2003

The Academy got it right.

Winner & should have won

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

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The Academy's ballot

🏆The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King#188.28 🎬Mystic River#777.97 🎬Lost in Translation#1375.61 🎬Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World#1773.25 🎬Seabiscuit#2070.32

The Academy and the numbers agree.

The full slate

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

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

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Dir. Peter Jackson · Elijah Wood · Ian McKellen · Viggo Mortensen · Sean Astin

IMDb 9.0 (2,169,641 votes) · TMDB 8.501

As armies mass for a final battle that will decide the fate of the world--and powerful, ancient forces of Light and Dark compete to determine the outcome--one member of the Fellowship of the Ring is revealed as the noble heir to the throne of the Kings of Men. Yet, the sole hope for triumph over evil lies with a brave hobbit, Frodo, who, accompanied by his loyal friend Sam and the hideous, wretched Gollum, ventures deep into the very dark heart of Mordor on his seemingly impossible quest to destroy the Ring of Power.

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Oldboy (2003)

⭐ Top-rated🏛️ All-time great

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Dir. Park Chan-wook · Choi Min-sik · Yoo Ji-tae · Kang Hye-jung · Kim Byeong-ok

IMDb 8.3 (721,783 votes) · TMDB 8.236

With no clue how he came to be imprisoned, drugged and tortured for 15 years, a desperate man seeks revenge on his captors.

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Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)

⭐ Top-rated🏛️ All-time great

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Dir. Quentin Tarantino · Uma Thurman · Lucy Liu · Vivica A. Fox · Daryl Hannah

IMDb 8.2 (1,310,765 votes) · TMDB 8.0

An assassin is shot by her ruthless employer, Bill, and other members of their assassination circle – but she lives to plot her vengeance.

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Finding Nemo (2003)

⭐ Top-rated🏛️ All-time great💰 Box office #2

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Dir. Andrew Stanton · Albert Brooks · Ellen DeGeneres · Alexander Gould · Willem Dafoe

IMDb 8.2 (1,211,434 votes) · TMDB 7.8

Nemo, an adventurous young clownfish, is unexpectedly taken from his Great Barrier Reef home to a dentist's office aquarium. It's up to his worrisome father Marlin and a friendly but forgetful fish Dory to bring Nemo home -- meeting vegetarian sharks, surfer dude turtles, hypnotic jellyfish, hungry seagulls, and more along the way.

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Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl poster

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)

⭐ Top-rated🏛️ All-time great💰 Box office #4

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Dir. Gore Verbinski · Johnny Depp · Geoffrey Rush · Orlando Bloom · Keira Knightley

IMDb 8.1 (1,329,176 votes) · TMDB 7.826

When wily pirate Captain Barbossa seizes Jack Sparrow’s beloved ship, the Black Pearl, and kidnaps the governor’s daughter, Elizabeth Swann, blacksmith Will Turner reluctantly teams up with the unpredictable pirate Jack to rescue her—only to uncover a terrifying curse that turns Barbossa’s crew into the undead.

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Memories of Murder (2003)

⭐ Top-rated🏛️ All-time great

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Dir. Bong Joon Ho · Song Kang-ho · Kim Sang-kyung · Kim Roi-ha · Song Jae-ho

IMDb 8.1 (268,829 votes) · TMDB 8.058

A sadistic serial rapist and murderer of young women terrorizes a small province in 1980s South Korea. To prevent further crimes, three increasingly desperate detectives with conflicting methods race against time to unravel the violent mind of the killer in a futile effort to solve the case.

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Mystic River (2003)

🎬 Nominee⭐ Top-rated

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Dir. Clint Eastwood · Sean Penn · Tim Robbins · Kevin Bacon · Laurence Fishburne

IMDb 7.9 (523,411 votes) · TMDB 7.745

The lives of three men who were childhood friends are shattered when one of them suffers a family tragedy.

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Big Fish (2003)

⭐ Top-rated

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Dir. Tim Burton · Ewan McGregor · Albert Finney · Billy Crudup · Jessica Lange

IMDb 7.9 (477,840 votes) · TMDB 7.757

Throughout his life Edward Bloom has always been a man of big appetites, enormous passions and tall tales. In his later years, he remains a huge mystery to his son, William. Now, to get to know the real man, Will begins piecing together a true picture of his father from flashbacks of his amazing adventures.

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Dogville (2003)

⭐ Top-rated

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Dir. Lars von Trier · Nicole Kidman · Paul Bettany · John Hurt · Stellan Skarsgård

IMDb 8.0 (167,826 votes) · TMDB 7.8

A woman on the run from the mob is reluctantly accepted in a small Colorado community in exchange for labor, but when a search visits the town, she learns that their support has a price.

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#10

The Last Samurai (2003)

⭐ Top-rated💰 Box office #6

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Dir. Edward Zwick · Tom Cruise · Ken Watanabe · Timothy Spall · Tony Goldwyn

IMDb 7.8 (505,258 votes) · TMDB 7.6

Nathan Algren is an American hired to instruct the Japanese army in the ways of modern warfare, which finds him learning to respect the samurai and the honorable principles that rule them. Pressed to destroy the samurai's way of life in the name of modernization and open trade, Algren decides to become an ultimate warrior himself and to fight for their right to exist.

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#11

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Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring (2003)

⭐ Top-rated

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Dir. Kim Ki-duk · Oh Young-soo · Kim Ki-duk · Kim Young-min · Seo Jae-kyeong

IMDb 8.0 (91,023 votes) · TMDB 7.8

An isolated lake, where an old monk lives in a small floating temple. The monk has a young boy living with him, learning to become a monk. We watch as seasons and years pass by.

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#12

Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. (2003)

⭐ Top-rated

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Dir. Rajkumar Hirani · Sanjay Dutt · Arshad Warsi · Boman Irani · Gracy Singh

IMDb 8.2 (98,452 votes) · TMDB 7.191

A gangster sets out to fulfill his father's dream of becoming a doctor.

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#13

Lost in Translation (2003)

🎬 Nominee⭐ Top-rated

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Dir. Sofia Coppola · Bill Murray · Scarlett Johansson · Giovanni Ribisi · Anna Faris

IMDb 7.7 (530,442 votes) · TMDB 7.4

Two lost souls visiting Tokyo -- the young, neglected wife of a photographer and a washed-up movie star shooting a TV commercial -- find an odd solace and pensive freedom to be real in each other's company, away from their lives in America.

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#14

The Best of Youth (2003)

🏛️ All-time great

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Dir. Marco Tullio Giordana · Luigi Lo Cascio · Alessio Boni · Adriana Asti · Sonia Bergamasco

IMDb 8.4 (28,279 votes) · TMDB 8.043

After a fateful encounter in the summer of 1966, the lifepaths of two brothers from a middle-class Roman family diverge, intersecting with some of the most significant events of postwar Italian history in the following decades.

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#15

Good Bye Lenin! (2003)

⭐ Top-rated

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Dir. Wolfgang Becker · Daniel Brühl · Katrin Sass · Chulpan Khamatova · Maria Simon

IMDb 7.7 (160,034 votes) · TMDB 7.5

Alex Kerner's mother was in a coma while the Berlin wall fell. When she wakes up he must try to keep her from learning what happened (as she was an avid communist supporter) to avoid shocking her which could lead to another heart attack.

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#16

Kal Ho Naa Ho (2003)

⭐ Top-rated

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Dir. Nikkhil Advani · Shah Rukh Khan · Preity Zinta · Saif Ali Khan · Jaya Bachchan

IMDb 7.9 (81,920 votes) · TMDB 7.46

An uptight MBA student falls for the charismatic new neighbor who charms her troubled family – but he has a secret that forces him to push her away.

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#17

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Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003)

🎬 Nominee

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Dir. Peter Weir · Russell Crowe · Paul Bettany · James D'Arcy · Robert Pugh

IMDb 7.5 (256,866 votes) · TMDB 7.198

After an abrupt and violent encounter with a French warship inflicts severe damage upon his ship, a captain of the British Royal Navy begins a chase over two oceans to capture or destroy the enemy, though he must weigh his commitment to duty and ferocious pursuit of glory against the safety of his devoted crew, including the ship's thoughtful surgeon, his best friend.

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#18

X2 (2003)

💰 Box office #9

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Dir. Bryan Singer · Hugh Jackman · Patrick Stewart · Ian McKellen · James Marsden

IMDb 7.4 (611,480 votes) · TMDB 7.0

Professor Charles Xavier and his team of genetically gifted superheroes face a rising tide of anti-mutant sentiment led by Col. William Stryker. Storm, Wolverine and Jean Grey must join Magneto and Mystique to unhinge Stryker's scheme to exterminate all mutants.

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#19

The Matrix Reloaded (2003)

💰 Box office #3

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Dir. Lana Wachowski · Keanu Reeves · Laurence Fishburne · Carrie-Anne Moss · Hugo Weaving

IMDb 7.2 (671,812 votes) · TMDB 7.079

The Resistance builds in numbers as humans are freed from the Matrix and brought to the city of Zion. Neo discovers his superpowers, including the ability to see the code inside the Matrix. With machine sentinels digging to Zion in 72 hours, Neo, Morpheus and Trinity must find the Keymaker to ultimately reach the Source.

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#20

Seabiscuit (2003)

🎬 Nominee

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Dir. Gary Ross · Tobey Maguire · David McCullough · Jeff Bridges · Chris Cooper

IMDb 7.3 (79,064 votes) · TMDB 7.056

True story of the undersized Depression-era racehorse whose victories lifted not only the spirits of the team behind it but also those of their nation.

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#21

Bruce Almighty (2003)

💰 Box office #5

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Dir. Tom Shadyac · Jim Carrey · Morgan Freeman · Jennifer Aniston · Philip Baker Hall

IMDb 6.8 (471,524 votes) · TMDB 6.727

Bruce Nolan toils as a "human interest" television reporter in Buffalo, NY, but despite his high ratings and the love of his beautiful girlfriend, Bruce remains unfulfilled. At the end of the worst day in his life, he angrily ridicules God — and the Almighty responds, endowing Bruce with all of His divine powers.

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#22

The Matrix Revolutions (2003)

💰 Box office #8

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Dir. Lilly Wachowski · Keanu Reeves · Laurence Fishburne · Carrie-Anne Moss · Hugo Weaving

IMDb 6.7 (576,388 votes) · TMDB 6.754

The human city of Zion defends itself against the massive invasion of the machines as Neo fights to end the war at another front while also opposing the rogue Agent Smith.

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#23

Bad Boys II (2003)

💰 Box office #10

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Dir. Michael Bay · Martin Lawrence · Will Smith · Jordi Mollà · Gabrielle Union

IMDb 6.6 (288,959 votes) · TMDB 6.657

Detectives Marcus Burnett and Mike Lowrey of the Miami Narcotics Task Force are tasked with stopping the flow of the drug Ecstasy into Miami. They track the drugs to the whacked-out Cuban drug lord Johnny Tapia, who is also involved in a bloody war with Russian and Haitian mobsters. If that isn't bad enough, there's tension between the two detectives when Marcus discovers that playboy Mike is secretly romancing Marcus’ sister, Syd.

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#24

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines poster

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003)

💰 Box office #7

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Dir. Jonathan Mostow · Arnold Schwarzenegger · Nick Stahl · Claire Danes · Kristanna Loken

IMDb 6.3 (437,938 votes) · TMDB 6.194

It's been 10 years since John Connor saved Earth from Judgment Day, and he's now living under the radar, steering clear of using anything Skynet can trace. That is, until he encounters T-X, a robotic assassin ordered to finish what T-1000 started. Good thing Connor's former nemesis, the Terminator, is back to aid the now-adult Connor … just like he promised.

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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.