The Exorcist or not The Exorcist was pretty much the way the 1973 Oscars went. The blockbuster horror film was the year’s most anticipated event and the end product did not disappoint, but could a horror film win the Best Picture Oscar? It had never happened before.

The National Board of Review snubbed it altogether, not even including it among its top ten films of the year. Instead they gave the first award of the year to the crowd pleasing caper film, The Sting with its infectious, albeit anachronistic ragtime score. Both the National Society of Film Critics and the New York Film Critics avoided the question altogether by giving both their awards to Day for Night, Francois Truffaut’s film which was ineligible at the Oscars as it did not open in Los Angeles until the following year.

The Golden Globes were the first to go for The Exorcist in a big way, nominating it for seven awards vs. two for Day for Night and a measly one for The Sting. It won four including Best Picture – Drama and Best Director (William Friedkin).

Oscar’s slate of Best Picture nominees made room for both The Exorcist and The Sting, both of which were nominated for ten awards. They were joined by three films with five nominations each: the previous year’s New York Film Critics award winner, Cries and Whispers; Golden Globe Best Musical or Comedy winner, American Graffiti and the nearly forgotten A Touch of Class, which pulled off a surprise nod. Though the latter had been a Golden Globe nominee in the Best Picture – Musical or Comedy category, it had not been considered a major Oscar contender over the likes of Paper Moon; Last Tango in Paris and Serpico, all of which had been Golden Globe nominees as well.

Oscar’s Best Director list included The Exorcist’s Friekdin; The Sting’s George Roy Hill; Cries and Whispers’ Ingmar Bergman and American Graffiti’s George Lucas with Last Tango in Paris’ Bernardo Bertolucci nabbing the fifth slot. The Directors Guild had gone for all but Bergman, giving its fifth slot to Sidney Lumet for Serpico.

So, in asking the same question for the thirtieth time, what would Oscar’s other choices have been had there been ten nominees instead of five?

Certainly The Way We Were, nominated for six Oscars and winner of two (both for music) and Paper Moon, nominated for four and winner of one (for Supporting Actress Tatum O’Neal) would have been included, as would have Last Tango in Paris and Serpico, which were nominated for two each.

Figuring out the tenth nominee is a bit trickier but I’d give the edge to The Paper Chase with its three nominations and one win (for Supporting Actor John Houseman).

Just outside the top ten would have been The Last Detail, which was nominated for three; Mean Streets and Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams, which were nominated for two each and Bang the Drum Slowly, which was nominated for one.

In the end it was no contest between the crowd pleaser and the horror movie. The Sting won seven Oscars including Best Picture and Director. The Exorcist wound up with just three. It would be another eighteen years before Oscar finally gave its Best Picture award to a horror film – Jonathan Demme’s The Silence of the Lambs.