Every year, starting in 2020, I do my own personal film awards that I call the Golden Hourglass Awards. Recently, I discovered an account, Cláudio Alves, that put together lists of eligible films for every year in Academy Awards history and it got me thinking about how a 1929 version of the Golden Hourglass Awards would have looked.

This list will be part of an ongoing personal project where I go through every Academy Awards and make two lists: The first, a retrospective ballot based off actual eligible films and using official categories for that ceremony. The second will be a retrospective of the Golden Hourglasses that I choose each year, without taking into consideration Academy eligibility or how the Academy defines the release of each film.

This is my retrospective ballot for the Golden Hourglass Awards, using my own personal categories, and using the eligibility period of 2009. Any film that received a wide release in this time is considered eligible.

Categories:
Best Picture:

Mary and Max ***Winner***
A Serious Man
Coraline
District 9
Halloween II
Pontypool
Thirst
Up in the Air
Watchmen
Zombie Girl: The Movie

Best Director:

Zack Snyder - Watchmen ***Winner***
Neill Blomkamp - District 9
James Cameron - Avatar
Adam Elliott - Mary and Max
Park Chan-wook - Thirst

Best Actor:

Jackie Earle Haley - Watchmen ***Winner***
George Clooney - Up in the Air
Stephen McHattie - Pontypool
Viggo Mortensen - The Road
Michael Stuhlberg - A Serious Man

Best Actress:

Scout Taylor-Compton - Halloween II ***Winner***
Megan Fox - Jennifer's Body
Kim Ok-bin - Thirst
Saoirse Ronan - Lovely Bones
Amanda Seyfried - Jennifer's Body

Best Supporting Actor:

Kodi Smit-McPhee - The Road ***Winner***
Matthew Goode - Watchmen
Richard Kind - A Serious Man
Christoph Waltz - Inglorious Basterds
Patrick Wilson - Watchmen

Best Supporting Actress:

Isabelle Fuhrman - Orphan ***Winner***
Malin Åkerman - Watchmen
Vera Farmiga - Up in the Air
Anna Kendrick - Up in the Air
Mo'Nique - Precious

Best Voice Actor

Billy Crudup - Watchmen ***Winner***
Ed Asner - Up
Philip Seymour Hoffman - Mary and Max
Takuya Kimura - Redline
Christopher Plummer - 9

Best Voice Actress

Toni Collette - Mary and Max ***Winner***
Dakota Fanning - Coraline
Teri Hatcher - Coraline
Zoe Saldaña - Avatar
Bethany Whitmore - Mary and Max

Best Casting:

Watchmen ***Winner***
A Serious Man
Inglorious Basterds
Up in the Air
Zombieland

Best Original Screenplay:

Mary and Max ***Winner***
A Serious Man
Air Doll
Jennifer's Body
Thirst

Best Adapted Screenplay:

Pontypool ***Winner***
District 9
Hachi: A Dog's Tale
Up in the Air
Watchmen

Best Animated Feature

Mary and Max ***Winner***
Coraline
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Redline
Summer Wars

Best International Feature Film

Thirst - South Korea ***Winner***
The Hedgehog - France
Lebanon - Israel
[REC]² - Spain
Redline - Japan

Best Documentary Feature

Zombie Girl: The Movie ***Winner***
Food Inc
Heath Ledger: A Tribute
His Name was Jason: 30 Years of Friday the 13th
This Is It

Best Animated Short

Tales of the Black Freighter ***Winner***
The Lady and the Reaper
Logorama
Partly Cloudy
Singles

Best Live Action Short:

The Hunt for Gollum ***Winner***
The Muppets: Bohemian Rhapsody
Stolz der Nation
These Vagabond Shoes
Under the Hood

Best Documentary Short:

Still Raining, Still Dreaming ***Winner***
Chuck Jones: Memories of Childhood
Dark Light: The Art of Blind Photographers
Do the Right Thing: 20 Years Later
The Phenomenon: The Comic That Changed Comics

Best Original Score

Coraline ***Winner***
Avatar
Pontypool
Watchmen
Zombie Girl: The Movie

Best Original Song

Through the Trees - Jennifer's Body ***Winner***
Cinema Italiano - Nine
Day of the Dead - Halloween II
Help Yourself - Up in the Air
Meet Me on the Equinox - The Twilight Saga: New Moon

Best Sound:

Avatar ***Winner***
District 9
The Hurt Locker
Pontypool
Watchmen

Best Art Direction:

Watchmen ***Winner***
Avatar
District 9
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Inglorious Basterds

Best Cinematography

Watchmen ***Winner***
Halloween II
Orphan
Pontypool
Thirst

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

Orphan ***Winner***
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
The Road
Star Trek
Watchmen

Best Costume Design:

Watchmen ***Winner***
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Inglorious Basterds
Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
Star Trek

Best Stunt Choreography and Coordination

Watchmen ***Winner***
Avatar
Halloween II
Inglorious Basterds
Zombieland

Best Film Editing:

Mary and Max***Winner***
Halloween II
Pontypool
Watchmen
Zombie Girl: The Movie

Best Visual Effects:

Avatar ***Winner***
District 9
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Star Trek
Watchmen

--
Films with multiple nominations:
17: Watchmen
8: Mary and Max
7: Up in the Air, Pontypool, Avatar
6: Thirst, District 9, Halloween II
5: Coraline, Inglorious Basterds, A Serious Man
4: Zombie Girl: The Movie, Jennifer's Body
3: The Road, Orphan, Star Trek, Redline
2: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Zombieland

Films with multiple wins:
8: Watchmen
5: Mary and Max
2: Avatar, Orphan