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 | Curtiz Region | Coen Region
Demme Region
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Directed by: Johnathon Demme
Stars: Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Ted Levine
A young F.B.I. cadet must receive the help of an incarcerated and manipulative cannibal killer to help catch another serial killer, a madman who skins his victims.
Gone with the Wind (1939)
Directed by: Victor Fleming
Stars: Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh
A sheltered and manipulative Southern belle and a roguish profiteer face off in a turbulent romance as the society around them crumbles with the end of slavery and is rebuilt during the Civil War and Reconstruction periods.
All About Eve (1950)
Directed by: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Stars: Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, George Sanders
A seemingly timid but secretly ruthless ingénue insinuates herself into the lives of an aging Broadway star and her circle of theater friends.
All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
Directed by: Lewis Milestone
Stars: Lew Ayers, Louis, Wolheim, John Wray
A German youth eagerly enters World War I, but his enthusiasm wanes as he gets a firsthand view of the horror.
Annie Hall (1977)
Directed by: Woody Allen
Stars: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton
Alvy Singer, a divorced Jewish comedian, reflects on his relationship with ex-lover Annie Hall, an aspiring nightclub singer, which ended abruptly just like his previous marriages.
Argo (2012)
Directed by: Ben Affleck
Stars: Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston, John Goodman
Acting under the cover of a Hollywood producer scouting a location for a science fiction film, a CIA agent launches a dangerous operation to rescue six Americans in Tehran during the U.S. hostage crisis in Iran in 1979.
Braveheart (1995)
Directed by: Mel Gibson
Stars: Mel Gibson, Sophie Marceau, Patrick McGoohan
Scottish warrior William Wallace leads his countrymen in a rebellion to free his homeland from the tyranny of King Edward I of England.
Dances with Wolves (1990)
Directed by: Kevin Costner
Stars: Kevin Costner, Mary McDonnell, Graham Greene
Lieutenant John Dunbar, assigned to a remote western Civil War outpost, finds himself engaging with a neighboring Sioux settlement, causing him to question his own purpose.
Gladiator (2000)
Directed by: Ridley Scott
Stars: Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Nielson
A former Roman General sets out to exact vengeance against the corrupt emperor who murdered his family and sent him into slavery.
Oliver! (1968)
Directed by: Carol Reed
Stars: Mark Lester, Ron Moody, Shani Wallis
After being sold to a mortician, young orphan Oliver Twist runs away and meets a group of boys trained to be pickpockets by an elderly mentor in 1830s London.
On the Water Front (1954)
Directed by: Elia Kazan
Stars: Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb
An ex-prize fighter turned New Jersey longshoreman struggles to stand up to his corrupt union bosses, including his older brother, as he starts to connect with the grieving sister of one of the syndicate’s victims.
Ordinary People (1980)
Directed by: Robert Redford
Stars: Donald Sutherland, Mary Tyler Moore, Judd Hirsch
The accidental death of the older son of an affluent family deeply strains the relationships among the bitter mother, the good-natured father and the guilt-ridden younger son.
Parasite (2019)
Directed by: Bong Joon Ho
Stars: Song Kang-ho, Lee Sun-kyun, Cho Yeo-jeong, Choi Woo-sik
Greed and class discrimination threaten the newly formed symbiotic relationship between the wealthy Park family and the destitute Kim clan.
Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
Directed by: Danny Boyle
Stars: Dev Patel, Freida Pinto
A teenager from the slums of Mumbai becomes a contestant on the show ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati?’ When interrogated under suspicion of cheating, he revisits his past, revealing how he had all the answers.
The English Patient (1996)
Directed by: Anthony Minghella
Stars: Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche, Willem Dafoe
At the close of World War II, a young nurse tends to a badly-burned plane crash victim. His past is shown in flashbacks, revealing an involvement in a fateful love affair.
The French Connection (1971)
Directed by: William Friedkin
Stars: Gene Hackman, Roy Scheider, Fernando Ray
A pair of NYPD detectives in the Narcotics Bureau stumble onto a heroin smuggling ring based in Marseilles, but stopping them and capturing their leaders proves an elusive goal.
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?
