The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Peter Jackson's The Return of the King won all eleven categories it was nominated in, a perfect sweep no other film in Oscar history has managed - Ben-Hur and Titanic share the eleven-win record, but neither went undefeated. The result was a watershed. Fantasy and the effects-driven blockbuster had long been treated as craft-category fare, welcome in sound and makeup but not in the top race, and the Academy reversed itself in a single evening. It was also plainly a vote for the whole trilogy rather than one film, a career award wearing a Best Picture sash; both readings are true at once. What survives the argument is the filmmaking - Gollum's performance capture, the siege of Minas Tirith, and a coda that risks four endings and earns them.