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

Folks, welcome back to a fun little exercise that I like to do each and 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 that includes Adam Sandler for Hustle, as just one 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, She Said isn’t shut out, nor did The Whale miss in Best Picture, while Paul Dano gets into Best Supporting Actor. Read on for my various other examples below!

Like last year and the year prior, I want to explain this a little 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. The Whale
2. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
3. Babylon
4. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
5. RRR
6. Living
7. Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
8. The Woman King
9. She Said
10. The Batman

BEST DIRECTOR

1. Joseph Kosinski – Top Gun: Maverick
2. Baz Luhrmann – Elvis
3. James Cameron – Avatar: The Way of Water
4. Edward Berger – All Quiet on the Western Front
5. S.S. Rajamouli – RRR

BEST ACTOR

1. Tom Cruise – Top Gun: Maverick
2. Adam Sandler – Hustle
3. Tom Hanks – A Man Called Otto
4. Gabriel LaBelle – The Fabelmans
5. Diego Calva – Babylon

BEST ACTRESS

1. Danielle Deadwyler – Till
2. Olivia Colman – Empire of Light
3. Viola Davis – The Woman King
4. Margot Robbie – Babylon
5. Zoe Kazan – She Said

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

1. Paul Dano – The Fabelmans
2. Eddie Redmayne – The Good Nurse
3. Ben Whishaw – Women Talking
4. Brad Pitt – Babylon
5. Tom Hanks – Elvis

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

1. Dolly De Leon – Triangle of Sadness
2. Jessie Buckley – Women Talking
3. Janelle Monáe – Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
4. Claire Foy – Women Talking
5. Carey Mulligan – She Said

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

1. Elvis
2. Babylon
3. Aftersun
4. Empire of Light
5. Armageddon Time

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

1. The Whale
2. She Said
3. Avatar: The Way of Water
4. Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
5. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

1. Wendell and Wild
2. Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood
3. Lightyear
4. Inu-Oh
5. Eternal Spring

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

1. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
2. Everything Everywhere All At Once
3. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
4. The Batman
5. Empire of Light

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

1. Top Gun: Maverick
2. The Fabelmans
3. Avatar: The Way of Water
4. Babylon
5. The Batman

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

1. Living
2. The Fabelmans
3. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
4. Women Talking
5. Avatar: The Way of Water

BEST FILM EDITING

1. The Fabelmans
2. All Quiet on the Western Front
3. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
4. The Batman
5. Avatar: The Way of Water

BEST MAKEUP & HAIRSTYLING

1. Blonde
2. Babylon
3. Emancipation
4. Amsterdam
5. Crimes of the Future

BEST SOUND

1. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
2. Everything Everywhere All At Once
3. Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
4. Babylon
5. Moonage Daydream

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

1. Nope
2. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
3. Thirteen Lives
4. Jurassic World: Dominion
5. Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

1. Women Talking
2. Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
3. She Said
4. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
5. Avatar: The Way of Water

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

1. Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (Ciao Papa)
2. White Noise (New Body Rhumba)
3. Where the Crawdads Sing (Carolina)
4. Spirited (Good Afternoon)
5. A Man Called Otto (Til You’re Home)

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

1. Descendant
2. Retrograde
3. Moonage Daydream
4. Bad Axe
5. The Janes

BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE

1. Decision to Leave
2. Bardo
3. Holy Spider
4. Saint Omer
5. Return to Seoul

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