1981 Alternate Oscars

My choices are noted with a ★. Historical Oscar winners are noted with a ✔. Best foreign-language picture winners are noted with an ƒ.

Would Henry Fonda have won the Oscar for On Golden Pond if he had already won as he should have for The Grapes of Wrath? Well, maybe. I think Hollywood liked the idea of him and his daughter Jane reconciling at last, if only on the big screen — which, come to think of it, is the only place that counts. It didn't hurt that he was dying.

As for Katharine Hepburn, this was her fourth Oscar, and like the one for Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, it was her co-star who did all the heavy lifting. I've already given her three alternate Oscars, and so have you (per current vote tallies). That's plenty. Let's give somebody else a chance.