Although not as esteemed as its sequels, this apocalyptic apes versus humans rumble took the series’ first nomination for best visual effects. This was mostly thanks to the motion capture technology that turned Andy Serkis into a chimpanzee revolutionary, but trashing the Golden Gate Bridge probably didn’t hurt.

The supposed Berlin Airport where Indy and his dad Sean Connery (who is actually only 11 years older than costar Harrison Ford) hop a zeppelin to escape Nazi Germany was actually just the Treasure Island Administration Building. The movie won best sound editing. 

Hollywood is so obsessed with destroying the Golden Gate Bridge that there was almost no chance of the span not making this map at least twice. The Man of Steel was on hand to save the day this time, just as Lex Luthor’s earthquake machine was about to send it tumbling into the bay. The movie won best visual effects.

Good luck sorting out the plot of this noir thriller about a concentration camp survivor embroiled in high society murder, but at least it makes damn good use of those Telegraph Hill views. The titular house is actually facade built around the famed Julius Castle Restaurant at 1541 Montgomery. The movie won best art direction.

Yep, somehow San Francisco makes an appearance in the greatest Biblical epic of all time, with permits taken out for exterior images of the famed North Beach church at (yes) 666 Filbert. Commandments competed for seven Oscars including best picture, but only won for best visual effects.

Gremlins director Joe Dante has shot only one Oscar-winning movie in his career: 1987’s Innerspace (which took best effects), a flop about a San Francisco pilot (Dennis Quaid) subjected to experimental shrinking tech. The movie shot only a handful of scenes in SF itself, but did include Telegraph Hill views.

In this 1993 drama by Peter Weir, Jeff Bridges plays an SF architect whose life is changed when he miraculously survives an airliner disaster. The scene where Bridges deliriously dances on a rooftop was shot at 400 Montgomery. The Academy nominated Rosie Perez for best supporting actress.

You’d think San Francisco’s most acclaimed disaster movie would be about an earthquake, but we got a skyscraper fire instead.

Inferno earned nominations for best picture, best cinematography, and best editing. The entrance to the soon-to-be-in-flames tower was filmed on California Street—at the iconic 555 California—but if you pay close attention to the opening shot you’ll see that fictional building is actually closer to the Transamerica Pyramid.

The movie that made Humphrey Bogart a star and arguably the defining old-San Francisco film, Falcon was nominated for best picture. It was up against Citizen Kane but actually lost to How Green Was My Valley instead, which still annoys cinema buffs this day.

A plaque marks the spot in the alley above the Stockton Street tunnel where Sam Spade’s partner, Miles Archer, is murdered, and also spoils the ending of the movie by revealing who the killer is.

A landmark film about race that still surprises modern audiences, Guess Who netted best actress for Katherine Hepburn as well as best original screenplay.

Unfortunately, all of the San Francisco scenes are long shots that used doubles. Just one quick exterior shot clues us in that Hepburn’s art gallery is on Sutter Street.

Hitchcock’s weird thriller about killer birds overrunning Northern California is mostly set in Bodega Bay but opens in Union Square, where Tippi Hedren nips into a Maiden Lane pet shop and Hitch himself sneaks in his obligatory director cameo. The movie won best visual effects, even though it should have been nominated for more.

This startling thriller about a professional snoop (Gene Hackman) who eavesdrops on a grisly murder plot earned Francis Ford Coppola a nomination for best picture, but it lost to Coppola’s other Oscar-nominated film that year, The Godfather Part II.

You’d barely recognize Union Square in the famous opening scene in which Hackman can’t seem to shake a pursuing mime.

This timeless drama about fame and fandom gone too far was nominated in 14 categories (a record at the time) and won six, including best picture and best director.

Marilyn Monroe, then largely an unknown, appears as an empty-headed young actress in a scene shot at the Curran Theater. You can also see the film’s star, Bette Davis as Margo Channing, enter the Curran from Geary Street.

This sleek and sultry adaptation of the Anne Rice book won best art direction and best original score. Most of the action is set in New Orleans and Paris, but the frame story is pure San Francisco.

The building where the titular interview unfolds, at Golden Gate and Taylor, is dubbed the St. Martin Hotel in the movie, but no such establishment ever existed. 

Before Star Wars, George Lucas was most acclaimed for this coming-of-age story about goodhearted but rebellious teens on an all-night spree of fast cars and young love. Mel’s Drive-In, site of the famous diner scene, is no longer with us. Lucas was nominated for best director and best picture.

Indiana Jones’ original adventure lost the contest for best picture but took home best editing, visual effects, and art direction.

Indy and Marion are supposedly in Washington DC for the final scene, but actually that’s just good old San Francisco City Hall, in arguably the most beautiful shot of the grand staircase ever framed.

This three-part biopic examines the life of the late tech mogul in three critical eras, and with three different dramatic styles. The high drama middle chapter shot in the War Memorial Opera House borrows some opera tricks of its own, with its urgent musical score.

Michael Fassbender went up for best actor for his portrayal of Jobs, and the Academy nominated Kate Winslet best supporting actress.

Even lifelong fans may not realize that Henry Selick’s lovably odd 1993 stop-motion classic was shot 100 percent in San Francisco at Skellington Studios, an unmarked warehouse on Seventh Street that served as everything from sound stages to creature shop.

Nightmare was the first animated movie ever to be nominated for best visual effects. Note that the best animated feature category didn’t exist at the time.

Sean Penn took best actor for his humane portrayal of slain city supervisor and gay rights icon Harvey Milk. There are plenty of beautiful San Francisco locations to see (including gorgeous City Hall interiors), but the Castro, where the movie had its red carpet premiere, is the heart of the film. 

This far more acclaimed sequel to the 2011 film shot most of its San Francisco scenes in New Orleans, but the city did manage to lure a little of the monkey business to town for a handful of key shoots in real SF locations.

The greatest car chase scene of all time was shot on half a dozen streets, mostly in the Mission and Bernal Heights. Any real life San Francisco driver will tell you that by rights Frank Bullitt should have spent that entire scene stuck in traffic, but that probably wouldn’t have netted an Oscar for best editing.