by year. What would you have liked to have seen nominated? I think the factors that contribute to mine are: 1. personal preference / my favorites; 2. factoring in somewhat what would provide satisfying amount of genre breadth among the nominees; 3. what would have seemed right in the moment, i.e. critical and popular opinion, cultural temperature. (But prioritizing by far my own taste!)

1999
The Matrix
Fight Club
American Beauty
Being John Malkovich
Magnolia
alternates: Three Kings, The Sixth Sense, Office Space, Toy Story 2, Election

2000
Almost Famous
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Gladiator
Requiem for a Dream
Erin Brockovich

2001
Memento
The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
The Royal Tenenbaums
A Beautiful Mind
Moulin Rouge!
damn, there's also A.I., Waking Life, Vanilla Sky, Amelie, Monsters Inc, Donnie Darko.....

2002
Adaptation
Spirited Away
Minority Report
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
25th Hour

2003
Finding Nemo
The Last Samurai
Monster
Lost in Translation
School of Rock
alternates: Big Fish, In America, Kill Bill Volume 1, The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King

2004
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
The Motorcycle Diaries
The Incredibles
Before Sunset
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
alternates: The Aviator, Sideways, Kill Bill Volume 2, Million Dollar Baby

2005
Brokeback Mountain
Munich
The Squid and the Whale
...uhh......
...........hhh........

2006
Children of Men
The Fountain
The Prestige
Stranger Than Fiction
Pan's Labyrinth

2007
Ratatouille
There Will Be Blood
Atonement
No Country for Old Men
Knocked Up

2008
The Dark Knight
WALL-E
Slumdog Millionaire
Vicky Christina Barcelona
Burn After Reading / Waltz With Bashir / Milk / Forgetting Sarah Marshall
damn this year was good... need more nominee slots.... also has Speed Racer, Step Brothers, Man on Wire, Doubt, The Wrestler, Let the Right One In..... wowza!

2009
Avatar
Fantastic Mr. Fox
A Serious Man
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
District 9
The Hurt Locker
Bright Star

2010
The Social Network
Black Swan
Toy Story 3
The Kids are All Right
The King's Speech
Inception
The Fighter
127 Hours
the Oscars kinda nailed the lineup this year... I believe this is close to the actual nominees!

2011
Oscar Cancelled Due to Insufficient Quality

2012
Cloud Atlas
Life of Pi
Silver Linings Playbook
Skyfall
Magic Mike
The Dark Knight Rises
Argo
The Master

2013
Gravity
12 Years a Slave
The Wolf of Wall Street
Before Midnight
All is Lost
Short Term 12
Enough Said
Side Effects
The Spectacular Now

2014
Boyhood
Birdman
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Gone Girl
Interstellar
Whiplash
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

2015
Mad Max: Fury Road
Ex Machina
Inside Out
Anomalisa
Spotlight
The Revenant
Carol
The Big Short
Brooklyn
Slow West

2016
Moonlight
Arrival
A Monster Calls
American Honey
The Witch
La La Land
Hunt for the Wilderpeople
Captain Fantastic

2017
Call Me By Your Name
Lady Bird
Get Out
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
mother!
Phantom Thread
Ingrid Goes West
Coco
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
The Florida Project
helluva year for inclusivity... majority of these are women led, and yes, another gay BP, you're welcome

2018
First Reformed
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Eighth Grade
The Favourite
Isle of Dogs
The Hate U Give
Green Book
Tully
Blackkklansmen
Annihilation

notes:
--Pixar gets their due (nominations)
--as does Chris Nolan, Coen Brothers, Wes Anderson
--confession, it seems my Oscars are generally #sowhite #somale #racistviewinghabits

But personally, I think these are so, so, so much better than the real ones.

Good idea for a thread, trying to mix personal preference with what is objectively good and what was legitimately pleasing to the audience. I'm only gonna do the 10s for now.


2010
Scott Pilgrim vs The World - my favorite
The Social Network - the movie that should have won
Inception
Toy Story 3
Black Swan
The Fighter
How To Train Your Dragon
True Grit

-Oscar did pretty well that year. I'd like to see a bit more diversity but there isn't much to pick from.

2011
Drive
Bridesmaids
Attack the Block
The Artist
The Ides of March
Contagion
Midnight In Paris
Harry Potter 8 - for the legacy

-Oscars did awful this year. I gave them The Artist and Paris back to be nice but the rest was ridiculous.

2012
Django Unchained
Life of Pi
The Avengers - cmon it had never been done before and they nailed it
Argo - This was the year of the Benaissance after all
Skyfall
The Cabin in the Woods
The Dark Knight Rises - the category was expanded to let this get in .. and then it didn't lol
Moonrise Kingdom
The Perks of Being a Wallflower - haven't seen this but people love it
Silver Linings Playbook

-had to go full 10 here. Great year for genre films and dramas alike.

2013
Frozen
Gravity
12 Years A Slave
The Wolf of Wall Street
Her
Catching Fire
Inside Llewyn Davis
Side Effects

- ehhhh, it's a decent list, but couldn't include my other two favs, Anchorman and Steel, cause they are far too divisive

2014
The Raid 2
Boyhood
Guardians of the Galaxy
John Wick
Edge of Tomorrow
Gone Girl
Whiplash
Inherent Vice
Nightcrawler
American Hustle

-Amazign year for action movies. And FU Birdman.

2015
Inside Out
Creed
Mad Max - not my favorite but it was the hot ticket that year
Spotlight - cause we cant let them get away with it!
It Follows
Trainwreck
Ex Machina
The Revenant

-And freaking See You Again needs to be there for Best Song. What a disrespectful tragedy that was.

2016
Zootopia
La La Land
Civil War
Hail, Caesar!
The Nice Guys
Don't Breathe
Moonlight - mehhh
Arrival

-Actually wait, sorry La La Land but we're actually going to give it to Arrival. I feel like everyone would have been happy with that.

2017
Coco
Dunkirk
The Last Jedi
Ladybird
Logan
Call Me By Your Name - haven't seen but diversity!!
Wonder Woman
Three Billboards
Get Out

-Justice for Dunkirk!

2018
Mission Impossible: Fallout
Black Panther
A Star is Born
Annihilation
The Favorite - for KJ
A Quiet Place
Into The Spiderverse
The Hate U Give - I dunno what else to put so let's go diversity again

-Wakanda forever!

I'll do more at some other point in time.

thanks for the response Flav! I like your picks (and think you’re dead wrong about many of them! )

I cannot believe I forgot Her as a nominee in 2013. That actually would be my surprise winner that year over Gravity.

I also like Avengers for 2012 (classic! unprecedented!), Catching Fire in 2013 (really a fire piece of cinema, the preceding and following chapters unfortunately lessen it in my mind), Nightcrawler in 2014 (totally deserving).