1987, like 1986, was a year in which there was no clear front-runner for Best Picture.

The National Board of Review was first up, naming Steven Spielberg’s Empire of the Sun the year’s best film and presenting him with their Best Director award as well.

The New York Film Critics went the comedy route with Broadcast News and its director, James L. Brooks, while the L.A. Film Critics decided upon Hope and Glory and its director, John Boorman.

The National Society of Film critics gave their award to John Huston’s last film, The Dead, but Boorman won their Best Director prize.

The Golden Globes chose Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emeperor as Best Picture – Drama over the NBR pick, Empire of the Sun, and four other films: Cry Freedom; Fatal Attraction; La Bamba and Nuts. They gave their Best Film – Musical or Comedy award to Broadcast News over Hope and Glory, as well as Baby Boom; Dirty Dancing and Moonstruck. Bertolucci won the Globe for Best Director.

The Directors Guild nominated Bertolucci, Brooks and Spielberg along with Lasse Hallstrom for My Life As a Dog and Adrian Lyne for Fatal Attraction.

Oscar agreed with three of the DGA’s picks: Bertolucci, Hallstrom and Lyne. Supplanting Brooks and Spielberg were John Boorman for Hope and Glory and Norman Jewison for Moonstruck.

Oscar’s Best Picture choices lined up with directors Bertolucci (The Last Emperor), Lyne (Fatal Attraction); Boorman (Hope and Glory) and Jewison (Moonstruck). Broadcast News grabbed the fifth slot.

What, then, would Oscar’s other Best Picture nominees have been had the list been expanded to ten?

We can easily add Spielberg’s Empire of the Sun (six nominations, no wins) and Brian De Palma’s The Untouchables (four nominations, one win). I would also expect to see Huston’s The Dead and Hallstrom’s My Life As a Dog, both of which were nominated for two Oscars, to make the cut.

The tenth spot would probably be a toss-up between Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket (one nomination)and Louis Malle’s Au Revoir, Les Enfants (two nominations), with Full Metal Jacket having a slight edge.

In the end Oscar agreed with the Globes once again, giving the Best Picture prize to The Last Emperor. The Globes were fast becoming the key indicator of Oscar’s eventual outcome.