Best movies of 1996 that are award winners or nominees

Actors : Frances McDormand, Steve Buscemi, William H. Macy, Peter Stormare,

Jerry Lundegaard's inept crime falls apart due to his and his henchmen's bungling and the persistent police work of the quite pregnant Marge Gunderson.

Actors : Ralph Fiennes, Kristin Scott Thomas, Willem Dafoe, Juliette Binoche,
Directors : Anthony Minghella,

At the close of WWII, a young nurse tends to a badly-burned plane crash victim. His past is shown in flashbacks, revealing an involvement in a fateful love affair.

Actors : Tom Cruise, Renée Zellweger, Cuba Gooding Jr., Kelly Preston,
Directors : Cameron Crowe,

When a sports agent has a moral epiphany and is fired for expressing it, he decides to put his new philosophy to the test as an independent agent with the only athlete who stays with him and his former secretary.

Actors : Dwight Yoakam, J.T. Walsh, Billy Bob Thornton, John Ritter,
Directors : Billy Bob Thornton,

Karl Childers, a simple man hospitalized since his childhood murder of his mother and her lover, is released to start a new life in a small town.

Actors : Courtney Love, Edward Norton, Woody Harrelson, Brett Harrelson,
Directors : Milos Forman,

A partially idealized film of the controversial pornography publisher and how he became a defender of free speech for all people.

Actors : Geoffrey Rush, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Justin Braine, Sonia Todd,
Directors : Scott Hicks,

Pianist David Helfgott, driven by his father and teachers, has a breakdown. Years later he returns to the piano, to popular if not critical acclaim.

Actors : Timothy Spall, Claire Rushbrook, Brenda Blethyn, Phyllis Logan,
Directors : Mike Leigh,

A successful black woman discovers that her birth mother is a underprivileged white woman, but the woman denies it. As emotions run high, everyone's secrets are exposed.

Actors : Larry Miller, Jada Pinkett Smith, James Coburn, Eddie Murphy,
Directors : Tom Shadyac,

Grossly overweight yet good-hearted professor Sherman Klump takes a special chemical that turns him into the slim but obnoxious Buddy Love.

Actors : Antonio Banderas, Jonathan Pryce, Jimmy Nail, Madonna,
Directors : Alan Parker,

The hit musical based on the life of Evita Duarte, a B-picture Argentinian actress who eventually became the wife of Argentinian president Juan Perón, and the most beloved and hated woman in Argentina.

Actors : Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Mary McDonnell, Jeff Goldblum,
Directors : Roland Emmerich,

The aliens are coming and their goal is to invade and destroy Earth. Fighting superior technology, mankind's best weapon is the will to survive.

Actors : Greta Scacchi, James Cosmo, Alan Cumming, Gwyneth Paltrow,
Directors : Douglas McGrath,

In rural 1800s England things go bad for a young matchmaker after she finds a man for another woman.

Actors : Edward Norton, Laura Linney, John Mahoney, Richard Gere,
Directors : Gregory Hoblit,

An altar boy is accused of murdering a priest, and the truth is buried several layers deep.

Actors : Tom Wilkinson, John Kani, Val Kilmer, Michael Douglas,
Directors : Stephen Hopkins,

A bridge engineer and an experienced old hunter begin a hunt for two lions after they start attacking local construction workers.

Actors : Lauren Bacall, Barbra Streisand, George Segal, Jeff Bridges,
Directors : Barbra Streisand,

A shy, middle-aged professor enters into a romantic but non-physical relationship with an unlucky-in-love colleague.