In March, ScreenAge Wasteland will have its 4th annual Movie Madness tournament to determine the greatest film to take home the Oscar’s Best Picture Award.
Similar to the NCAA March Madness tournament that starts with 64 teams and ends with one winner standing tall, SAW is going to have 64 top Best Picture winners battle it out.
The great thing is you — our beloved Screenagers — will be able to help determine the winner by voting in the matchups!
You will have to check back on March 3, 2024, when voting begins, to see what the matchups are for each region. The movies were picked by an intricate scoring system to determine the best films from the decade with minimal opinions or bias involved. The top four movies to grade out the highest are your four #1 seeds in each region.
Coppola Region | Coen Region | Demme Region
Curtiz Region
Casablanca (1943)
Directed by: Michael Curtiz
Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman
A cynical expatriate American cafe owner struggles to decide whether or not to help his former lover and her fugitive husband escape the Nazis in French Morocco.
The Godfather Part II (1974)
Directed by: Francis Ford Coppola
Stars: Al Pacino, Robert DeNiro, Robert Duvall
The early life and career of Vito Corleone in 1920s New York City is portrayed, while his son, Michael, expands and tightens his grip on the family crime syndicate.
The King’s Speech (2010)
Directed by: Tom Hooper
Stars: Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, Helena Bonham Carter
The story of King George VI, his unexpected ascension to the throne of the British Empire in 1936, and the speech therapist who helped the unsure monarch overcome his stammer.
Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)
Directed by: Robert Benton
Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep
After his wife leaves him, a work-obsessed Manhattan advertising executive is forced to learn long-neglected parenting skills, but a heated custody battle over the couple’s young son deepens the wounds left by the separation.
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014)
Directed by: Alejandro G. Iñárritu
Stars: Michael Keaton, Emma Stone, Edward Norton
A washed-up superhero actor attempts to revive his fading career by writing, directing, and starring in a Broadway production.
Patton (1970)
Directed by: Franklin J. Schaffner
Stars: George C. Scott, Karl Malden, Stephen Young
The World War II phase of the career of controversial American general George S. Patton.
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
Directed by: David Lean
Stars: William Holden, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins
British POWs are forced to build a railway bridge across the river Kwai for their Japanese captors in occupied Burma, not knowing that the allied forces are planning a daring commando raid through the jungle to destroy it.
Amadeus (1984)
Directed by: Milos Forman
Stars: F. Murray Abraham, Tom Hulce, Elizabeth, Berridge
The life, success and troubles of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, as told by Antonio Salieri, the contemporaneous composer who was deeply jealous of Mozart’s talent and claimed to have murdered him.
The Sound of Music (1965)
Directed by: Robert Wise
Stars: Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer, Eleanor Parker
A young novice is sent by her convent in 1930s Austria to become a governess to the seven children of a widowed naval officer.
The Deer Hunter (1978)
Directed by: Michael Cimino
Stars: Christopher Walken, Robert DeNiro, John Cazale
An in-depth examination of the ways in which the Vietnam War impacts and disrupts the lives of several friends in a small steel mill town in Pennsylvania.
Terms of Endearment (1983)
Directed by: James L. Brooks
Stars: Shirley MacLaine, Debra Winger, Jack Nicholson
Follows hard-to-please Aurora looking for love and her daughter’s family problems.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
Directed by: Milos Forman
Stars: Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher
In the Fall of 1963, a Korean War veteran and criminal pleads insanity and is admitted to a mental institution, where he rallies up the scared patients against the tyrannical nurse.
The Shape of Water (2017)
Directed by: Guillermo del Toro
Stars: Sally Hawkins, Octavia Spencer, Michael Shannon
At a top secret research facility in the 1960s, a lonely janitor forms a unique relationship with an amphibious creature that is being held in captivity.
Spotlight (2015)
Directed by: Tom McCarthy
Stars: Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams
The true story of how the Boston Globe uncovered the massive scandal of child molestation and cover-up within the local Catholic Archdiocese, shaking the entire Catholic Church to its core.
West Side Story (1961)
Directed by: Jerome Robbins, Robert Wise
Stars: Natalie Wood, George Chakiris, Richard Beymer
Two youngsters from rival New York City gangs fall in love, but tensions between their respective friends build toward tragedy.
The Hurt Locker (2009)
Directed by: Kathryn Bigelow
Stars: Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie
During the Iraq War, a Sergeant recently assigned to an army bomb squad is put at odds with his squad mates due to his maverick way of handling his work.
What do you think of the films in this region? Do you have any predictions regarding which film will make it to the Final Four?
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