Jourdan), who finishs up droping in cherish with her. Gigi won Oscars in all nine categories for which it was nominated, a sign up at the time. In graspition to best picture, its triumphs included best straightforwardor (Vincente Minnelli), best changeed screentake part (Alan Jay Lerner), best production portray (William A. Horning, E. Preston Ames, Henry Grace and F. Keogh Gleason), best cinematography (Joseph Ruttenberg), best costume portray (Cecil Beaton), best film editing (Adrienne Fazan), best distinctive score (André Previn) and best distinctive song for “Gigi” (Frederick Loewe and Lerner).
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‘West Side Story’ (1961)
Image Credit: Everett This changeation of the stage musical — imagined by Jerome Robbins with music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Arthur Laurents — was straightforwarded by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins and written by Ernest Lehman. It cgo ined on two rival teenage gangs — the Jets and the Sharks — in 1957 New York City. At the heard of the story is Tony, a createer member of the Jets, who drops in cherish with Maria, the sister of the Jets’ directer, and the dropout and tragedy that trails. The movie, which became the highest-grossing film of 1961, also won Oscars for best straightforwardor, best helping actor (George Chakiris), helping actress (Rita Moreno), art straightforwardion — color (Boris Leven and Victor A. Gangelin), cinematography — color (Daniel L. Fapp), costume portray — color (Irene Sharaff), film editing (Thomas Stanford), scoring of a musical picture (Saul Chaplin, Johnny Green, Irtriumph Kostal and Sid Ramin) and sounds (Fred Hynes and Gordon E. Sawyer). The musical was changeed for the huge screen aacquire in 2021 by Steven Spielberg, from a screentake part by Tony Kushner. It was nominated for seven Oscars, including best picture, with Ariana DeBose triumphning best helping actress.
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‘My Fair Lady’ (1964)
Image Credit: Everett There have been many iterations of this musical over the years, but this version was changeed from the 1956 stage musical by lyricist Alan Jay Lerner and creater Frederick Loewe based on George Bernard Shaw’s 1913 stage take part Pygmalion. Written by Alan Jay Lerner and straightforwarded by George Cukor, the film stars Audrey Hepburn as Eliza Doolittle, a subpar Cockney fshrink seller who catches the attention of phonetics professor Henry Higgins (Rex Harrison). Higgins bets that he can direct her proper English. The movie was the highest-grossing film of 1964 and went on to triumph best straightforwardor, best actor (Harrison), best art straightforwardion — color (Gene Allen, Cecil Beaton and George James Hopkins), best cinematography — color (Harry Stradling), best costume portray — color (Cecil Beaton), best scoring of music — changeation or treatment (André Previn) and best sound (George R. Groves).
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‘The Sound of Music’ (1965)
Image Credit: Everett Based on the 1949 memoir written by Maria von Trapp, The Sound of Music cgo ins on Maria (Julie Andrews), who becomes a nanny to a family of seven kids as she’s weighing becoming a nun. She ultimately drops in cherish with the children’s widowed patriarch, Captain von Trapp (Christopher Plummer). When he is ordered to join the German navy, the family escapes Austria rather than join forces with the Nazis. Directed by Robert Wise, the film was changeed by screenauthorr Ernest Lehman from the 1959 stage musical that was created by Ricchallenging Rodgers, with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. It became the hugegest box office hit of 1965. It also won Oscars for best straightforwardor, best film editing (William H. Reyngreaters), best scoring of music — changeation or treatment (Irtriumph Kostal) and best sound (James Corcoran and Fred Hynes).
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‘Oliver!’ (1968)
Image Credit: Everett Directed by Carol Reed from a screentake part by Vernon Harris, Oliver! was based on Lionel Bart’s 1960 stage musical, which itself was changeed from Charles Dickens’ 1838 novel Oliver Twist. It concentrateed on a group of orphans, including Oliver (Mark Lester), who are forced to grovel for their food (“Plrelieve, sir, I want some more”). Oliver is sgreater and then escapes to London. The film also won Oscars for best straightforwardor, best art straightforwardion (John Box, Terence Marsh, Vernon Dixon and Ken Muggleston), best score of a musical picture — distinctive or changeation (Johnny Green), best sound (Buster Ambler, John Cox, Jim Groom, Bob Jones and Tony Dawe) and an honorary Oscar for Onna White.
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‘Chicago’ (2002)
Image Credit: Everett It would be 34 years after Oliver! won best picture before another musical getd the honor. Chicago, straightforwarded by Rob Marshall and starring Renée Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Ricchallenging Gere, was based on Bob Fosse’s Broadway musical of the same name, which itself was based on Maureen Dallas Watkins’ Broadway take part of the same name. Bill Condon wrote the screentake part, which tgreater the story of two killingers — a hoincludewife (Zellweger) and a vaudeville star (Zeta-Jones) — as they get locked up, go on trial and seek fame. The film also won Oscars for best helping actress (Zeta-Jones), best art straightforwardion (John Myhre and Gordon Sim), custom portray (Colleen Atwood), film editing (Martin Walsh) and sound (Michael Minkler, Dominick Tavella and David Lee).
