The 2024 Alternate Oscars
What if animation was as celebrated as it should be at the Oscars?
2022 was big for alternative universes at the movies, and a reality-hopping sci-fi dramedy, “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” took home the Oscars’ top prize of best picture last year. In that spirit, I compiled my own “alternate Oscars” last year, recognizing the films in the top categories that were ignored and imagining what it would be like it the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences added some much-needed new categories.
I published that piece after the 2023 Oscars, but I’m bringing back the idea early this year because, in a timely bit of news, the Academy announced recently it would be adding a new category for casting, an award I “handed out” for my inaugural alternate Oscars. It won’t be introduced at the actual Oscars until the 2026 ceremony, meaning the films of the 2025 will be the first to be considered for it, so this is the last time I’ll be including the category in my alternate Oscars. Now the Academy should do stunts, another maddeningly missing category.
Anyway, casting is the first new category included in the Oscars since 2001’s best animated feature, which is frustrating considering the top movie awards should do everything it can to recognize as many movies as possible. That’s what I'll be doing here.
It’ll work the same last year: for the top eight categories (picture, director, the four acting awards, and the two screenplay awards), I chose films and performances that weren’t recognized at the real thing. I’ve also included several categories that aren’t included at the real Oscars that I think should be, and those nominees can be for anything released in 2023. I also pick winners, but try to spread the wealth and recognize as many movies as possible.
So here goes — the 2024 Alternate Oscars:
Best Picture
Air
Asteroid City
BlackBerry
The Boy and the Heron
Godzilla Minus One
The Iron Claw
John Wick: Chapter 4
The Killer
May December
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse*
“Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” might be the first two movies that come to mind when thinking about 2023 in film. But another overjoyed critics and audiences alike, with the box-office bonafides to back it up, grossing more in just the US than the first movie did worldwide. “Across the Spider-Verse,” the sequel to 2018’s “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” tops its incredible predecessor in nearly every way, which is no small feat. 2023 was a great year for animation (that wasn’t Disney), from the blockbuster victory that was “The Super Nintendo Movie” to Hayao Miyazaki’s potentially final film, “The Boy and the Heron.” “Across the Spider-Verse,” though, is the pinnacle.
Director
David Fincher (The Killer)*
Greta Gerwig (Barbie)
Hayao Miyazaki (The Boy and the Heron)
Chad Stahelski (John Wick: Chapter 4)
Takashi Yamazaki (Godzilla Minus One)
David Fincher should have an Oscar by now (for “The Social Network”). His latest movie, “The Killer,” was frustratingly overlooked, but it’s one of his most stylish yet bare-bones films, following a vengeful hitman after a job-gone-wrong. The real Oscars have only nominated Fincher for his non-squeamish works (“Benjamin Button,” Social Network,” “Mank”), but movies like “The Killer” are the lynchpin of his legacy, whether he likes it or not.
Actor
Leonardo DiCaprio (Killers of the Flower Moon)*
Adam Driver (Ferrari)
Zac Efron (The Iron Claw)
Michael Fassbender (The Killer)
Keanu Reeves (John Wick: Chapter 4)
I’ve heard Oscars observers compare Leo to Tom Hanks, in that he’s getting overlooked in the later part of his career. But Hanks isn’t exactly serving career-best performances these days and his choice in roles has been questionable, while Leo delivered one of his finest performances with “Flower Moon.” Maybe it’s a case of competition. Maybe he just didn’t campaign enough (or at all). Whatever the case, Leo should have been a major contender for the real thing.
Actress
Jennifer Lawrence (No Hard Feelings)
Greta Lee (Past Lives)
Natalie Portman (May December)*
Margot Robbie (Barbie)
Cailee Spaeny (Priscilla)
After perhaps one of the most bizarre performances I’ve ever seen in a mainstream blockbuster movie in “Thor: Love and Thunder,” Natalie Portman reminded us why she’s one of our best actors in “May December.” As an actress studying a ripped-from-the-headlines woman who had sex with an underage student, Portman’s performance has layers. The movie, with its meta commentary on Hollywood, probably rubbed Oscar voters the wrong way, but not me!
Supporting actor
Matt Damon (Oppenheimer)
Jacob Elordi (Priscilla)
Glenn Howerton (BlackBerry)*
Charles Melton (May December)
Dominic Sessa (The Holdovers)
During the Emmys in January, the cast of “It’s Always Sunny,” including Glenn Howerton, presented on stage and joked about getting snubbed over the last nearly 20 years. Howerton was again overlooked for his manic and scene-stealing performance in “BlackBerry.”
Supporting actress
Penelope Cruz (Ferrari)*
Scarlett Johansson (Asteroid City)
Vanessa Kirby (Napoleon)
Sandra Huller (The Zone of Interest)
Tilda Swinton (The Killer)
Michael Mann’s “Ferrari” is a mixed bag of a movie, but one thing that stood out to me above all else was how goddamn good Cruz is in it. She elevates her character beyond what could have been the typical “wife in a biopic,” (see: Blunt in “Oppenheimer”) and walks away as the film’s most memorable component, even in a movie where I quite liked Adam Driver’s lead performance as the title character.
Original screenplay
Air
Asteroid City
Bottoms
The Boy and the Heron*
The Iron Claw
Adapted screenplay
BlackBerry
The Killer
Killers of the Flower Moon
Priscilla
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse*
The Oscars’ ignorance to animation is one of the more embarrassing aspects of the awards. In the nearly century history of the Oscars, only three animated movies have ever been nominated for best picture, and the animated feature category wasn’t even introduced until the 2002 ceremony. So I feel good awarding both screenplay awards to animated films.
“Across the Spider-Vere” deftly weaves together decades of Spider-Man comics and film lore in an enormously entertaining way; and “The Boy and the Heron,” potentially Hayao Miyazaki’s final film, beautifully navigates loss and mourning in a way that only Miyazaki can. (It also delivers one of the most heart-warming but devastating lines in movies of 2023. I won’t spoil it here, as it is essential to the plot, but if you’ve seen it, you know what I mean).
Breakthrough performance
Milo Machado Graner (Anatomy of a Fall)
Charles Melton (May December)
Dominic Sessa (The Holdovers)*
Cailee Spainey (Priscilla)
Teo Yoo (Past Lives)
It’s hard to believe that “The Holdovers” is Dominic Sessa’s first feature film role, as he believably holds his own beside a veteran actor like Paul Giamatti. If this movie is any indication, Sessa has a thrilling career ahead of him.
Breakthrough filmmaker
Cord Jefferson (American Fiction)
Michael B. Jordan (Creed III)
Danny and Michael Philippou (Talk To Me)
Joaquin Dos Santos and Justin K. Thompson (Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse)
Celine Song (Past Lives)*
Celine Song is a playwright-turned-screenwriter, and there are hints of a stage play in the remarkable “Past Lives,” her first feature. The final scene has stuck with me since I saw it early last year. I can’t wait to see what she does next
Ensemble/casting
Air
Asteroid City
Barbie*
How to Blow Up a Pipeline
Oppenheimer
There’s not much more to be said of “Barbie,” least of all its brilliant ensemble cast anchored by Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling. I’m not going get into the perceived “snubs,” but Robbie is perfect.
Stunts
Creed III
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
John Wick: Chapter 4*
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning
“John Wick: Chapter 4” is an instant action classic, the kind of modern epic of the genre that’s rarely made these days (the closest comparison might be “Mad Max: Fury Road”, so it’s in good company). The movie is basically comprised of a series of breathtaking set pieces, filmed and choreographed with balletic intensity that blew me away.
Motion and/or voice performance
Robert Pattinson (voice dub) (The Boy and the Heron)
Sean Gunn (motion) and Bradley Cooper (voice) (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3)
Amie Donald (motion) and Jenna Davis (voice) (M3GAN)
Shameik Moore (Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse)*
Hugh Grant (Wonka)
Another way the real Oscars could recognize more animated or genre films is to recognize vocal and motion performances. It will never happen (I get the sense it would be deemed “beneath” the Academy), so I’m doing it here. Shameik Moore is Miles Morales; if you read a Morales comic, it’s hard not to hear his voice, just like it’s hard not to picture Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark.
The Genre Award (best action, comedy, horror, or sci-fi/fantasy movie)
Barbie (comedy/fantasy)
Bottoms (comedy)
The Boy and the Heron (fantasy)
Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (fantasy/adventure)
Godzilla Minus One (sci-fi/action)*
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (sci-fi/adventure)
John Wick: Chapter 4 (action)
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (sci-fi/adventure)
Talk to Me (horror)
Thanksgiving (horror)
My favorite movies last year were also my favorite theatrical experiences, and seeing “Minus One” in an IMAX theater during an early screening with a packed house of fellow Godzilla fans was a treat. The movie is the best Godzilla film in years (decades?), bringing the franchise back to its roots but expanding on the ideas of the original film. It’s maybe the only Godzilla movie that can claim to replicate Spielbergian tension, and the rare one to have an effective human story at its core.