The Envelope Please

We are alive!.. and making our grand return to the podcast stage with our coverage of the 2003 Academy Awards and the night's clean sweep winner, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. We have missed you all!

Surprise! We're back for a special episode where we breakdown this year's Oscars race and choose our predicted winners. Feel free to steal our picks for your Oscars pool and may the best movie win!

Buckle up everyone, we're ranking every Best Picture winner from the first 75 years of Oscar.

It's been a long time coming, but Chicago is the first movie musical to win Best Picture since 1968's Oliver! Both of us love this movie so tune in to hear us fawn over the great cast and excellent musical numbers.

The second Best Picture winner in a row to star Russell Crowe! Ron Howard is finally triumphant with his movie, A Beautiful Mind. We both agree that the Best Picture lineup for this year is outstanding so tune in and hear us give all five of them some love.

Welcome to a new decade! The first Best Picture winner of the 2000s was Ridley Scott's Gladiator. However, our pick for the best film is an animated one. Tune in to find out which movie it is!

We're back with a special episode! We rank all ten Best Picture winners of the 90s. And we also throw in our favorite winners of the acting categories.

The final movie to win Best Picture in the 20th century was American Beauty. We had the pleasure of interviewing its producer, Dan Jinks, last week; so tune in to this episode to catch the rest of our regular coverage!

Welcome to a special episode of The Envelope Please! We had the pleasure of interviewing the producer of our next Best Picture winner, Dan Jinks. Tune in as we grill him on the making of American Beauty and his experience at the 1999 Academy Awards.

We have landed at one of the most controversial Best Picture winners of all time! Shakespeare in Love beat out the heavy favorite, Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan, for the top spot. Tune in to find out where we stand on this touchy subject!

Ladies and gentlemen.. we have finally arrived at Titanic. Nominated for 14 Oscars and winning 11, this is one of the most honored movies of all time. But does it hold up? Tune in to hear our take on this undeniable classic.

Welcome back to what we're calling Season 3 of our show! We kick things off with a big winner, The English Patient. Although it took home 9 Oscars, we don't agree that it was the best movie of the year. Tune in to find out what movie we think should have won!

This year we have another Hollywood star turned director winning Best Picture. This time it's Mel Gibson. Often cited as one of the most historically inaccurate movies ever made, Braveheart walked away with five Oscars. But it certainly isn't our favorite of the year! Tune in to find out which movie we would have picked for the top award.

I think it's safe to say that just about everyone has seen this 1994 Best Picture winner. Forrest Gump is one of those rare winners that has fully crossed over into the pop culture lexicon. But did it truly deserve the top honor? Our opinions may be a little controversial!

Steven Spielberg finally reigned supreme with his undisputed Best Picture winner Schindler's List. Listen as we break down this amazing year at the Oscars!

Clint Eastwood finally got his due in 1992 by winning both Best Picture and Best Director for his brutally honest depiction of violence in Unforgiven. We also highlight other great movies of the year like The Crying Game, A League of their Own and The Bodyguard!

We finally have a horror movie winning Best Picture! Silence of the Lambs is now our third movie to sweep the top 5 Oscar categories... but it didn't come without its controversy. Tune in as we break down this incredible movie and year in film.

We kick off the new decade with another actor-turned-director winning for his first outing: Dances With Wolves. Although it is credited for re-popularizing the Western genre, it's now looked upon as another example of a "white savior" narrative. Tune in to find out which movies of 1990 we would have liked to see in the Best Picture lineup!

We rank the 10 Best Picture winners of the 1980s in order of our personal preferences. And we also throw in 5 movies that would have made our list had they been nominated or won!

We've reached the end of the 80s! And what a year this was. Driving Miss Daisy controversially won the top honor over the likes of My Left Foot, Glory and Do The Right Thing. We break down why we think this happened, and what movie WE think deserved Best Picture.

Check out our special episode where we give you the entire low-down on what's inside the Academy Museum!

We have a very exciting announcement for you all!

Dustin Hoffman nabbed his second Oscar for Best Actor in crowd-pleasing film Rain Main, which also took home Oscars for Best Picture/Director and Screenplay. Tune in as we break down this classic film and a couple other favorites of ours from this year!

Happy 6oth, Oscar! For this special, we are ranking our top 30 favorite Best Picture losers. What are some of your favorite Best Picture nominees that failed to win?

The Last Emperor completely swept the 1987 Academy Awards, going 9 for 9 in the evening. However, this was an incredibly stacked year featuring such classics as Fatal Attraction, Broadcast News and Moonstruck. Which one do you think we would have voted for? Tune in to find out!

Almost a decade after The Deer Hunter took home the Best Picture award, we have another Vietnam War movie front and center: Oliver Stone's Platoon. Quieter and more poetic, Platoon is one of the best depictions of what the soldiers experienced during the war. But is it OUR favorite of the year? Tune in and find out!

We now have our third Best Picture winning film staring Meryl Streep. This time it's Out Of Africa that sweeps the awards, taking home seven. However, neither of us think this is the best 1985 had to offer. Tune in to hear what our pic for Best Film is!

Amadeus swept the 1984 Academy Awards, winning a total of eight statues during the evening. Tune in as we cover this impressive cinematic achievement while also highlighting other greats movies of the year like Splash and Muppets Take Manhattan.

1983 was the year of James L. Brooks, who took home three Academy Awards (including Best Picture) for his sentimental family-drama Terms of Endearment. You will hear no complaints from us as we break down this year in Oscar movies.

Gandhi swept the 1982 Academy Awards, winning eight golden statues. However, this year also included heavyweights like Tootsie, E.T., and Victor/Victoria. Do we agree with the outcome? Tune in to hear our take!

1981 is another unique year at the Oscars. All of the five Best Picture nominees were nominated in the top 5 categories (Picture, Director, Screenplay, Actor, Actress). However, the awards were fairly spread out. The Academy may have chosen Chariots of Fire, but our hearts stay with On Golden Pond.

Ordinary People is looked upon as one of the most controversial Best Picture winners of all time, and not because of content, but because it beat out Raging Bull. We take a look at both of these movies to express why we think Ordinary People is the rightful winner. We also highlight movies such as 9 to 5 and Airplane!

The 1970s come to a close with a powerful, family drama winning the top award: Kramer vs. Kramer. No surprises here that we are both in total agreement with this win, but tune in as we highlight other great movies of the year like Norma Rae and The Rose.

Let the Vietnam War movies BEGIN! 1978 really came down to two movies, Coming Home and the eventual winner The Deer Hunter. We chit chat on the merits and shortcomings of both movies while also highlighting other favorites of the year like Grease and Superman.

We conclude our Anniversary Special by giving you our top 25 Best Picture movies from the first 50 years of Oscar. Do you think our number one movies match? Tune in to find out!

We have officially covered the first 50 years of the Academy Awards, so now we're taking a look back on the first 51 Best Picture winners to rank them in order of personal preference. In Part 1, we share our 51-26 rankings. Tune in next week for our top 25 winners!

It's been a few decades, but we finally have another comedy break through and win Best Picture. We do our best to look at Annie Hall objectively, but it was difficult trying to separate the art from its creator. We also highlight other movies from this year like Julia and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. And an episode about 1977 wouldn't be complete without a little discussion on Star Wars.

Welcome to Part 2 of our 1976 special! This week we break down the Best Picture winner Rocky, while also highlighting some of our other favorites of the year like Carrie and The Omen.

In this special episode, we break down the four nominees for Best Picture in 1976, which is often considered to be one of the strongest group of movies ever nominated. Which of the four is your favorite?

We have arrived at the second movie to sweep the top five Academy Awards! 1975 was a huge year for movies. We discuss exactly why we think Cuckoo's Nest triumphed over the likes of Jaws and Dog Day Afternoon.

1974 saw the first sequel to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Although it had some stiff competition from movies like Chinatown and Coppola's own The Conversation, you won't hear too many complaints from us.

Sandwiched between the two Godfather movies we have one of the most entertaining pictures of all time win the top award: The Sting. It's another great collaboration between Redford, Newman and director George Roy Hill. However, both Rance and I agree that a different movie should have worn the crown. Tune in to find out!

We have come to one of the biggest winners of all time, 1972's The Godfather. This movie is consistently listed as one of the greatest of all time.. and we couldn't agree more. The only problem is that there were two major films vying for the top spot, the second one being Cabaret. Listen as we break down both of these classics and more!

This week we're thrown into the streets of New York City by the corrupt cop Popeye Doyle in William Friedkin's Best Picture winning film The French Connection. However, after highlighting a couple other movies from this year we realized that it's not our choice for the top award. Listen in to find out what is!

A new decade is finally upon us! Join us as we break into the 1970s with the first Best Picture winner: Patton. How does this movie size up with past World War II winners? Tune in and find out!

In this special episode we take a look back on the ten films that won Best Picture in the 1960s and rank them in order of our own personal preferences.

And now for the first and only "X" rated movie to win Best Picture.. Midnight Cowboy! Often remembered for its famously improvised line "I"m walkin here," this movie set a new tone and standard for what could be considered Oscar content. Tune in to find out which other movies we spotlight!

The final movie musical to take home the Best Picture Oscar in the 1960s was Oliver! Although it's a fine enough musical, it is not the movie that we think deserved the top honor. Listen in to find out!

In Part 2 of our 1967 special we discuss the Best Picture winner In The Heat of the Night and what significant factors contributed to its triumph. We also spotlight some other great movies of the year like Wait Until Dark!

1967 is such an important year for the Academy Awards that we had to split it into two parts. In Part 1, we break down the four nominees for Best Picture. Three of them could have token home the top honor in any other year.. and the fourth one is called Doctor Dolittle.