Wednesday Oscar Retrospective: The Real Best Pictures of 2004

Welcome back to a weekly feature here at Movies with Abe, Wednesday Oscar Retrospective. The Real Best Pictures is the seventh in a series of projects looking back at the past eight years of the Oscars, dating back to the first ceremony I watched and closely followed.

For this feature, imagine that an Oscar nomination for Best Picture was cumulative rather than based on votes in just that category. That means taking into account how well a film performed in other categories, and how many Oscars it eventually took home. Like the other series before it, this one is highly speculative, but the point is just to have fun, so chime in with your thoughts in the comments!

And the nominees were… The Aviator, Finding Neverland, Million Dollar Baby, Ray, Sideways

The keepers, no questions: The two biggest Oscar films of the year were winner Million Dollar Baby and The Aviator.

The question marks: Though it won a screenplay award, Sideways achieved only the basic major nominations. Ray was much more about star Jamie Foxx than anything, and Finding Neverland missed out a directing nomination.

The losers: No clear losers this year!

The new inclusions: Best Actress nominee Vera Drake also managed bids for directing and writing, The closest contender was definitely Hotel Rwanda, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind also had some support.

The new nominees: Based on sheer numbers of nominations, it’s the same list this time too.

Come back next week for a look at the Real Best Pictures of 2003!