Wednesday Oscar Retrospective: The Real Best Pictures of 2003

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… Lost in Translation, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, Mystic River, The Return of the King, Seabiscuit

The keepers, no questions: That would be The Return of the King, which won eleven Oscars. Mystic River stays too with its three acting nominations and two wins.

The question marks: It didn’t earn a screenplay nomination, but ten nominations and two wins suggests that Master and Commander would have been included. Though it won only a writing prize, Lost in Translation earned a lead acting and directing nod.

The losers: Director-less Seabiscuit, which didn’t take home any awards despite nominations, mostly technical.

The new inclusions: Original Best Picture frontrunner Cold Mountain didn’t miss out by much, earning two acting nominations and a handful of technical mentions. City of God made a surprise showing for directing, writing, editing, and cinematography, so it may have been close too.

The new nominees: Cold Mountain, Lost in Translation, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, Mystic River, The Return of the King