1920s
- 1927-1928 (Best Production) Wings - Paramount Famous Players-Lasky - Lucien Hubbard
- 1928-1929 The Broadway Melody - Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer - Harry Rapf
1930s
- 1929-1930 All Quiet on the Western Front - Universal - Carl Laemmle Jr.
- 1930-1931 Cimarron - RKO Radio - William LeBaron
- 1931-1932 Grand Hotel - Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer - Irving Thalberg
- 1932-1933 Cavalcade - Fox - Winfield Sheehan studio head
- 1934 It Happened One Night - Columbia - Harry Cohn
- 1935 Mutiny on the Bounty - Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer - Irving Thalberg with Albert Lewin
- 1936 The Great Ziegfeld - Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer - Hunt Stromberg
- 1937 The Life of Emile Zola - Warner Bros. - Henry Blanke
- 1938 You Can’t Take It with You - Columbia - Frank Capra
- 1939 Gone with the Wind - Selznick, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer - David O. Selznick
1940s
- 1940 Rebecca - Selznick, United Artists - David O. Selznick
- 1941 How Green Was My Valley - 20th Century-Fox - Darryl F. Zanuck
- 1942 Mrs. Miniver - Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer - Sidney Franklin
- 1943 Casablanca - Warner Bros. - Hal B. Wallis
- 1944 Going My Way - Paramount - Leo McCarey
- 1945 The Lost Weekend - Paramount - Charles Brackett
- 1946 The Best Years of Our Lives - RKO Radio - Samuel Goldwyn
- 1947 Gentleman’s Agreement - 20th Century-Fox - Darryl F. Zanuck
- 1948 Hamlet - J. Arthur Rank-Two Cities Films, U-I - Laurence Olivier
- 1949 All the King’s Men - Rossen, Columbia - Robert Rossen
1950s
- 1950 All About Eve - 20th Century-Fox - Darryl F. Zanuck
- 1951 An American in Paris - Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer - Arthur Freed
- 1952 The Greatest Show on Earth - Paramount - Cecil B. DeMille
- 1953 From Here to Eternity - Columbia - Buddy Adler
- 1954 On the Waterfront - Columbia - Sam Spiegel
- 1955 Marty - United Artists - Harold Hecht
- 1956 Around the World in Eighty Days - United Artists - Michael Todd
- 1957 The Bridge on the River Kwai - Columbia - Sam Spiegel
- 1958 Gigi - Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer - Arthur Freed
- 1959 Ben-Hur - Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer - Sam Zimbalist (posthumous award)
1960s
- 1960 The Apartment - United Artists - Billy Wilder
- 1961 West Side Story - United Artists - Robert Wise
- 1962 Lawrence of Arabia - Columbia - Sam Spiegel
- 1963 Tom Jones - United Artists - Tony Richardson
- 1964 My Fair Lady - Warner Bros. - Jack L. Warner
- 1965 The Sound of Music - 20th Century-Fox - Robert Wise
- 1966 A Man for All Seasons - Columbia - Fred Zinnemann
- 1967 In the Heat of the Night - United Artists - Walter Mirisch
- 1968 Oliver! - Columbia - John Woolf
- 1969 Midnight Cowboy - United Artists - Jerome Hellman
1970s
- 1970 Patton - 20th Century-Fox - Frank McCarthy
- 1971 The French Connection - 20th Century-Fox - Philip D’Antoni
- 1972 The Godfather - Paramount - Albert S. Ruddy
- 1973 The Sting - Universal - Tony Bill, Michael Phillips, Julia Phillips
- 1974 The Godfather Part II - Paramount - Francis Ford Coppola, Gray Frederickson, Fred Roos
-
1975 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest - United Artists - Saul Zaentz, Michael
Douglas - 1976 Rocky - United Artists - Irwin Winkler, Robert Chartoff
- 1977 Annie Hall - United Artists - Charles H. Joffe
- 1978 The Deer Hunter - Universal - Barry Spikings, Michael Deeley, Michael Cimino, John Peverall
- 1979 Kramer vs. Kramer - Columbia - Stanley R. Jaffe
1980s
- 1980 Ordinary People - Paramount - Ronald L. Schwary
- 1981 Chariots of Fire - The Ladd Company/Warner Bros. - David Puttnam
- 1982 Gandhi - Columbia - Richard Attenborough
- 1983 Terms of Endearment - Paramount - James L. Brooks
- 1984 Amadeus - Orion - Saul Zaentz
- 1985 Out of Africa - Universal - Sydney Pollack
- 1986 Platoon - Orion - Arnold Kopelson
- 1987 The Last Emperor - Columbia - Jeremy Thomas
- 1988 Rain Man - United Artists - Mark Johnson
- 1989 Driving Miss Daisy - Warner Bros. - Richard D. Zanuck, Lili Fini Zanuck
1990s
- 1990 Dances with Wolves - Orion - Jim Wilson, Kevin Costner
-
1991 The Silence of the Lambs - Orion - Edward Saxon, Kenneth Utt, Ron
Bozman - 1992 Unforgiven - Warner Bros. - Clint Eastwood
- 1993 Schindler’s List - Universal - Steven Spielberg, Gerald R. Molen, Branko Lustig
- 1994 Forrest Gump - Paramount - Wendy Finerman, Steve Tisch, Steve Starkey
- 1995 Braveheart - Paramount - Mel Gibson, Alan Ladd, Jr., Bruce Davey
- 1996- The English Patient - Miramax - Saul Zaentz
- 1997 Titanic - Paramount, 20th Century Fox - James Cameron, Jon Landau
- 1998 Shakespeare in Love - Miramax, Universal - David Parfitt, Donna Gigliotti, Harvey Weinstein, Edward Zwick, Marc Norman
- 1999 American Beauty - DreamWorks SKG - Bruce Cohen, Dan Jinks
2000s
- 2000 Gladiator - DreamWorks & Universal -Douglas Wick, David Franzoni, Branko Lustig
- 2001 A Beautiful Mind - Universal & DreamWorks - Brian Grazer, Ron Howard
- 2002 Chicago - Miramax - Martin Richards
- 2003 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King - New Line Cinema - Barrie M. Osborne, Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh
- 2004 Million Dollar Baby - Warner Bros. - Clint Eastwood, Albert S. Ruddy, Tom Rosenburg
- 2005 Crash - Lions Gate, Bob Yari Productions, DEJ Productions - Paul Haggis, Cathy Schulman
- 2006 The Departed - Warner Bros. - Graham King
- 2007 No Country for Old Men - Miramax & Paramount Vantage - Scott Rudin, Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
- 2008 Slumdog Millionaire - Christian Colson, Danny Boyle
