The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

Directed by Jonathan Demme

Starring Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Scott Glenn, Anthony Heald, Ted Levine, Frankie Faison, Kasi Lemmons, Brooke Smith, Paul Lazar, and Dan Butler

In limited screen time, Anthony Hopkins creates one of the most iconic characters of all time and scored an Academy Award for Best Actor. The movie is really about Jodie Foster's rookie FBI agent's search for a vicious serial killer, but what everyone remembers is her relationship with the sinister Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant man in jail for his own serial killing. This relationship becomes one of the most interesting in film history, thanks mostly to the two actors. Horror movies are not usually the ones that win the industry's top awards, but this supurb example is an exception to that rule.

Other nominees: Beauty and the Beast (Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale), Bugsy (Barry Levinson), JFK (Oliver Stone), and The Prince of Tides (Barbra Streisand)