Who/What Do You Think Were in Sixth Place at the Oscar Nominations?

Folks, the Oscar nominations have been sitting in our minds for a few days now. Often, I like to wait a bit before I do some of these kinds of pieces. On the one hand, it can make some of the immediate emotions feel less fresh. On the other hand, however, it allows for perhaps a bit more rational thinking. To that end, I wanted to once again play around with an exercise to see who and what just missed on an Academy Award nomination. Imagine if, in most categories, we had six nominees instead of five? What would nomination morning have looked like? To some degree, this is an expansion of the annual “alternate” Oscar nominations piece (found here most recently) that I do, as well as a follow-up to last year’s experiment here. Hopefully, it’s fun, and as always, it’s a clear invitation to submit your own picks.

Some categories are always pretty cut and dry. Others, however, are far from obvious. Plus, below the line is harder to figure out, as we all know, but most of them have one or two fairly clear probabilities. Mostly, it’s just a fun little exercise, especially as you see how much better something you like might have done, if only one or two more things would have broken their way.

Obviously, I’m going to want you all to chime in, but first…my picks are up. Here now are the sixth (or in one case, eleventh) place Oscar finishers, in my humble opinion:

BEST PICTURE: The Whale

BEST DIRECTOR: Joseph Kosinski – Top Gun: Maverick

BEST ACTOR: Tom Cruise – Top Gun: Maverick

BEST ACTRESS: Danielle Deadwyler – Till

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Paul Dano – The Fabelmans

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Dolly De Leon – Triangle of Sadness

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Elvis

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: The Whale

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE: Wendell and Wild

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: Top Gun: Maverick

BEST COSTUME DESIGN: The Fabelmans

BEST FILM EDITING: All Quiet on the Western Front

BEST MAKEUP & HAIRSTYLING: Blonde

BEST SOUND: Everything Everywhere All At Once

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS: Nope

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE: Women Talking

BEST ORIGINAL SONG: Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio  (Ciao Papa)

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: Descendant

BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE: Decision to Leave

Who and what did you think were next in line for Oscar nominations? Let us know!