1945

Academy winner The Lost Weekend poster

The Lost Weekend

Composite 73.6

Should have won Brief Encounter poster

Brief Encounter

Composite 74.69

The Academy's ballot

🏆The Lost Weekend#473.6 🎬Mildred Pierce#572.66 🎬Spellbound#671.73 🎬The Bells of St. Mary's#1665.61 🎬Anchors Aweigh#1765.12

Your #1 was Brief Encounter (#1).

The full slate

Brief Encounter (1945)

⭐ Top-rated

Composite 74.69

Dir. David Lean · Celia Johnson · Trevor Howard · Stanley Holloway · Joyce Carey

IMDb 8.0 (48,734 votes) · TMDB 7.7

Returning home from a shopping trip to a nearby town, bored suburban housewife Laura Jesson is thrown by happenstance into an acquaintance with virtuous doctor Alec Harvey. Their casual friendship soon develops during their weekly visits into something more emotionally fulfilling than either expected, and they must wrestle with the potential havoc their deepening relationship would have on their lives and the lives of those they love.

details ↗

Rome, Open City (1945)

⭐ Top-rated

Composite 74.5

Dir. Roberto Rossellini · Aldo Fabrizi · Marcello Pagliero · Harry Feist · Anna Magnani

IMDb 8.0 (34,126 votes) · TMDB 8.0

During the Nazi occupation of 1944 Rome, Resistance leader Giorgio Manfredi is pursued by the Nazis as he seeks refuge and a means of escape.

details ↗

Children of Paradise (1945)

⭐ Top-rated

Composite 74.32

Dir. Marcel Carné · Arletty · Jean-Louis Barrault · Pierre Brasseur · Marcel Herrand

IMDb 8.3 (22,554 votes) · TMDB 8.052

In a chaotic 19th-century Paris teeming with aristocrats, thieves, psychics, and courtesans, theater mime Baptiste is in love with the mysterious actress Garance. But Garance, in turn, is loved by three other men: pretentious actor Frederick, conniving thief Lacenaire, and Count Edouard of Montray.

details ↗

The Lost Weekend (1945)

🏆 Winner⭐ Top-rated💰 Box office #2

Composite 73.6

Dir. Billy Wilder · Ray Milland · Jane Wyman · Phillip Terry · Howard Da Silva

IMDb 7.9 (43,320 votes) · TMDB 7.6

Longtime alcoholic Don Birnam has been sober for ten days and appears to be over the worst... but his craving has just become more insidious. Evading a country weekend planned by his brother and girlfriend, he begins a four-day bender that just might be his last – one way or another.

details ↗

Mildred Pierce (1945)

🎬 Nominee⭐ Top-rated💰 Box office #6

Composite 72.66

Dir. Michael Curtiz · Joan Crawford · Jack Carson · Zachary Scott · Eve Arden

IMDb 7.9 (31,489 votes) · TMDB 7.6

A hard-working mother inches towards disaster as she divorces her husband and starts a successful restaurant business to support her spoiled daughter.

details ↗

Spellbound (1945)

🎬 Nominee⭐ Top-rated💰 Box office #4

Composite 71.73

Dir. Alfred Hitchcock · Ingrid Bergman · Gregory Peck · Leo G. Carroll · Michael Chekhov

IMDb 7.5 (55,466 votes) · TMDB 7.394

When Dr. Anthony Edwardes arrives at a Vermont mental hospital to replace the outgoing hospital director, Dr. Constance Peterson, a psychoanalyst, discovers Edwardes is actually an impostor. The man confesses that the real Dr. Edwardes is dead and fears he may have killed him, but cannot recall anything. Dr. Peterson, however is convinced his impostor is innocent of the man's murder, and joins him on a quest to unravel his amnesia through psychoanalysis.

details ↗

Scarlet Street (1945)

⭐ Top-rated💰 Box office #9

Composite 70.82

Dir. Fritz Lang · Edward G. Robinson · Joan Bennett · Dan Duryea · Margaret Lindsay

IMDb 7.7 (21,319 votes) · TMDB 7.6

Cashier and part-time starving artist Christopher Cross is absolutely smitten with the beautiful Kitty March. Kitty plays along, but she's really only interested in Johnny, a two-bit crook. When Kitty and Johnny find out that art dealers are interested in Chris's work, they con him into letting Kitty take credit for the paintings. Cross allows it because he is in love with Kitty, but his love will only let her get away with so much.

details ↗

Leave Her to Heaven (1945)

⭐ Top-rated

Composite 69.3

Dir. John M. Stahl · Gene Tierney · Cornel Wilde · Jeanne Crain · Vincent Price

IMDb 7.6 (16,770 votes) · TMDB 7.4

A socialite marries a prominent novelist, which spurs a violent, obsessive, and dangerous jealousy in her.

details ↗

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945)

⭐ Top-rated

Composite 69.07

Dir. Elia Kazan · Dorothy McGuire · Joan Blondell · James Dunn · Lloyd Nolan

IMDb 8.0 (9,062 votes) · TMDB 7.537

In Brooklyn circa 1900, the Nolans manage to enjoy life on pennies despite great poverty and Papa's alcoholism. We come to know these people well through big and little troubles: Aunt Sissy's scandalous succession of "husbands"; the removal of the one tree visible from their tenement; and young Francie's desire to transfer to a better school...if irresponsible Papa can get his act together.

details ↗

#10

Detour (1945)

⭐ Top-rated

Composite 68.49

Dir. Edgar G. Ulmer · Tom Neal · Ann Savage · Claudia Drake · Edmund MacDonald

IMDb 7.3 (22,145 votes) · TMDB 7.228

The life of Al Roberts, a pianist in a New York nightclub, turns into a nightmare when he decides to hitchhike to Los Angeles to visit his girlfriend.

details ↗

#11

Dead of Night (1945)

⭐ Top-rated

Composite 68.31

Dir. Alberto Cavalcanti · Mervyn Johns · Roland Culver · Mary Merrall · Googie Withers

IMDb 7.5 (15,904 votes) · TMDB 7.203

An architect, visiting an English country house, realizes the other guests are familiar from his recurring nightmare. When they share their tales of the supernatural, he is filled with a growing dread.

details ↗

#12

The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945)

⭐ Top-rated

Composite 68.02

Dir. Albert Lewin · Hurd Hatfield · George Sanders · Donna Reed · Angela Lansbury

IMDb 7.5 (16,105 votes) · TMDB 7.1

A corrupt young man somehow keeps his youthful beauty, but a special painting gradually reveals his inner ugliness to all.

details ↗

#13

And Then There Were None (1945)

⭐ Top-rated

Composite 67.59

Dir. René Clair · Barry Fitzgerald · Walter Huston · Louis Hayward · Roland Young

IMDb 7.3 (18,574 votes) · TMDB 7.044

Ten strangers are summoned to a remote island and while they are waiting for the mysterious host to appear, a recording levels serious accusations at each of the guests. Soon they start being murdered, one by one. As the survivors try to keep their wits, they reach a disturbing conclusion: one of them must be the killer.

details ↗

#14

I Know Where I'm Going! (1945)

⭐ Top-rated

Composite 67.06

Dir. Michael Powell · Wendy Hiller · Roger Livesey · Pamela Brown · Finlay Currie

IMDb 7.4 (11,398 votes) · TMDB 7.1

Plucky Englishwoman Joan Webster travels to the remote islands of the Scottish Hebrides in order to marry a wealthy industrialist. Trapped by inclement weather on the Isle of Mull and unable to continue to her destination, Joan finds herself charmed by the straightforward, no-nonsense islanders around her, and becomes increasingly attracted to naval officer Torquil MacNeil, who holds a secret that may change her life forever.

details ↗

#15

Christmas in Connecticut (1945)

⭐ Top-rated💰 Box office #8

Composite 66.88

Dir. Peter Godfrey · Barbara Stanwyck · Dennis Morgan · Sydney Greenstreet · Reginald Gardiner

IMDb 7.3 (13,775 votes) · TMDB 7.0

While recovering in a hospital, war hero Jefferson Jones grows familiar with the "Diary of a Housewife" column written by Elizabeth Lane. Jeff's nurse arranges with Elizabeth's publisher, Alexander Yardley, for Jeff to spend the holiday at Elizabeth's bucolic Connecticut farm with her husband and child. But the column is a sham, so Elizabeth and her editor, Dudley Beecham, in fear of losing their jobs, hasten to set up the single, childless and entirely nondomestic Elizabeth on a country farm.

details ↗

#16

The Bells of St. Mary's (1945)

🎬 Nominee💰 Box office #1

Composite 65.61

Dir. Leo McCarey · Bing Crosby · Ingrid Bergman · Henry Travers · William Gargan

IMDb 7.2 (10,592 votes) · TMDB 6.8

Father O'Malley is sent to St. Mary's, a run-down parochial school on the verge of condemnation. He and Sister Benedict work together in an attempt to save the school, though their differing methods often lead to good-natured disagreements.

details ↗

#17

Anchors Aweigh (1945)

🎬 Nominee💰 Box office #3

Composite 65.12

Dir. George Sidney · Frank Sinatra · Kathryn Grayson · Gene Kelly · José Iturbi

IMDb 7.0 (10,039 votes) · TMDB 6.8

Two sailors on shore leave head out for four days of partying – only to become involved in the affairs of an aspiring singer and her precocious nephew.

details ↗

#18

Fallen Angel (1945)

💰 Box office #10

Composite 64.07

Dir. Otto Preminger · Alice Faye · Dana Andrews · Linda Darnell · Charles Bickford

IMDb 7.0 (7,288 votes) · TMDB 6.572

An unemployed drifter, Eric Stanton wanders into a small California town and begins hanging around the local diner. While Eric falls for the lovely waitress Stella, he also begins romancing a quiet and well-to-do woman named June Mills. Since Stella isn't interested in Eric unless he has money, the lovelorn guy comes up with a scheme to win her over, and it involves June. Before long, murder works its way into this passionate love triangle.

details ↗

How scoring works: films are ranked by a composite of a weighted (Bayesian) IMDb rating — the same method as the IMDb Top 250, so a high score from few voters can't outrank a strong score from many — blended with TMDB. Box office is a tiebreaker and a badge, never part of the score. Raw IMDb ratings and vote counts are shown on each card.