In February 2000 , American Beauty was nominated for eight Academy Awards ; its closest rivals , The Cider House Rules and The Insider , received seven nominations each . In March 2000 , the major industry labor organizations all awarded their top honors to American Beauty ; perceptions had shifted — the film was now the favorite to dominate the Academy Awards . American Beauty 's closest rival for Best Picture was still The Cider House Rules , from Miramax . Both studios mounted aggressive campaigns ; DreamWorks bought 38 % more advertising space in Variety than Miramax . On March 26 , 2000 , American Beauty won five Academy Awards : Best Picture , Best Director , Best Actor ( Spacey ) , Best Original Screenplay and Best Cinematography . At the 53rd British Academy Film Awards , American Beauty won six of the 14 awards for which it was nominated : Best Film , Best Actor , Best Actress ( Bening ) , Best Cinematography , Best Film Music and Best Editing . In 2000 , the Publicists Guild of America recognized DreamWorks for the best film publicity campaign . In September 2008 , Empire named American Beauty the 96th " Greatest Movie of All Time " after a poll of 10 @,@ 000 readers , 150 filmmakers , and 50 film critics , the fourth @-@ highest ranked movie from 1999 ( behind Fight Club , The Matrix , and Magnolia ) . In 2013 , the Writers Guild of America ranked the screenplay number 38 on its list of 101 greatest screenplays .