It's a Wonderful Life

The 1946 film directed by Frank Capra, which has become Christmas season classic, was nominated for five Oscars: Best Picture, Best Actor in a Leading Role, Best Director, Best Sound Recording and Best Film Editing.

James Stewart played George Bailey, a compassionate but frustrated businessman who on Christmas Eve, thinking his life is meaningless made a wish that he was never born. In granting his wish, guardian angel Clarence showed George all the lives he had touched and how different life in his community of Bedford Falls would have been if he had never been born.

Mary Poppins

The 1964 Walt Disney film directed by Robert Stevenson and inspired by the P.L. Travers book series Mary Poppins won five Oscars: Best Actress in a Leading Role, Best Film Editing, Best Effects – Special Visual Effects, Best Music – Original Song and Best Music, Substantially Original Score.

Julie Andrews played the magical nanny Mary Poppins, who through a series of quirky adventures, helped stoic London banker George Banks reconnect and have fun with his wife and children as a family.

Scrooge

The 1970 film musical based on the Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol was nominated for four Oscars: Best Art Direction – Set Direction, Best Costume Design, Best Music – Original Song and Best Music – Original Song Score. Is it any surprise that cranky old miser Ebenezer Scrooge was a banker who hated Christmas and mistreated his employee Bob Cratchit and clients? He received a wake-up call on Christmas Eve when he was visited by three spirits and learned that being kind and generous to others has more value than money.

Trading Places

Commodities brokerage firm owners, the brothers Randolph and Mortimer Duke, decided to test whether social hierarchy and success was based on nurture or nature. When they witnessed an altercation between their managing director Louis Winthorpe III, who was engaged to their grand-niece Penelope, and poor street hustler Billy Ray Valentine, who Winthorpe had arrested for suspected robbery, the brothers decided to use the two men as pawns in a life swapping experiment. The 1984 comedy directed by John Landis was nominated for Best Music, Original Song Score and Adaptation or Best Adaptation Score.

Wall Street

The 1987 film directed and co-written by Oliver Stone earned Michael Douglas an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his portrayal of corporate raider Gordon Gekko. The movie told the story of Bud Fox, a young and impatient stockbroker in New York City, who wanted to work with his hero, legendary Wall Street player Gekko. Fox, played by Charlie Sheen, was willing to do anything to get to the top. When Gekko took him under his wing, Fox got more than he bargained for.

Working Girl

Directed by Mike Nichols, the 1988 romantic comedy won the Oscar for Best Original Song. Carly Simon's Let the River Run then became an anthem for women in the workplace. Staten Island-raised secretary Tess McGill, played by Melanie Griffith, works as a secretary in the mergers and acquisitions department of a Wall Street investment bank and dreams of moving up. After her boss Katharine Parker, played by Sigourney Weaver, broke her leg skiing while in Europe and asked Tess to house-sit, the street smart Tess discovered her boss planned to pass off her merger idea as her own to media mogul Oren Trask. Tess used Parker's absence and connections, including executive Jack Trainer, to present her own idea to Trask.

Catch Me If You Can

A true story about Frank Abagnale Jr., who before his 19th birthday successfully performed cons worth millions of dollars through check fraud. Abagnale, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, also posed as a Pan American World Airways pilot, a doctor and a legal prosecutor. The 2002 film was nominated for two Oscars: Best Actor in a Supporting Role and Best Music, Original Score. Abagnale is now one of the most respected authorities on the subjects of forgery, embezzlement and secure documents and the majority of his work has been in service to the U.S. government. In 2012 he testified before the U.S. Senate about the potential growth of elder financial services abuse.

Margin Call

Written and directed by J. C. Chandor, the 2011 film, which was nominated for Best Writing, Original Screenplay, documented the early stages of the financial crisis of 2007-2008. The film explored what happened at a Wall Street investment firm when Junior Risk Analyst Seth Bregman, Senior Analyst Peter Sullivan and Trading Desk Manager Will Emerson discovered the firm's portfolio of mortgage backed securities could lead to the its collapse.

The Wolf of Wall Street

Directed by Martin Scorsese, the 2013 film was nominated for five Oscars: Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role, Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role, Best Achievement in Directing, Best Writing/Adapted Screenplay and Best Motion Picture of the Year. The film was based on the true story of Jordan Belfort's career as a stockbroker and exposed the corruption and fraud that ran rampant at his firm Stratton Oakmont, which eventually lead to his downfall. Leonardo DiCaprio also starred in this film.

The Big Short

The Big Short was based on the non-fiction 2010 book by Michael Lewis about the financial crisis of 2007-2008, and was nominated this year for five Oscars: Best Motion Picture of the Year, Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role, Best Achievement in Directing, Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay and Best Achievement in Film Editing. When hedge fund manager Michael Burry predicted in 2005 that the housing market bubble, built upon high-risk subprime mortgages, would collapse in the second quarter of 2007, he realized he could profit from the situation. When his predictions proved true, more traders and investors rushed to cash in, too.