There is no greater honor in Hollywood—nay, the entire film industry—than to be nominated for an Oscar. And, of course, Best Picture being the biggest award that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gives out, it's also the most coveted award for filmmakers and studios. Throughout the '90s, all sorts of movies from all kinds of different genres chased and obtained a Best Picture nomination. Some were certainly more deserving than others, meaning that the decade's ten highly distinct Best Picture nominee lineups are of varying degrees of quality.

Every year has different outputs of films. Some years have multiple masterworks, while others just have a few films that are really good. This was certainly true of the '90s, one of the most important and memorable decades for cinema, both American and international. As a result, the Best Picture Oscar nominee lineups of the decade ranged from the incredible to the just-good, but one should make no mistake: Each lineup had at least one or two films that have stood the test of time as beloved modern classics. This list will rank each Best Picture lineup of the '90s, considering the films' individual quality, their enduring legacy in cinema, and how much they stand out as a group.

10 62nd Academy Awards (1990)

Nominees: 'Driving Miss Daisy' (won), 'Born on the Fourth of July,' 'Dead Poets Society,' 'Field of Dreams,' and 'My Left Foot'

The 62nd Academy Awards rewarded the best films of 1989. The '80s marked the return of studio-driven, highly marketable movies after the much more auteur-driven cinema of the '70s, which was reflected toward the very end of the decade. Studio-driven isn't necessarily pejorative in this context, though; indeed, 1989 had some really good films, like Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Tim Burton's Batman, and When Harry Met Sally... Unfortunately, these and many other great movies from 1989 went overlooked by the Academy.

By no means were the Best Picture nominees of the 1990 Oscars bad—quite the contrary. However, the fact that that year's winner was Driving Miss Daisy, one of the most disliked of all time, speaks volumes about the quality of this group of five films. The stirring Dead Poets Society is probably the best and most beloved of the bunch. Born on the Fourth of July is a very good Vietnam War film, Field of Dreams is an iconic family film, and My Left Foot shines mainly thanks to Daniel Day-Lewis's powerhouse performance, but none has the artistic merit that one might expect from the Best Picture recipient.

9 64th Academy Awards (1992)

Nominees: 'The Silence of the Lambs' (won), 'Beauty and the Beast,' 'Bugsy,' 'JFK,' and 'The Prince of Tides'

The 64th Academy Awards rewarded the best film of 1991. It wasn't the best year of the '90s for movies, but it was also definitely not bad. It saw the release of non-Best Picture nominees of the caliber of the legendary anime film Paprika and James Cameron's masterful Terminator 2: Judgment Day, as well as that year's Best Picture winner, one of the greatest thrillers ever made: The Silence of the Lambs. The rest of the lineup is good, too, but nowhere near as great as it could have been.

The beautiful Beauty and the Beast, the first animated film ever nominated for Best Picture, is probably a close second to Silence of the Lambs. JFK is also a pretty solid historical drama, but Bugsy is too messy to be memorable, and The Prince of Tides (directed by Barbra Streisand) is terribly self-indulgent and melodramatic. The lineup's best two films are admittedly phenomenal beyond measure, but the other three movies bring the group down significantly.

8 69th Academy Awards (1997)

Nominees: 'The English Patient' (won), 'Jerry Maguire,' 'Fargo,' 'Secrets & Lies,' and 'Shine'

The 69th Academy Awards rewarded the best in cinema of 1996, the year of great genre films like Scream and Independence Day, as well as award-worthy works of art like The Birdcage and Trainspotting. Blockbusters definitely dominated this year (some excellent, some not so much), but there was also a lot of good stuff for fans of artsier fare. The 69th Academy Awards didn't quite reflect this balance in the Best Picture category, but there are still some pretty great movies there.

The English Patient, despite being the clear weakest of the bunch, somehow won Best Picture (along with a whopping eight other Oscars). The equal parts hilarious and enthralling Fargo was right there, but then again, the Academy doesn't always get it right. Jerry Maguire is also decently entertaining, Shine is good, mainly thanks to Geoffrey Rush's transcendental performance, and the masterful Secrets & Lies may just be one of the most underrated Best Picture nominees of the '90s.