The 10 Longest Best Picture Oscar Nominated Movies (Including The Brutalist)

There have been all kinds of Best Picture nominees throughout Oscars history, and these are the 10 longest nominees for the Academy Award for Best Picture. The nomination of The Brutalist has reignited conversation around the length of some of these films, with the movie's long runtime being one of its most notable characteristics. However, The Brutalist is far from the longest movie to get nominated for Best Picture, with these 10 Oscar nominees being the longest yet.

The 2025 Oscars are almost here, with another round of Best Picture nominees competing to take home the coveted Academy Award. While most of the films have fairly average runtimes, The Brutalist has blown the rest out of the water with its 3 hour and 35 minute runtime. The Brutalist is so long that it features an intermission, although it isn't as long as some of these nominees from the past.

10 Giant

201 Minutes

Coming in at the bottom of the list is the 1956 film Giant, which runs for 3 hours and 21 minutes. George Stevens' Western romance movie follows Bick Benedict, a Texas rancher who returns home with a new wife. However, this relationship causes a rivalry within the family, with the film spanning multiple years and telling an epic Western story. The movie's runtime is reflective of the massive story that it is telling, with the movie starting in the 1920s and going all the way through the 1940s.

At the time of its release, Giant was one of the top three longest-running Best Picture nominees of all time. However, it wasn't even the Best Picture nominee with the longest runtime that year. Interestingly, Giant was released in the same year as The Ten Commandments, an even longer Best Picture nominee that will be covered later on this list. The two films were also nominated alongside The King and I and Friendly Persuasion, all of which lost to Around the World in 80 Days.

9 The Alamo

202 Minutes

1960's The Alamo isn't the first Western on this list and it won't be the last, with the 1960 film coming in as the ninth-longest Best Picture nominated movie. John Wayne directs and stars in the movie that tells the story of the famous Battle of the Alamo, with John Wayne playing Davy Crockett. The Alamo runs for 3 hours and 22 minutes, beating Giant by merely one minute.

At the time of its release, The Alamo was the fourth-longest Best Picture nominee, with it only being beaten by Ben-Hur, The Ten Commandments, and Gone with the Wind. Since then, however, several other Best Picture nominees have managed to beat The Alamo's runtime, putting it in ninth place. The Alamo was nominated at the 33rd Academy Awards, with it being nominated alongside Elmer Gantry, Sons and Lovers, The Sundowners, and the Best Picture winner, The Apartment.

8 Killers Of The Flower Moon

206 Minutes

Killers of the Flower Moon

History

Drama

Crime

10/10

Runtime: 200minutes
Director: Martin Scorsese

Cast

See All

Leonardo DiCaprio
Louis Cancelmi

Killers of the Flower Moon is one of the more recent films to have broken into the top 10 longest Best Picture nominees, but it isn't the newest. The 2023 Martin Scorsese film has found its space in eighth place, with the 2023 movie running for 3 hours and 26 minutes. The film tells the true story of the Osage Indian murders, with Leonardo DiCaprio playing Ernest Burkhart, Lily Gladstone playing Mollie Burkhart, and Robert De Niro playing William King Hale.

At the time of its release, Killers of the Flower Moon was the seventh-longest Best Picture nominee, with it being pushed back to eighth place with the release of 2024's The Brutalist. Interestingly, the film that is currently in seventh place is another Martin Scorsese film, 2019's The Irishman. Killers of the Flower Moon was nominated at the 96th Academy Awards, with it being nominated alongside American Fiction, Anatomy of a Fall, Barbie, The Holdovers, Maestro, Past Lives, Poor Things, The Zone of Interest, and the Best Picture winner, Oppenheimer.

7 The Irishman

209 Minutes

Martin Scorsese has two films that are sitting in the top 10 longest Best Picture nominees, with The Irishman sitting directly above Killers of the Flower Moon. The 2019 film runs for 3 hours and 29 minutes, with it telling the story of Robert De Niro's Frank Sheeran. Starting in the 1950s, the film follows Frank as he enters the world of organized crime, with the massive gangster epic going all the way until the year 2000.

When The Irishman was released, it was the sixth-longest Best Picture nominees of all time, with it only being pushed back when The Brutalist was released in 2024. On top of that, The Irishman was the longest Best Picture nominee to have been released since 1963's Cleopatra. The Irishman was nominated at the 92nd Academy Awards, with it being nominated alongside Ford v Ferrari, Jojo Rabbit, Joker, Little Women, Marriage Story, 1917, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and the Best Picture winner, Parasite.

6 Ben-Hur

212 Minutes

The 1959 religious epic Ben-Hur is next on the list, with the movie's length being one of its most famous attributes. The William Wyler film stars Charlton Heston as the titular rebel against the Roman Empire, with the film following him as he is forced into slavery and attempts to overthrow the oppressive government. Ben-Hur runs for a whopping 3 hours and 32 minutes, putting it three minutes above The Irishman.

Unlike the previous entries on this list, Ben-Hur actually won Best Picture, with it taking home a whopping 11 of the 12 Oscars that it was nominated for. Ben-Hur took home Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor in a Leading Role, Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Best Art Direction - Set Decoration - Color, Best Cinematography - Color, Best Costume Design - Color, Best Film Editing, Best Sound Recording, Best Music - Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture, and Best Special Effects. In Best Picture, Ben-Hur was nominated alongside Anatomy of a Murder, The Diary of Anne Frank, The Nun's Story, and Room at the Top.

5 The Brutalist

215 Minutes

2024's The Brutalist is the most recent entry on this list, with it currently sitting as the fifth-longest Best Picture nominee of all time. The Brutalist runs for 3 hours and 35 minutes, with the Brady Corbet movie following Adrian Brody's László Tóth, a Hungarian-Jewish architect who moves to the United States and begins working on a major project.

The Brutalist is nominated at the 97th Academy Awards, which have not occurred as of the writing of this article. The Brutalist is nominated alongside Anora, A Complete Unknown, Conclave, Dune: Part Two, Emilia Pérez, I'm Still Here, Nickel Boys, The Substance, and Wicked. If The Brutalist does win Best Picture, it will make it one of the longest Best Picture winners of all time.

4 The Ten Commandments

220 Minutes

1956's The Ten Commandments is currently the fourth-longest Best Picture nominee, with the film running for 3 hours and 40 minutes. Directed by Cecil B. DeMille, the Biblical epic tells the story of Moses, following him from his time as a baby until his people are led to the Promised Land. The Ten Commandments stars Charlton Heston as Moses, making him a two-timer on this list after his starring role in Ben-Hur.

Unlike Ben-Hur, however, The Ten Commandments did not win Best Picture. The film was nominated at the 29th Academy Awards, alongside the previously discussed Giant as well as Friendly Persuasion, The King and I, and the Best Picture winner, Around the World in 80 Days.

3 Lawrence Of Arabia

222 Minutes

1962's Lawrence of Arabia is another iconic movie, with it being the third-longest Best Picture nominee of all time. Lawrence of Arabia runs for 3 hours and 47 minutes, with the epic historical drama telling the story of T.E. Lawrence, played by Peter O'Toole in the film. The film follows Lawrence as he is sent to Arabia in order to find Prince Faisal and communicate between the Brits and the Arabs in the midst of a war.

Like Ben-Hur, Lawrence of Arabia is another incredibly long historical epic that won Best Picture. Lawrence of Arabia managed to beat its fellow nominees, The Longest Day, The Music Man, Mutiny on the Bounty, and To Kill a Mockingbird. Lawrence of Arabia has gone on to become one of the most famous and critically acclaimed movies of all time, with its length not hindering its popularity.

2 Gone With The Wind

238 Minutes

1939's Gone with the Wind is another famously long movie that was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, with it running for 3 hours and 58 minutes. Victor Fleming's iconic and controversial film is set in the South during the Civil War, with it following Scarlett O'Hara as she lives on a plantation throughout the war.

Gone with the Wind was nominated at the 12th Academy Awards, with it being the oldest film on this list. Gone with the Wind was nominated for thirteen categories, winning Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, and Best Editing. Gone with the Wind was nominated for Best Picture alongside Dark Victory, Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Love Affair, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Ninotchka, Of Mice and Men, Stagecoach, The Wizard of Oz, and Wuthering Heights.

1 Cleopatra

244 Minutes (At Its Longest)

1963's Cleopatra is an incredibly influential and infamous film, with one of the many notable facts about it being that it is the longest Best Picture nominee ever. Cleopatra runs for a whopping 4 hours and 4 minutes in its longest version. The 244-minute runtime was present at Celopatra's premiere, although the film was shortened to various lengths after its release. The 3 hour and 53 minute cut is the most prominently seen one, although there are 221-minute cuts and 184-minute cuts that were released during the film's original theatrical run.

Cleopatra was nominated at the 36th Academy Awards, with it being nominated for Best Picture alongside America America, How the West Was Won, Lilies of the Field, and the Best Picture winner, Tom Jones. Cleopatra may not have won Best Picture, but it has managed to go down in Oscars history as the longest Best Picture nominee of all time.

Oscars

Location: Los Angeles, CA
Dates: March 2, 2025
Network: ABC
Website: https://www.oscars.org/

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