The western used to be one of the most popular genres in film, with the 1930s to the 1960s often being defined as the genre's Golden Age. However, as time went on, the genre's popularity began to fade. This can be contributed to a number of reasons, but despite reports of the genre's death it never truly went away. Revisionist westerns like The Wild Bunch and the Spaghetti westerns of Sergio Leone helped keep the genre alive by offering a bloodier, less heroic view of the archetype of the cowboy.

The genre saw somewhat of a renaissance in the 1990s with Unforgiven and Dances With Wolves each winning the Academy Award for Best Picture, yet once again the genre fell out of favor with audiences. While Hollywood may not make as many westerns as they used to, since the start of 2010 there have been a number of great additions to the genre. These films range in tone and subject, but all play within the convention of a western. The nine films on this list have garnered between them 37 Academy Award nominations and four wins. These are the nine best westerns made since 2010.

9 The Sisters Brothers

The Sisters Brothers' title gives the audiences a good clue for the type of offbeat funny story they are getting into. Brothers Eli and Charlie Sister (John C. Reiley and Joaquin Phoenix) are two gunslingers and assassins who are sent after a gold prospector (Riz Ahmed) who has found himself teamed up with a private detective (Jake Gyllenhaal). The film was released in 2018 and was a box office disappointment, yet it earned positive reviews from critics with much praise for the two leads and their comedic dynamic. The Sisters Brothers both plays with conventions while also being straightforward and comedic, but the film never undermines itself. It's an odd outlier in Palme d'Or winning-director Jaques Audiard's career.

8 Rango

The 2011 animated film Rango is a computer-animated western comedy that features Johnny Depp as the voice of the titular chameleon who ends up as the sheriff of a town full of animals called Dirt. The film was directed by Gore Verbinski following the success of his Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy and was the first fully animated film from Industrial Light and Magic, and went on to win the Best Animated Film at the 84th Academy Awards. Rango is a great entry point western for kids, but also one that works as a straightforward western that just happens to include talking animals.

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7 The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

The Coen Brothers dissection of American culture has resulted in a career of films subverting different genres, especially westerns. In 2018 the duo released The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, a western anthology film with an all-star cast that is headlined by Tim Blake Nelson as the titular Buster Scruggs. The six stories contain a great mix of the Coens' signature dark humor and offered all the absurd humor and heart one expects from the directing duo's comedies. The film was nominated for three Oscars at the 91st Academy Awards including Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Costume Design, and Best Original Song for "When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings."

6 Logan

Logan, which marked the final appearance of Hugh Jackman after 17 years of playing Wolverine throughout the X-Men movies, saw the titular hero trying to protect a young girl named Laura. Director James Mangold drew heavily from classic and modern westerns, specifically the film Shane, which is referenced throughout Logan, including the final quote in the film. The movie was a box office success and was one of only a few superhero movies to score an Oscar nomination outside of effects (Best Adapted Screenplay at the 90th Academy Awards).

Superhero movies are often compared to westerns, and while the validity of this comparison is often up for debate in the one-to-one comparison depending on the film, Logan is arguably the closest a popular superhero movie has gotten to the genre. It is fitting for a character like Wolverine to have his final adventure told in the style of an old gunslinger drawn into doing one last job.

5 The Rider

In her second feature film, director Chloe Zhao's The Rider tells the story of Brady Blackburn (Brady Jandreau), a young cowboy who was a rising rodeo star before suffering a riding accident causing brain damage and has become prone to seizures and must discover a new purpose while trying to help take care of his family. The film's use of real people, as opposed to actors, helps the film's authentic mid-western vibe, along with the beautiful vistas which capture the scope of a classic western. The film was a critical breakout sensation, as it topped numerous Top 10 lists of the year (including Barack Obama's) and helped prove Zhao's credentials to Kevin Feige, leading to her directing Eternals.

4 Hell Or High Water

Hell or High Water follows two brothers (Chris Pine and Ben Foster) who carry out a series of bank robberies to save their family ranch, all while being pursued by a Texas Ranger (Jeff Bridges). The movie was praised by critics upon release, for both revitalizing the western genre and showcasing how the conventions can still work within in a modern world.

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The movie was nominated for four Oscars at the 89th Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Film Editing. While his script for Sicario was released as a film the year prior, it was Hell or High Water that really launched Taylor Sheridan's career to where he has helped shaped the modern western, with films like Wind River and television series like Yellowstone and 1883.

3 The Power of the Dog

One of the latest westerns is also one of the best. 2021's The Power of the Dog, directed by Jane Campion, is a western psychological drama that sees Philip Burbank (Benedict Cumberbatch) as a cruel ranch hand who comes into conflict with his brother George (Jesse Plemmons) and George's new wife Rose (Kirsten Dunst), and takes a special interest in her adult son Peter (Kodi Smit-McPhee). The film examines the masculinity associated with the western genre as well as resentment, sexuality, and power. The well-reviewed The Power of the Dog was nominated for 12 Academy Awards at the most recent ceremony, and won Campion won Best Director.

2 True Grit

The Coen Brothers kicked off the 2010s with True Grit, an adaptation of the classic 1968 novel of the same name which previously was adapted into a film in 1969, notable for winning legendary actor John Wayne his only Oscar. The film follows farm girl Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld, in her breakout role), who hires drunk lawman Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) to hunt down the outlaw who killed her father, and the duo embarks on a journey with lawman Labeouf (Matt Damon).

True Grit was a bona fide success when it hit theaters, grossing $171 million domestically and $252 million worldwide to become The Coen Brothers' highest-grossing film. Releasing during the holiday season took advantage of not just award season buzz but also adult audiences looking for something to go out to the multiplex for. True Grit was nominated for 10 Oscars at the 83rd Academy Award and helped kick off a new decade of westerns.

1 Django Unchained

Quentin Tarantino's seventh film, Django Unchained is a revisionist history revenge story done in the style of classic spaghetti westerns. Set in the Antebellum South, the story follows a Black slave named Django (Jamie Foxx) who trains under Dr. King Schultz, a German bounty hunter who helps him go on a quest to free his wife (Kerry Washington) from a ruthless southern plantation owner Calvin Candy (Leonardo DiCaprio).

Django Unchained grossed $162 million domestically when it was released during the holiday season of 2012, and worldwide went on to gross $425 million, making it the highest-grossing film in Tarantino's career. The film was nominated for five Oscars at the 85th Academy Awards and won two, Best Original Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor for Christoph Waltz. While Tarantino offers plenty of over-the-top action to make for an exciting time, the director also wisely knows not to trivialize or make light of the really horrific nature of slavery, oftentimes dropping the music to let its sheer horror play out for the audience. In a career that spans a number of memorable films, Django Unchained stands as one of the best of the western genre in the past decade.