I didn’t have it in me to write a comprehensive piece about Oscar nominations. If you wish to hear about how “Sinners” set the record for the most nominations, or how whichever movie that offends your political sensibilities was nominated for impure motives, trust me, social media has you covered.
I like half of the ten Best Picture nominees — talk about unprecedented. Of course, I have my own list of baffling omissions, and I’m starting to wonder what kompromat Guillermo del Toro must have on an Academy that is apparently determined to honor every lifeless remake that he releases.
But rather than dwell too much on the negative — again, social media has you covered — I thought it might be fun to assemble a list of alternatives to the 2026 Best Picture nominees, whether I enjoyed each one or not. All in the effort of wedding Oscar hoopla with a list of movies for you to peruse should we Virginians get blasted with the snow and ice that is expected this weekend. That’s right: It’s Snowmageddon, Oscar edition.
- If you liked “The Secret Agent,” try “Bacurau” (2019).
Before “The Secret Agent,” Kleber Mendonça Filho wrote and directed “Bacurau” with Juliano Dornelles, another wild blend of genre filmmaking and political parable that explores Filho’s ongoing obsession with governments encroaching in on our lives. Like “The Secret Agent,” it’s moving and resonant and also a blast. Rentable and streaming with a subscription at the Criterion Channel.
2. If you liked “Bugonia,” try “Bamboozled” (2000).
Toothier than “Bugonia” is Spike Lee’s “Bamboozled,” another satire of corporate media that hinges to a degree on kidnapping. Where “Bugonia” seems to congratulate the corporate class in its efforts to exterminate us, “Bamboozled” is a lacerating satire, in the mold of “Network,” of mass media imagery that Lee likens to modern minstrelsy. Released in 2000, Lee was ahead of his time. This would have been a culture war hand grenade in 2025. Rentable on demand.
3. If you liked “Marty Supreme,” try “Mikey and Nicky” (1976).
Kids these days who think “Marty Supreme” invented badly behaved male protagonists should check out the work of Martin Scorsese and John Cassavetes and, well, the list is vast. Let’s home in on Elaine May’s 1976 “Mikey and Nicky,” which suggests her wry version of a Cassavetes movie, featuring the maestro himself and frequent wingman Peter Falk as low-level gangsters who might be planning to kill one another. It’s not as familiar as it sounds. It is, in fact, a singular portrait of a very thorny male friendship. Rentable and streaming with a subscription at The Criterion Channel.
4. If you liked “Train Dreams,” try “Diane” (2019).
Film critic-turned-filmmaker Kent Jones’ “Diane” is another movie that follows the disappointing life of a regular person to its end. In this case, it’s Diane, who trudges about a snowy Massachusetts town gossiping with family while carrying decades of regrets. Not a light and frothy watch, but Jones’ exquisite writing and direction, and Mary Kay Place’s wrenching performance, justify the time spent. Rentable and streaming on AMC+.
5. If you liked “F1,” try “Days of Thunder” (1990).
“Top Gun: Maverick” and “F1” director Joseph Kosinski seems to have cornered the market on upscale remakes of Tony Scott movies. I’m old enough to remember when “Days of Thunder” was considered a dull attempt on Scott and Tom Cruise’s part to repackage “Top Gun,” but time has inevitably lubricated the movie with nostalgia and, to be fair, it goes down fairly easily on TV with no expectations. An overqualified cast that includes Nicole Kidman, John C. Reilly, Michael Rooker and Robert Duvall ensures that it is livelier than “F1.” Streaming on Paramount +.
6. If you liked “Sinners,” try “Ganja & Hess” (1973).
Bill Gunn’s “Ganja & Hess” is a head-spinning mixture of sex and violence and religion, a daring gothic riff on Black identity in the wake of the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War. It remains potent, especially for the raw performances given by Gunn and “Night of the Living Dead” alum Duane Jones and Marlene Clark. In the tradition of kitchen sink horror movies like “Dead” and “Carnival of Souls,” its scrappy budget only intensifies the suggestive power of its surrealism. Spike Lee’s loose remake “Da Sweet Blood of Jesus” (2014) nearly matches it for swagger. “Ganja & Hess” is streaming at the Criterion Channel, while “Da Sweet Blood of Jesus” can be found at fuboTV.
7. If you liked “Frankenstein,” try “Depraved” (2019) or “Birth/Rebirth” (2023).
Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein” takes many liberties with the Mary Shelley novel that somehow serve to make the tale feel even more over-adapted than it already is. Larry Fessenden’s “Depraved” and Laura Moss’ “Birth/Rebirth” rework the modern Prometheus into, well, modern settings, reigniting the perversity of the story. Their lo-fi grunge aesthetics are nervier than del Toro’s overproduced wax museum. “Depraved” is streaming on AMC +, and “Birth/Rebirth” is at Hulu, both are also rentable.
8. If you liked “Hamnet,” try “Ghostlight” (2024).
There are people who love Chloé Zhao’s “Hamnet,” and there are those who find its repetitive, phony-baloney, tear-wringing strategies insufferable. For a story of how grief informs the production and consumption of theater, you are better off with Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson’s “Ghostlight,” a warm and perceptive indie that virtually no one saw a couple of years ago. Unlike “Hamnet” with its convenient evasions and endless fiddling about in the woods, “Ghostlight” elucidates the actual process of art creation amongst budget concerns, everyday life, and crippling loss. It earns its tears, in other words, and by the end those tears are legion. Streaming on Hulu.
9. If you liked “One Battle After Another,” try “Hard Eight” (1996).
Released a year before “Boogie Nights” sent PTA’s career into the stratosphere, “Hard Eight” begins a preoccupation with themes that continue to animate his work in “One Battle After Another.” Namely, all of his movies are driven by the principle of family, whether or not it is blood-bound. “Hard Eight” is a noir, but it’s really about the father and son-type relationship brokered by John C. Reilly and Philip Baker Hall, who are unforgettable as lonely men floating about in Las Vegas, living off card tricks and booze and coffee. Anderson was 24 when he wrote and directed it and his supernatural confidence should be the envy of filmmakers with decades of experience. Streaming on Paramount +.
10. If you liked “Sentimental Value,” try “Persona” (1966).
Joachim Trier’s “Sentimental Value” has been written off by the cinephile crowd as being Ingmar Bergman-lite, which, whether or not you liked Trier’s movie, is true. It’s consciously true, in fact, as Trier practically dares cinephiles to call him out with overt Bergman Easter eggs, most blatantly a scene of father and daughter’s faces merging that brings to mind a sequence in “Persona.” The legendary Bergman movie is one of his most free-associative and adventurous, blurring the lines between film and audience as two women’s identities switch. It is a supreme and extraordinary act of an artist slashing at his own canvas. Trier’s film is more conventional, though thornier than some folks are willing to acknowledge. Streaming on the Criterion Channel.
