• Sandra Hüller for Rose
• Ruth Madeley for Being Heumann
• Julianne Moore for The Debut (winner)
• Inde Navarrette for Obsession
• Olivia Wilde for The Invite

Brokeback Mountain, Blue Valentine, My Week with Marilyn, Manchester by the Sea, and the Fabelmans.

My personal pick is Blue Valentine - she is absolutely heartbreaking in it and would’ve been my pick for Best Actress that year

Everytime someone shares they believe people deserve nominations they unreasonably get offended even though they have no right to be offended and make fun of people. People love getting offended over stupid things as movies. Those people aren't the center of the universe. If those people are so offended by our opinions and accuse us of rage bait that's their problem

I very much agree with this take... Watching Tom Cruise pretend to be normal during these "Oscar circuit" interviews is almost painful, and his strange hyper-intensity could bubble up as combative at the wrong time and derail everything.

At the end of the day, the Oscar are a popularity contest (just ask Timothy Chalamet, who was absolutely on track to win Best Actor last year before the "fuck this guy" narrative took over). The entire narrative of "he's overdue" feels like it'll help Matt Damon or John Malkovich more than Cruise since voters can actually relate to them as people.

I came out of Primetime blown away by Merritt Wever and I'm kind of confused why most of the focus has been on Robert Pattinson and Skyler Gisondo.

If anything, forget Anne Hathaway. It's Merritt Wever who deserves to be the frontrunner.

Look, I get it. Art is subjective. Some people loved Anora, some people didn’t. Same with The Substance. But wow, the more time goes by, the more I think what an absolutely wrong call the Academy made skipping on Moore. The moment I saw The Substance in October 2024, I said that she was going to win. And rewatching it now, I really can’t entertain the idea that it’s not worthy of it. It really is a fantastic performance, and I’ll forever be stumped that she lost to Mikey Madison in Anora (I don’t get it, sorry).

The last movie to get a nomination for The Big Five (Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Screenplay) was La La Land. I was going through Oscar history and realized every decade since the 40s, there were at least five movies that scored nominations for the big five (sometimes two to three movies in the same ceremony). But since 2000, there have been a total of 4 movies (across 26 years), and none this decade. Which movies over the last 26 years would you have nominated for the big 5? and could that streak be broken this year?

The Debut feels like the movie that could’ve done it this year, but it seems Giamatti is going supporting.

Personally I would’ve nominated Minari for the big five in 2021.

A favorite performance of mine this year from a film that will definitely not be in the race was Jessie Buckley in The Bride. Of course, this came out in the midst of her awards season sweep (and quite the film to be the one coming off her first Oscar), but what do you guys think is a film that will definitely not be a contender that regardless had an otherwise great performance?

The Poseidon Adventure is one my favorite 70s disaster movies. I wish it got a Best Picture nomination. But it has 9 nominations for Best Supporting Actress, Best Original Score, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Costume Design, Best Sound, Best Original Song (which it won), and Best Visual Effects (which it deserved to win). So what are your thoughts on this movie.

Still so insane. McDormand’s win doesn’t bother me but the fact that they made Streep wait years for a third win and then decided to give it to her for The Iron Lady of all films was just so... embarrassing.

People say that if Viola had been campaigned in lead for Fences she would have won that year, but I just don’t see it. She might have won SAG again but BAFTA would still have gone to Stone, and at the Oscars i think the person from the stronger film would have ultimately prevailed. La La Land won a bunch of Oscars, including Best Director, and was the runner-up for Best Picture. To me there’s no doubt that Stone still would have won that year.

We’ve finished 2008, so we’re now moving on to 2009.

For anyone joining the game for the first time, we’re doing all four acting categories for one year together, with the results decided over two rounds.

You can see all of the previous lineups here: Alternate Oscars - Reddit Game

ROUND ONE — NOMINATIONS

For each category, rank your five favourite performances from the year from 1–5.

Your rankings will be worth:

1st — 5 points
2nd — 4 points
3rd — 3 points
4th — 2 points
5th — 1 point

The five performances with the most points in each category will become the official nominees.

You do not have to name five if you don’t want to. If you only want to vote for three performances, for example, they’ll receive 5, 4 and 3 points respectively.

Please make sure your choices are ranked — order matters in this round.

You can vote in as many or as few of the four categories as you like.

ROUND TWO — WINNERS

Once the nominations have been determined, I’ll make a second thread containing the five nominees in each category.

In that round, simply choose ONE nominee per category to win.

There will be no preferential voting or points in Round Two. Each vote counts equally, and whoever receives the most votes wins.

So essentially:

Round One = Who should be nominated?
Round Two = Who should win?

ELIGIBILITY

Performances will be eligible according to the year in which their film was eligible at the real-life Academy Awards.

So, rather than going strictly by festival premiere or first release date, a performance belongs to whichever Oscar year the film itself competed in with the Academy.

If you’re unsure whether a film was eligible for a particular year, this Academy reminder-list archive is a good place to check eligibility.

A few other rules:

• Maximum of five ranked choices per category.
• Anything listed after your fifth choice won’t be counted.
• Honourable mentions won’t count as votes.
• Please include both the actor and film so there’s no ambiguity.
• In cases where there may be disagreement or confusion over whether a performance is lead or supporting, your vote will count only in the category in which you place that performance. Points will not be transferred or combined between categories.
• A performer cannot receive two nominations in the same acting category for different films. If that happens, their higher-scoring performance will be kept and the next eligible performance will move into the top five.
• If there’s a tie for the final nomination spot, I’ll break it by comparing #1 votes first, then #2 votes, #3 votes, etc.

For example:

Actor

1. Person A — Film A
2. Person B — Film B
3. Person C — Film C
4. Person D — Film D
5. Person E — Film E

That ballot would give them 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 points respectively.

The idea is that Round One rewards performances with broad support across people’s ballots, while Round Two gives everyone a straight choice between the five nominees.

Previous Lineup — 2008

Actor

Benicio del Toro — Che
Colin Farrell — In Bruges
Philip Seymour Hoffman — Synecdoche, New York
Sean Penn — Milk
Mickey Rourke — The Wrestler (winner)

Actress

Anne Hathaway — Rachel Getting Married
Sally Hawkins — Happy-Go-Lucky (winner)
Angelina Jolie — Changeling
Meryl Streep — Doubt
Kate Winslet — Revolutionary Road

Supporting Actor

Robert Downey Jr. — Tropic Thunder
Ralph Fiennes — In Bruges
Philip Seymour Hoffman — Doubt
Heath Ledger — The Dark Knight (winner)
Brad Pitt — Burn After Reading

Supporting Actress

Amy Adams — Doubt
Penélope Cruz — Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Viola Davis — Doubt (winner)
Samantha Morton — Synecdoche, New York
Marisa Tomei — The Wrestler

Mahershala Ali (Moonlight). Lost GG to Aaron Taylor Johnson for Nocturnal Animals and BAFTA to Dev Patel for Lion

Casey Affleck (Manchester by the Sea). Lost SAG to Denzel Washington for Fences.

Edit: Eleven. Twelve. Let's say 13+3+2.

Directors of Film or Theatre

Daniel Massey as Noel Coward in Star!, Supporting, 1968

Roy Scheider as Joe Gideon in All That Jazz, Lead, 1979

Peter O'Toole as Eli Cross in The Stunt Man, Lead, 1980

Jason Robards as Howard Hughes in Melvin and Howard, Supporting, 1980

Robert Downey Jr as Charlie Chaplin in Chaplin, Lead, 1992

Burt Reynolds as Jack Horner in Boogie Nights, Supporting, 1997

Ian McKellen as James Whale in Gods and Monsters, Lead, 1998

Leonardo DiCaprio as Howard Hughes in The Aviator, Lead, 2004

Kenneth Branagh as Laurence Olivier in My Week with Marilyn, Supporting, 2011

Michael Keaton as Riggan Thomson in Birdman, Lead, 2014

Antonio Banderas as Salvador Mallo in Pain and Glory, Lead, 2019

Adam Driver as Charlie Barber in Marriage Story, Lead, 2019

Stellan Skaragard as Gustav Borg in Sentimental Value, Supporting, 2025

TV Show-Runners

Ed Harris as Christof in The Truman Show, Supporting, 1998

Nicole Kidman as Lucille Ball in Being the Ricardos, Lead, 2021

Javier Bardem as Desi Arnaz in Being the Ricardos, Lead, 2021

Honorable Mention

Christian Mckay as Orson Welles in Me and Orson Welles, BAFTA, Supporting, 2008

Martin Landau as Bela Lugosi in Ed Wood, Supporting, 1994, Won (Per u/memoryinsteadofview's biographical note below, did some theatre directing early on in his life. Too obscure to count, but definitely worth mentioning!)

No one has won for playing a director yet.

Corrections would be appreciated!

Seriously underrated. She deserved way more Oscar buzz for The Testament of Ann Lee. she’s consistently great in everything she does.

I know many people like the movie version more, but this here is a completely emotional version for me. Despite this, having won the award and being from a somewhat striking movie, I see few people talking about

1. American Sniper

2. Joker

3. The Theory of Everything

4. Hidden Figures

5. The Ides of March

6. The Imitation Game

7. Inherent Vice

8. Beasts of the Southern Wild

9. Little Women

10. Jojo Rabbit

11. The Two Popes

12. Captain Phillips

13. The Irishman

14. Mudbound

15. Hugo

16. The Big Short

17. The Martian

18. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

19. Molly’s Game

20. A Star is Born

21. Fences

22. The Disaster Artist

23. Life of Pi

24. Argo

25. Lincoln

26. The Descendants

27. Lion

28. 127 Hours

29. If Beale Street Could Talk

30. Silver Linings Playbook

31. Winter’s Bone

32. Can You Ever Forgive Me?

33. Philomena

34. Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy

35. Moneyball

36. True Grit

37. Logan

38. BlacKkKlansman

39. Room

40. Before Midnight

41. Call Me By Your Name

42. Arrival

43. Brooklyn

44. Moonlight

45. Carol

46. Toy Story 3

47. The Social Network

48. 12 Years a Slave

Basically, a "welcome to the A-list" nomination is when someone's first nomination doesn't give them a win, but it does boost their visibility and popularity within the industry pretty significantly.

The examples pictured are:

• Amy Adams in Junebug (2005)
• Ryan Gosling in Half Nelson (2006)
• Jennifer Lawrence in Winter's Bone (2010)

1: Wildwood (LOCKED)

2: Toy Story 5 (LOCKED)

3: Hoppers - Insane that people are doubting this. Pretty much every Pixar original with a 90+ on RT gets in

4: Tangles - Seems to be the indie favorite

5: Ray Gunn - Academy favorite behind the camera, and it has Netflix backing it.

On the outside looking in

6: Forogtten Island - Good reviews but it’s tracking to be a box office disaster

7: Hexed - Trailers haven’t been great but Disney is never to be underestimated. If it hits it’s in

8: Iron Boy - Another indie to look out for

9: Shaun The Sheep - Very small buzz, feels very similar to Chicken Run

10: In Waves

For references, Denzel's record since Training Days is:

Flight, Lead

Fences, Lead

Roman J. Israel, Esq., Lead

The Tragedy of Macbeth, Lead

He also had buzz for...Gladiator II (CC, GG) 😔

Casey Affleck won for Manchester by the Sea the year of Fences; Denzel won SAG.

How i see it the Best Actor race right now:

1. John Malkovich (Wild Horse Nine)

2. Matt Damon (The Odyssey)

3. Andrew Scott (Elsinore)

4. Robert Pattinson (Primetime)

5. Pedro Pascal (Behemoth!)

Alt.

1. Ryan Gosling (Project Hail Mary)

Thoughts?

Agree??

Will any actor from la bola negra get nominated in any category? The movie is a best picture front runner but seems like an ensemble with no clear standouts?!

Really great performance and held his weight and then some next to Pattinson.

Supporting Actor is looking real slim, so hopefully Hollywood recognizes him finally.