The Oscars get it wrong pretty often. In fact, they rarely get it right. To set the record straight (and really just for a bit of fun), I’m looking back at past years and re-picking the nominees and winners for the major Oscars categories and a couple of new categories of my own. This time we’re looking at the films of 2016 as I work my way both forwards and backwards. The winner of each category is in bold with asterisks.
A couple of up front notes:
- I don’t distinguish between adapted and original screenplays and instead have only one best screenplay category.
- I don’t consider it right to cordon off foreign language films into a separate category and instead include them more directly in the running for all categories.
- I don’t think it makes sense to separate actors by gender. However, I am still include separate best actor and actress categories purely because it allows for more great performances to be recognized.
- For best music, I consider the usage of pre-existing music alongside original compositions.
- The new categories that I’m adding are best horror and best action, two genres historically underrepresented at the Academy Awards.
- Since the Academy allows up to 10 nominations in the best picture category, I will allow up to 10 nominations in ALL categories if there are enough great candidates to justify it.
Best supporting actor
Who the Academy picked:
- ***Mahershala Ali – Moonlight***
- Jeff Bridges – Hell or High Water
- Lucas Hedges – Manchester by the Sea
- Dev Patel – Lion
- Michael Shannon – Nocturnal Animals
My picks:
- Michael Shannon – Nocturnal Animals
- Aaron Taylor-Johnson – Nocturnal Animals
- Timothy Spall – Denial
- John Goodman – 10 Cloverfield Lane
- Don Lee – Train to Busan
- Danny glover – Pushing Dead
- Jun Kunimura – The Wailing
- Daniel Radcliffe – Swiss Army Man
- Adam Driver – Silence
- ***Mahershala Ali – Moonlight***
Best Supporting Actress
Who the Academy picked:
- ***Viola Davis – Fences***
- Naomie Harris – Moonlight
- Nicole Kidman – Lion
- Octavia Spencer – Hidden Figures
- Michelle Williams – Manchester by the Sea
My picks:
- Michelle Williams – Manchester by the Sea
- Laura Dern – Certain Women
- Hayley Squires – I, Daniel Blake
- Robin Weigert – Pushing Dead
- Greta Gerwig – 20th Century Women
- Elle Fanning – 20th Century Women
- Golshifteh farahani – Paterson
- Lucy Boynton – Sing Street
- ***Naomie Harris – Moonlight***
best lead actor
Who the Academy picked:
- ***Casey Affleck – Manchester by the Sea***
- Andrew Garfield – Hacksaw Ridge
- Ryan Gosling – La La Land
- Viggo Mortensen – Captain Fantastic
- Denzel Washington – Fences
My picks:
- Casey Affleck – Manchester by the Sea
- Ryan Gosling – The Nice Guys
- Ryan Gosling – La La Land
- Song Kang-ho – The Age of Shadows
- Dave Johns – I, Daniel Blake
- James Roday Rodriguez – Pushing Dead
- Adam Driver – Paterson
- Paul Dano – Swiss Army Man
- Shahab Hosseini – The Salesman
- ***Denzel Washington – Fences***
best lead actress
Who the Academy picked:
- ***Emma Stone – La La Land***
- Isabelle Huppert – Elle
- Ruth Negga – Loving
- Natalie Portman – Jackie
- Meryl Streep – Florence Foster Jenkins
My picks:
- Sandra Hüller – Toni Erdmann
- Emma Stone – La La Land
- Natalie Portman – Jackie
- Rebecca Hall – Christine
- Annette Bening – 20th Century Women
- Garance Marillier – Raw
- Amy Adams – Arrival
- Kim Tae-ri – The Handmaiden
- Kim Min-hee – The Handmaiden
- ***Viola Davis – Fences***
best editing
What the Academy picked:
- ***Hacksaw Ridge – John Gilbert***
- La La Land – Tom Cross
- Moonlight – Joi McMillon & Nat Sanders
- Arrival – Joe Walker
- Hell or High Water – Jake Roberts
My picks:
- La La Land – Tom Cross
- Moonlight – Joi McMillon & Nat Sanders
- Arrival – Joe Walker
- Train to Busan – Yang Jin-mo
- The Wailing – Kim Sun-min
- Nocturnal Animals – Joan Sobel
- The Handmaiden – Kim Sang-bum & Kim Jae-beom
- ***20th Century Women – Leslie Jones***
best music
What the Academy picked:
- ***La La Land – Justin Hurwitz***
- Jackie – Mica Levi
- Lion – Dustin O’Halloran & Volker Bertelmann
- Moonlight – Nicholas Britell
- Passengers – Thomas Newman
My picks:
- Jackie – Mica Levi
- Hell or High Water – Nick Cave & Warren Ellis
- The Hunt for the Wilderpeople (various)
- 20th Century Women (various)
- Swiss Army Man – Andy Hull & Robert McDowell
- Everybody Wants Some!! (various)
- Sing Street – Gary Clark & John Carney
- ***La La Land – Justin Hurwitz***
best cinematography
What the Academy picked:
- ***La La Land – Linus Sandgren***
- Arrival – Bradford Young
- Lion – Greig Fraser
- Moonlight – James Laxton
- Silence – Rodrigo Prieto
My picks:
- La La Land – Linus Sandgren
- Arrival – Bradford Young
- Moonlight – James Laxton
- Silence – Rodrigo Prieto
- To Keep the Light – Wes Cardino
- The Love Witch – M. David Mullen
- 20th Century Women – Sean Porter
- I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives In the House – Julie Kirkwood
- Nocturnal Animals – Seamus McGarvey
- ***The Handmaiden – Chung Chung-hoon***
best screenplay
What the Academy picked:
(Original)
- ***Manchester by the Sea – Kenneth Lonergan***
- Hell or High Water – Taylor Sheridan
- La La Land – Damien Chazelle
- The Lobster – Yorgos Lanthimos & Efthimis Filippou
- 20th Century Women – Mike Mills
(Adapted)
- ***Moonlight – Barry Jenkins, story by Tarell Alvin McCraney***
- Arrival – Eric Heisserer
- Fences – August Wilson
- Hidden Figures – Allison Schroeder and Theodore Melfi
- Lion – Luke Davies
My picks:
- Manchester by the Sea – Kenneth Lonergan
- The Lobster – Yorgos Lanthimos & Efthimis Filippou
- 20th Century Women – Mike Mills
- Moonlight – Barry Jenkins, story by Tarell Alvin McCraney
- Arrival – Eric Heisserer
- Fences – August Wilson
- I, Daniel Blake – Paul Laverty
- Pushing Dead – Tom E. Brown
- Nocturnal Animals – Tom Ford
- ***The Handmaiden – Park Chan-wook & Chung Seo-kyung***
best director
- ***Damien Chazelle – La La Land***
- Denis Villeneuve – Arrival
- Mel Gibson – Hacksaw Ridge
- Kenneth Lonergan – Manchester by the Sea
- Barry Jenkins – Moonlight
My picks:
- Damien Chazelle – La La Land
- Denis Villeneuve – Arrival
- Barry Jenkins – Moonlight
- Julia Ducournau – Raw
- Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert – Swiss Army Man
- Tom Ford – Nocturnal Animals
- Martin Scorsese – Silence
- Mike Mills – 20th Century Women
- Asgar Farhadi – The Salesman
- ***Park Chan-wook – The handmaiden***
Best action
My picks:
- Headshot
- Operation Mekong
- ***Free Fire***
Best horror
My picks:
- Under the Shadow
- Hounds of Love
- I Am Not a Serial Killer
- The Void
- The Love Witch
- 10 Cloverfield Lane
- I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives In the House
- The Wailing
- Train to Busan
- ***Raw***
Best Documentary
What the Academy picked:
- ***O.J.: Made in America***
- Fire at Sea
- I Am Not Your Negro
- Life, Animated
- 13th
My picks:
- Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World
- Tower
- 13th
- David Lynch: The Art Life
- Rat Film
- Louis Theroux: Savile
- Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds: One more time with feeling
- ***Tickled***
best picture
What the Academy picked:
- ***Moonlight***
- Arrival
- Fences
- Hacksaw Ridge
- Hell or High Water
- Hidden Figures
- La La Land
- Lion
- Manchester by the Sea
My picks:
- Arrival
- La La Land
- Manchester by the Sea
- I, Daniel Blake
- Silence
- 20th Century Women
- Nocturnal Animals
- The Handmaiden
- The Salesman
- ***Moonlight***
All in all, the Oscars chose decently in 2016. I only agreed on three category winners, but that included Best Picture going to Moonlight, which I think is not only the best film of 2016 but one of the best films ever made. I also agreed on Viola Davis winning, but I put her in the lead category as it seems extremely strange to me to consider her performance in Fences to be a supporting role as the Academy did.
Another big takeaway that jumped out at me as I was putting this together: 2016 was a great year for horror but a terrible year for action. There were only three actions movies that I liked enough to give nominations to, and I wouldn’t call any of them great. I saw many additional action movies released in 2016, but none worth nominating.
samkench.com 
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