What Would An “Alternate” Lineup for the Academy Award Nominations Have Looked Like This Year?

Here we go again! Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to a fun little exercise that I like to do each year. A day or two (less than twenty four hours, in this case) after the Academy Award nominees are announced, I like to look at what the alternate version of the nominations would be. Imagine, if you will, a Best Actress race that includes Zendaya for Challengers, as just one example. Or, what about any of the below the line categories? You get the point. Mostly, this just something fun to do the day after the agony and the ecstasy of the Oscar nominations. Here, Saturday Night isn’t shut out, nor did Edward Berger miss in Best Director for Conclave. Likewise for A Real Pain in Best Picture. Read on for my various other examples below!

Like last year, the year prior, the year before, as well as the year I first debuted the piece at Awards Radar, 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. A Real Pain
2. Sing Sing
3. September 5
4. Challengers
5. Nosferatu
6. The Wild Robot
7. The Apprentice
8. Maria
9. Gladiator II
10. Flow

BEST DIRECTOR

1. Edward Berger – Conclave
2. RaMell Ross – Nickel Boys
3. Denis Villeneuve – Dune: Part Two
4. Jon M. Chu – Wicked
5. Walter Salles – I’m Still Here

BEST ACTOR

1. Daniel Craig – Queer
2. Sebastian Stan – A Different Man
3. Jesse Eisenberg – A Real Pain
4. Hugh Grant – Heretic
5. Glen Powell – Hit Man

BEST ACTRESS

1. Marianne Jean-Baptiste – Hard Truths
2. Angelina Jolie – Maria
3. Pamela Anderson – The Last Showgirl
4. Kate Winslet – Lee
5. Nicole Kidman – Babygirl

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

1. Clarence Maclin – Sing Sing
2. Denzel Washington – Gladiator II
3. Stanley Tucci – Conclave
4. Jonathan Bailey – Wicked
5. Peter Sarsgaard – September 5

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

1. Margaret Qualley – The Substance
2. Jamie Lee Curtis – The Last Showgirl
3. Danielle Deadwyler – The Piano Lesson
4. Selena Gomez – Emilia Pérez
5. Elle Fanning – A Complete Unknown

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

1. Challengers
2. Hard Truths
3. Civil War
4. Saturday Night
5. All We Imagine As Light

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

1. Dune: Part Two
2. I’m Still Here
3. Hit Man
4. Wicked
5. Nosferatu

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

1. Moana 2
2. Chicken For Linda!
3. That Christmas
4. Ultraman: Rising
5. Transformers One

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

1. A Complete Unknown
2. Gladiator II
3. Blitz
4. Saturday Night
5. Emilia Pérez

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

1. Conclave
2. A Complete Unknown
3. Wicked
4. Nickel Boys
5. Anora

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

1. Dune: Part Two
2. Emilia Pérez
3. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
4. Maria
5. Blitz

BEST FILM EDITING

1. Dune: Part Two
2. A Complete Unknown
3. The Substance
4. Nickel Boys
5. Civil War

BEST MAKEUP & HAIRSTYLING

1. The Apprentice
2. Dune: Part Two
3. Maria
4. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
5. Waltzing with Brando

BEST SOUND

1. Blitz
2. Gladiator II
3. Alien: Romulus
4. Joker: Folie à Deux
5. Deadpool & Wolverine

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

1. Mufasa: The Lion King
2. Gladiator 2
3. Civil War
4. Twisters
5. Deadpool & Wolverine

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

1. Challengers
2. Nosferatu
3. Gladiator II
4. The Room Next Door
5. Blitz

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

1. The Wild Robot (Kiss the Sky)
2. Will & Harper (Harper and Will Go West)
3. Challengers (Compress/Repress)
4. Kneecap (Sick in the Head)
5. Piece By Piece (Piece By Piece)

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

1. Daughters
2. Will & Harper
3. Union
4. Dahomey
5. The Remarkable Life of Ibelin

BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE

1. Kneecap
2. Vermiglio
3. Dahomey
4. Universal Language
5. Touch

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