The Oscar Best Picture Winners Through the Years, Including the Year You Were Born

The first-ever Academy Award for Best Picture was given to the silent film about two men who leave their civilian lives to join the military during World War I.

Two sisters, Hank and Queenie Mahoney, take the stage together in The Broadway Melody. But as we soon learn, all the action happens offstage. Bessie Love, who performed the role of Hank, also received the award for Best Actress.

Just after Erich Maria Remarque published a book under the same name, it came to life on the big screen. Remarque's stories, inspired by his experience as a German soldier fighting in World War I, showed how difficult life was during and after the war.

Inspired by Edna Ferber's novel, this film is centered around Yancey Cravat, who convinces his wife Sabra to move to Oklahoma in the late 1800s. But when Yancey ventures farther west, Sabra has to take on much more than she anticipated.

The Grand Hotel in Berlin isn't just a place to vacation. In fact, the characters in this movie prove there's much more going on. Based on Vicki Baum’s 1929 novel, it's clear that plenty of drama goes down in this luxury destination.

This period piece follows an upper class and working class British family as they navigate early 1900s. Frank Lloyd also took home the Oscar for Best Director, and the film earned the award for Interior Design as well.

This comedy follows a spoiled tycoon’s daughter, who marries a man her father despises. Her father keeps her away in his ship, but she escapes, in the hopes of returning to her husband. While she’s plotting her reunion, a newspaper reporter identifies her, and an unlikely romance blossoms.

Based on the real-life events that took place in 1789, there was yet another resurgence when Charles Nordhoff and James Norton Hall published their 1932 novel. It's all about an English captain (aboard the HMS Bounty), who abuses his crew on a voyage to Jamaica, and the title should tell you the rest.

A biopic about Florenz Ziegfeld, William Powell portrays the famed producer as he navigates fame and off-stage relationships. The 1920s-set drama went on to win three Oscars, including Best Dance Direction.

This biographical film followed the bold life of author Emile Zola, who took it upon himself to expose that anti-Semitism led to the imprisonment of a Jewish officer named Alfred Dreyfus. Joseph Schildkraut, who played Dreyfus, ultimately won the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.

In-laws can be...challenging. And that theme was explained back in the late '30s, when we saw how Alice Sycamore and Tony Kirby’s families interacted when they got together to celebrate their engagement.

Adapted from Margaret Mitchell’s highly-acclaimed novel, this film centers on Scarlett O’Hara. The southern belle is living during and after the Civil War, and all the while, she’s involved in a love triangle.

RELATED: Here's What the Oscars Looked Like the Year You Were Born

Years after his wife Rebecca’s death, a widower marries another woman. Her adjustment to married life is far from ideal, as she experiences secrets, jealousy, and comparisons to her new spouse’s former wife.

This film watches main character Huw Morgan grow up in a Welsh mining family. There are strikes, family drama, and much more that play out through the course of his life. And though other fan favorite Citizen Kane took home the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, How Green Was My Valley won Best Picture.

World War II changed so many lives, and that's shown in this film about an English family helmed by matriarch Mrs. Miniver. Her husband has just left for war, and she’s forced to keep her entire family together as everything falls apart.

A film that remains an unforgettable classic, drama ensues when expat Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) runs into his ex Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Berman). He’s then forced to decide whether or not to help his former lover and her fugitive husband.

This musical comedy follows a young priest, Father Charles O’Malley (Bing Crosby). He’s dealing with a new neighborhood in Manhattan, an elder priest named Father Fitzgibbon, and an ex-girlfriend. Crosby won the Best Actor award for his work.

A struggling alcoholic named Don (Ray Milland) goes on a four-day bender after spending just a few days sober. With flashbacks to all the pivotal moments leading up to his hop off the wagon, we see just how he got there.

When World War II vets Fred (Dana Andrews), Al (Fredric March), and Homer (Harold Russell) return to civilian life, the adjustment is much more difficult than they could have ever imagined. Fredric March and Harold Russell’s acting chops were top-notch, as they won Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor, respectively.

Journalist Phil Green does all he can to succeed on a high-profile magazine story about anti-Semitism. He takes it so far, in fact, that he pretends to be Jewish. As he eventually learns, this gives him a new perspective about prejudice and hatred that exists in the world around him.