Oscar Recount
Re-award any year in five categories: actor, actress, both supporting races and director. Every winner you unseat becomes an open case: make it up to them with another nomination, or leave them Oscarless.
Years are film years, not ceremony years. "1976" means films released in 1976, honored at the 49th ceremony in early 1977.
The record
Tap a nominee to give them the OscarWrite in a snub
Pick the year the film came out. As you type a film, known titles appear with their years, and picking one sets the year for you. The game knows every Best Picture nominee, every film with an acting or directing nomination, and the suggested snubs; for anything else, check the year yourself. Add a performance that wasn't nominated. It joins that year's race as a write-in, and you can then award it like any nominee.
The docket
Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Director cover the 1st through 98th ceremonies; the supporting categories begin with 1936 films, when they were created. A case closes as long as the person holds an Oscar in any of the five categories, so an actor-director can be made whole either way. Write-ins are marked as such everywhere they appear, and Reset history keeps them listed. Writing, producing and honorary Oscars appear as context but can't be moved. Life status reflects late 2026; tap a status chip to change it if it's wrong or to mark someone retired.
How to play
Every Oscar race has one winner. Change a winner, and the person who originally won loses that Oscar. The fun is following what happens next.
Three ways to play
- Daily Puzzle
- A starting race and a goal, like "Get Peter O'Toole an Oscar." Meet the goal and close the case. A new puzzle every day, easiest on Monday, hardest on Sunday.
- What If
- A starting race and no goal. Change it and see where the fallout leads.
- Free Play
- Change any race in Oscar history, as much as you like.
How a chain works
- Pick a new winner. Say you give 1992 Best Actor to Denzel Washington for Malcolm X.
- Someone is now owed an Oscar. Al Pacino just lost Scent of a Woman, his only Oscar.
- Make it up to them with another film they were nominated for. Give Pacino The Godfather Part II (1974)? That takes the 1974 Oscar from Art Carney, so now he's owed one.
- Keep going until nobody is owed an Oscar. That's a closed case. Every move you make is your chain.
- Watch for makeup Oscars. Some Oscars are seen as a "makeup" or an "it's their time" award for someone who lost earlier. If your chain gives that person an Oscar earlier in their career, the later one no longer needs to be a makeup, so you can give it to another nominee from that year. Example: give Scorsese 1990 for Goodfellas, and his 2006 Oscar for The Departed is up for grabs. He keeps Goodfellas, so nobody new is owed an Oscar.
What the words mean
- Case closed
- Nobody in your chain is still owed an Oscar: everyone you took one from either got another or was left Oscarless. A Daily Puzzle is solved when the case is closed and every goal is met.
- Owed an Oscar
- Someone whose only Oscar your moves took away. People who still have another Oscar aren't owed anything.
- Chain
- Your first change and every move that follows from it.
- Left Oscarless
- Instead of making it up to someone who's owed an Oscar, you decide they don't get one. In the Daily Puzzle you can do this to at most one person, and on some days to nobody.
- Makeup Oscar
- A later Oscar that's often seen as a consolation prize for an earlier loss. When your chain gives someone an earlier Oscar, their later real wins show up as possible makeups, and you can give one to another nominee from that year. One per Daily Puzzle.
- Wildcard
- Give someone an Oscar for a film they weren't nominated for. One per puzzle. In the Daily Puzzle, the goal person has to get there through a real nomination.
- Undo and Start over
- Always allowed. The game counts them, like hints in a crossword, so fewer is bragging rights.
- Solved
- Every goal is met and the case is closed.
- Streak
- Days in a row you've solved the Daily Puzzle.
- Years
- Years are when the films came out, not the ceremony. "1976" means films from 1976, honored in early 1977.
- Share squares
- One square per move: 🟨 Actor, 🟥 Actress, 🟩 Supporting Actor, 🟦 Supporting Actress, 🟪 Director. ↩ marks a makeup, ⭐ the wildcard, ⬛ someone left Oscarless.
Share this chain
To keep the image, press and hold it on a phone, or right-click it on a computer, and save it.