Which best-picture honoree is your favorite?
TRE’VELL ANDERSON As someone black and queer, films about my experience never seem to be uplifted by the industry at large. Then came “Moonlight” last year, and though envelopegate forever altered that moment, for Barry Jenkins and his cast and its fans, a win is a win. JUSTIN CHANG Only one film on my all-time top 10 list has won the Oscar for best picture, and it’s “The Godfather: Part II.” Francis Ford Coppola’s 1974 masterpiece can of course hardly be considered in isolation from its equally great, Oscar-winning 1972 predecessor. But for me, it’s this sublime second chapter in which the epochal tragedy of the Corleone family truly comes together. AMY KAUFMAN It might not be the highbrow choice, but “Titanic.” I was 11 when James Cameron’s film came out, and it was the first time I’d seen an epic, sweeping romance on the big screen and felt the possibility of what adult life had in store for me. (Sadly, no guy has offered to teach me how to hock a loogie or sacrificed his piece of driftwood for me yet à la Leo DiCaprio.) MARK OLSEN “Moonlight.” By the gentle, insistent power of its emotions, craft, grace and artistry, that movie upends so much of what I have over the years learned to think of as an Oscar movie. For as much as I want to think the Oscars are corny and the winners don’t matter, “Moonlight” made me realize how much they do mean to me and that I do care. JOSH ROTTENBERG It’s not the greatest movie to ever win the top prize, but I have a nostalgic attachment to “Amadeus.” I was 12 when it came out, and it was the first best picture winner I can clearly remember seeing in the theater. I recently rewatched it for the first time in years with my teenage daughter and was pleasantly surprised at how well it holds up. KENNETH TURAN Of all the movies in all the theaters in all the world, how did I end up with “Casablanca” as my favorite Oscar best picture winner? How could I resist a film where humor, idealism, cynicism, espionage melodramatics, the elevating power of love and even deadly gunplay all play a part? A whole season of films crammed into a single 102minute package. GLENN WHIPP Over 89 years, the academy has rewarded around a dozen indisputable classics and might well add to the list. But my favorite will always be “The Godfather.” I took my teenagers to see it in theaters theatrically last year. Because a man who doesn’t spend time with his family can never be a real man. And, yes, we had cannoli afterward. JEN YAMATO Near … far … wherever I am, I believe that the heart does go on. No other best picture winner has ever left as indelible a mark on my hopeless romantic heart or my heavyrotation karaoke song list as “Titanic” (shout out Celine!), even if we all know there was room enough on that floating debris for Jack. I, for one, will never let go.