In previous years, I’ve used Oscar Sunday as a chance to write about what the Academy has gotten wrong over the years, the snubbed classics and the unworthy winners.  This year, though, I want to do something a little different.

I want to take a look at the time that the Academy made the right decision, either by picking the best film for Best Picture or even just by giving a nomination to someone who actually deserved it.  Consider this to be my attempt to add some positivity to what has otherwise been a pretty negative awards season!  We all love to criticize the Academy and goodness knows that much of that criticism has been deserved over the years but occasionally, they do get it right!

Here are 4 times the Academy got it right during the 1920s!

(Before anyone thinks that I’m condemning the Academy with faint praise, the first Oscars were handed out in 1928 so, for this decades, there are really only a handful of winners and nominees to choose from.)

1. All Quiet On The Western Front Wins Best Picture

All Quiet On The Western Front was the third film to win the Oscar for Best Picture and it was the first truly great film to win the award.  If Wings and Broadway Melody were rewarded largely because of internal politics, All Quiet On The Western Front won because it truly deserved it.

2. Sunrise Wins The Academy Award For Unique And Artistic Picture

At the first Oscar ceremony, two awards for Best Picture were given out.  Best Picture went to Wings, which is good but not great.  The award for Unique and Artistic Picture, however, went to F.W. Munrau’s sublime Sunrise.

3. The Racket Is Nominated For Best Picture

The Racket was one of the three films to be nominated for the very first Best Picture Oscar in 1928.  It’s nearly forgotten today but it still remains significant because it was the first gangster film to be nominated for Best Picture and it was also the first genre film.  The Racket started a long tradition of American movies about organized crime, one that includes The Godfather, Goodfellas, The Irishman, and so many other films.  As well, The Racket was long considered to be a lost film until someone stumbled across the last remaining copy in the 70s.  Never stop searching for those lost films!

4. Warner Baxter Win Best Actor For In Old Arizona

The 2nd Academy Awards ceremony was a strange one, largely because only the winners were announced and no one is quite sure how the Academy settled on those winners.  That said, Warner Baxter’s award for starring in In Old Arizona does feel historically significant.  He was the first actor to win for appearing in a western and he won for playing not a lawman but an outlaw.  In fact, his amoral character served as a template for many of the characters who would populate the Spaghetti westerns of the 60s and the 70s.

Up next: the 1930s!

The Oscar nominations have been announced!  The Power of the Dog leads with 12.

Initial thoughts: Don’t Look Up is one of the worst films to ever be nominated for Best Picture.  The acting nominations for Being The Ricardos shows that actors love movies about actors.  I’m very excited to see that Nightmare Alley was nominated for best picture.

I’m really happy that Jesse Plemons, Kirsten Dunst, and Jessie Buckley picked up their first nominations.  Plemons and Dunst now join Alfred Lunt and Lynne Fontane and Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton as a married couple nominated for playing a married couple in a film.

More later.  For now, here are the nominees:

Best Picture
“Belfast” – Laura Berwick, Kenneth Branagh, Becca Kovacik and Tamar Thomas, Producers
“CODA” – Philippe Rousselet, Fabrice Gianfermi and Patrick Wachsberger, Producers
“Don’t Look Up” – Adam McKay and Kevin Messick, Producers
“Drive My Car” – Teruhisa Yamamoto, Producer
“Dune” – Mary Parent, Denis Villeneuve and Cale Boyter, Producers
“King Richard” – Tim White, Trevor White and Will Smith, Producers
“Licorice Pizza” – Sara Murphy, Adam Somner and Paul Thomas Anderson, Producers
“Nightmare Alley” – Guillermo del Toro, J. Miles Dale and Bradley Cooper, Producers
“The Power of the Dog” – Jane Campion, Tanya Seghatchian, Emile Sherman, Iain Canning and Roger Frappier, Producers
“West Side Story” Steven Spielberg and Kristie Macosko Krieger, Producers

Best Director
Kenneth Branagh – “Belfast”
Ryûsuke Hamaguchi – “Drive My Car”
Paul Thomas Anderson – “Licorice Pizza”
Jane Campion – “The Power of the Dog”
Steven Spielberg – “West Side Story”

Best Actress
Jessica Chastain – “The Eyes of Tammy Faye”
Olivia Colman – “The Lost Daughter”
Penelope Cruz – “Parallel Mothers”
Nicole Kidman – “Being The Ricardos”
Kristen Stewart – “Spencer”

Best Actor
Javier Bardem – “Being The Ricardos”
Benedict Cumberbatch – “The Power of the Dog”
Andrew Garfield – “Tick, Tick…Boom!”
Will Smith – “King Richard”
Denzel Washington – “The Tragedy of Macbeth”

​Best Supporting Actress
​​​​Jessie Buckley – “The Lost Daughter”
Ariana DeBose – “West Side Story”
Judi Dench – “Belfast”
Kirsten Dunst – “The Power of the Dog”
Aunjanue Ellis – “King Richard”

Best Supporting Actor
​Ciarán Hinds – “Belfast”
Troy Kotsur – “CODA”
Jesse Plemons – “The Power of the Dog”
J.K. Simmons – ​​”Being The Ricardos”
Kodi Smit-McPhee – “The Power of the Dog”

Best Original Screenplay
“Belfast” – Written by Kenneth Branagh
“​Don’t Look Up” – Screenplay by Adam McKay; Story by Adam McKay & David Sirota
“King Richard” – Written by Zach Baylin
“Licorice Pizza” – Written by Paul Thomas Anderson
“The Worst Person in the World” – Written by Eskil Vogt, Joachim Trier

Best Adapted Screenplay
“CODA” Screenplay by Siân Heder
“Drive My Car Screenplay by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Takamasa Oe
“Dune” Screenplay by Jon Spaihts and Denis Villeneuve and Eric Roth
“The Lost Daughter” Written by Maggie Gyllenhaal
“The Power of the Dog” Written by Jane Campion

Best Animated Feature
​”​Encanto” – Jared Bush, Byron Howard, Yvett Merino and Clark Spencer
“Flee” – Jonas Poher Rasmussen, Monica Hellström, Signe Byrge Sørensen and Charlotte De La Gournerie
“Luca” – Enrico Casarosa and Andrea Warren
“The Mitchells vs. the Machines” – Mike Rianda, Phil Lord, Christopher Miller and Kurt Albrecht
“Raya and the Last Dragon” – Don Hall, Carlos López Estrada, Osnat Shurer and Peter Del Vecho

Best Documentary Feature
​​​”Ascension” – Jessica Kingdon, Kira Simon-Kennedy and Nathan Truesdell
“Attica” – Stanley Nelson and Traci A. Curry
“Flee” Jonas Poher Rasmussen, Monica Hellström, Signe Byrge Sørensen and Charlotte De La Gournerie
“Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)” – Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, Joseph Patel, Robert Fyvolent and David Dinerstein
“Writing with Fire” – Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh

Best International Feature
“​Drive My Car” – Japan
“Flee” – Denmark
“The Hand of God” – Italy
“Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom” – Bhutan
“The Worst Person in the World” – Norway

Best Cinematography
​”Dune” – Greig Fraser
“Nightmare Alley” – Dan Laustsen
“The Power of the Dog” – Ari Wegner
“The Tragedy Of Macbeth” Bruno Delbonnel
“West Side Story” – Janusz Kaminski

Best Costume Design
“Cruella” – Jenny Beavan
“Cyrano” – Massimo Cantini Parrini and Jacqueline Durran
“Dune” – Jacqueline West and Robert Morgan
“Nightmare Alley” – Luis Sequeira
“West Side Story” – Paul Tazewell

Best Film Editing
​”Don’t Look Up” – Hank Corwin
“Dune” – Joe Walker
“King Richard” – Pamela Martin
“The Power of the Dog” – Peter Sciberras
“Tick, Tick…Boom!” – Myron Kerstein and Andrew Weisblum

Best Makeup & Hairstyling
​​​​​”Coming 2 America” – Mike Marino, Stacey Morris and Carla Farmer
“Cruella” – Nadia Stacey, Naomi Donne and Julia Vernon
“Dune” – Donald Mowat, Love Larson and Eva von Bahr
“The Eyes of Tammy Faye” – Linda Dowds, Stephanie Ingram and Justin Raleigh
“House of Gucci” – Göran Lundström, Anna Carin Lock and Frederic Aspiras

Best Production Design
​”Dune” – Production Design: Patrice Vermette; Set Decoration: Zsuzsanna Sipos
“Nightmare Alley” – Production Design: Tamara Deverell; Set Decoration: Shane Vieau
“The Power of the Dog” – Production Design: Grant Major; Set Decoration: Amber Richards
“The Tragedy of Macbeth” – Production Design: Stefan Dechant; Set Decoration: Nancy Haigh
“West Side Story” – Production Design: Adam Stockhausen; Set Decoration: Rena DeAngelo

Best Sound
​​​​”Belfast” – Denise Yarde, Simon Chase, James Mather and Niv Adiri
“Dune” – Mac Ruth, Mark Mangini, Theo Green, Doug Hemphill and Ron Bartlett
“No Time to Die” – Simon Hayes, Oliver Tarney, James Harrison, Paul Massey and Mark Taylor
“The Power of the Dog” – Richard Flynn, Robert Mackenzie and Tara Webb
“West Side Story” – Tod A. Maitland, Gary Rydstrom, Brian Chumney, Andy Nelson and Shawn Murphy

Best Visual Effects
“Dune” – Paul Lambert, Tristan Myles, Brian Connor and Gerd Nefzer
“Free Guy” – Swen Gillberg, Bryan Grill, Nikos Kalaitzidis and Dan Sudick
“No Time to Die” – Charlie Noble, Joel Green, Jonathan Fawkner and Chris Corbould
“Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings” – Christopher Townsend, Joe Farrell, Sean Noel Walker and Dan Oliver
“Spider-Man: No Way Home” – Kelly Port, Chris Waegner, Scott Edelstein and Dan Sudick

Best Original Score
​​”Don’t Look Up” – Nicholas Britell
“Dune” – Hans Zimmer
“Encanto” – Germaine Franco
“Parallel Mothers” – Alberto Iglesias
“The Power Of The Dog” – Jonny Greenwood

Best Original Song

“Be Alive” from “King Richard” – Music and Lyric by DIXSON and Beyoncé Knowles-Carter
“Dos Oruguitas” from “Encanto” – Music and Lyric by Lin-Manuel Miranda
“Down To Joy” from “Belfast” – Music and Lyric by Van Morrison
“No Time To Die” from “No Time to Die” – Music and Lyric by Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell
“Somehow You Do” from “Four Good Days” – Music and Lyric by Diane Warren

Best Animated Short
“Affairs of the Art” – Joanna Quinn and Les Mills
“Bestia” – Hugo Covarrubias and Tevo Díaz
“Boxballet” – Anton Dyakov
“Robin Robin” – Dan Ojari and Mikey Please
“The Windshield Wiper” – Alberto Mielgo and Leo Sanchez

Best Documentary Short
“Audible” – Matt Ogens and Geoff McLean
“Lead Me Home” – Pedro Kos and Jon Shenk
“The Queen of Basketball” – Ben Proudfoot
“Three Songs for Benazir” – Elizabeth Mirzaei and Gulistan Mirzaei
“When We Were Bullies” – Jay Rosenblatt

Best Live-Action Short
“Ala Kachuu – Take and Run” – Maria Brendle and Nadine Lüchinger
“The Dress” – Tadeusz Łysiak and Maciej Ślesicki
“The Long Goodbye” – Aneil Karia and Riz Ahmed
“On My Mind” – Martin Strange-Hansen and Kim Magnusson
“Please Hold” – K.D. Dávila and Levin Menekse