That Pittsburgh Kid wrote:
What's been your favorite Oscar so far? Any you'd recommend?
The latest one I saw was 2007 (No Country For Old Men). Ignoring the super obvious good ones (The Godfather films, Sound of Music, Gone with the wind, etc), I think that "Midnight Cowboy (1969)" was a very pleasant surprise.
At the time it was rated X and is still the only "rated X" film to have one, but by today's standards, it probably wouldn't even get an R.
Generally speaking, the Best Picture Oscar Winners are usually good, which is not all that surprising. The aforementioned "The Deer Hunter" is one where I tried multiple times to watch, before forcing myself to go all the way through. In spite of Deer Hunter, the 1970s winners are my favorites, specifically 1970 through 1976: Patton, The French Connection, The Godfather, The Sting, The Godfather 2, One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, Rocky. Then you have Annie Hall and Kramer Vs. Kramer which are merely "OK."
As of 2010 or so, there were a few films that were still not available or at least not easy to find. Don't recall which ones, but they were of course very early on (late 20s into 1930s). There are also many in which the theatrical release version is gone or never re-released, and you get altered versions. Not sure it really matters though, just a point to make.