I'm not really certain if the The Man Who Laughs and The Last Command are in the correct categories.
Outstanding Picture
The Circus
Steamboat Bill, Jr.
The Man Who Laughs
Best Unique and Artistic Picture
The Passion of Joan of Arc
October (Ten Days that Shook the World)
The Last Command

Oh yeah, I'd definitely pick
Sunrise
over any of the alternates I suggested. Now, if
Metropolis
had made the cut, I'd perhaps think differently. But, to clarify, the intent is not so much an attempt to make a better list than the Academy, but rather, to name films which would have been acceptable alternatives to some of their picks. Hopefully as these continue over time people will weigh in with a bunch of little-seen gems or films from genres the Oscars tend to overlook.
But I think we're all probably a lot more familiar with later years in cinema.
"Praise be to Allah." - President Donald J. Trump, Easter Sunday 04/05/2026

Honestly can't recall seeing very many films released between August 1, 1927 and July 31, 1928, so I'm in no position to dispute the Academy's chosen winners. I have, however, seen both winners (
Wings
as well as
Sunrise
), and thought they were very good.
I've also seen two of your alternates:
Steamboat Bill, Jr.
and
Berlin: Symphony of a Metropolis
. They, too, were good, but I lean more toward the Academy's choices. *This, of course, is based on having seen all of these films a relatively long time ago. Can't guarantee it, but I might judge them differently today if I watched all four of them in close proximity, and took notes.

same.
and normally i LOVE racist ****

These would have been my picks as well. Although it was technologically a breakthrough for the time, I never liked The Jazz Singer.
If you can’t say something nice, say something clever but devastating.

well, metropolis for every year up until that point
but for those dates specifically,
the passion of joan of arc
then sunrise
then steamboat bill jr.
all of those are still very watchable today.

I've went ahead and combined the next few years into one post to save everyone the annoyance of having to check if their favorites qualify each week.
https://www.filmboards.com/t/Classic-Film/2nd-6th-Academy-Awards%3A-choose-your-alternate-nominees-3604177/
"Praise be to Allah." - President Donald J. Trump, Easter Sunday 04/05/2026

Yeah, I noticed that the years are a bit inconvenient on these early ceremony.
Looking ahead a bit, for the 2nd awards the Academy seemed to have already fully embraced "talkies," while in my experience, they still hadn't quite surpassed silent film as an art form yet. They nominated a lot of musicals that year. A great way to show off the new technology, perhaps, but quite dated nearly 100 years later.
I'm also not really convinced that Hollywood itself was the clear global leader in making great films until around 1931. So many of my favorite films of the '20s and very early '30s are German, and Hollywood would benefit exponentially for decades from the influx of German filmmakers who made their way here.
"Praise be to Allah." - President Donald J. Trump, Easter Sunday 04/05/2026

I haven't really gotten into silent movies much.
The only one of these I've seen is
Wings
.
I will probably be more able to contribute once you get up to the 3rd academy award.
One of the troublesome things about the first 5 Academy awards is that they ran from August 1 to July 31, so one cannot just look at the year but has to look up the month of the release date. The 6h Academy award ran for a year and half - and evened things up on the year.

Animation is another historically-overlooked category, although an animated film has been nominated for Best Picture three times since 1991 and they finally got their own award in 2002. Animation will almost certainly be relevant to my alternate picks for 1940, 1955 and possibly other years
"Praise be to Allah." - President Donald J. Trump, Easter Sunday 04/05/2026

The Marxes and that sort of thing seem like they were the equivalent of a franchise back in their day. Not too surprising that they wouldn't get any love from the awards.

Yeah, they seemed quite taken with certain forms of comedy for a while… but less so with teams like the Marx Brothers or Laurel & Hardy.
Westerns definitely have been overlooked.
High Noon
certainly should have won. And I'll probably mention Ford, Leone and Peckinpah multiple times if I continue these through the '50s and '60s.
"Praise be to Allah." - President Donald J. Trump, Easter Sunday 04/05/2026

The 30s actually had a couple comedies with big wins. I wonder why they stopped.
There's probably a few years in the 50s and 60s where a western deserved to win but got overlooked.

Yeah, most of what I know of American silent cinema of the era consists of the great comedians like Keaton, Chaplin and Harold Lloyd. Plus Tod Browning, whose
The Unknown
just missed the date cutoff.
I've seen all of the alternatives I mentioned, but only
Sunrise
of any of the nominees.
I mentioned
The Jazz Singer
simply because these two winners would be the last silent films to win until 2011. To say it was extremely influential is a big understatement, artistic merits aside.
I suspect that as we get into the 1930s many of my oversights will fall into three categories: comedies, crime films, and horror. Three genres often overlooked by the Academy to this day.
"Praise be to Allah." - President Donald J. Trump, Easter Sunday 04/05/2026

The only ones I've seen from that time period are the two winners and Joan of Arc plus Steamboat Bill. Giving comedies a win would be a nice change.