What Would An “Alternate” Academy Award Nominations Have Looked Like?

Folks, welcome back to a fun little exercise that I like to do every year. A day or two after the Academy Award nominees are announced, I like to look at what the alternate version of the nominations would be. Imagine a Best Actor race headlined by Simon Rex for Red Rocket, for example. Or, what about any of the below the line categories. Mostly, this just something fun to do the day after the agony and the ecstasy of the Oscar nominations. Here, C’mon C’mon isn’t shut out, nor are Pig or Red Rocket, while Ben Affleck gets into Best Supporting Actor. Read on for my various other examples below!

Like last year, I want to explain this a bit more. What you’re going to see is how the Oscar nominations would look in an alternate universe. Essentially, if you remove the actual nominees from each Academy Award category, what would it look like? Would any categories look better? In most years, the answer is usually yes. This year, however? I actually think the Academy largely made the right calls. You can see next and decide for yourself…

Here we go…the “alternate” Academy Award nominees:

BEST PICTURE

1. Being the Ricardos
2. Tick, Tick…Boom!
3. The Lost Daughter
4. The Tragedy of Macbeth
5. Parallel Mothers
6. The Worst Person in the World
7. The Eyes of Tammy Faye
8. Spencer
9. Spider-Man: No Way home
10. House of Gucci

BEST DIRECTOR

1. Denis Villeneuve – Dune
2. Sian Heder – CODA
3. Adam McKay – Don’t Look Up
4. Guillermo del Toro – Nightmare Alley
5. Joel Coen – The Tragedy of Macbeth

BEST ACTOR

1. Leonardo DiCaprio – Don’t Look Up
2. Peter Dinklage – Cyrano
3. Simon Rex – Red Rocket
4. Nicolas Cage – Pig
5. Joaquin Phoenix – C’mon C’mon

BEST ACTRESS

1. Lady Gaga – House of Gucci
2. Jennifer Hudson – Respect
3. Alana Haim – Licorice Pizza
4. Frances McDormand – The Tragedy of Macbeth
5. Emilia Jones – CODA

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

1. Jamie Dornan – Belfast
2. Jared Leto – House of Gucci
3. Bradley Cooper – Licorice Pizza
4. Ben Affleck – The Tender Bar
5. Woody Norman – C’mon C’mon

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

1. Caitriona Balfe – Belfast
2. Ruth Negga – Passing
3. Ann Dowd – Mass
4. Cate Blanchett – Nightmare Alley
5. Meryl Streep – Don’t Look Up

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

1. Being the Ricardos
2. C’mon C’mon
3. Mass
4. Red Rocket
5. The French Dispatch

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

1. Nightmare Alley
2. West Side Story
3. Tick, Tick…Boom!
4. The Tragedy of Macbeth
5. Passing

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

1. Sing 2
2. Belle
3. Where is Anne Frank
4. Vivo
5. Cryptozoo

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

1. Belfast
2. The French Dispatch
3. Licorice Pizza
4. Being the Ricardos
5. Cruella

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

1. Belfast
2. The French Dispatch
3. Licorice Pizza
4. Spencer
5. The Lost Daughter

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

1. House of Gucci
2. Coming 2 America
3. The French Dispatch
4. Spencer
5. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

BEST FILM EDITING

1. Belfast
2. Licorice Pizza
3. West Side Story
4. No Time to Die
5. Nightmare Alley

BEST MAKEUP & HAIRSTYLING

1. The Suicide Squad
2. Cyrano
3. House of Gucci
4. Nightmare Alley
5. No Time to Die

BEST SOUND

1. Spider-Man: No Way Home
2. Tick, Tick…Boom!
3. A Quiet Place Part II
4. The Matrix Resurrections
5. Last Night in Soho

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

1. The Matrix Resurrections
2. Godzilla vs Kong
3. Eternals
4. Ghostbusters: Afterlife
5. Black Widow

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

1. The French Dispatch
2. Spencer
3. The Green Knight
4. The Tragedy of Macbeth
5. No Time to Die

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

1. Don’t Look Up (Just Look Up)
2. Annette (So May We Start)
3. CODA (Beyond the Shore)
4. Respect (Here I Am (Singing My Way Home))
5. Sing 2 (Your Song Saved My Life)

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

1. The Rescue
2. Procession
3. Faya Dayi
4. The First Wave
5. The Velvet Underground

BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE

1. A Hero
2. Compartment No. 6
3. I’m Your Man
4. Prayers for the Stolen
5. The Good Boss

Let us know what you think of the “alternate” Academy Award nominations in the comments!