Best Motion Picture - Drama by Hollywood Foreign Press Association (Golden Globe)
"The Golden Globe Award is an American accolade bestowed by the 93 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) recognizing excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign. The annual formal ceremony and dinner at which the awards are presented are a major part of the film industry's awards season, which culminates each year with the Academy Awards."
All winners of the 'Best Motion Picture – Drama' from 1951 through 2021.
Last updated: May 3rd, 2022
Weight: 15
Detractions
- Yearly award (-25)
- Limited to single country or region (-25)
- Genre slant (-25)
- Limited to ~75 years or less (-10)
Films (71)
1. The Power of the Dog
Directed by Jane Campion | Rated R | 126 min | 2021
Charismatic rancher Phil Burbank inspires fear and awe in those around him. When his brother brings home a new wife and her son, Phil torments them until he finds himself exposed to the possibility of love.
2. Nomadland
Directed by Chloé Zhao | Rated R | 107 min | 2020
After losing everything in the Great Recession, a woman embarks on a journey through the American West, living as a van-dwelling modern-day nomad.
3. 1917
Directed by Sam Mendes | Rated R | 119 min | 2019
April 6th, 1917. As a regiment assembles to wage war deep in enemy territory, two soldiers are assigned to race against time and deliver a message that will stop 1,600 men from walking straight into a deadly trap.
4. Bohemian Rhapsody
Directed by Bryan Singer | Rated PG-13 | 134 min | 2018
The story of the legendary rock band Queen and lead singer Freddie Mercury, leading up to their famous performance at Live Aid (1985).
5. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Directed by Martin McDonagh | Rated R | 115 min | 2017
A mother personally challenges the local authorities to solve her daughter's murder when they fail to catch the culprit.
6. Moonlight
Directed by Barry Jenkins | Rated R | 111 min | 2016
A timeless story of human self-discovery and connection, Moonlight chronicles the life of a young black man from childhood to adulthood as he struggles to find his place in the world while growing up in a rough neighborhood of Miami.
7. The Revenant
Directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu | Rated R | 156 min | 2015
A frontiersman on a fur trading expedition in the 1820s fights for survival after being mauled by a bear and left for dead by members of his own hunting team.
8. Boyhood
Directed by Richard Linklater | Rated R | 165 min | 2014
The life of Mason, from early childhood to his arrival at college.
9. 12 Years a Slave
Directed by Steve McQueen | Rated R | 134 min | 2013
In the antebellum United States, Solomon Northup, a free black man from upstate New York, is abducted and sold into slavery.
10. Argo
Directed by Ben Affleck | Rated R | 120 min | 2012
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 1980.
11. The Descendants
Directed by Alexander Payne | Rated R | 115 min | 2011
A land baron tries to reconnect with his two daughters after his wife is seriously injured in a boating accident.
12. The Social Network
Directed by David Fincher | Rated PG-13 | 120 min | 2010
Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg creates the social networking site that would become known as Facebook, but is later sued by two brothers who claimed he stole their idea, and the co-founder who was later squeezed out of the business.
13. Avatar
Directed by James Cameron | Rated PG-13 | 162 min | 2009
A paraplegic marine dispatched to the moon Pandora on a unique mission becomes torn between following his orders and protecting the world he feels is his home.
14. Slumdog Millionaire
Directed by Danny Boyle, Loveleen Tandan | Rated R | 120 min | 2008
A Mumbai teen reflects on his upbringing in the slums when he is accused of cheating on the Indian Version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?"
15. Atonement
Directed by Joe Wright | Rated R | 123 min | 2007
Fledgling writer Briony Tallis, as a thirteen-year-old, irrevocably changes the course of several lives when she accuses her older sister's lover of a crime he did not commit.
16. Babel
Directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu | Rated R | 143 min | 2006
Tragedy strikes a married couple on vacation in the Moroccan desert, touching off an interlocking story involving four different families.
17. Brokeback Mountain
Directed by Ang Lee | Rated R | 134 min | 2005
The story of a forbidden and secretive relationship between two cowboys, and their lives over the years.
18. The Aviator
Directed by Martin Scorsese | Rated PG-13 | 170 min | 2004
A biopic depicting the early years of legendary director and aviator Howard Hughes' career from the late 1920s to the mid-1940s.
19. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Directed by Peter Jackson | Rated PG-13 | 201 min | 2003
Gandalf and Aragorn lead the World of Men against Sauron's army to draw his gaze from Frodo and Sam as they approach Mount Doom with the One Ring.
20. The Hours
Directed by Stephen Daldry | Rated PG-13 | 114 min | 2002
The story of how the novel "Mrs. Dalloway" affects three generations of women, all of whom, in one way or another, have had to deal with suicide in their lives.
21. A Beautiful Mind
Directed by Ron Howard | Rated PG-13 | 135 min | 2001
After John Nash, a brilliant but asocial mathematician, accepts secret work in cryptography, his life takes a turn for the nightmarish.
22. Gladiator
Directed by Ridley Scott | Rated R | 155 min | 2000
When a Roman general is betrayed and his family murdered by an emperor's corrupt son, he comes to Rome as a gladiator to seek revenge.
23. American Beauty
Directed by Sam Mendes | Rated R | 122 min | 1999
A sexually frustrated suburban father has a mid-life crisis after becoming infatuated with his daughter's best friend.
24. Saving Private Ryan
Directed by Steven Spielberg | Rated R | 169 min | 1998
Following the Normandy Landings, a group of U.S. soldiers go behind enemy lines to retrieve a paratrooper whose brothers have been killed in action.
25. Titanic
Directed by James Cameron | Rated PG-13 | 194 min | 1997
A seventeen-year-old aristocrat falls in love with a kind but poor artist aboard the luxurious, ill-fated R.M.S. Titanic.
26. The English Patient
Directed by Anthony Minghella | Rated R | 162 min | 1996
At the close of WWII, 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.
27. Sense and Sensibility
Directed by Ang Lee | Rated PG | 136 min | 1995
Rich Mr. Dashwood dies, leaving his second wife and her three daughters poor by the rules of inheritance. The two eldest daughters are the titular opposites.
28. Forrest Gump
Directed by Robert Zemeckis | Rated PG-13 | 142 min | 1994
Forrest Gump, while not intelligent, has accidentally been present at many historic moments, but his true love, Jenny Curran, eludes him.
29. Schindler's List
Directed by Steven Spielberg | Rated R | 195 min | 1993
In German-occupied Poland during World War II, Oskar Schindler gradually becomes concerned for his Jewish workforce after witnessing their persecution by the Nazi Germans.
30. Scent of a Woman
Directed by Martin Brest | Rated R | 156 min | 1992
A prep school student needing money agrees to "babysit" a blind man, but the job is not at all what he anticipated.
31. Bugsy
Directed by Barry Levinson | Rated R | 136 min | 1991
The story of how Bugsy Siegel started Las Vegas.
32. Dances with Wolves
Directed by Kevin Costner | Rated PG-13 | 181 min | 1990
Lt. John Dunbar, exiled to a remote western Civil War outpost, befriends wolves and Indians, making him an intolerable aberration in the military.
33. Born on the Fourth of July
Directed by Oliver Stone | Rated R | 145 min | 1989
The biography of Ron Kovic. Paralyzed in the Vietnam war, he becomes an anti-war and pro-human rights political activist after feeling betrayed by the country he fought for.
34. Rain Man
Directed by Barry Levinson | Rated R | 133 min | 1988
Selfish yuppie Charlie Babbitt's father left a fortune to his savant brother Raymond and a pittance to Charlie; they travel cross-country.
35. The Last Emperor
Directed by Bernardo Bertolucci | Rated PG-13 | 163 min | 1987
The story of the final Emperor of China.
36. Platoon
Directed by Oliver Stone | Rated R | 120 min | 1986
A young recruit in Vietnam faces a moral crisis when confronted with the horrors of war and the duality of man.
37. Out of Africa
Directed by Sydney Pollack | Rated PG | 161 min | 1985
In 20th-century colonial Kenya, a Danish baroness/plantation owner has a passionate love affair with a free-spirited big-game hunter.
38. Amadeus
Directed by Milos Forman | Rated R | 160 min | 1984
The incredible story of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, told by his peer and secret rival Antonio Salieri - now confined to an insane asylum.
39. Terms of Endearment
Directed by James L. Brooks | Rated PG | 132 min | 1983
Follows hard-to-please Aurora looking for love and her daughter's family problems.
40. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
Directed by Steven Spielberg | Rated PG | 115 min | 1982
A troubled child summons the courage to help a friendly alien escape Earth and return to his home-world.
41. On Golden Pond
Directed by Mark Rydell | Rated PG | 109 min | 1981
Norman is a curmudgeon with an estranged relationship with his daughter Chelsea. At Golden Pond, he and his wife nevertheless agree to care for Billy, the son of Chelsea's new boyfriend, and a most unexpected relationship blooms.
42. Ordinary People
Directed by Robert Redford | Rated R | 124 min | 1980
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.
43. Kramer vs. Kramer
Directed by Robert Benton | Rated PG | 105 min | 1979
Ted Kramer's wife leaves her husband, allowing for a lost bond to be rediscovered between Ted and his son, Billy. But a heated custody battle ensues over the divorced couple's son, deepening the wounds left by the separation.
44. Midnight Express
Directed by Alan Parker | Rated R | 121 min | 1978
Billy Hayes, an American college student, is caught smuggling drugs out of Turkey and thrown into prison.
45. The Turning Point
Directed by Herbert Ross | Rated PG | 119 min | 1977
When her daughter joins a ballet company, a former dancer is forced to confront her long-ago decision to give up the stage to have a family.
46. Rocky
Directed by John G. Avildsen | Rated PG | 120 min | 1976
Rocky Balboa, a small-time boxer, gets a supremely rare chance to fight the heavy-weight champion, Apollo Creed, in a bout in which he strives to go the distance for his self-respect.
47. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Directed by Milos Forman | Rated R | 133 min | 1975
A criminal pleads insanity after getting into trouble again and once in the mental institution rebels against the oppressive nurse and rallies up the scared patients.
48. Chinatown
Directed by Roman Polanski | Rated R | 130 min | 1974
A private detective hired to expose an adulterer finds himself caught up in a web of deceit, corruption and murder.
49. The Exorcist
Directed by William Friedkin | Rated R | 122 min | 1973
When a preteen girl is possessed by a mysterious entity, her mother seeks the help of two priests to save her daughter.
50. The Godfather
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola | Rated R | 175 min | 1972
The aging patriarch of an organized crime dynasty transfers control of his clandestine empire to his reluctant son.
51. The French Connection
Directed by William Friedkin | Rated R | 104 min | 1971
A pair of NYC cops in the Narcotics Bureau stumble onto a drug smuggling job with a French connection.
52. Love Story
Directed by Arthur Hiller | Rated PG | 99 min | 1970
A boy and a girl from different backgrounds fall in love regardless of their upbringing - and then tragedy strikes.
53. Anne of the Thousand Days
Directed by Charles Jarrott | Rated M | 145 min | 1969
Henry VIII of England discards one wife, Katharine of Aragon, who has failed to produce a male heir, in favor of the young and beautiful Anne Boleyn.
54. The Lion in Winter
Directed by Anthony Harvey | Rated PG | 134 min | 1968
1183 AD: King Henry II's three sons all want to inherit the throne, but he won't commit to a choice. They and his wife variously plot to force him.
55. In the Heat of the Night
Directed by Norman Jewison | 109 min | 1967
An African American police detective is asked to investigate a murder in a racially hostile southern town.
56. A Man for All Seasons
Directed by Fred Zinnemann | 120 min | 1966
The story of Thomas More, who stood up to King Henry VIII when the King rejected the Roman Catholic Church to obtain a divorce and remarriage.
57. Doctor Zhivago
Directed by David Lean | Rated PG-13 | 197 min | 1965
The life of a Russian physician and poet who, although married to another, falls in love with a political activist's wife and experiences hardship during the First World War and then the October Revolution.
58. Becket
Directed by Peter Glenville | Rated PG-13 | 148 min | 1964
King Henry II of England comes to terms with his affection for his close friend and confidant Thomas à Becket, who finds his true honor by observing God's divine will rather than the king's.
59. The Cardinal
Directed by Otto Preminger | 175 min | 1963
A young Catholic priest from Boston confronts bigotry, Naziism, and his own personal conflicts as he rises to the office of cardinal.
60. Lawrence of Arabia
Directed by David Lean | Rated PG | 216 min | 1962
The story of T.E. Lawrence, the English officer who successfully united and lead the diverse, often warring, Arab tribes during World War I in order to fight the Turks.
61. The Guns of Navarone
Directed by J. Lee Thompson | Rated N/A | 158 min | 1961
A British team is sent to cross occupied Greek territory and destroy the massive German gun emplacement that commands a key sea channel.
62. Spartacus
Directed by Stanley Kubrick | Rated PG-13 | 197 min | 1960
The slave Spartacus leads a violent revolt against the decadent Roman Republic.
63. Ben-Hur
Directed by William Wyler | Rated G | 212 min | 1959
When a Jewish prince is betrayed and sent into slavery by a Roman friend, he regains his freedom and comes back for revenge.
64. The Defiant Ones
Directed by Stanley Kramer | 96 min | 1958
Two escaped convicts chained together, white and black, must learn to get along in order to elude capture.
65. The Bridge on the River Kwai
Directed by David Lean | Rated PG | 161 min | 1957
After settling his differences with a Japanese PoW camp commander, a British colonel co-operates to oversee his men's construction of a railway bridge for their captors - while oblivious to a plan by the Allies to destroy it.
66. Around the World in Eighty Days
Directed by Michael Anderson, John Farrow | Rated G | 175 min | 1956
A Victorian Englishman bets that with the new steamships and railways he can do what the title says.
67. East of Eden
Directed by Elia Kazan | Rated PG | 115 min | 1955
A wilful young man contends against his brother for the attention of their religious father while reconnecting with his estranged mother and falling for his brother's girlfriend.
68. On the Waterfront
Directed by Elia Kazan | 108 min | 1954
An ex-prize fighter turned longshoreman struggles to stand up to his corrupt union bosses.
69. The Robe
Directed by Henry Koster | 135 min | 1953
In the Roman province of Judea during the 1st century, Roman tribune Marcellus Gallio is ordered to crucify Jesus of Nazareth but is tormented by his guilty conscience afterwards.
70. The Greatest Show on Earth
Directed by Cecil B. DeMille | 152 min | 1952
The dramatic lives of trapeze artists, a clown, and an elephant trainer are told against a background of circus spectacle.
71. A Place in the Sun
Directed by George Stevens | 122 min | 1951
A poor boy gets a job working for his rich uncle and ends up falling in love with two women.