1937 Alternate Oscars

My choices are noted with a ★. A tie is indicated with a ✪. Historical Oscar winners are noted with a ✔. Best foreign-language picture winners are noted with an ƒ. A historical winner who won in a different category is noted with a ✱.

1936 Alternate Oscars

My choices are noted with a ★. A tie is indicated with a ✪. Historical Oscar winners are noted with a ✔. Best foreign-language picture winners are noted with an ƒ. A historical winner who won in a different category is noted with a ✱.

1935 Alternate Oscars

My choices are noted with a ★. A tie is indicated with a ✪. Historical Oscar winners are noted with a ✔. Best foreign-language picture winners are noted with an ƒ. A historical winner who won in a different category is noted with a ✱.

1934 Alternate Oscars

My choices are noted with a ★. A tie is indicated with a ✪. Historical Oscar winners are noted with a ✔. Best foreign-language picture winners are noted with an ƒ. A historical winner who won in a different category is noted with a ✱.

1933 Alternate Oscars

My choices are noted with a ★. A tie is indicated with a ✪. Historical Oscar winners are noted with a ✔. Best foreign-language picture winners are noted with an ƒ. A historical winner who won in a different category is noted with a ✱.

1932 Alternate Oscars

What do you need to know about 1932?

(1) Ernst Lubitsch made movies that seemed to float in magnums of cold champagne and the floatiest of them all was Trouble in Paradise.

(2) Paul Muni made not one but two classic crime pictures (Scarface and I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang).

(3) Joan Crawford turned in the best performance of her career in a movie not named Mildred Pierce.

Probably some other stuff, but I'll leave that for you to discover ...

1931 Alternate Oscars

A great year for moving pictures. Charlie Chaplin, Fritz Lang and René Clair turned in the best work of their careers. James Cagney, Edward G. Robinson, Clark Gable, Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Peter Lorre and Joan Blondell all went from bit players to stars. And Universal Studios launched its classic horror cycle with Frankenstein and Dracula ...

1930 Alternate Oscars

As promised, I'll be reposting my alternate Oscar polls every other day or so until we catch up to the present. But rather than drag you through the silent era — an era which even many film buffs don't know well — I'm starting with 1930 and moving forward from there. (You can always follow these links and vote for the Silent Oscars: 1888 to 1909; 1910s; 1920s)

Most of the races in 1930 are blowouts, but the best actor contest is nip-and-tuck between the Marx Brothers in Animal Crackers and that smoked Nazi ham, Emil Jannings. If you love the Marx Brothers, this is their only realistic shot at an alternate Oscar — they trail badly in 1933 and 1935.

As for Emil Jannings, he's running away with the 1928 alternate Oscar ...