19th Academy Awards: choose your alternate nominees (1946)
-
Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Classic Film
sheetsadam1 — 5 days ago(March 31, 2026 03:28 PM)
The idea is this: what if the nominees for Best Picture each year weren't nominated? Which films should have taken their place in that scenario? Pick your alternate selections for Best Picture and, if you wish, mention anybody who you feel was overlooked in any other category. No need to confine yourself to the types of films which typically get nominated or to English-language cinema. If you missed the previous years, they can be found on the classic film board.
All films released in 1946 are eligible. The nominees were:
The Best Years of Our Lives- William Wyler
Henry V - Laurence Olivier
It's a Wonderful Life - Frank Capra
The Razor's Edge - Edmund Goulding
The Yearling - Sidney Franklin
It's a Wonderful Life
, one of my very favorite movies, should have won.
My alternate nominees:
Notorious - Alfred Hitchcock
The Big Sleep - Howard Hawks
My Darling Clementine - John Ford
The Stranger - Orson Welles
Gilda - Charles Vidor
The Blue Dahlia - George Marshall
The Killers - Robert Siodmak
The Postman Always Rings Twice - Tay Garnett
The winner and
It's a Wonderful Life
aside, this is, in my opinion, a much stronger list of films. But even acknowledging film noir as the most interesting trend in cinema at the time,
It's a Wonderful Life
remains the best film of the year, if not the entire decade.
"Praise be to Allah." - President Donald J. Trump, Easter Sunday 04/05/2026
- William Wyler
-
PygmyLion — 5 days ago(March 31, 2026 06:36 PM)
I guess my alternative list would be:
The Best Years of Our Lives - William Wyler
Notorious- Alfred Hitchcock
It's a Wonderful Life - Frank Capra
I Know Where I'm Going - Michael Powell (a 1945 film, released in the US in 1946)
Vacation From Marriage - Alexander Korda
My Darling Clementine - John Ford
The Big Sleep - Howard Hawks
x Great Expectations - David Lean (on next year's list)
The Yearling - Sidney Franklin
Deadline at Dawn - Clurman and Menzies
The Best Years of Our Lives
,
Notorious
,
It's a Wonderful Life
, and
I Know Where I'm Going
are big favorites of mine. Any of them would have won the previous Academy Awards, the 18th. In the end though,
Notorious
is the winner for me here.
- I notice that David Lean is nominated for a Best Director award for
Brief Encounter
in the 19th Academy Awards.
- Alfred Hitchcock
-
sheetsadam1 — 5 days ago(March 31, 2026 07:14 PM)
I Know Where I'm Going
is one I've not seen, so I'll need to correct that. I probably should have mentioned
Great Expectations
.
Notorious
would definitely be my pick had
It's a Wonderful Life
been made earlier or later. I believe that
Spellbound
was the last Hitchcock film ever nominated for Best Picture, so he'll be mentioned quite a bit going forward.
"Praise be to Allah." - President Donald J. Trump, Easter Sunday 04/05/2026 -
-
PygmyLion — 4 days ago(April 01, 2026 02:58 PM)
It appears that
Great Expectations
is another one of those British movies that was released in Britain in 1946 (December) so it is listed as 1946 on IMDB, but wasn't released in the USA until 1947, so it is in the next Academy Awards.
Great Expectations
is on the 20th Academy Awards nominees list. -
sheetsadam1 — 4 days ago(April 02, 2026 05:26 AM)
Good catch! I wonder when it started being more commonplace for international films to be released in the US the same year? I seem to vaguely recall hearing that a Bergman film was nominated (for Foreign Language Film) several years after it debuted in Sweden.
"Praise be to Allah." - President Donald J. Trump, Easter Sunday 04/05/2026 -
PygmyLion — 5 days ago(April 01, 2026 03:41 AM)
Another rather popular 1946 movie is
A Matter of Life and Death
by Powell and Pressburger. Personally, I don't really go for the supernatural stuff, like celestial courts and things, so it isn't a favorite movie of mine. It does get an 8.0 on IMDB and I think many would put it on their nominee list.