The British assault on the Oscars in the previous three years was nothing compared to what happened in 1948.

Two British films, Hamlet and The Red Shoes were not only among the five nominees for Best Picture, but one of them, Hamlet, actually won, causing major consternation amongst the moguls.

The others in the race were Johnny Belinda, The Snake Pit and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. The nominated Best Directors matched their films four for five with Laurence Olivier earning a triple crown with his nominations for Actor, Director and Producer of Hamlet. Also nominated were Johnny Belinda’s Jean Nugulesco, The Snake Pit’s Anatole Litvak and the eventual winner, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre’s John Huston. The fifth nominee was Fred Zinnemann for The Search.

With three additional nominations and a Special Juvenile Award for Ivan Jandl, it’s extremely likely that The Search would have been one of the five additional films nominated in a ten picture scenario.

What then, would be the other four?

Box office and the Oscars don’t always mix, but this is a year that may well have proven an exception to the rule. The year’s two biggest box hits were Red River (nominated for 2 Oscars, winner of none) and Easter Parade (nominated for 1, winner of 1), both of which were huge critical successes as well as box-office smashes. Red River’s director, Howard Hawks also had the distinction of being one of the first directors nominated for the new DGA (Directors Guild of America) award. In the first year of the awards they were given to an individual director for the best work of the calendar quarter, with an annual winner chosen from amongst the quarterly winners.

That first year, the awards were given for the second, third and fourth quarters of 1948 and the first quarter of 1949. Hawks had won the award for the second quarter of 1948, Zinnemann for the third and Huston for the fourth. Joseph L. Mankiewicz won the award for the first quarter of 1949 for A Letter to Three Wives and was ultimately chosen the first annual winner.

That gives us eight likely nominees. For the last two, I’d venture to guess that they would be chosen from amongst I Remember Mama (nominated for five Oscars, winner of none); The Naked City (nominated for three, winner of two); Portrait of Jennie (nominated for two, winner of one) and A Foreign Affair (nominated for two, winner of none).

I’d give a shot to Fort Apache as well, but with no other nods, it’s not likely that it would make it onto Oscar’s golden list, though the film itself has certainly held up as well as, if not better than, some of the more likely contenders of the day.

I’ll put my money on sentimental favorite I Remember Mama and then topical A Foreign Affair for the last two slots.