Does anyone think any of these films below could win Best Picture in the eyes of the 2018 Academy? They all won Best Picture in their year, but it seems the Academy changed somewhere around when the Tea Party helped the GOP win the house in 2010. Before 2010, the Academy would occasionally pick films that appealed to conservative sentiments or at least were celebrations of Western Civilization.
Unforgiven '92 (Eastwood)
Braveheart '95 (Gibson)
The English Patient '96
Shakespeare in Love '98
Gladiator '00
A Beautiful Mind '01
The Hurt Locker '09
I don't think movies like these can win with this liberal Academy. Even 1994's Best Picture, Forrest Gump, would be considered "problematic" as it has Skynyrd's Sweet Home Alabama in it. Maybe Shakespeare in Love isn't that conservative, but try teaching Shakespeare in a university these days and you'll get pushback from liberals who are against learning about "dead white males". Maybe the English Patient isn't that conservative, but I don't expect this Academy to vote for the English anything.
Disclaimer: I haven't seen No Country for Old Men ('07 winner), but it might qualify as a "conservative leaning" film. And Argo ('12 winner) happened under Jimmy Carter's watch, so I assume that selection was influenced by politics.
Or how about 1970's Best Picture, Patton? Now, there's a damn good film that couldn't win today.