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What to Watch This Weekend: Our Picks for Previous Oscar-Winning Movies

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With the Oscars just around the corner, you may be running to your local multiplex in the hopes of crossing a few more contenders off your to-watch list. But for those of you who need a break before Hollywood's biggest day -- but still want to pay homage to the craft -- your trusty Moviefone editors have compiled a list of other big winners you might want to watch. Below are some of our favorite Oscar winners of all time. "Schindler's List" (Winner, Best Picture) This dour, intense film won Best Picture in 1993, and rightfully so. A labor of love by masterworker Steven Spielberg, it's the most expensive black-and-white film ever made, and his first R-rated movie. Based on a true story, the film follows German businessman Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson) as he slowly comes to realize the atrocities of The Holocaust all around him. Eventually, after witnessing the horror of Nazi persecution, he rescues some 1,100 Jews from being gassed at Auschwitz. While this is certainly heavy material, the film is hauntingly beautiful -- a cinematic lesson in camera angles, shadow, and light. (Side note: it's also celebrating its 20th anniversary this year.) -- Chris Jancelewicz "Training Day" (Winner, Best Actor -- Denzel Washington) In honor of Denzel's Best Actor nomination for "Flight," why not go back and relive the role that nabbed him that award the first time around? In "Training Day," he plays Detective Alonzo Harris, a dirty and downright terrifying narcotics officer for the LAPD. Over the course of a day, he introduces a new recruit, Jake Hoyt (Ethan Hawke), to the underbelly of Los Angeles, filled with sex, drugs, murder, and corruption. Denzel normally plays the hero, so it's fun to see him branch out and do something completely different here, portraying a cop who routinely breaks the law and has little regard for anyone who gets in his way. Bonus points for an awesome soundtrack. -- Alex Suskind Any of the Best Picture Nominees from 1975 Inevitably, with every Oscar race, there's always a movie or two that fails to age gracefully; within a few short years audiences are saying "That was nominated for Best Picture?!" But there isn't a weak link amongst the 1975 slate of Best Picture nominees, where five of the greatest filmmakers of all time -- Robert Altman ("Nashville"), Milos Forman ("One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"), Stanley Kubrick ("Barry Lyndon"), Sidney Lumet ("Dog Day Afternoon"), and Steven Spielberg ("Jaws") -- duked it out with each other for the top prize. Even though "Cuckoo's Nest" actually took home the gold, all the nominees have stood the test of time and are still routinely regarded as some of the greatest movies ever made. If you want to understand why the '70s were considered such a high mark for cinema, the 1975 race offers a crash course in the creative energy that was firing on all cylinders during that decade. -- Eric Larnick "Titanic" (Winner, Best Picture) The romance staple first sailed into theaters in 1997, went on to win 11 Academy Awards (including Best Picture and Best Director for King of the World, James Cameron), and has since muscled its way into the tear-jerkers' hall of fame. This past year, in honor of the centennial of the famous sinking, audiences went back to Titanic. Cameron's spiffy 3D upgrade raked in some more money and allowed us to see just how much this movie still tortures Kate Winslet. But above all, the re-release heightened all the reasons we fell in love 15 years ago, and reaffirmed why we should never, ever let go. -- Jessie Heyman

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