1991 Alternate Oscars

Anthony Hopkins's performance in The Silence of the Lambs is iconic, deservedly so, one of the greatest villains in movie history. In fact, his Hannibal Lecter is so memorable, you forget how little time he's actually on the screen — 16 minutes, one of the shortest Oscar-winning outings in history. Thus, I've dropped him into the supporting category where I think he belongs ...

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 ✱.

1990 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 ✱.

1989 Alternate Oscars

If you're old like me, you might remember all the hand-wringing and pearl-clutching that accompanied the release of Spike Lee's masterpiece, Do the Right Thing, back in 1989. The movie holds up even if its critics' hysterics look pretty comical in retrospect. Lee basically predicted the Black Lives Matter movement thirty years before it had a name and laid out the injustices and frustrations that underlie it.

A true artist with his finger on America's pulse and the best picture of the year.

So of course the Academy gave the Oscar to Driving Miss Daisy, the essential message of which is Keep your mouth shut and your eyes on the road, Morgan, and eventually the old white lady in the backseat might learn to tolerate you. Try as I might I couldn't shoehorn it into my top ten. Or maybe I just didn't want to.

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 ✱.

And on a personal note, I passed a milestone last week. When I say I'm happy to be here, you can bet I really mean it!

1988 Alternate Oscars

Tom Hanks has been my generation's Jimmy Stewart for more than forty years now but it was his performance in 1988's Big, dancing with Robert Loggia on that giant piano, that earned Hanks his first Oscar nomination. Here at the Monkey, it earns him an alternate Oscar.



By the way, today is the fifteenth anniversary of the beginning of this blog. Don't know what that signifies other than my own stubborn irrelevance but I'm having a good time ...

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 ✱.

2017 - 2018 - 2019 Alternate Oscars

If you don't mind, I'm going to jump ahead for a minute to let you know I have three more years of alternate Oscar polls up and running — 2017, 2018 and 2019. The first is a final vote to pick the winners, the other two are to pick the nominees.

(Kudos to anybody who knows whose picture that is at the top of the page and why I've posted it.)

2017

2018

2019

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 ✱.