My Ideal Oscars Lineup

(Time)

Every year the Oscar nominations are announced and every year they’re bound to be upsetting in one way or another—sometimes a great film is inexplicably snubbed, other times a bad film is inexplicably nominated. It’s a predictable cycle of anticipation, disappointment, and outrage.

This year’s batch of nominations is particularly puzzling. The 2018 ceremony gave us a plethora of instant classics to choose from (Dunkirk, The Shape of Water, Get Out, Lady Bird, Call Me by Your Name, and Phantom Thread; wow, what an amazing lineup), but save for Roma, 2019 feels like a steaming pile of mediocrity.

In fact, this year’s nominations are so bafflingly underwhelming that I felt my usual “should have been nominated” aside on my predictions article wouldn’t cut it. Enter this list of ideal nominations. What follows is a rundown of 16 of the 24 categories that I have revamped to imagine what the nominations might have looked like in a utopian world where more Academy members have good taste.

I tried my best not to deviate too much from what feasibly could have been (e.g., although Mission: Impossible – Fallout was one of the best films of the year, it had no chance of ever being a Best Picture nominee). My ideal winner for each category has been bolded.

Best Picture

Black Panther

BlacKkKlansman

Cold War

Eighth Grade

If Beale Street Could Talk

First Reformed

Paddington 2

Roma

Vox Lux

Widows

Best Director

Alfonso Cuarón, Roma

Barry Jenkins, If Beale Street Could Talk

Paweł Pawlikowski, Cold War

Lynne Ramsay, You Were Never Really Here

Paul Schrader, First Reformed

Best Actor

Tom Cruise, Mission: Impossible – Fallout

Ryan Gosling, First Man

Ethan Hawke, First Reformed

Robert Redford, The Old Man and the Gun

John David Washington, BlacKkKlansman

Best Actress

Yalitza Aparicio, Roma

Viola Davis, Widows

Elsie Fisher, Eighth Grade

Joanna Kulig, Cold War

KiKi Layne, If Beale Street Could Talk

Best Supporting Actor

Mahershala Ali, Green Book

Colman Domingo, If Beale Street Could Talk

Richard E. Grant, Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Josh Hamilton, Eighth Grade

Michael B. Jordan, Black Panther

Best Supporting Actress

Olivia Colman, The Favourite

Elizabeth Debicki, Widows

Marina de Tavira, Roma

Regina King, If Beale Street Could Talk

Rachel Weisz, The Favourite

Best Original Screenplay

Eighth Grade

First Reformed

Roma

Sorry to Bother You

Vox Lux

Best Adapted Screenplay

BlacKkKlansman

If Beale Street Could Talk

Paddington 2

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Widows

Best Cinematography

Cold War

First Man

If Beale Street Could Talk

Roma

Solo: A Star Wars Story

Best Film Editing

Cold War

First Reformed

If Beale Street Could Talk

Mission: Impossible – Fallout

Roma

Best Production Design

Bad Times at the El Royale

Black Panther

Paddington 2

Roma

Solo: A Star Wars Story

Best Original Score

Black Panther

First Man

If Beale Street Could Talk

Solo: A Star Wars Story

Vice

Best Visual Effects

Avengers: Infinity War

First Man

Mission: Impossible – Fallout

Paddington 2

Solo: A Star Wars Story

Best Costume Design

Black Panther

The Favourite

If Beale Street Could Talk

Paddington 2

Solo: A Star Wars Story

Sound Editing

First Man

Mission: Impossible – Fallout

A Quiet Place

Roma

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Sound Mixing

Mission: Impossible – Fallout

A Quiet Place

Roma

A Star Is Born

Widows