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

Here we go again folks! Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to a fun little exercise that I like to do each year. A day or two (less than 48 hours, in this case) after the Oscar nominees are announced, I like to look at what the alternate version of the nominations would be. Imagine, if you will, a Best Actor race that includes Jeremy Allen White for Springsteen: Deliever Me From Nowhere or a Best Supporting Actor race that features Adam Sandler for Jay Kelly, as just two examples. Or, what about any of the below the line categories? You obviously get the point. Mostly, this just something fun to do the day after the agony and the ecstasy of the Oscar nominations. Here, Wicked: For Good isn’t shut out (regardless of whether it deserved to be or not), nor did Guillermo del Toro miss in Best Director for Frankenstein. Likewise for Blue Moon in Best Picture. Read on for my various other examples below!

Like always, I want to explain this a little bit more, just to be clear on what’s going down. 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? Once again, I actually think the Academy largely made the right calls. However, especially in a year where One Battle After Another and Sinners so dominated the nominations, looking at a different lineup has some appeal. Could this have been an improvement in any way? You can see next and decide for yourself…

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

BEST PICTURE

1. Blue Moon
2. It Was Just an Accident
3. Wicked: For Good
4. Weapons
5. Avatar: Fire and Ash
6. Jay Kelly
7. Song Sung Blue
8. Sirât
9. If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
10. Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere

BEST DIRECTOR

1. Guillermo del Toro – Frankenstein
2. Yorgos Lanthimos – Bugonia
3. Kleber Mendonça Filho – The Secret Agent
4. Joseph Kosinski – F1
5. Clint Bentley – Train Dreams

BEST ACTOR

1. Joel Edgerton – Train Dreams
2. Jesse Plemons – Bugonia
3. Jeremy Allen White – Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere
4. George Clooney – Jay Kelly
5. Oscar Isaac – Frankenstein

BEST ACTRESS

1. Chase Infiniti – One Battle After Another
2. Amanda Seyfried – The Testament of Ann Lee
3. Cynthia Erivo – Wicked: For Good
4. Jennifer Lawrence – Die My Love
5. Tessa Thompson – Hedda

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

1. Paul Mescal – Hamnet
2. Adam Sandler – Jay Kelly
3. Miles Caton – Sinners
4. Andrew Scott – Blue Moon
5. Billy Crudup – Jay Kelly

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

1. Odessa A’zion – Marty Supreme
2. Ariana Grande – Wicked: For Good
3. Regina Hall – One Battle After Another
4. Gwyneth Paltrow – Marty Supreme
5. Kerry Condon – Train Dreams

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

1. Weapons
2. The Secret Agent
3. Jay Kelly
4. Sorry, Baby
5. A House of Dynamite

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

1. Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
2. The Life of Chuck
3. No Other Choice
4. Wicked: For Good
5. Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

1. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Infinity Castle
2. In Your Dreams
3. Scarlet
4. The Magnificent Life of Marcel Pagnol
5. Fixed

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

1. Wicked: For Good
2. Bugonia
3. Avatar: Fire and Ash
4. Train Dreams
5. The Phoenician Scheme

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

1. F1
2. Hamnet
3. Bugonia
4. Sentimental Value
5. Wicked: For Good

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

1. Wicked: For Good
2. One Battle After Another
3. Hedda
4. Train Dreams
5. Blue Moon

BEST FILM EDITING

1. Hamnet
2. Avatar: Fire and Ash
3. Bugonia
4. Train Dreams
5. Wicked: For Good

BEST MAKEUP & HAIRSTYLING

1. Wicked: For Good
2. Marty Supreme
3. One Battle After Another
4. Nuremberg
5. The Alto Knights

BEST SOUND

1. Avatar: Fire and Ash
2. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
3. Wicked: For Good
4. Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere
5. Superman

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

1. Frankenstein
2. Superman
3. The Electric State
4. Wicked: For Good
5. Tron: Ares

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

1. Marty Supreme
2. Train Dreams
3. F1
4. Avatar: Fire and Ash
5. A House of Dynamite

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

1. F1 (Drive)
2. Wicked: For Good (The Girl in the Bubble)
3. Sinners (Last Time (I Seen the Sun))
4. Wicked: For Good (No Place Like Home)
5. Avatar: Fire and Ash (Dream As One)

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

1. Cover-Up
2. My Undesirable Friends: Part I — Last Air in Moscow
3. 2000 Meters to Adriivka
4. Apocalypse in the Tropics
5. Holding Liat

BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE

1. No Other Choice
2. Left-Handed Girl
3. Belén
4. Sound of Falling
5. Palestine 36

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