The Winners Of The 2020 BMD Alternate Oscars
Welcome to the final post of the Birth.Movies.Death Alternate Oscars for 2020! Every week since the official Oscar nominations were posted, we’ve been running polls to determine the best of the films Oscar forgot. We picked the nominees, you voted, and now, we've got some winners. After Parasite's astonishing, inspirational sweep last night, it seems almost anticlimactic posting this, but there are some terrific films to honour here.
Congratulations to the following films and individuals:
Alternate Best Picture: Knives Out
Alternate Best Director: Josh Safdie & Benny Safdie, Uncut Gems
Alternate Best Original Screenplay: Uncut Gems, Josh Safdie & Benny Safdie & Ronald Bronstein
Alternate Best Adapted Screenplay: Hustlers, Lorene Scafaria
Alternate Best Lead Female Actor: Lupita Nyong’o, Us
Alternate Best Lead Male Actor: Adam Sandler, Uncut Gems
Alternate Best Supporting Female Actor: Park So-Dam, Parasite
Alternate Best Supporting Male Actor: Willem Dafoe, The Lighthouse
Alternate Best International Feature: Portrait of a Lady On Fire
Alternate Best Documentary: Apollo 11
Alternate Best Animated Feature: The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part
Alternate Best Cinematography: Midsommar, Pawel Pogorzelski
Alternate Best Editing: Uncut Gems, Ronald Bronstein & Benny Safdie
Alternate Best Original Score: Knives Out, Nathan Johnson
Alternate Best Production Design: The Lighthouse, Craig Lathrop
Alternate Best Costume Design: Dolemite Is My Name, Ruth E. Carter
Alternate Best Makeup & Hairstyling: The Lighthouse
Alternate Best Original Song: “Glasgow (No Place Like Home)” from Wild Rose
Alternate Best Sound Mixing: Rocketman*
Alternate Best Sound Editing: John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum
Alternate Best Visual Effects: Ad Astra
(* originally reported as Ad Astra; however, as we somehow missed that it actually got an Oscar nomination in that category, we’re giving it to the movie that came in second.)
For those of you keeping track: that’s four for Uncut Gems, three for The Lighthouse, and two for Knives Out, including the big one. It was an interesting year for the ranked ballot: while Uncut Gems scored a handful more first-place votes than Knives Out, it also had nearly the highest number of last-place votes, presumably due to its somewhat divisive nature. Meanwhile, Knives Out was near the top of everyone's ballot, giving it a clear win. Everybody loves that thing. Lucky it's getting a sequel.
Thanks to everyone who voted. This is one of my favourite features to run on this site, despite the stress of picking a spread of nominees that honours a broad range of the best work, and it's always fascinating to see how you all vote. See you next year for more!
