1939: “Grand Illusion” (Winner: “You Can’t Take It With You”)
No disrespect to “You Can’t Take It With You,” a funny and moving romantic comedy by Frank Capra that’s notable for helping to power James Stewart to fame. But “You Can’t Take It With You” is a very faithful adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name, whereas “Grand Illusion” charts an original path for itself. Jean Renoir’s masterpiece is an antiwar story, released just as a new war was blooming in Europe, about captured French soldiers plotting their escape from a German prison camp. Its humanistic approach to this story earned it critical praise, and today it’s seen as one of the greatest films of all-time. Had the Oscars given “Grand Illusion” the top prize, they also would have reached a milestone much quicker than they did in our reality: It would have been the first non-English language movie to win the Oscar, a distinction that “Parasite” finally achieved when it won over eight decades later. —WC