Marty (1955)

Directed by Delbert Mann

One of the most gentle, kind-hearted movies I have ever seen.  Marty is thirty-something and lives at home with his mother who regularly gets on his case about going out and meeting a nice girl.  He's tired of the whole exercise but reluctantly goes out anyway.  But this night things don't go as he expected.  The characters have a real authenticity and the movie doesn't look down upon them.  Surprisingly for such an unassuming movie, it won four Oscar's including Best Picture and the Palme d'Or at Cannes.