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 2018 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. I will also feature fewer nominations if I wasn’t impressed by enough candidates.
Best supporting actor
Who the Academy picked:
- ***Mahershala Ali – Green Book***
- Adam Driver – BlacKkKlansman
- Sam Elliott – A Star is Born
- Richard E. Grant – Can You Ever Forgive Me
- Sam Rockwell – Vice
My picks:
- Adam Driver – BlacKkKlansman
- Benoît Poelvoorde – Keep an Eye Out
- Alex Wolff – Hereditary
- Iko Uwais – The Night Comes for Us
- Mads Mikkelsen – At Eternity’s Gate
- Steven Yeun – Burning
- Josh Hamilton – Eighth Grade
- Rafael Casal – Blindspotting
- Tory Kittles – Dragged Across Concrete
- ***Daniel Kaluuya – Widows***
Best Supporting Actress
Who the Academy picked:
- ***Regina King – If Beale Street Could Talk***
- Amy Adams – Vice
- Marina De Tavira – Roma
- Emma Stone – The Favourite
- Rachel Weisz – The Favourite
My picks:
- Cynthia Erivo – Widows
- Ruth Wilson – The Little Stranger
- Tilda Swinton – Suspiria
- Tessa Thompson – Sorry to Bother You
- Andrea Riseborough – Mandy
- Jennifer Carpenter – Dragged Across Concrete
- ***Olivia Colman – The Favourite***
best lead actor
Who the Academy picked:
- ***Rami Malek – Bohemian Rhapsody***
- Christian Bale – Vice
- Bradley Cooper – A Star is Born
- Willem Dafoe – At Eternity’s Gate
- Viggo Mortensen – Green Book
My picks:
- Willem Dafoe – At Eternity’s Gate
- Ben Foster – Leave No Trace
- Matt Dillon – The House That Jack Built
- Sunny Suljic – mid90s
- Sean Harris – Possum
- Song Kang-ho – The Drug King
- LaKeith Stanfield – Sorry to Bother You
- Nicolas Cage – Mandy
- Daveed Diggs – Blindspotting
- ***Jim Cummings – Thunder Road***
best lead actress
Who the Academy picked:
- ***Olivia Colman – The Favourite***
- Yalitza Aparicio – Roma
- Glenn Close – The Wife
- Lady Gaga – A Star is Born
- Melissa McCarthy – Can You Ever Forgive Me?
My picks:
- Emma Stone – The Favourite
- Nicole Kidman – Destroyer
- Kathryn Hahn – Private Life
- Thomasin McKenzie – Leave No Trace
- Viola Davis – Widows
- Maggie Gyllenhaal – The Kindergarten Teacher
- Aisling Franciosi – The Nightingale
- Jeon Jong-seo – Burning
- Elsie Fisher – Eighth Grade
- ***Toni Collette – Hereditary***
best editing
What the Academy picked:
- ***Bohemian Rhapsody – John Ottman***
- BlacKkKlansman – Barry Alexander Brown
- The Favourite – Yorgos Mavropsaridis
- Green Book – Patrick j. Don Vito
- Vice – Hank Corwin
My picks:
- The Favourite – Yorgos Mavropsaridis
- Leave No Trace – Jane Rizzo
- Widows – Joe Walker
- Hold the Dark – Julia Bloch
- Hereditary – Jennifer Lame, Lucian Johnston
- Searching – Will Merrick, Nicholas D. Johnson
- Burning – Kim Da-won, Kim Hyun
- Mandy – Brett W. Bachman
- Dragged Across Concrete – Greg D’Auria
- ***Suspiria – Walter Fasano***
best music
What the Academy picked:
- ***Black Panther – Ludwig Goransson***
- BlacKkKlansman – Terence Blanchard
- If Beale Street Could Talk – Nicholas Britell
- Isle of Dogs – Alexandre Desplat
- Mary Poppins Returns – Marc Shaiman
My picks:
- Isle of Dogs – Alexandre Desplat
- Suspiria – Thom Yorke
- Burning – Mowg
- Sorry to Bother You – The Coop, Tune-Yards
- Climax – Thomas Bangalter, various
- Annihilation – Ben Salisbury, Geoff Barrow
- Mandy – Jóhann Jóhannsson
- Blindspotting – Jonathan Snipes, Michael Yezerski, Daveed Diggs, Rafael Casal
- Dragged Across Concrete – S. Craig Zahler, Jeff Herriott, The O’Jays
- ***In Fabric – Cavern of Anti-Matter***
best cinematography
What the Academy picked:
- ***Roma – Alfonso Cuarón***
- Cold War – Łukasz Żal
- The Favourite – Robbie Ryan
- Never Look Away – Caleb Deschanel
- A Star is Born – Mathew Libatique
My picks:
- Roma – Alfonso Cuarón
- The Favourite – Robbie Ryan
- At Eternity’s Gate – Benoît Delhomme
- The Nightingale – Radek Ładczuk
- Burning – Hong Kyung-pyo
- Climax – Benoît Debie
- Mandy – Benjamin Loeb
- An Elephant Sitting Still – Fan Chao
- The Wolf House – Cristóbal León, Joaquín Cociña
- ***Shadow – Zhao Xiaoding***
best screenplay
What the Academy picked:
(Original)
- ***Green Book – Nick Vallelonga, Brian Currie, Peter Farrelly***
- The Favourite – Deborah Davis, Tony McNamara
- First Reformed – Paul Schrader
- Roma – Alfonso Cuarón
- Vice – Adam McKay
(Adapted)
- ***BlacKkKlansman – Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz, Kevin Willmott, Spike Lee***
- The Ballad of Buster Scruggs – Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
- Can You Ever Forgive Me? – Nicole Holofcener, Jeff Whitty
- If Beale Street Could Talk – Barry Jenkins
- A Star is Born – Eric Roth, Bradley Cooper, Will Fetters
My picks:
- The Favourite – Deborah Davis, Tony McNamara
- Hereditary – Ari Aster
- Shoplifters – Hirokazu Kore-eda
- The Guilty – Gustav Möller, Emil Nygaard Albertsen
- Sorry to Bother You – Boots Riley
- Eighth Grade – Bo Burnham
- Thunder Road – Jim Cummings
- Annihilation – Jeff VanderMeer, Alex Garland
- Dragged Across Concrete – S. Craig Zahler
- ***Blindspotting – Rafael Casal, Daveed Diggs***
best director
- ***Alfonso Cuarón – Roma***
- Spike Lee – BlacKkKlansman
- Paweł Pawlikowski – Cold War
- Yorgos Lanthimos – The Favourite
- Adam McKay – Vice
My picks:
- Yorgos Lanthimos – The Favourite
- Zhang Yimou – Shadow
- Ari Aster – Hereditary
- Jennifer Kent – The Nightingale
- Lee Chang-dong – Burning
- Boots Riley – Sorry to Bother You
- Gaspar Noé – Climax
- Hu Bo – An Elephant Sitting Still
- Cristóbal León, Joaquín Cociña – The Wolf House
- ***S. Craig Zahler – Dragged Across Concrete***
Best action
My picks:
- Revenger
- Master Z: Ip Man Legacy
- Upgrade
- Hold the Dark
- Mission: Impossible – Fallout
- Shadow
- ***The Night Comes for Us***
Best horror
My picks:
- The Little Stranger
- The Perfection
- In Fabric
- Possum
- Suspiria
- Hereditary
- Apostle
- Annihilation
- Mandy
- ***The Wolf House***
best picture
What the Academy picked:
- ***Green Book***
- Black Panther
- BlacKkKlansman
- Bohemian Rhapsody
- The Favourite
- Roma
- A Star is Born
- Vice
My picks:
- The Favourite
- Shoplifters
- Burning
- Sorry to Bother You
- Climax
- Mandy
- An Elephant Sitting Still
- Dragged Across Concrete
- The Wolf House
- ***Blindspotting***
2018 was a pretty terrible year for the actual Oscars — Green Book is destined to go down as one of the more embarrassing picks for best picture in the Academy’s history. Overall, I didn’t agree with a single winner from any of the categories I looked at, and even a lot of the nominations were pretty questionable in my book. Actually, I did agree with one winner, but I think she won for the wrong category. Olivia Colman absolutely deserved an Oscar for her work on The Favourite, but I swapped her and Emma Stone between lead and supporting since I think the Academy had those roles backwards.
The Oscar winners being pretty underwhelming in 2018 could lead you to believe that 2018 was a bit of a slow year for great cinema, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. I had a really tough time limiting some of these categories to just 10 nominations and had to leave out some worthy picks. 2018 was a fantastic year for indie, under-the-radar, and foreign-language cinema if you know where to look, and now you do.
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