A few years ago the Guardian ran a feature listing the "alternative top 50 albums ever". The list was arrived at by veto-ing anything released in the last 5 years (recently released works tend to clog up such lists, something that applies to the oscars too), and then culling the "usual suspects", ie the albums that ALWAYS get picked, like Pet Sounds, Sgt Pepper, etc etc.
Obviously, this process was highly subjective (and completely pointless, of course, but when has that ever stopped us guys making lists??), but the results was quite an illuminating list of overlooked classics. Anyway, I was thinking about some of the great films made last year that were comprehensively overlooked, either because they didn't have Harvey Weinstein thowing money around to get them noticed, or because they were released too early for the goldfish attention spans of some of the Academy voters, or for whatever other reasons - including that not enough people thought they were good enough, of course. So here's my alternative picks, some of which did get nominated, but didn't win. BEST FILM: Morvern Callar Dirty Pretty Things Lantana The Two Towers Donnie Darko BEST DIRECTOR: Peter Jackson (2 Towers) Lynne Ramsay (Morvern Callar) Phillip Noyce (Rabbit Proof Fence) Pedro Alomodovar (Talk To Her - I had reservations about it, but direction was superb) Christopher Nolan (Insomnia) BEST ACTOR: Chiwetel Ejiofor (Dirty Pretty Things) Nicolas Cage (Adaptation - the best thing he's ever done) Anthony LaPaglia (Lantana) Bill Nighy (Lawless Heart) Al Pacino (Insomnia) BEST ACTRESS: Edie Falco (Sunshine State) Samantha Morton (Morvern Callar) Audrey Tautou (Dirty Pretty Things) Kerry Armstrong (Lantana) Ana Lopez Mercado (Y Tu Mama Tambien) BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Jane Alexander (Sunshine State) Maggie Gyllenhaal (Donnie Darko) Kathleen McDermott (Morvern Callar) Rachel Blake (Lantana) Sophie Okonedo (Dirty Pretty Things) BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Benedict Wong (Dirty Pretty Things) Chris Cooper (OK, he actually DID win, but he deserved it) Patrick Swayze (yes really! For Donnie Darko) Robin Williams (Insomnia) Kenneth Branagh (Harry Potter & The Chamber of Secrets) Right, I'm done here, Azeem in London
