The 2025 Alternate Oscars

Vampires, robots, and cats...oh my. Here are alternate nominees for this year's Oscars.

“Furiosa” (Warner Bros.)

It’s my favorite time of year: Oscars weekend — and my alternate Oscars.

I started doing this when I first launched my newsletter in 2023 for that year’s Oscars (accounting for the films of 2022). So this marks the third annual Alternate Oscars? I need to come up with a better name.

Anyway, for my many new readers, here’s how it goes:

• For the top eight categories (picture, director, the four acting awards, and the two screenplay awards), I choose films and performances that weren’t recognized at the real thing.

• I’ve also included new categories that aren’t part of the actual Oscars (but should be). Any film and performance can be nominated for these.

• I pick the nominees and winners, but try to spread the wealth (maybe next year I’ll open this up to reader voting).

If you want to check out the previous awards:

• 2023

• 2024

Let’s get into it.

“Nosferatu” (Focus Features)

Best Picture

• A Different Man (A24)

• Challengers (AmazonMGM)

• Civil War (A24)

• Flow (Janus Films)

• Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (Warner Bros.)

• Hit Man (Netflix)

• Sing Sing (A24)

• Nosferatu (Focus Features)*

• Rebel Ridge (Netflix)

• The Wild Robot (Universal)

I was getting real excited watching the nomination announcement, as “Nosferatu” overperformed in the below-the-line categories, thinking it might have a shot at best picture. Alas, that didn’t happen (not enough room for two horror movies, I guess). But Robert Eggers’ gothic-horror tale of obsession, a re-telling of the classic 1922 silent film, is easily one of the best films of 2024.

Last year’s winner: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

“Nosferatu” (Focus Features)

Director

• Robert Eggers (Nosferatu)*

• Alex Garland (Civil War)

• Luca Guadagnino (Challengers)

• George Miller (Furiosa)

• Denis Villeneuve (Dune: Part Two)

Veilleneuve missing out on a director nomination for not one but two “Dune” movies might go down as one of the most embarrassing Oscar misses of all time. Still, I have to give it to Robert Eggers’ beautifully disgusting interpretation of the vampire classic, brought to life with a thoughtful panache all his own; listen to any interview with the guy, and you’ll know exactly why every decision was made (including the mustache) with the utmost care and consideration.

Last year’s winner: David Fincher (The Killer)

“Rebel Ridge” (Netflix)

Actor

• Tom Hardy (The Bikeriders)

• Josh Hartnett (Trap)

• Aaron Pierre (Rebel Ridge)*

• Glen Powell (Hit Man)

• Sebastian Stan (A Different Man)

Stan had an incredible 2024, breaking out from the Marvel machine. Glen Powell showed he’s a true movie star with turns in Hit Man and Twisters. Hartnett almost had me rooting for his serial killer character in “Trap” with a wonderfully campy performance. But with both a commanding physical and emotional performance, Aaron Pierre stole the show in “Rebel Ridge,” as an ex-Marine who takes on a corrupt small-town police department.

Last year’s winner: Leonardo DiCaprio (Killers of the Flower Moon)

“Challengers” (AmazonMGM)

Actress

• Jodie Comer (The Bikeriders)

• Lily-Rose Depp (Nosferatu)

• Kirsten Dunst (Civil War)

• Lupita Nyong’o (A Quiet Place: Day One)

• Zendaya (Challengers)*

“Challengers” getting zero Oscar nominations — not even for its musical score, one of the best of the year — is egregious. Zendaya deftly navigates a tricky ask, playing her character across many years, and rises to the occasion with a fire and tenacity that erupts in an exhilarating final frame.

Last year’s winner: Natalie Portman (May December)

“Alien: Romulus” (20th Century Studios)

Supporting actor

• Javier Bardem (Dune: Part Two)

• Chris Hemsworth (Furiosa)

• David Jonsson (Alien: Romulus)*

• Clarence Maclin (Sing Sing)

• Josh O’Connor (Challengers)

There have been a few memorable androids throughout the “Alien” franchise’s nearly five-decade run, from Ian Holm’s Ash to Lance Henriksen’s Bishop to Michael Fassbender’s David. We can now add David Jonsson’s Andy to that list, in which he masterfully switches gears (no pun intended) between different personalities throughout “Alien: Romulus,” stealing every scene he’s in and adding new layers to the Alien mythos.

Last year’s winner: Glenn Howerton (BlackBerry)

“Hit Man” (Netflix)

Supporting actress

• Adria Arjona (Hit Man)*

• Catherine O’Hara (Beetlejuice Beetlejuice)

• Margaret Qualley (The Substance)

• Cailee Spaeny (Civil War)

• Alicia Witt (Longlegs)

Props to Adria Arjona for bouncing back from “Morbius.” As good of a year as Glen Powell had in 2024, he’s still not the best part of “Hit Man”; that honor goes to an irresistibly good Arjona.

Last year’s winner: Penelope Cruz (Ferrari)

“Dune: Part Two” (Warner Bros.)

Adapted screenplay

• The Bikeriders

• Dune: Part Two*

• Hit Man

• Nosferatu

• The Wild Robot

The Dune movies expertly adapt a dense work into an accessible and entertaining, but still challenging, piece of cinema, which is what any great adapted screenplay should accomplish.

Last year’s winner: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

“A Different Man” (A24)

Original screenplay

• A Different Man*

• Challengers

• Civil War

• Juror #2

• Rebel Ridge

Another movie that went sadly overlooked by the Academy, save for a deserved makeup nomination, “A Different Man” — about a disfigured man who undergoes a process to transform his face — goes to some truly unexpected places with its story.

Last year’s winner: The Boy and the Heron

“Nickel Boys” (AmazonMGM)

Breakthrough feature filmmaker

• Chris Nash (In a Violent Nature)

• Dev Patel (Monkey Man)

• RaMell Ross (Nickel Boys)*

• Arkasha Stevenson (The First Omen)

• Gints Zilbalodis (Flow)

RaMell Ross’ radical adaptation of “The Nickel Boys” deserved a best director nod at the actual Oscars, bringing to life the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel through a beautiful first-person-POV without ever losing its emotional heft.

Last year’s winner: Celine Song (Past Lives)

“Anora” (Neon)

Breakthrough film performance

• David Jonsson (Alien: Romulus)

• Clarence Maclin (Sing Sing)

• Mikey Madison (Anora)*

• Adam Pearson (A Different Man)

• Aaron Pierre (Rebel Ridge)

Mikey Madison will probably lose the Oscar to Demi Moore, but she gave probably the best performance of the year, hands down. Mainly known for the TV series “Better Things,” and smaller roles in “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” and the “Scream” reboot, “Anora” is truly a breakthrough film role for Madison, and an extraordinary one at that.

Last year’s winner: Dominic Sessa (The Holdovers)

“The Wild Robot” (Dreamworks)

Motion capture and/or voice performance

• Maya Hawke (Inside Out 2)

• Bryan Tyree Henry (Transformers One)

• Peter Macon (Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes)

• Lupita Nyong’o (The Wild Robot)*

Between “A Quiet Place” and “Wild Robot,” Lupita Nyong’o showed once and for all — for those who didn’t already know after “12 Years a Slave,” “Us,” and the “Black Panther” movies — that she is truly a movie star. In “Wild Robot,” she gives triumphant life to the titular robot.

Last year’s winner: Shameik Moore (Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse)

“Civil War” (A24)

Guest performance

• Boyd Holbrook (A Complete Unknown)

• Lesley Manville (Queer)

• Jesse Plemons (Civil War)*

• Wesley Snipes (Deadpool and Wolverine)

Holbrook blew me away as Johnny Cash, but Jesse Plemons gave one of the stand-out performances of 2024 with just a few minutes of screen time in the most terrifying moment of “Civil War.” The film doesn’t work without this scene, or Plemons.

“Conclave” (Focus Features)

Ensemble/casting

• Anora

• Conclave*

• Dune: Part Two

• Nosferatu

• Sing Sing

This is the final year I’ll be including this category, as it will be introduced to next year’s Oscars. So congrats to “Conclave’s” ensemble of rivetingly gossipy cardinals.

Last year’s winner: Barbie

“Furiosa” (Warner Bros.)

Stunt work/choreography

• Bad Boys: Ride or Die

• Deadpool and Wolverine

• The Fall Guy

• Furiosa*

• Gladiator II

“Furiosa” may not be as good as “Fury Road,” but that was a tall order; it’s still damn good, and still features some of the best action sequences in recent memory.

Last year’s winner: John Wick: Chapter 4

“Dune: Part Two” (Warner Bros.)

The Genre Award (best action, comedy, horror, or sci-fi/fantasy movie)

• Alien: Romulus (horror/sci-fi)

• A Quiet Place: Day One (sci-fi/thriller)

• Dune: Part Two (sci-fi)*

• The First Omen (horror)

• Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (action)

• In a Violent Nature (horror)

• Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (sci-fi/adventure)

• Nosferatu (horror)

• The Substance (horror)

• The Wild Robot (adventure/sci-fi)

No movie showcased the awe and wonder of a theatrical experience quite like “Dune: Part Two” in 2024, a time when that’s maybe more important than ever. It’s big, spectacle filmmaking at its finest.

Last year’s winner: Godzilla Minus One