Schindler's List (1993)

Directed by Steven Spielberg

Starring Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley, Ralph Fiennes, Caroline Goodall, Jonathan Sagall, and Embeth Davidtz

The Holocaust is perhaps the worst event in the history of the world. Many films have been made about these atrocities, but none are finer that Steven Spielberg's modern classic. It would have been easy to depict the Holocaust through the eyes of a victim, or a non-Jewish crusader trying to liberate the oppressed Jews, but Spielberg instead tells the story of Oskar Schindler, a money-grubbing, lecherous member of the Nazi party who saves scores of Jews from the concentration camps, at first just as a war profiteer. By making his hero someone who would have been a villain before the war, Spielberg shows the transforming nature an event such as the Holocaust had on the people who witnessed it. Ralph Fiennes is terrifying as the sadistic Nazi officer who Schindler must deal with. A true classic if there ever was one.

Other nominees: The Fugitive (Andrew Davis), In the Name of the Father (Jim Sheridan), The Piano (Jane Campion), and The Remains of the Day (James Ivory)