Alternate Oscars: The Re-Do's, The Re-Vote's And, Before Too Long, The Results

For years this blog was all about alternate Oscars. And then for the last two-plus years, it's been about nothing at all.

I blame cancer.

To clarify, I beat cancer. It was a knockdown, drag-out fifteen rounder, but twenty-six months after a surgery to end all surgeries, I'm standing over the prostrate body of esophageal adenocarcinoma.

But that's not to say that the battle didn't take its toll. Chemo, radiation, 13 hours of surgery and months of recovery. More surgery during the peak of the pandemic. Frequent bouts of nausea that continue to this day. Plus two years of insomnia, keyed by violent nightmares.



My brains are tired.

I used to write every day, if not on this blog, then on the great American novel, or for Sharpologist and even for Flicker Alley! But not for two years now. I got the nightmares under control with my own version of exposure therapy (binge-watching all 15 seasons of E.R.) — now it's time to wrestle the rest of my brain into line!

As you may recall, from April 2018 to November 2019, I posted weekly polls offering my alternate nominations for the big six Oscar categories (picture, actor, actress, director, supporting actor, supporting actress), plus various special awards.

Overall, I'm pleased with the results. Well, mostly.

What you don't know is that I received my cancer diagnosis right in the middle of that project — November 8, 2018, to be exact, or more precisely, right between 1957 and 1958 as the alternate Oscar flies. I went from very methodically working my way through a given year over the course of a week to advance posting about ten years in a single week, trying to squeeze it all in between various treatments.

As a result, I got more than a little sloppy at times. My choices for 1963 and 1995 were especially poor, leaving out some true classics.

On top of that, there was some occasional hanky-panky at the voting booth, with clear-cut cases of ballot stuffing that left me with some truly idiosyncratic results.

So, this is what I propose. Starting this week, I'm going to launch a handful of re-do's, where I give you a new set of nominees, as well as some re-votes (using a different free voting service), and then I'm going to start posting the results of all the voting, revealing my choice, your choice and the Academy's choice.

At this point, I suspect there are maybe three people who ever check in here — even Katie-Bar-The-Door doesn't drop in anymore — so the vote totals on the re-do's and re-votes might be a bit sparse. But I'm nothing if not a completionist, and besides, the real point of the exercise is to force myself back into the habit of writing. Part of me has really missed writing. Just not the part of me that does anything about it.

Time to wake up.