1991

The Academy got it right.

Winner & should have won The Silence of the Lambs poster

The Silence of the Lambs

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The Academy's ballot

🏆The Silence of the Lambs#184.85 🎬Beauty and the Beast#378.57 🎬JFK#477.23 🎬The Prince of Tides#2164.97 🎬Bugsy#2264.72

The Academy and the numbers agree.

The full slate

The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

🏆 Winner⭐ Top-rated🏛️ All-time great💰 Box office #5

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Dir. Jonathan Demme · Jodie Foster · Anthony Hopkins · Scott Glenn · Ted Levine

IMDb 8.6 (1,727,913 votes) · TMDB 8.3

Clarice Starling is a top student at the FBI's training academy. Jack Crawford wants Clarice to interview Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist who is also a violent psychopath, serving life behind bars for various acts of murder and cannibalism. Crawford believes that Lecter may have insight into a case and that Starling, as an attractive young woman, may be just the bait to draw him out.

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Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

⭐ Top-rated🏛️ All-time great💰 Box office #1

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Dir. James Cameron · Arnold Schwarzenegger · Linda Hamilton · Edward Furlong · Robert Patrick

IMDb 8.6 (1,286,625 votes) · TMDB 8.2

Ten years after the events of the original, a reprogrammed T-800 is sent back in time to protect young John Connor from the shape-shifting T-1000. Together with his mother Sarah, he fights to stop Skynet from triggering a nuclear apocalypse.

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Beauty and the Beast (1991)

🎬 Nominee⭐ Top-rated💰 Box office #2

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Dir. Gary Trousdale · Paige O'Hara · Robby Benson · Richard White · Jerry Orbach

IMDb 8.0 (506,355 votes) · TMDB 7.727

Follow the adventures of Belle, a bright young woman who finds herself in the castle of a prince who's been turned into a mysterious beast. With the help of the castle's enchanted staff, Belle soon learns the most important lesson of all -- that true beauty comes from within.

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JFK (1991)

🎬 Nominee⭐ Top-rated💰 Box office #6

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Dir. Oliver Stone · Kevin Costner · Tommy Lee Jones · Gary Oldman · Kevin Bacon

IMDb 8.0 (182,162 votes) · TMDB 7.6

Follows the investigation into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy led by New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison.

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Boyz n the Hood (1991)

⭐ Top-rated

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Dir. John Singleton · Cuba Gooding Jr. · Laurence Fishburne · Ice Cube · Morris Chestnut

IMDb 7.7 (169,177 votes) · TMDB 7.631

In the middle of the Los Angeles ghetto, drugs, robberies and shootings dominate everyday life. During these times, Furious tries to raise his son Tre to be a decent person. Tre's friends, on the other hand, have little regard for the law and drag the entire neighborhood into a street war...

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Raise the Red Lantern (1991)

⭐ Top-rated

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Dir. Zhang Yimou · Gong Li · He Saifei · Cao Cuifen · Kong Lin

IMDb 8.1 (38,121 votes) · TMDB 7.9

In 1920s China, 19-year-old Songlian becomes a concubine of a powerful lord and is forced to compete with his three wives for the privileges gained.

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Thelma & Louise (1991)

⭐ Top-rated

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Dir. Ridley Scott · Susan Sarandon · Geena Davis · Harvey Keitel · Michael Madsen

IMDb 7.6 (194,294 votes) · TMDB 7.6

Taking a break from their dreary lives, close friends Thelma and Louise embark on a short weekend trip that ends in unforeseen incriminating circumstances. As fugitives, both women rediscover the strength of their bond and their newfound resilience.

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Fried Green Tomatoes (1991)

⭐ Top-rated

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Dir. Jon Avnet · Kathy Bates · Jessica Tandy · Mary-Louise Parker · Mary Stuart Masterson

IMDb 7.7 (92,119 votes) · TMDB 7.665

Amidst her own personality crisis, a southern housewife meets an outgoing old woman who tells her the story of Idgie Threadgoode and Ruth Jamison, two young women who experienced hardships and love in 1920s Whistle Stop, Alabama.

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Barton Fink (1991)

⭐ Top-rated

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Dir. Joel Coen · John Turturro · John Goodman · Judy Davis · Michael Lerner

IMDb 7.6 (135,847 votes) · TMDB 7.465

A renowned New York playwright is enticed to California to write for the movies and discovers the hellish truth of Hollywood.

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#10

Night on Earth (1991)

⭐ Top-rated

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Dir. Jim Jarmusch · Winona Ryder · Gena Rowlands · Giancarlo Esposito · Armin Mueller-Stahl

IMDb 7.6 (71,274 votes) · TMDB 7.5

A quintet of cabbies in five cities and their remarkable fares on the same eventful night.

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#11

The Double Life of Véronique (1991)

⭐ Top-rated

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Dir. Krzysztof Kieślowski · Irène Jacob · Halina Gryglaszewska · Philippe Volter · Guillaume de Tonquédec

IMDb 7.6 (57,164 votes) · TMDB 7.5

Véronique is a beautiful young French woman who aspires to be a renowned singer; Weronika lives in Poland, has a similar career goal and looks identical to Véronique, though the two are not related. The film follows both women as they contend with the ups and downs of their individual lives, with Véronique embarking on an unusual romance with Alexandre Fabbri, a puppeteer who may be able to help her with her existential issues.

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#12

The Fisher King (1991)

⭐ Top-rated

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Dir. Terry Gilliam · Robin Williams · Jeff Bridges · Amanda Plummer · Mercedes Ruehl

IMDb 7.5 (96,941 votes) · TMDB 7.3

Two troubled men face their terrible destinies and events of their past as they join together on a mission to find the Holy Grail and thus to save themselves.

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#13

Delicatessen (1991)

⭐ Top-rated

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Dir. Jean-Pierre Jeunet · Dominique Pinon · Marie-Laure Dougnac · Jean-Claude Dreyfus · Karin Viard

IMDb 7.5 (94,442 votes) · TMDB 7.312

In a post-apocalyptic world, the residents of an apartment above the butcher shop receive an occasional delicacy of meat, something that is in low supply. A young man new in town falls in love with the butcher's daughter, which causes conflicts in her family, who need the young man for other business-related purposes.

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#14

Cape Fear (1991)

⭐ Top-rated💰 Box office #9

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Dir. Martin Scorsese · Robert De Niro · Nick Nolte · Jessica Lange · Juliette Lewis

IMDb 7.3 (245,155 votes) · TMDB 7.261

Sam Bowden is a small-town corporate attorney. Max Cady is a tattooed, cigar-smoking, Bible-quoting, psychotic rapist. What do they have in common? 14 years ago, Sam was a public defender assigned to Max Cady's rape trial, and he made a serious error: he hid a document from his illiterate client that could have gotten him acquitted. Now, the cagey Cady has been released, and he intends to teach Sam Bowden and his family a thing or two about loss.

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#15

Point Break (1991)

⭐ Top-rated

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Dir. Kathryn Bigelow · Keanu Reeves · Patrick Swayze · Lori Petty · Gary Busey

IMDb 7.3 (226,212 votes) · TMDB 7.155

In Los Angeles, a gang of bank robbers who call themselves The Ex-Presidents commit their crimes while wearing masks of Reagan, Carter, Nixon and Johnson. Believing that the members of the gang could be surfers, the F.B.I. sends young agent Johnny Utah to the beach undercover to mix with the surfers and gather information.

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#16

The Addams Family (1991)

💰 Box office #8

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Dir. Barry Sonnenfeld · Raúl Juliá · Anjelica Huston · Christopher Lloyd · Dan Hedaya

IMDb 7.0 (201,655 votes) · TMDB 7.07

When a man claiming to be long-lost Uncle Fester reappears after 25 years lost, the family plans a celebration to wake the dead. But the kids barely have time to warm up the electric chair before Morticia begins to suspect Fester is fraud when he can't recall any of the details of Fester's life.

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#17

Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991)

💰 Box office #3

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Dir. Kevin Reynolds · Kevin Costner · Morgan Freeman · Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio · Christian Slater

IMDb 6.9 (222,521 votes) · TMDB 6.854

Nobleman crusader Robin of Locksley breaks out of a Jerusalem prison with the help of Moorish fellow prisoner Azeem and travels back home to England. But upon arrival he discovers his dead father in the ruins of his family estate, killed by the vicious sheriff of Nottingham, Robin and Azeem join forces with outlaws Little John and Will Scarlett to save the kingdom from the sheriff's villainy.

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#18

The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear poster

The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear (1991)

💰 Box office #7

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Dir. David Zucker · Leslie Nielsen · Priscilla Presley · George Kennedy · O. J. Simpson

IMDb 6.9 (141,785 votes) · TMDB 6.818

Bumbling lieutenant Frank Drebin is out to foil the big boys in the energy industry, who intend to suppress technology that will put them out of business.

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#19

Hook (1991)

💰 Box office #4

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Dir. Steven Spielberg · Dustin Hoffman · Robin Williams · Julia Roberts · Bob Hoskins

IMDb 6.8 (292,275 votes) · TMDB 6.846

The boy who wasn't supposed to grow up—Peter Pan—does just that, becoming a soulless corporate lawyer whose workaholism could cost him his wife and kids. During his trip to see Granny Wendy in London, the vengeful Capt. Hook kidnaps Peter's kids and forces Peter to return to Neverland.

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#20

Hot Shots! (1991)

💰 Box office #10

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Dir. Jim Abrahams · Charlie Sheen · Cary Elwes · Valeria Golino · Lloyd Bridges

IMDb 6.7 (125,282 votes) · TMDB 6.589

The gang that created Airplane! and The Naked Gun sets its sights on Top Gun in this spoof. Topper Harley is a talented but unstable fighter pilot with an axe to grind: clearing the family name. His mission is to avenge his father and save a mission sabotaged by greedy weapons manufacturers. He also gets involved in a relationship with Ramada Thompson, a woman with an unusually talented stomach. Hot Shots! makes fun of a variety of other films, from Dances with Wolves to The Fabulous Baker Boys.

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#21

The Prince of Tides (1991)

🎬 Nominee

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Dir. Barbra Streisand · Nick Nolte · Barbra Streisand · Blythe Danner · Kate Nelligan

IMDb 6.8 (21,480 votes) · TMDB 6.613

A troubled Southern man talks to his suicidal sister's psychiatrist about their family history and falls in love with her (and New York City) in the process.

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#22

Bugsy (1991)

🎬 Nominee

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Dir. Barry Levinson · Warren Beatty · Annette Bening · Harvey Keitel · Ben Kingsley

IMDb 6.8 (33,542 votes) · TMDB 6.362

New York gangster Ben 'Bugsy' Siegel takes a brief business trip to Los Angeles. A sharp-dressing womanizer with a foul temper, Siegel doesn't hesitate to kill or maim anyone crossing him. In L.A. the life, the movies, and most of all strong-willed Virginia Hill detain him while his family wait back home. Then a trip to a run-down gambling joint at a spot in the desert known as Las Vegas gives him his big idea.

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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.