Our yearly tradition of recasting the Oscars based solely on our own picks continues this year, as we stick it to the Academy and make all of our own exciting choices for Academy Award nominees. Last year, we had our pals Drew Clouse and Finn Kuklok join us for the redistribution, but this year, it’s two of our own DtHL writers: Michelle Arf and Chris Mello.

After spending four hours – both making a podcast episode and deciding on this – we’ve reached a pretty wild conclusion of nominees. Exactly like last year, each of us pick one film we’d like to place as our nominee with a fifth spot (or ninth/tenth in the case of Best Picture) that goes to our consensus pick. We allow ourselves some wiggle room regarding our nominee choices and when they came out, specifically because North America makes some really weird distribution decisions sometimes. So, as usual, it’s going to be an eccentric – and very genre-friendly – list of nominees. And we’ve even added some new categories!

Without further ado, here is DtHL’s Second Annual Oscar Recasting!

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BEST PICTURE:

• Boyhood
• Coherence
• The Grand Budapest Hotel
• Inherent Vice
• Mr. Jones
• The Raid 2
• Stranger by the Lake
• They Came Together
• Under the Skin
• Why Don’t You Play in Hell?

BEST DIRECTOR:

• Paul Thomas Anderson – Inherent Vice
• David Cronenberg – Maps to the Stars
• Jonathan Glazer – Under the Skin
• Richard Linklater – Boyhood
• Adam Wingard – The Guest

BEST ACTOR:

• Ralph Fiennes – The Grand Budapest
• David Oyelowo – Selma
• Joaquin Phoenix – Inherent Vice
• Jason Schwartzman – Listen Up Philip 
• Dan Stevens – The Guest

BEST ACTRESS:

• Essie Davis – The Babadook
• Charlotte Gainsbourg – Nymphomaniac Vol. I & II
• Scarlett Johansson – Under the Skin/Lucy
• Julianne Moore – Maps to the Stars
• Fumi Nikaido – Why Don’t You Play in Hell?

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR:

• Josh Brolin – Inherent Vice
• Pierre-Yves Cardinal – Tom at the Farm
• Song Kang-Ho – Snowpiercer
• J.K. Simmons – Whiplash
• Christian Slater – Nymphomaniac Vol. I & II

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS:

• Patricia Arquette – Boyhood
• Jessica Chastain – A Most Violent Year
• Pamela Florez – The Dance of Reality
• Joanna Newsom – Inherent Vice
• Tilda Swinton – Snowpiercer

BEST YOUNG ACTOR:

• Evan Bird – Maps to the Stars
• Mackenzie Foy – Interstellar
• Lorelei Linklater – Boyhood
• Tony Revolori – The Grand Budapest Hotel
• Noah Wiseman – The Babadook

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:

• Wes Anderson, Hugo Guinness – The Grand Budapest Hotel
• James Ward Byrkit – Coherence
• Jennifer Kent – The Babadook
• Alex Ross Perry – Listen Up Philip
• Michael Showalter & David Wain – They Came Together

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:

• Paul Thomas Anderson – Inherent Vice
• Andrew Bovell – A Most Wanted Man
• Bong Joon-ho & Kelly Masterson – Snowpiercer
• James Gunn & Nicole Perlman – Guardians of the Galaxy
• Gillian Flynn – Gone Girl

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE:

• The Congress
• Evangelion 3.33: You Can (Not) Redo
• The LEGO Movie
• Planes: Fire & Rescue
• The Tale of the Princess Kaguya

BEST FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM:

• The Dance of Reality
• The Raid 2
• Stranger by the Lake
• The Tale of the Princess Kaguya
• Why Don’t You Play in Hell?

BEST DOCUMENTARY:

• Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films
• Jodorowsky’s Dune
• The Overnighters
• The Unknown Known
• Visitors

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY:

• Robert Elswit – Inherent Vice
• Daniel Landin – Under the Skin
• Matthew Rudenberg – Mr. Jones
• Robert D. Yeoman – The Grand Budapest
• Bradford Young – A Most Violent Year

BEST FILM EDITING:

• Tom Cross – Whiplash
• Gareth Evans – The Raid 2
• Mike Flanagan – Oculus
• Leslie Jones – Inherent Vice
• Elísabet Ronaldsdóttir – John Wick

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS:

• Guardians of the Galaxy
• Interstellar
• Lucy
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
• Under the Skin

BEST ACTION SEQUENCES:

• Blue Ruin
• John Wick
• The Raid 2
• Snowpiercer
• Why Don’t You Play in Hell?

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE:

• Danny Bensi – Enemy
• Jonny Greenwood – Inherent Vice
• Joe Hisaishi – The Tale of the Princess Kaguya
• Mica Levi – Under the Skin
• Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross – Gone Girl

BEST USE OF A PRE-EXISTING SONG:

• Duke Ellington & Juan Tizol’s “Caravan” – Whiplash
• Kerry Hilson’s “Pretty Girl Rock” – The Rover
• Can’s “Vitamin C” – Inherent Vice
• Nina Simone’s “Blackbird” – Beyond the Lights
• White Lies’ “Death” – A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night

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*Chris would like to mention that his original choice for Best Young Actor was actually the animated turtles for TMNT.