The Champions Tournament next year now has half of its competitors after Jurassic Park won the 1993 tournament last month. Now we start filling out the second half of the bracket.
Next week, this year’s Oscar nominations are announced, and with them we will learn who will be up for Best Picture this year. For this 9th tournament, we look back at 32 of the previous winners of the big prize. Seeding was based on Rotten Tomatoes, but with a wrinkle. There were so many ties in critic scores that I needs a tiebreaker. So I used the fan score as the second parameter for seeding. Let’s take a look at the bracket.
This is the second biggest tournament I have done so far, and it will be the only one more than 16 films the rest of the year other than the 64 film Box Office Classic in March. Top overall seed is Parasite (99% critic / 90% fan), and Gladiator is the last film in (80% / 87%). On to what happened in voting!
First Round
Parasite might have been the top overall seed, but the didn’t matter to Gladiator, which beat it by 10 votes. The #2 in that half also fell to Chicago, but only by 3. That wasn’t the closest matchup in the round though. That was the Unforgiven vs Dances with Wolves, which ended with a 1 vote difference in favor of Clint. Biggest win of the round was a little higher up that half in the 8 vs 9 match. No Country for Old Men beat Nomadland by 24.
- Region 1
1 Parasite vs. 16 Gladiator
8 Everything Everywhere All At Once vs. 9 Shakespeare in Love
5 12 Years a Slave vs. 12 Rain Man
4 Argo vs. 13 American Beauty
6 The King’s Speech vs 11 Birdman
3 The Hurt Locker vs 14 The Last Emperor
7 Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King vs 10 The Departed
2 Moonlight vs 15 Chicago
- Region 2
1 Schindler’s List vs. 16 Driving Miss Daisy
8 No Country for Old Men vs. 9 Nomadland
5 The Artist vs. 12 Million Dollar Baby
4 The Silence of the Lambs vs. 13 Titanic
6 CODA vs 11 Slumdog Millionaire
3 Unforgiven vs 14 Dances With Wolves
7 Oppenheimer vs 10 The Shape of Water
2 Spotlight vs 15 The English Patient
Second Round
We lost 2 more top seeds this round as Hurt Locker and Spotlight both fall. Gladiator kept the run going, but Chicago, the other big underdog, lost big to The Departed. That 27 vote win for the mob wasn’t the biggest win this round though. That went to the 34 vote win for The Silence of the Lambs over Million Dollar Baby. On the opposite end, the closest matchup one again involved Unforgiven. This round it only beat Slumdog Millionaire by 3 votes. So, after two rounds its all double digit seeds on once side, and single digits on the other.
16 Gladiator vs. 8 Everything Everywhere All At Once
12 Rain Man vs. 13 American Beauty
11 Birdman vs. 3 The Hurt Locker
10 The Departed vs. 15 Chicago
1 Schindler’s List vs 8 No Country For Old Men
12 Million Dollar Baby vs 4 Silence of the Lambs
14 Slumdog Millionaire vs 3 Unforgiven
7 Oppenheimer vs 2 Spotlight
Quarterfinals
Best matchup on paper was Schindler’s List vs The Silence of the Lambs, and it lived up to it. Lambs never trailed but the final difference was only 7 votes, and that was the closest matchup this round. The largest difference goes to the 29 votes in The Departed had over Birdman. For The Departed, that is a two round difference of 56, so it has some serious momentum going into it match vs Gladiator, which won by 12 over Rain Man.
16 Gladiator vs. 12 Rain Man
11 Birdman vs. 10 The Departed
1 Schindler’s List vs. 4 The Silence of the Lambs
3 Unforgiven vs. 7 Oppenheimer
Semifinals
After two rounds of blowouts, The Departed finally had a close matchup. Gladiator gave it a run for it’s money, but the Scorsese film moves on to the Finals with a 3 vote win. In the other semi, it was another runaway for Lambs, winning by 19.
16 Gladiator vs. 10 The Departed
4 The Silence of the Lambs vs. 7 Oppenheimer
Finals
On paper, this should have been an interesting final. Both have had little issue making it to this point. The Departed has won by an average of 16 votes, and The Silence of the Lambs has a 19 vote average. So, it was rather surprising seeing the votes come in this round, and vote after vote coming in for Lambs. After the round ended, Lambs had the 18 vote win, and the crown as the Champion of the Best Picture Tournament.
10 The Departed vs. 4 The Silence of the Lambs
With that, tournament #9 is now in the books. The Silence of the Lambs will now move on to the Champions Tournament a year from now, and The Departed will move on to another tournament I have planned in 2026. More on that on a later date. The next tournament will begin on March 3rd, and will be my big one that started all these tournaments last year, the Box Office Classic. Once again, there will be 64 films involved, and the tournament will take all month to complete. The four years for this 2nd edition of the Classic will be announced in a few weeks. One last change to this 2nd Classic: all the matchups will be voted on by all of you this time. No more complaining about my “poor” choices of winners. It will be in your hands now.
Mitten Film Nerd 
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