2008 Alternate Oscars

Best Picture of 2008

★ The Dark Knight

Happy-Go-Lucky

In Bruges

Iron Man

Let the Right One In

Rachel Getting Married

✔ Slumdog Millionaire

@ WALL·E

Waltz with Bashir

The Wrestler

View Results
Crowdsignal.com

Best Actor of 2008 (Poll Closed)

• Christian Bale (The Dark Knight)  10%  (6 votes)  
   
• ★ Robert Downey, Jr. (Iron Man and Tropic Thunder)  35%  (21 votes)  
   
• Colin Farrell (In Bruges)  10%  (6 votes)  
   
• Frank Langella (Frost/Nixon)  6.67%  (4 votes)  
   
• Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler)  38.33%  (23 votes)  
   

 

Total Votes: 60

 

Best Actress of 2008

Anne Hathaway (Rachel Getting Married)

★ Sally Hawkins (Happy-Go-Lucky)

Melissa Leo (Frozen River)

Meryl Streep (Doubt and Mamma Mia)

✔ Kate Winslet (The Reader and Revolutionary Road)

View Results
Crowdsignal.com

Best Director of 2008

Tomas Alfredson (Let the Right One In)

✔ Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire)

Mike Leigh (Happy-Go-Lucky)

Martin McDonagh (In Bruges)

★ Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight)

View Results
Crowdsignal.com

Best Supporting Actor of 2008

Aaron Eckhart (The Dark Knight)

Anil Kapoor (Slumdog Millionaire)

★ ✔ Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight)

Eddie Marsan (Happy-Go-Lucky)

Brad Pitt (Burn Before Reading)

View Results
Crowdsignal.com

Best Supporting Actress of 2008

Amy Adams (Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day and Doubt)

★ ✔ Penélope Cruz (Vicky Cristina Barcelona and Elegy)

Viola Davis (Doubt)

Rosemarie DeWitt (Rachel Getting Married)

Isla Fisher (Definitely, Maybe)

View Results
Crowdsignal.com

Special Award

Andrew Stanton & Jim Reardon, from the story by Andrew Stanton & Pete Docter (WALL·E) (original screenplay)

Simon Beaufoy, from the novel Q & A by Vikas Swarup (Slumdog Millionaire) (adapted screenplay)

Wally Pfister (The Dark Knight) (cinematography)

View Results
Crowdsignal.com

My choices are noted with a ★. Historical Oscar winners are noted with a ✔. Best animated feature winners are noted with an @.

In retrospect, the failure to nominate The Dark Knight for best picture helped open what is now a yawning chasm between the Academy and the ticket-buying public, where every year the top prize goes to some grim little art film nobody has seen and then the powers-that-be scratch their collective heads and wonder why no one watches the Oscars anymore.

Sometimes the answer is so obvious you only have to look in the mirror to find it.

2007 Alternate Oscars

Best Picture of 2007 (Poll Closed)

• The Diving Bell and the Butterfly  6.9%  (4 votes)  
   
• Gone Baby Gone  1.72%  (1 votes)  
   
• Juno  10.34%  (6 votes)  
   
• Michael Clayton  0%  (0 votes)  
   
• ✔ No Country For Old Men  41.38%  (24 votes)  
   
• Once  0%  (0 votes)  
   
• Persepolis  1.72%  (1 votes)  
   
• @ Ratatouille  3.45%  (2 votes)  
   
• Superbad  1.72%  (1 votes)  
   
• ★ There Will Be Blood  32.76%  (19 votes)  
   

 

Total Votes: 58

 

Best Actor of 2007 (Poll Closed)

• Mathieu Amalric (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly)  1.72%  (1 votes)  
   
• George Clooney (Michael Clayton)  3.45%  (2 votes)  
   
• ★ ✔ Daniel Day-Lewis (There Will Be Blood)  82.76%  (48 votes)  
   
• Philip Seymour Hoffman (Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, Charlie Wilson's War and The Savages)  8.62%  (5 votes)  
   
• John C. Reilly (Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story)  3.45%  (2 votes)  
   

 

Total Votes: 58

 

Best Actress of 2007 (Poll Closed)

• Amy Adams (Enchanted)  7.25%  (5 votes)  
   
• ✔ Marion Cotillard (La Vie en Rose)  39.13%  (27 votes)  
   
• Julie Christie (Away From Her)  20.29%  (14 votes)  
   
• ★ Elliot Page (Juno)  31.88%  (22 votes)  
   
• Keri Russell (Waitress)  1.45%  (1 votes)  
   

 

Total Votes: 69

 

Best Director of 2007 (Poll Closed)

• Ben Affleck (Gone Baby Gone)  0%  (0 votes)  
   
• ★ Paul Thomas Anderson (There Will Be Blood)  47.06%  (24 votes)  
   
• ✔ The Coen Brothers (No Country for Old Men)  45.1%  (23 votes)  
   
• Jason Reitman (Juno)  1.96%  (1 votes)  
   
• Julian Schnabel (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly)  5.88%  (3 votes)  
   

 

Total Votes: 51

 

Best Supporting Actor of 2007 (Poll Closed)

• Casey Affleck (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford)  12.73%  (7 votes)  
   
• ★ ✔ Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men)  81.82%  (45 votes)  
   
• David Paymer (Ocean's Thirteen)  0%  (0 votes)  
   
• J.K. Simmons (Juno)  1.82%  (1 votes)  
   
• Tom Wilkinson (Michael Clayton)  3.63%  (2 votes)  
   

 

Total Votes: 55

 

Best Supporting Actress of 2007 (Poll Closed)

• Cate Blanchett (I'm Not There)  27.87%  (17 votes)  
   
• Jennifer Garner (Juno)  3.28%  (2 votes)  
   
• Kelly Macdonald (No Country for Old Men)  3.28%  (2 votes)  
   
• ★ Amy Ryan (Gone Baby Gone)  36.07%  (22 votes)  
   
• ✔ Tilda Swinton (Michael Clayton)  29.5%  (18 votes)  
   

 

Total Votes: 61

 

Special Award

Diablo Cody (Juno) (original screenplay)

Paul Thomas Anderson, from the novel Oil! by Upton Sinclair (There Will Be Blood) (adapted screenplay)

Paul Rudd, Jack Black, Justin Long and Jason Schwartzman as John, Paul, George and Ringo (Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story) (best DVD extra)

Music and Lyrics (best spoof of 80s music videos)

"McLovin" (Superbad) (best fake i.d.)

View Results
Crowdsignal.com

My choices are noted with a ★. Historical Oscar winners are noted with a ✔. Best animated feature winners are noted with an @.

2006 Alternate Oscars

Best Picture of 2006 (Poll Closed)

• Babel  3.51%  (2 votes)  
   
• Casino Royale  5.26%  (3 votes)  
   
• Children of Men  22.81%  (13 votes)  
   
• ✔ The Departed  19.3%  (11 votes)  
   
• Dreamgirls  1.75%  (1 votes)  
   
• Inside Man  0%  (0 votes)  
   
• The Iwo Jima Saga (Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima)  1.75%  (1 votes)  
   
• ƒ The Lives of Others  7.02%  (4 votes)  
   
• ★ Pan's Labyrinth  28.07%  (16 votes)  
   
• The Queen  10.53%  (6 votes)  
   

 

Total Votes: 57

 

Best Actor of 2006 (Poll Closed)

• Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan)  15%  (9 votes)  
   
• Leonardo DiCaprio (The Departed and Blood Diamond)  28.33%  (17 votes)  
   
• Aaron Eckhart (Thank You for Smoking)  10%  (6 votes)  
   
• ★ Ulrich Mühe (The Lives of Others)  26.67%  (16 votes)  
   
• ✔ Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland)  20%  (12 votes)  
   

 

Total Votes: 60

 

Best Actress of 2006 (Poll Closed)

• Ivana Baquero (Pan's Labyrinth)  3.17%  (2 votes)  
   
• Penélope Cruz (Volver)  12.7%  (8 votes)  
   
• Judi Dench (Notes on a Scandal)  12.7%  (8 votes)  
   
• ★ ✔ Helen Mirren (The Queen)  71.43%  (45 votes)  
   
• Parker Posey (The Oh in Ohio)  0%  (0 votes)  
   

 

Total Votes: 63

 

Best Director of 2006 (Poll Closed)

• ★ Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth)  47.17%  (25 votes)  
   
• Clint Eastwood (The Iwo Jima Saga) (Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima)  1.89%  (1 votes)  
   
• Spike Lee (Inside Man)  5.66%  (3 votes)  
   
• ✔ Martin Scorsese (The Departed)  30.19%  (16 votes)  
   
• Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (The Lives of Others)  15.09%  (8 votes)  
   

 

Total Votes: 53

 

Best Supporting Actor of 2006 (Poll Closed)

• ✔ Alan Arkin (Little Miss Sunshine)  15.52%  (9 votes)  
   
• Eddie Murphy (Dreamgirls)  31.03%  (18 votes)  
   
• ★ Michael Sheen (The Queen)  34.48%  (20 votes)  
   
• Stanley Tucci (The Devil Wears Prada)  3.45%  (2 votes)  
   
• Mark Wahlberg (The Departed)  15.52%  (9 votes)  
   

 

Total Votes: 58

 

Best Supporting Actress of 2006 (Poll Closed)

• Emily Blunt (The Devil Wears Prada)  16.13%  (10 votes)  
   
• Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine)  9.68%  (6 votes)  
   
• Vera Farmiga (The Departed)  6.45%  (4 votes)  
   
• ✔ Jennifer Hudson (Dreamgirls)  20.97%  (13 votes)  
   
• ★ Meryl Streep (The Devil Wears Prada and A Prairie Home Companion)  46.77%  (29 votes)  
   

 

Total Votes: 62

 

Special Award (Poll Closed)

• Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (The Lives of Others) (original screenplay)  36.11%  (13 votes)  
   
• William Monahan, from the film screenplay Infernal Affairs by Alan Mak & Felix Chong (The Departed) (adapted screenplay)  11.11%  (4 votes)  
   
• Eugenio Caballero and Pilar Revuelta (Pan's Labyrinth) (art direction / set decoration)  47.22%  (17 votes)  
   
• Frank Cottrell Boyce (as Martin Hardy), from the novel The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne (Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story) (funniest adaptation of the most unlikely source material)  5.56%  (2 votes)  
   

 

Total Votes: 36

 

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

2005 Alternate Oscars

Best Picture of 2005 (Poll Closed)

• Batman Begins  4.48%  (3 votes)  
   
• ★ Brokeback Mountain  56.72%  (38 votes)  
   
• Caché (Hidden)  5.97%  (4 votes)  
   
• Good Night, and Good Luck  4.48%  (3 votes)  
   
• A History of Violence  19.4%  (13 votes)  
   
• Kiss Kiss Bang Bang  4.48%  (3 votes)  
   
• The Matador  2.99%  (2 votes)  
   
• Match Point  1.48%  (1 votes)  
   
• Millions  0%  (0 votes)  
   
• @ Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit  0%  (0 votes)  
   

 

Total Votes: 67

 

Best Actor of 2005 (Poll Closed)

• Pierce Brosnan (The Matador)  5.45%  (3 votes)  
   
• ★ ✔ Philip Seymour Hoffman (Capote)  32.73%  (18 votes)  
   
• Heath Ledger (Brokeback Mountain)  47.27%  (26 votes)  
   
• Viggo Mortensen (A History of Violence)  7.27%  (4 votes)  
   
• David Straithairn (Good Night, and Good Luck)  7.27%  (4 votes)  
   

 

Total Votes: 55

 

Best Actress of 2005 (Poll Closed)

• Joan Allen (The Upside of Anger)  4.92%  (3 votes)  
   
• Felicity Huffman (Transamerica)  40.98%  (25 votes)  
   
• ★ Keira Knightley (Pride & Prejudice)  24.59%  (15 votes)  
   
• Naomi Watts (King Kong)  8.2%  (5 votes)  
   
• ✔ Reese Witherspoon (Walk the Line)  21.31%  (13 votes)  
   

 

Total Votes: 61

 

Best Director of 2005 (Poll Closed)

• Woody Allen (Match Point)  3.7%  (2 votes)  
   
• George Clooney (Good Night, and Good Luck)  7.41%  (4 votes)  
   
• ★ David Cronenberg (A History of Violence)  20.37%  (11 votes)  
   
• ✔ Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain)  61.11%  (33 votes)  
   
• Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez (Sin City)  7.41%  (4 votes)  
   

 

Total Votes: 54

 

Best Supporting Actor of 2005 (Poll Closed)

• ✔ George Clooney (Syriana)  6.45%  (4 votes)  
   
• Paul Giamatti (Cinderella Man)  9.68%  (6 votes)  
   
• Jake Gyllenhaal (Brokeback Mountain)  46.77%  (29 votes)  
   
• William Hurt (A History of Violence)  22.58%  (14 votes)  
   
• ★ Val Kilmer (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang)  14.52%  (9 votes)  
   

 

Total Votes: 62

 

Best Supporting Actress of 2005 (Poll Closed)

• ★ Amy Adams (Junebug)  50.72%  (35 votes)  
   
• Maria Bello (A History of Violence)  14.49%  (10 votes)  
   
• Scarlett Johansson (Match Point)  4.35%  (3 votes)  
   
• ✔ Rachel Weisz (The Constant Gardener)  14.49%  (10 votes)  
   
• Michelle Williams (Brokeback Mountain)  15.94%  (11 votes)  
   

 

Total Votes: 69

 

Special Award (Poll Closed)

• George Clooney & Grant Heslov (Good Night, And Good Luck) (original screenplay)  42.42%  (14 votes)  
   
• Dianne Reeves (Good Night, and Good Luck) (vocal performance)  0%  (0 votes)  
   
• Richard King (War of the Worlds) (sound effects editing)  21.21%  (7 votes)  
   
• Wensleydale (The Wallace & Gromit series) (best cheese)  36.36%  (12 votes)  
   

 

Total Votes: 33

 

My choices are noted with a ★. Historical Oscar winners are noted with a ✔. Best animated feature winners are noted with an @.

Crash, which I have not nominated in any category, was (in my opinion) one of the worst best picture winners of all-time, an unworthy choice in any year. Never mind that it beat far superior nominees in Brokeback Mountain and Good Night, and Good Luck, as well as unnominated gems such as Batman Begins, A History of Violence and Match Point, Crash is completely unbelievable (and not in a good way, ala Georges Méliès) and a narrative mess to boot. Yet despite its shortcomings, it seems to think it's brilliant and never let's you forget it — the cherry on top of a smug pile of cinematic manure. And God knows I hate cherries!

But you know, if you like it, that's okay with me. And if you really, really feel the need to cast a vote for it, why, you can just toddle on over to this site (click here) and cast away!