With this year’s Oscar ceremony just a couple of weeks away, it’s worth going back and remembering the awards show from a decade prior.
The 86th Academy Awards ceremony was hosted by Ellen DeGeneres and featured that infamous Oscar selfie that briefly broke the internet and John Travolta completely whiffed on pronouncing Idina Menzel’s name.
Steve McQueen’s historical drama 12 Years a Slave won Best Picture, while Matthew McConaughey won Best Actor for Dallas Buyers Club and Cate Blanchett won her second Oscar in the Best Actress category for Blue Jasmine.
Now that we’re 10 years removed, we’ve decided to go back and reconfigure the nominees and winners for this set of Oscars. This is a purely subjective exercise, although we skewed toward the critical consensus and the way the canon has developed over the years in determining our reworkings.
We analyze the eight major categories: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Original Screenplay and Best Adapted Screenplay.
A hint: we fix the Leonardo DiCaprio Oscars thing.
Best Picture
Original nominees:12 Years a Slave, American Hustle, Captain Phillips, Dallas Buyers Club, Gravity, Her, Nebraska, Philomena, The Wolf of Wall Street
Adjusted nominees: 12 Years a Slave, American Hustle, Captain Phillips, Frozen, Inside Llewyn Davis, Gravity, Her, Nebraska, Prisoners, The Wolf of Wall Street
This year’s Best Picture lineup did a better job than most of reflecting the most important films of that year, but the old preferential balloting rules prevented there from being 10 nominees. We’ll fix that here.
We’ve decided to take out Dallas Buyers Club and Philomena, two perfectly fine films that have faded a bit over time in the discourse. We’ll replace them with three of the most consequential films of that year (and of the decade).
Frozen defined animation during the 2010s, going from an oddly marketed potential flop to one of the biggest films of that decade in terms of reach and cultural impact. If we did this over, we’d give the Mouse House its due in Best Picture, which would’ve been its first since 2010’s Toy Story 3.
Inside Llewyn Davis is widely regarded as one of the best works of the Coen brothers and of the decade overall, announcing Oscar Isaac as a major star and reminding everyone of how beautifully delicate the brothers’ tonal balance can be as it followed wannabe folk star Llewyn Davis’ journey.
As for Prisoners, it was the rare drama-thriller that did well at the box office and positioned its filmmaker, Denis Villeneuve, as one of the most important emergences of the decade for filmmaking. While the Academy hasn’t traditionally gone for genre fare, this one has more in common with something like The Silence of the Lambs and would likely make it in if voters could do it over.
Winner: 12 Years a Slave
Steve McQueen’s deeply affecting slavery drama still stands tall as one of the best films of the 2010s, and this was the rare year where the Academy did the right thing while also awarding the movie of the moment. We’ll definitely keep this one as is.
Best Director
Original nominees: Alfonso Cuarón (Gravity), David O. Russell (American Hustle), Alexander Payne (Nebraska), Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave), Martin Scorsese (The Wolf of Wall Street)
Adjusted nominees: Joel & Ethan Coen (Inside Llewyn Davis), Alfonso Cuarón (Gravity), Alexander Payne (Nebraska), Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave), Martin Scorsese (The Wolf of Wall Street)
Again, the Coens put forth one of their best movies with Inside Llewyn Davis, and it’s more of a directing achievement than what Russell did with American Hustle, as good as that film is.
Matching the fact that Russell had been nominated the year before for the superior Silver Linings Playbook, let’s put the Coens in his slot in our reworkings. The other nominees are perfectly placed.
Winner: Alfonso Cuarón (Gravity)
Cuarón won two Best Director Oscars in the 2010s, and it’s hard to want to move him away from the titanic achievement that was Gravity. In terms of what he pulled off technically with that film alone, him winning his first directing Oscar still feels very right a decade later. Though, we did consider making McQueen a double winner.
Best Actor
Original nominees: Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club), Christian Bale (American Hustle), Bruce Dern (Nebraska), Leonardo DiCaprio (The Wolf of Wall Street), Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave)
Adjusted nominees: Bruce Dern (Nebraska), Leonardo DiCaprio (The Wolf of Wall Street), Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave), Tom Hanks (Captain Phillips), Michael B. Jordan (Fruitvale Station)
Truly, no disrespect to the McConaissance. McConaughey’s 2010s revival was as spirited as what any actor put forth that decade, and we’re happy for him as a person that he won an Oscar. However, Dallas Buyers Club wasn’t even his best performance in 2013 (hello, Mud).
We’re going to omit him and Bale’s American Hustle performance, which was also good but didn’t necessarily warrant a nomination.
We’ll replace them with Hanks’ searing survivalism from Captain Phillips, a bad omission at the time, and Jordan’s heartbreaking breakout performance in Ryan Coogler’s deeply tragic directorial debut Fruitvale Station.
Winner: Leonardo DiCaprio (The Wolf of Wall Street)
This really was Leo’s year. Giving him an Oscar for his brilliantly manic performance in The Wolf of Wall Street would’ve been the perfect career achievement matched with a piece of acting that best represents his range.
It would’ve kept the Academy from giving him the makeup Oscar in 2016 with The Revenant and allowed another performance to win that year.
Best Actress
Original nominees: Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine), Amy Adams (American Hustle), Sandra Bullock (Gravity), Judi Dench (Philomena), Meryl Streep (August: Osage County)
Adjusted nominees: Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine), Sandra Bullock (Gravity), Greta Gerwig (Frances Ha), Brie Larson (Short Term 12), Shailene Woodley (The Spectacular Now)
Best Actress that year needed some major configurations, as a few well-awarded actors (Dench, Streep) and multi-nominated (Adams) probably could’ve ceded ground for more exciting roles from impressive young actors.
We’ll keep Blanchett and Bullock, the two favorites for the award that year, and replace them with these three: Gerwig, the now auteur who delivered an awards-worthy turn in the lyrical Frances Ha, Larson, who broke out in a major way in the adored Short Term 12, and Woodley, who would finally get an Oscar nomination after being snubbed for The Descendants two years prior for her powerful turn in the teen romance The Spectacular Now.
Winner: Sandra Bullock (Gravity)
Blanchett and Bullock had both won before, but maybe in this universe, Bullock wins her first Oscar for the best role of her career in Gravity and Carey Mulligan retroactively wins Best Actress for An Education. It feels like, in the rearview, Bullock’s turn was a more deserving feat.
Best Supporting Actor
Original nominees: Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club), Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips), Bradley Cooper (American Hustle), Michael Fassbender (12 Years a Slave), Jonah Hill (The Wolf of Wall Street)
Adjusted nominees: Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips), Bradley Cooper (American Hustle), Michael Fassbender (12 Years a Slave), Will Forte (Nebraska), Jonah Hill (The Wolf of Wall Street)
Taking out that year’s winner in Leto might feel like a surprise, but it would give us a world where Forte is an Academy Award nominee for his tender-hearted performance in Nebraska. We debated removing Cooper’s role in American Hustle, but it’d feel weird to take out the film’s best performance.
Winner: Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips)
With Leto out, let’s have some fun and give the breakout candidate here in Abdi the Oscar. His performance in Captain Phillips was a revelation, as he holds so much of the film’s tension on his shoulders. The Academy has never shied away from honoring up-and-comers, and Abdi would’ve been worthy.
Best Supporting Actress
Original nominees: Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years a Slave), Sally Hawkins (Blue Jasmine), Jennifer Lawrence (American Hustle), Julia Roberts (August: Osage County), June Squibb (Nebraska)
Adjusted nominees: Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years a Slave), Jennifer Lawrence (American Hustle), Margot Robbie (The Wolf of Wall Street), June Squibb (Nebraska), Emma Watson (The Bling Ring)
We’ll replace Hawkins and Roberts for Robbie’s breakout turn in The Wolf of Wall Street and Watson’s very underrated turn as a member of the Bling Ring thieves. Those two performances feel much more deserving in the rearview, particularly Robbie.
Winner: Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years a Slave)
This one is easy to keep. Nyong’o absolutely deserved the Oscar that year for her devastating turn in 12 Years a Slave, one that established her as one of the genuine forces in the profession. Since then, she’s done nothing but confirm that.
Best Original Screenplay
Original nominees: Her (Spike Jonze), American Hustle (Eric Warren Singer and David O. Russell), Blue Jasmine (Woody Allen), Dallas Buyers Club (Craig Borten and Melisa Wallack), Nebraska (Bob Nelson)
Adjusted nominees: Enough Said (Nicole Holofcener), Her (Spike Jonze), Frances Ha (Noah Baumbach & Greta Gerwig), Inside Llewyn Davis (Joel & Ethan Coen), Nebraska (Bob Nelson)
Taking out American Hustle, Blue Jasmine and Dallas Buyers Club doesn’t feel that difficult in retrospect, as Holofcener’s wonderful work on Enough Said, Baumbach and Gerwig’s delightful first collaboration in Frances Ha and the Coens’ masterful work on Inside Llewyn Davis were all more deserving.
Winner: Spike Jonze (Her)
We’re not monsters; we’d never take Jonze’s Oscar away from him. Her is probably still the best, most prescient screenplay of the bunch, and it’s just great he finally got an Oscar after years of excellence behind the camera and on the page.
Best Adapted Screenplay
Original nominees: 12 Years a Slave (John Ridley), Before Midnight (Richard Linklater, Ethan Hawke & Julie Delpy), Captain Phillips (Billy Ray), Philomena (Steve Coogan & Jeff Pope), The Wolf of Wall Street (Terence Winter)
Adjusted nominees: 12 Years a Slave (John Ridley), Before Midnight (Richard Linklater, Ethan Hawke & Julie Delpy), Captain Phillips (Billy Ray), Short Term 12 (Destin Daniel Cretton), The Wolf of Wall Street (Terence Winter)
Again, no disrespect to Philomena, but it would’ve been exciting to see Cretton honored for his fantastic script for Short Term 12, one that heralded the arrival of a major talent and boosted up its stellar ensemble.
Winner: John Ridley (12 Years a Slave)
Ridley’s strong screenplay for 12 Years a Slave was absolutely deserving then, and we maintain it’s still deserving now after a decade.
