Your Favorite Performances from 1930 to the present

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And what if we had to include at least two of the Academy's choices?

Picture: The Godfather, Part III
Actor: Costner, no change
Actress: no change
S. Actor: Garcia, no change
S. Actress: Bening, no change

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Now it's time for 1991. Here are the Academy's choices:

ACTOR

Warren Beatty – Bugsy
Robert De Niro – Cape Fear
Anthony Hopkins – The Silence of the Lambs
Nick Nolte – The Prince of Tides
Robin Williams – The Fisher King

ACTRESS

Geena Davis – Thelma & Louise
Laura Dern – Rambling Rose
Jodie Foster – The Silence of the Lambs
Bette Midler – For the Boys
Susan Sarandon – Thelma & Louise

SUPPORTING ACTOR

Tommy Lee Jones – JFK
Harvey Keitel – Bugsy
Ben Kingsley – Bugsy
Michael Lerner – Barton Fink
Jack Palance – City Slickers

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Diane Ladd – Rambling Rose
Juliette Lewis – Cape Fear
Kate Nelligan – The Prince of Tides
Mercedes Ruehl – The Fisher King
Jessica Tandy – Fried Green Tomatoes

And here are my choices:

ACTOR

Michel Piccoli, La Belle Noiseuse
Jacques Dutronc, Van Gogh
Warren Beatty, Bugsy
River Phoenix, My Own Private Idaho
Chang Chen, A Brighter Summer Day

ACTRESS

Jodie Foster, The Silence of the Lambs
Susan Sarandon, Thelma and Louise
Annette Bening, Bugsy
Juliette Binoche, The Lovers on the Bridge
Lisa Yang, A Brighter Summer Day

SUPPORTING ACTOR

Gary Oldman, JFK
Max von Sydow, Europa
Anthony Hopkins, The Silence of the Lambs
Ben Kingsley, Bugsy
Andrew Strong, The Commitments

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Christina Ricci, The Addams Family
Angela Lansbury, Beauty and the Beast
Alexandra London, Van Gogh
Silvie Laguna, Delicatessen
Cathy Moriarty, Soapdish

And my choices for best picture are:

Delicatassen
Europa/Zentropa
JFK
Shadows and Fog
The Silence of the Lambs

So who would the Academy choose if they had to choose from my nominees. For Actor, Beatty is the obvious choice against three foreign nominees and an independent film. I imagine the Academy would chose an actor playing a murderer over a street hustler. For Actress, there's no reason Foster wouldn't win, and Hopkins would probably win if moved to supporting. As for Supporting actress, the Academy has never chosen an animated performance. But Lansbury is the obvious legacy choice.

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And if we had to include at least two of the Academy's choices?

Picture: no change
Actor: no change
Actress: no change
Supporting Actor: Jones, but no changes
Supporting Actress: Ruehl, Lewis. The academy chose Ruehl in real life, and probably would here, though both suffer from not getting any other nominations.

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Now it's time for 1992. Here are the Academy's choices:

ACTOR

Robert Downey Jr. – Chaplin
Clint Eastwood – Unforgiven
Al Pacino – Scent of a Woman
Stephen Rea – The Crying Game
Denzel Washington – Malcolm X

ACTRESS

Catherine Deneuve – Indochine
Mary McDonnell – Passion Fish
Michelle Pfeiffer – Love Field
Susan Sarandon – Lorenzo’s Oil
Emma Thompson – Howards End

SUPPORTING ACTOR

Jaye Davidson – The Crying Game
Gene Hackman – Unforgiven
Jack Nicholson – A Few Good Men
Al Pacino – Glengarry Glen Ross
David Paymer – Mr. Saturday Night

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Judy Davis – Husbands and Wives
Joan Plowright – Enchanted April
Vanessa Redgrave – Howards End
Miranda Richardson – Damage
Marisa Tomei – My Cousin Vinny

And here are my choices:

ACTOR

Jack Lemmon, Glengarry Glen Ross
Harvey Keitel, Reservoir Dogs, Bad Lieutenant
Stephen Rea, The Crying Game
Anthony Hopkins, Howard's End
Samuel Froller, The Best Intentions

ACTRESS

Pernilla August, The Best Intentions
Emma Thompson, Howard's End
Tilda Swinton, Orlando
Marisa Tomei, My Cousin Vinny
Winona Ryder, Bram Stoker's Dracula

SUPPORTING ACTOR

Robin Williams, Aladdin
Gene Hackman, Unforgiven
Sidney Poitier, Sneakers
Michael Madsen, Reservoir Dogs
Max Von Sydow, The Best Intentions

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Miranda Richardson, The Crying Game
Alfre Woodard, Passion Fish
Ghita Norby, The Best Intentions
Vanessa Redgrave, Howard's End
Ayse Owens, The Long Day Closes

And the nominees for Best Picture are:

Aladdin
The Best Intentions
Bram Stoker's Dracula
The Crying Game
Reservoir Dogs

So who would the Academy choose if they had to choose from my nominees? Lemmon and Rea got some critical attention. I suspect Lemmon would get the nod, even though I think I may have given him an award. It's possible that Hopkins might win from an Academy who thought he deserved more than a supporting actor the year before. Thompson was the overwhelming critical choice, the only thing hampering it being the lack of a best picture nomination for Howard's End. But it got plenty of other nominations this year regardless. For supporting actor, Hackman was the Academy choice, and he would be this time. For supporting actress now we wonder whether the Academy really hates Redgrave too much to give her another award. The alternative I think is Richardson, which got some critical attention.

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And if we had to include two of the Academy's nominees?

Picture: Unforgiven, which becomes the front-runner
Actor: Eastwood. Now he would probably win
Actress: McDonnell, the only other one I've seen. No difference
S. Actor: Davidson, no change
S. Actress: no change

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Now it's 1993. Here are the Academy's choices:

ACTOR

Daniel Day-Lewis – In the Name of the Father
Laurence Fishburne – What’s Love Got to Do with It
Tom Hanks – Philadelphia
Anthony Hopkins – The Remains of the Day
Liam Neeson – Schindler’s List

ACTRESS

Angela Bassett – What’s Love Got to Do with It
Stockard Channing – Six Degrees of Separation
Holly Hunter – The Piano
Emma Thompson – The Remains of the Day
Debra Winger – Shadowlands

SUPPORTING ACTOR

Leonardo DiCaprio – What’s Eating Gilbert Grape
Ralph Fiennes – Schindler’s List
Tommy Lee Jones – The Fugitive
John Malkovich – In the Line of Fire
Pete Postlethwaite – In the Name of the Father

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Holly Hunter – The Firm
Anna Paquin – The Piano
Rosie Perez – Fearless
Winona Ryder – The Age of Innocence
Emma Thompson – In the Name of the Father

And here are my choices:

ACTOR

Bill Murray, Groundhog Day
Anthony Hopkins, The Remains of the Day
Liam Neeson, Schindler's List
David Thewlis, Naked
Daniel Day-Lewis, The Age of Innocence

ACTRESS

Emma Thompson, The Remains of the Day, Much Ado About Nothing
Michelle Pfeiffer, The Age of Innocence
Gong Li, Farewell my Concubine
Holly Hunter, The Piano
Juliette Binoche, Three Colours: Blue

SUPPORTING ACTOR

Tommy Lee Jones, The Fugitive
Ralph Fiennes, Schindler's List
Ben Kingsley, Schindler's List
Greg Cruttwell, Naked
Jack Lemmon, Short Cuts

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Joanne Woodward, The Age of Innocence
Winona Ryder, The Age of Innocence
Anna Paquin, The Piano
Jennifer Jason Leigh, Short Cuts
Lily Tomlin, Short Cuts

Here are my nominees for best picture:

The Age of Innocence
Farewell my Concubine
Groundhog Day
Schindler's List
Short Cuts

So who would the Academy choose if they had to choose from my choices? For Actor, I think Hopkins is the likely winner, even though The Remains of the Day didn't get a nomination. For Actress, there was a consensus among the critics for Hunter, and that should be enough to beat Thompson, even though I didn't give The Piano a best picture nomination. For supporting actor, the critics were divided between Fiennes and Jones, but Jones got LA support (both the critics and the Globes), so even without a best picture nomination for The Fugitive, the academy would still support its actual choice in our world. For supporting actress, Leigh and Ryder now have best picture nominations, but I think Paquin has enough critical support for the Academy to support its actual choice. All the acting categories already have two of the original nominations. So the only change is best picture, where I add Remains of the Day, which doesn't change anything.

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Let's see if I can remember my lists of past conceivable winners, which were eliminated months ago. The second name is I had to include at least two of the Academy's nominees in every category

ACTOR
1955 James Dean East of Eden
1956 David Niven Around the World in Eighty Days
1957 Henry Fonda Twelve Angry Men /Alec Guinness The Bridge over the River Kwai
1958 James Stewart Vertigo/Paul Newman Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
1959 Cary Grant North by Northwest
1960 Jack Lemmon The Apartment
1961 Paul Newman The Hustler
1962 Gregory Peck To Kill a Mockinbird
1963 Burt Lancaster The Leopard
1964 Ivan Dixon Nothing But a Man /Rex Harrison My Fair Lady

ACTRESS
1955 Katharine Hepburn Summertime
1956 Barbara Stanwyck There's Always Tomorrow /Ingrid Bergman Anastasia
1957 Deborah Kerr An Affair to Remember /Joanne Woodward The Three Faces of Eve
1958 Kim Novak Vertigo /Rosalind Russell Auntie Mame
1959 Marilyn Monroe Some Like it Hot
1960 Shirley MacLaine The Apartment /Deborah Kerr The Sundowners
1961 Delphine Seyrig Last Year in Marienbad /Sophia Loren Two Women
1962 Jeanne Moreau Jules and Jim
1963 Jeanne Moreau Bay of Angels /Leslie Caron The L-Shaped Room
1964 Julie Andrews Mary Poppins

SUPPORTING ACTOR
1955 Arthur Kennedy The Man from Laramie /Jack Lemmon Mister Roberts
1956 Robert Stack Written on the Wind
1957 Lee J. Cobb Twelve Angry Men
1958 Dean Martin Some Came Running/Burl Ives The Big Country
1959 Joe E. Brown Some Like it Hot
1960 Peter Ustinov Spartacus/The Sundowners
1961 George C. Scott The Hustler
1962 Alec Guinness Lawrence of Arabia/Omar Shariff Lawrence of Arabia
1963 Melvyn Douglas Hud
1964 Stanley Holloway My Fair Lady /Peter Ustinov Topaki

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
1955 Lillian Gish The Night of the Hunter
1956 Dorothy Malone Written on the Wind
1957 Elsa Lanchester Witness for the Prosecution
1958 Shirley MacLaine some Came Running
1959 Juanita Moore Imitation of Life
1960 Jo Van Fleet Wild River
1961 Rita Moreno West Side Story
1962 Shelly Winters Lolita
1963 Patricia Neal, Hud
1964 Anastasiya Vertinskaya Hamlet /Agnes Moorehead Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte