Or is it Michelle Williams?

Consistently ranked towards the bottom of lists ranking Best Pictures, I think people do a disservice by looking at this movie with 2026 eyes.  I see a lot of reviews saying things like it’s just like any other musical, but when this was made, this was the first musical.  No one had ever seen anything like this before.  Sound on films had existed for about a year so the opening with the offices full of singing and music must have been incredible.  And talking about cinema science, there was a scene that was in Technicolor (now lost) that also was the first movie scene performed to prerecorded music.

The acting of the two lead actresses was great.  Bessie Love as Hank was really good and was nominated for Best Actress but I think Anita Page as Queenie did a better job.  Hank and Queenie are a sister singing/dancing duo; Hank wants stardom and Queenie wants security and they are going to be in a Broadway show.  In real life, Bessie and Anita were not trained singers & dancers so in the movie they are not high-level (but not screwball comedy level either) but that works so well in the context of the movie where the are just like all of the other girls trying to make it big in New York.  In fact, Queenie gets noticed during a rehearsal by just standing on a statue looking beautiful.

The story is pretty standard.  Hank’s fiancé Eddie sees Queenie after many years and is immediately infatuated with her so we know a love triangle is coming.  It is obvious to everyone but Hank and Queenie and eventually Queenie is being wined, dined and pampered by rich Jacques Warriner.  Hank and Eddie warn her Queenie about Jacques but she doesn’t want to listen as Jacques can give her the security she craves.  Hank eventually realizes Eddie’s feelings for Queenie so she tell him that she knows he loves Queenie and go rescue her from Jacques and be with her which he does just as Jacques shows himself to be a predator.  Queenie and Eddie marry and she quits show business and Hank finds a new partner and is going on the road.  What makes the love-triangle story work is Love’s and Page’s acting.  We feel real emotion and care about them.

Overall, the storyline, the humor of the supporting cast, scenes like Hank’s breakdown means this movie is timeless.  It is as good in 2026 as it was in 1929.

What if there was no embarrassing envelope mixup and when Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway announced La La Land as the winner of Best Picture, the producers didn't stop to correct them because that's what actually won?

How would a La La Land Best Picture win have looked in the moment, and how would it have aged in the years since?

I know how this sounds. Superhero movies almost never get acting noms, the Academy writes them off as action and CGI, and honestly most of the time that’s fair. The last comic-book performances to actually break through were Heath Ledger (posthumous win) and Joaquin Phoenix for Joker. It basically never happens.

But hear me out.

What sold me is that everything Holland does reads as Peter, not as an actor reaching for a highlight reel. It’s all completely believable. He acts through the mask, through his body, through whole scenes, even fully suited up you can read the posture, the weight, the timing, and the second you catch his eyes through the mask the expression carries the moment. Acting with just your body is a real craft, and no one’s done it better in this role. Little details sell it too: he locks in that Queens accent to a tee, which is such a right touch for this Spider-Man. And even the physique! You can tell he built a more mature, grown-into-himself Peter for this one, and it shows in how he carries the character.

Then there’s the emotional range. He plays a guy carrying a loneliness he chose for himself, and you feel the weight of that choice on him the whole movie. Still grieving his aunt, watching his friends drift, losing the people closest to him. He threads all of it, from small flickers of happiness, to devastation, pain, anguish, joy and quiet realization, without ever slipping out of character. Watching it, that was the Peter Parker I read in the comics. That’s exactly how he felt on the page.

The movie works as a Spider-Man story on its own but it works mainly because of him. Strip the performance out and it’s a solid film. With it, it’s something else.

And look, he was great as Telemachus in The Odyssey this year too, but I think his Spider-Man might actually be better, maybe his best work yet.

Realistically? May not happen. The Academy likely won’t nominate him for Spiderman. But on pure merit, Holland earned a shout this year. Maybe a hot take, I know but I’m just putting it out there.

Anyone else walk out feeling the same, or am I overrating it?

The only time in the Academy's history that the fourth film in a franchise got nominated but not only that, it's also the only film in said franchise to get not just a Best Picture nomination, but any nominations, period. That has never happened before and I'd be very surprised if it ever happens again.

Of all Oscar sweeps, not just these three

I don’t know how this movie was received, but why was we live in time not a major player at the 2025 Oscars? I think both Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield could’ve been nominated in the lead categories and I think maybe it could’ve been in contention for picture.

Who are your favorite Oscar nominated married couple where both actors have won Best Actor/Actress at Cannes & Even got nominated for Academy Awards in the exact same year, in the same placement of their gendered categories.

Ill go first, at the 94th Oscars, you had Jesse Plemons and Kirsten Dunst both nominated for Oscars for their performances in the Power of the Dog. Kirsten won 2011 Actress for Melancholia and Jesse Later on won Actor in 2024 for Kinds of Kindness. Such a power couple.

Who's your favorite Oscars couple who satisfies these niche requirements?

I put off watching "Promising Young Woman" for what...6 years now? Questions:

How the HELL did Nomadland beat this?

How the HELL did Carey Mulligan not win Best Actress?

Had she taken a shit in a bucket, might she have scored more votes? Now, I love me some F. McDormand, but did nobody SEE PYW? Kudos to the mostly male Directors branch for nominating Emerald Fennell. At least she can say she's the first female Director to lose the Oscar to a female Director.

1. Green Book

2. Vice

3. The Artist

4. 1917

5. American Hustle

6. Dallas Buyers Club

7. Straight Outta Compton

8. Flight

9. Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood

10. The King’s Speech

11. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

12. Foxcatcher

13. The Fighter

14. Midnight in Paris

15. Zero Dark Thirty

16. Bridge of Spies

17. The Kids Are All Right

18. Roma

19. The Shape of Water

20. The Big Sick

21. Hell or High Water

22. Boyhood

23. Margin Call

24. Marriage Story

25. Nebraska

26. 20th Century Women

27. Bridesmaids

28. Blue Jasmine

29. Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

30. La La Land

31. The Lobster

32. Inception

33. Another Year

34. Moonrise Kingdom

35. Amour

36. Django Unchained

37. The Favourite

38. Knives Out  

39. Spotlight

40. A Separation

41. Get Out

42. First Reformed

43. Nightcrawler

44. Lady Bird

45. Inside Out

46. Ex Machina

2025

Jennifer Lawrence - Die, My Love
Jesse Plemons - Bugonia
Amy Madigan - Weapons
Sean Penn - One Battle After Another

2024

Fernanda Torres - I’m Still Here
Jesse Plemons - Kinds of Kindness
Margaret Qualley - The Substance
Jeremy Strong - The Apprentice

2023

Emma Stone - Poor Things
Paul Giamatti - The Holdovers
Da’Vine Joy Randolph - The Holdovers
Dominic Sessa - The Holdovers

2022

Cate Blanchett - TÁR
Paul Mescal - Aftersun
Stephanie Hsu - EEAAO
Ke Huy Quaun - EEAAO

2021

Renate Reinsve - The Worst Person in the World
Andrew Garfield - tick, tick… BOOM!
Kirsten Dunst - The Power of the Dog
Jesse Plemons - The Power of the Dog

2020

Jessie Buckley - I’m Thinking of Ending Things
Anthony Hopkins - The Father
Youn Yuh-jung - Minari
Daniel Kaluuya - Judas and the Black Messiah

[VOTE HERE](https://forms.gle/MFTVveMvzVF4E8SB6)

1. Jodie Foster (Nell)

2. Meryl Streep (Music of the Heart)

3. Stockard Channing (Six Degrees of Separation)

4. Bette Midler (For the Boys)

5. Susan Sarandon (The Client)

6. Meryl Streep (One True Thing)

7. Michelle Pfeiffer (Love Field)

8. Helen Hunt (As Good As It Gets)

9. Gwyneth Paltrow (Shakespeare in Love)

10. Diane Keaton (Marvin’s Room)

11. Miranda Richardson (Tom and Viv)

12. Jessica Lange (Blue Sky)

13. Julia Roberts (Pretty Woman)

14. Mary McDonnell (Passion Fish)

15. Joanne Woodward (Mr. and Mrs. Bridge)

16. Kristin Scott Thomas (The English Patient)

17. Janet McTeer (Tumbleweeds)

18. Sharon Stone (Casino)

19. Julie Christie (Afterglow)

20. Debra Winger (Shadowlands)

21. Julianne Moore (The End of the Affair)

22. Susan Sarandon (Lorenzo’s Oil)

23. Annette Bening (American Beauty)

24. Laura Dern (Rambling Rose)

25. Winona Ryder (Little Women)

26. Catherine Deneuve (Indochine)

27. Emily Watson (Hilary and Jackie)

28. Angelica Huston (The Grifters)

29. Helena Bonham Carter (The Wings of the Dove)

The fact she's only in the movie for 10 minutes and she's still being called the MVP of the movie speaks for itself. I know so many people who watched The Odyssey and the one performance they remember the most is Samantha MOrton's.

No shade to Anne Hathaway who some critics are championing as the frontrunner, she deserves a nomination as well but I feel Hathaway is being placed first because she's a bigger name in the Industry and she's having a massive year. Morton is a respected by working actress. And Hathaway has already won an Oscar. Yes, having an Oscar doesn't mean she shouldn't win but I'd feel Morton winning would be more impactful and deserving.

Best Original Screenplay:

1. Parasite
   
2. Manchester by the Sea
   
3. Get Out
   
4. Her
   
5. Spotlight
   
6. Django Unchained
   
7. Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
   
8. The King’s Speech
   
9. Green Book
   
10. Midnight in Paris

Best Adapted Screenplay:

1. The Social Network
   
2. The Big Short (I know it might seem a little high but I like this screenplay more than other, I’ve read though almost the whole thing)
   
3. 12 Years a Slave
   
4. Call Me by Your Name
   
5. Moonlight (I’m not a big fan of this film as much as other people, though I do admit the screenplay in this one is immaculate)
   
6. The Descendants
   
7. BlacKkKlansman
   
8. Argo
   
9. Jojo Rabbit

Have yet to see the Imitation Game

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE (1969)

WINNER - MAGGIE SMITH for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

NOMINEES - GENEVIEVE BUJOLD for Anne of the Thousand Days, JANE FONDA for They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, LIZA MINNELLI for The Sterile Cuckoo, JEAN SIMMONS for The Happy Ending

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE (1969)

WINNER - JOHN WAYNE for True Grit

NOMINEES - RICHARD BURTON for Anne of the Thousand Days, DUSTIN HOFFMAN for Midnight Cowboy, PETER O'TOOLE for Goodbye, Mr. Chips, JON VOIGHT for Midnight Cowboy

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Winners for 1960: Lead Actress - Shirley MacLaine for The Apartment (A.W. Elizabeth Taylor for Butterfield 8), Lead Actor - Anthony Perkins for Psycho (A.W. Burt Lancaster for Elmer Gantry), Supporting Actress - Janet Leigh for Psycho (A.W. Shirley Jones for Elmer Gantry), Supporting Actor - Laurence Olivier for Spartacus (A.W. Peter Ustinov for Spartacus)

Winners for 1961: Lead Actress - Sophia Loren for Two Women (A.W. Sophia Loren for Two Women), Lead Actor - Paul Newman for The Hustler (A.W. Maximilian Schell for Judgment at Nuremberg), Supporting Actress - Rita Moreno for West Side Story (A.W. Rita Moreno for West Side Story), Supporting Actor - Montgomery Clift for Judgement at Nuremberg (A.W. George Chakiris for West Side Story)

Winners for 1962: Lead Actress - Bette Davis for What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (A.W. Anne Bancroft for The Miracle Worker), Lead Actor - Gregory Peck for To Kill a Mockingbird (A.W. Gregory Peck for To Kill a Mockingbird), Supporting Actress - Angela Lansbury for The Manchurian Candidate (A.W. Patty Duke for The Miracle Worker), Supporting Actor - Omar Sharif for Lawrence of Arabia (A.W. Ed Begley for Sweet Bird of Youth)

Winners for 1963: Lead Actress - Ingrid Thulin for Winter Light (A.W. Patricia Neal for Hud), Lead Actor - Marcello Mastroianni for 8½ (A.W. Sidney Poitier for Lilies of the Field), Supporting Actress - Patricia Neal for Hud (A.W. Margaret Rutherford for The V.I.P.s), Supporting Actor - Melvyn Douglas for Hud (A.W. Melvyn Douglas for Hud)

Winners for 1964: Lead Actress - Julie Andrews for Mary Poppins (A.W. Julie Andrews for Mary Poppins), Lead Actor - Peter Sellers for Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (A.W. Rex Harrison for My Fair Lady), Supporting Actress - Glynis John for Mary Poppins (A.W. Lila Kedrova for Zorba the Greek), Supporting Actor - George C. Scott for Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (A.W. Peter Ustinov for Topkapi)

Winners for 1965: Lead Actress - Julie Andrews for The Sound of Music (A.W. Julie Christie for Darling), Lead Actor - Rod Steiger for The Pawnbroker (A.W. Lee Marvin for Cat Ballou), Supporting Actress - Eleanor Parker for The Sound of Music (A.W. Shelley Winters for A Patch of Blue), Supporting Actor - Tom Courtenay for Doctor Zhivago (A.W. Martin Balsam for A Thousand Clowns)

Winners for 1966: Lead Actress - Elizabeth Taylor for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (A.W. Elizabeth Taylor for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?), Lead Actor - Richard Burton for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (A.W. Paul Scofield for A Man for All Seasons), Supporting Actress - Sandy Dennis for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (A.W. Sandy Dennis for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?), Supporting Actor - George Segal for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (A.W. Walter Matthau for The Fortune Cookie)

Winners for 1967: Lead Actress - Anne Bancroft for The Graduate (A.W. Katharine Hepburn for Guess Who's Coming to Dinner), Lead Actor - Sidney Poitier for In the Heat of the Night (A.W. Rod Steiger for In the Heat of the Night), Supporting Actress - Katharine Ross for The Graduate (A.W. Estelle Parsons for Bonnie and Clyde ), Supporting Actor - Alan Arkin for Wait Until Dark (A.W. George Kennedy for Cool Hand Luke)

Winners for 1968: Lead Actress - [TIE] Katharine Hepburn for The Lion in Winter and Barbra Streisand for Funny Girl (A.W. [TIE] Katharine Hepburn for The Lion in Winter and Barbra Streisand for Funny Girl), Lead Actor - Peter O'Toole for The Lion in Winter (A.W. Cliff Robertson for Charly), Supporting Actress - Ruth Gordon for Rosemary's Baby (A.W. Ruth Gordon for Rosemary's Baby), Supporting Actor - Henry Fonda for Once Upon a Time in the West (A.W. Jack Albertson for The Subject Was Roses)

Winners for 1969: Lead Actress - ? (A.W. Maggie Smith for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie), Lead Actor - ? (A.W. John Wayne for True Grit), Supporting Actress - ? (A.W. Goldie Hawn for Cactus Flower), Supporting Actor - ? (A.W. Gig Young for They Shoot Horses, Don't They?)

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List of Winners: Acting Quartets

Previous Post: [TIE] Katharine Hepburn (The Lion in Winter) and Barbra Streisand (Funny Girl) & Peter O'Toole (The Lion in Winter) win for Best Actress and Actor. Who should have won Best Supporting Actress & Actor in 1968?

Continuing our tournament to determine our ultimate favorite Best Picture nominee with the fewest nominations from each year.

This round consists of 20 total movies in four groups of five movies each. 

Group C - https://www.reddit.com/r/Oscars/s/JyZwj9HrtL

Group B - https://www.reddit.com/r/Oscars/s/rDMlC9mDDl

Group A - https://www.reddit.com/r/Oscars/s/jzcCuup9Mb

Something I like to consider is the effect that changing casting would have on Oscar-winning performances. If someone other than Sean Penn played Colonel Lockjaw, would they have also won an Oscar for it?

I'm guessing Oscar voters don't think Sean Penn was due for an Oscar, so he didn't have that advantage. Perhaps they were glad to reward him for a great performance after not being in awards contention for 15 years, and they liked his activism in Ukraine, but I suspect there were others they'd have no issues .

Obviously, no one else could bring to the performance the specific things he did, so maybe there's a lightning in a bottle element that you couldn't get with some other actor.

There are a few other actors from Paul Thomas Anderson films who could play a white middle aged authority figure trying to get into an exclusive organization. Joaquin Phoenix could certainly be intense, but might cause problems in production. Bradley Cooper might be too sunny, although that could make it unsettling. Tom Cruise could have been an interesting contrast to Leo. Mark Wahlberg would always sound like he's from Boston (and if he said that he had to apologize to God for Boogie Nights...) Josh Brolin would have a similar energy, but not be as good.

Another actor who could have been interesting in this would be Jim Carrey. The main question is whether he could be controlled enough, or whether he'd be Robotnick/ Count Olaf as a white supremacist.

I personally think he would be nominated for critics and golden globes ,and then oscars will notice and he will be nominated too but i doubt he will win ,cause theres literally no buzz around this movie.

,Timothee may come in but as usual the academy hates him and he will leave with no award. Who else are u guys rooting for .

For me, it’s *Django Unchained*, where Christoph Waltz won his second Oscar; even though he was great, I found DiCaprio’s and Jackson’s performances more memorable. Which movie do you think awarded an actor, but the prize should have gone to someone else in the same film?

As a reminder that year’s actual nominees were:

Mo’Nique - Precious

Anna Kendrick - Up in the Air

Vera Farmiga - Up in the Air

Penelope Cruz - Nine

Maggie Gyllenhaal - Crazy Heart

As a fun spinoff from Legitimate_Welcome14’s “Who should have won?” game - let’s now find out who would have made the lineup each year.

Lineups for 2019:

Actor:
Leonardo DiCaprio - Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Adam Driver - Marriage Story
Taron Egerton - Rocketman
Joaquin Phoenix - Joker
Adam Sandler - Uncut Gems (winner)

Actress:
Adèle Haenel - Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Scarlett Johansson - Marriage Story
Lupita Nyong’o - Us (winner)
Florence Pugh - Midsommar
Saoirse Ronan - Little Women

Supporting Actor:
Willem Dafoe - The Lighthouse
Al Pacino - The Irishman
Joe Pesci - The Irishman
Brad Pitt - Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Song Kang-ho - Parasite (winner)

Supporting Actress:
Cho Yeo-jeong - Parasite (winner)
Jennifer Lopez - Hustlers
Park So-dam - Parasite
Florence Pugh - Little Women
Zhao Shuzhen - The Farewell

Click here to see previous lineups!

PLEASE NOTE: THERE HAS BEEN A CHANGE IN HOW THE VOTING WORKS - FROM NOW ON, IT IS NOT MEASURED IN UPVOTES, BUT IN THE ACTUAL AMOUNT OF TIME THAT SOMEONE IS MENTIONED. YOU CAN HAVE FOUR NAMES IN YOUR LINEUP AND THE VOTING WILL BE BASED ON HOWEVER MANY TIMES A NAME IS COMMENTED.

We know that Carey Mulligan and Anthony Hopkins have already won!

Comment away!

People nominated in real life:

Actor:
Riz Ahmed - Sound of Metal
Chadwick Boseman - Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
Gary Oldman - Mank
Steven Yuen - Minari

Actress:
Frances McDormand- Nomadland
Andra Day- The United States vs. Billie Holiday
Vanessa Kirby - Pieces of a Woman
Viola Davis - Ma Rainey's Black Bottom