This year's Best Picture nominees may not, at first blush, seem like the finest group of all time, but a little perspective is in order. From 1975 through 1979, the nominees were freakishly good; in 1975, the list was winner One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Barry Lyndon, Dog Day Afternoon, Jaws, and Nashville, five classics! In 1939, the nominees included winner Gone With the Wind, Dark Victory, Goodbye Mr. Chips, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Ninotchka, Of Mice and Men, Stagecoach, The Wizard of Oz, and Wuthering Heights. Nowadays, if we had nine films that good in a decade, we'd be lucky.

But the rest of Oscar history is pretty spotty, with years like 1958 (Gigi, Auntie Mame, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Defiant Ones, Separate Tables) and 1968 (Oliver!, Romeo and Juliet, Funny Girl, The Lion in Winter, and Rachel, Rachel) all too frequent. So to have three truly top-notch, beautifully executed movies, The Departed, Letters From Iwo Jima, and The Queen; the thought-provoking and exquisitely filmed Babel; and Little Miss Sunshine, a dark, quirky comedy with a great cast, is not bad. Maybe if the Hollywood studios let directors make the kind of films they wanted, as happened when the inmates ran the asylum in the '70s, we'd have more great pictures, but the economics of moviemaking seems to ensure that this will never happen again. I encourage you to revisit the nominees from 1975 on and post your pick for the greatest group of Best Picture nominees in Oscar history right here.

USE THE 'TALK BACK' FORM ON THIS PAGE TO WEIGH IN ON WHICH YEAR'S BEST PICTURE NOMINEES WERE THE GREATEST.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE FULL LIST OF BEST PICTURE NOMINEES 1975-PRESENT.