The year is winding down. Today, as part of the week’s on-going year-in-review specials, I’m offering up my annual “if I had a ballot” post.
In years past I’ve tended to defer to studio campaigns for category placement, but this year I figured, “Screw it.” After all, if I actually had a ballot I could call the shots. So I have.
You’re familiar with my Best Picture line-up by now. I’ve opted out of the Best Foreign Language Film and Best Documentary categories because there are a few films I’d rather have seen before making that call, but otherwise, it’s the usual Oscar fields with an ensemble category tacked on.
Feel free to post up your own selections, if you have them, in the comments section below. And remember to check back Friday as I close up shop on 2010 with my list of superlatives. For now, check out my personal ballot after the jump.
Best Picture
“Another Year” (Sony Pictures Classics)
“Black Swan” (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
“Catfish” (Rogue)
“Enter the Void” (IFC Films)
“Exit Through the Gift Shop” (Producers Distribution Agency)
“A Prophet” (Sony Pictures Classics)
“Shutter Island” (Paramount Pictures)
“The Social Network” (Columbia Pictures)
“Toy Story 3” (Walt Disney Pictures)
“The Way Back” (Newmarket Films/Wrekin Hill Entertainment)
Best Director
Mike Leigh, “Another Year”
Darren Aronofsky, “Black Swan”
Gaspar Noé, “Enter the Void”
Banksy, “Exit Through the Gift Shop”
Jacques Audiard, “A Prophet”
Best Actor
Javier Bardem, “Biutiful”
Jeff Bridges, “True Grit”
James Franco, “127 Hours”
Ryan Gosling, “Blue Valentine”
Tahar Rahim, “A Prophet”
Best Actress
Jennifer Lawrence, “Winter’s Bone”
Julianne Moore, “The Kids Are All Right”
Natalie Portman, “Black Swan”
Hailee Steinfeld, “True Grit”
Michelle Williams, “Blue Valentine”
Best Supporting Actor
Niels Arestrup, “A Prophet”
Christian Bale, “The Fighter”
Colin Farrell, “The Way Back”
Andrew Garfield, “The Social Network”
Mark Ruffalo, “The Kids Are All Right”
Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams, “The Fighter”
Rebecca Hall, “Red Riding: In the Year of Our Lord 1974”
Bryce Dallas Howard, “Hereafter”
Lesley Manville, “Another Year”
Miranda Richardson, “Made in Dagenham”
Best Adapted Screenplay
“I Love You Phillip Morris” (Glenn Ficarra, John Requa)
“Shutter Island” (Laeta Kalogridis)
“The Social Network” (Aaron Sorkin)
“Toy Story 3” (Michael Arndt)
“True Grit” (Ethan Coen, Joel Coen)
Best Original Screenplay
“Another Year” (Mike Leigh)
“Black Swan” (Andres Heinz, Mark Heyman, John J. McLaughlin)
“Blue Valentine” (Joey Curtis, Derek Cianfrance, Cami Delavigne)
“Four Lions” (Jesse Armstrong, Sam Bain, Simon Blackwell, Christopher Morris)
“A Prophet” (Jacques Audiard, Thomas Bidegain, Abdel Raouf Dafri, Nicolas Peufaillit)
Best Art Direction
“Alice in Wonderland” (Robert Stromberg; Karen O’Hara, Peter Young)
“Inception” (Guy Dyas; Lisa Chugg, Paul Healy, Douglas A. Mowat)
“The King’s Speech” (Eve Stewart; Judy Farr)
“Shutter Island” (Dante Ferretti; Francesca Lo Schiavo)
“TRON Legacy” (Darren Gilford; Lin MacDonald)
Best Cinematography
“Black Swan” (Matthew Libatique)
“Enter the Void” (Benoît Debie)
“127 Hours” (Enrique Chediak, Anthony Dod Mantle)
“A Prophet” (Stéphane Fontaine)
“Shutter Island” (Robert Richardson)
Best Costume Design
“Alice in Wonderland” (Colleen Atwood)
“Robin Hood” (Janty Yates)
“The Tempest” (Sandy Powell)
“TRON Legacy” (Michael Wilkinson)
“True Grit” (Mary Zophres)
Best Film Editing
“Black Swan” (Andrew Weisblum)
“Exit Through the Gift Shop” (Tom Fulford, Chris King)
“Inception” (Lee Smith)
“127 Hours” (Jon Harris)
“Shutter Island” (Thelma Schoonmaker)
Best Makeup
“Shutter Island”
“The Way Back”
“The Wolfman”
Best Music (Original Score)
“How to Train Your Dragon” (John Powell)
“The Illusionist” (Sylvain Chomet)
“Inception” (Hans Zimmer)
“The Social Network” (Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross)
“TRON Legacy” (Daft Punk)
Best Music (Original Song)
“Me and Tennessee” from “Country Strong”
“I See the Light” from “Tangled”
“We Belong Together” from “Toy Story 3”
“Shine” from “Waiting for Superman”
Best Sound Editing
“Black Swan”
“Inception”
“127 Hours”
“Robin Hood”
“TRON Legacy”
Best Sound Mixing
“Black Swan”
“Inception”
“The Social Network”
“TRON Legacy”
“The Way Back”
Best Visual Effects
“Alice in Wonderland”
“Black Swan”
“Enter the Void”
“Inception”
“TRON Legacy”
Best Animated Feature
“How to Train Your Dragon” (DreamWorks SKG)
“The Illusionist” (Sony Pictures Classics)
“Toy Story 3” (Walt Disney Pictures)
Best Ensemble
“Another Year”
“Four Lions”
“Shutter Island”
“The Social Network”
“The Way Back”
Tally
“Black Swan” – 9
“Shutter Island” – 7
“Inception” – 6
“A Prophet” – 6
“The Social Network” – 6
“TRON Legacy” – 6
“Another Year” – 5
“The Way Back” – 5
“Enter the Void” – 4
“127 Hours” – 4
“Toy Story 3” – 4
“True Grit” – 4
“Alice in Wonderland” – 3
“Blue Valentine” – 3
“Exit Through the Gift Shop” – 3
“Four Lions” – 2
“How to Train Your Dragon” – 2
“The Kids Are All Right” – 2
“Biutiful” – 1
“Winter’s Bone” – 1
“Catfish” – 1
“Country Strong” – 1
“The Fighter” – 1
“Hereafter” – 1
“I Love You Phillip Morris” – 1
“The Illusionist” – 1
“The King’s Speech” – 1
“Made in Dagenham” – 1
“Red Riding: In the Year of Our Lord 1974” – 1
“Robin Hood” – 1
“Tangled” – 1
“The Tempest” – 1
“Waiting for Superman” – 1
“The Wolfman” – 1
[Photo: Paramount Pictures]
Comments
73 responses to “If I had a ballot”
lool we’re totally have different ballots but it’s nice to see something different from the usual oscar contenders.
Whoa, haven’t seen Rebecca Hall on anyone’s ballot yet. Interesting pick.
The choice I most disagree with (besides Shutter Island for Best Picture, and I swear I’m getting off that tangent), are all of your technical nods for Alice in Wonderland; the visuals of that disastrous film were terrible meets awful. I beg you to reconsider. How about How to Train Your Dragon for Best Art Direction, I Am Love for Best Costume Design, The Way Back for Best Makeup, and The Social Network for Best Visual Effects? Please???
Would A Prophet be technically eligible since it was nominated last year in the Best Foreign Language Film category? Not that I object, but just wondering.
Putting the Oscar race aside, you don’t feel that strong about The King’s Speech’s artistic and creative merits? For such a constantly raved movie, I expected that you’d consider it for at least some acting awards.
No Peter Weir? That’s surprising.
Also, is Red Riding eligible? I didn’t think it was.
Sarah,
A Prophet was submitted by France for the Foreign race last year, but wasn’t eligible for any other category until it received an American release this year.
Bravo — would that every one of your peers at the BFCA had this level of ingenuity. (And thank you for not falling prey to the Hailee Steinfeld supporting campaign.)
Couldn’t agree more with your selection of Rebecca Hall, though I now feel doubly bad for not including her in my First-Half FYC column two weeks ago. I was limiting myself to Oscar- eligible work, but she deserves the shout-out — indeed, she’s had rather a good 2010 overall.
Sarah/Hero: “A Prophet” isn’t eligible for any Oscar consideration this year, sadly. But good on Kris for sticking by it on principle.
Sarah: No, it wouldn’t (since it was nominated last year, it’s out, but if it hadn’t been, it would be good to go), but that’s a dumb rule and I’m taking a stand.
No, I’m pretty sure that since it was nominated last year in the Foreign Language Film category, it was thus eligible for all the other categories (e.g. White Ribbon in Cinematography). It’s thus ineligible this year.
Anyway, I totally understand and respect your opinion on Inception, Kris, but your ballot does make me happy in that Inception will still likely be receiving a healthy haul of nominations, even from those who less-than-rave such as yourself.
Guy,
Really? I thought for sure it was. If that’s the case, I’d love to see Kris’s ballot with only films that actually qualify, but that’s just my perference.
I’ll do the top 8 (knowing that some of these are ineligible and I’m placing a couple of actors in categories other than were they campaigned)
Picture
The Secret in their Eyes
Toy Story 3
Let Me In
Another Year
The Ghost Writer
Red Riding
The Tillman Story
A Prophet
Tangled
The Kids Are All Right
Director
Matt Reeves, Let Me In
Mike Leigh, Another Year
Roman Polanski, The Ghost Writer
Juan José Campanella, The Secret in their Eyes
Lisa Cholodenko, The Kids Are All Right
Actor
Colin Firth, The King’s Speech
James Franco, Howl
John C. Reily, Cyrus
Sean Penn, Fair Game
Robert Duvall, Get Low
Actress
Lesley Manville, Another Year
Naomi Watts, Fair Game
Soledad Villamil, The Secret in their Eyes
Carey Mulligan, Never Let Me Go
Catherine Keener, Please Give
Supporting Actor
Mark Ruffalo, The Kids Are All Right
Jeremy Renner, The Town
Guillermo Francella, The Secret in their Eyes
Pierce Brosnan, The Ghost Writer
Armie Hammer, The Social Network
Supporting Actress
Anne-Marie Duff, Nowhere Boy
Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right
Rosemarie DeWitt, The Company Men
Olivia Williams, The Ghost Writer
Mila Kunis, Black Swan
Original Screenplay
Another Year
The Kids Are All Right
Please Give
A Prophet
Tangled
Adapted Screenplay
The Secret in their Eyes
The Ghost Writer
Toy Story 3
Red Riding
Winter’s Bone
Hmm, the Hailee Steinfeld mention makes me wonder: as an Academy member, if you’re faced with a category confusion contender that you still really want to see nominated, do you go with where she rightfully belongs, or do you go against your own feelings and, essentially, bow to the man?
Hero: It’s one of the Academy’s most arcane rules. Films nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film, but only released in the US the following year, are not eligible to compete in the general categories the next time round.
If a film is submitted but not nominated, however, then it is eligible for general-field nominations in the year of its US release — as happened with “City of God” in 2003.
Don’t try to understand it — there’s no rhyme or reason.
Hans: No, it wasn’t eligible in any categories other than Best Foreign Language Film, because it wasn’t given a 2009 qualifying release. (“The White Ribbon” was.) In other words, “A Prophet” has never had an opportunity to be nominated in other categories, which is ludicrous.
The fact that so many of our readers are repeatedly confused about this issue shows just what a problematic system it is.
Great choices, but you obviously haven’t seen “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1”, which I highly suggest you do before you write your Top 10 shots of the year segment.
Thanks for the explanation, Guy. Instances like City of God had me confused.
“The fact that so many of our readers are repeatedly confused about this issue shows just what a problematic system it is.”
How does the fact that regular readers are confused about rule make it problematic? If anything it makes it confusing for that particular part of population, which is a very different thing altogether since those people aren’t voting.
“Don’t try to understand it — there’s no rhyme or reason.”
Try thinking harder – the rule makes perfect sense and, if anything, it benefits the foreign films. Can you imagine how much harder it would be for a non-US released film to get support in other categories if that was the only year they were eligible for them?
At least, the Foreign branch is required to sit down and look at the contenders. How would you expect other branches to nominate something they didn’t get a chance to see?
Speaking of the rules, if you actually had a ballot, you’d have to rank these in order. Each voter only gets one vote, and that’s for their first choice. The lower choices only count if your first choice is dropped due to low ballot count or if your first choice is part of a landslide for a particular nominee, in which case, the surplus is reallocated among the second choices of those voting for that nominee.
I’m an accountant, so I get off on these arcane details!
This is a great line-up. If only…
Love all the nods for Shutter Island (my #2 behind Black Swan), but I’m suprised and a but disappointed that Scorsese and DiCaprio didn’t make the cut.
Also, am I the only one that would nominate Patricia Clarkson in Shutter Island for supporting actress? I know she was in it so briefly, but I thought she completely knocked it out of the park. Granted, I’ve yet to see The Fighter or Another Year
Thank you, Guy, I thought I had a better grasp on that than I did.
So happy to see I’m not the only one who thought Julianne Moore was the better of the leading ladies in “The Kids Are All Right”.
u don’t hav melissa leo!!!!!!!!!!!
Why?????????? Iam hopin she takes home d oscar…
Didn’t u like her?????
plz reply……….
No nominations for Best Original Screenplay or Best Actress for Catfish? Booo
Otherwise, solid ballot. I finally watched Exit Through The Gift Shop last week, amazing.
Bryce Howard? Can’t agree with that one.
Very much like your best score nods.
No Roger Deakins? Earlier this year you said this will be the one he gets his award for. You still believe this is so?
Average Joe: Sophie’s choice.
Matt: Yes I do.
4 for “Alice in Wonderland”? Really?
always nice to see somebody understand that it was Moore and not Bening who had the real good perfomance and the real good role on that movie.
Loved Bening in it, but the way Moore and co. are acting towards her performance is completely ridiculous.
For as lamebrain as many feel Alice is – it DOES have great art direction, costumes, among other techs.
I have to disagree about “Alice”. It’s hideous from top to bottom, inside and out.
Nicely done, Kris. The only choice of yours I take issue with is The Way Back for Best Picture. I reeeallly wanted to like it but it was just so… boring. Well made, well acted, but the story just wasn’t one of the Top 10 stories I saw this year, which is weird because it’s a remarkable true story, yet something felt lost in translation.
In other complaints, how the heck does Burn After Reading get more votes than Blood Simple for Best Coen Bros. movie? I thought the site’s audience to be savvier than that… BTW, my favorite is still Fargo. Love that movie. No clue how people are calling the True Grit remake the best of their career. That’s insane. No Country was definitely better.
Kris, Exit Through the Gift Shop was released by Revolver Entertainment not IFC, right?
Hero, Red Riding had a run in LA and NYC earlier this year, so it should be eligible…
Have I missed something? A Prophet isn’t actually eligible is it?
Seems strange that if you had a ballot you would nominate ineligible films and performances.
This aside, interesting list.
I think when it comes to these columns, in the past, Kris has always voted on movies he saw throughout the current year (please correct me if I am wrong), not taking into account if they are eligible or not via the Academy. A similar situation happened with Mongul I think, and he mentioned something along those lines.
@ N8: I know, right?!?
This year, Andrew Garfield gave his best performance in ” Red Riding” , and I truly hope many Academy members view his stellar acting turn in that film.
I still feel the most electric performance ( and the most challenging performance) in “The Social Network” was given by Armie Hammer. Armie made his characters very watchable and infused the roles with great nuance. He brought so much charisma to the screen, and he went from drama to comedy without missing a beat. It would be a happy surprised if he receives an Oscar nomination. Definitely, one of my favorite acting performances this year.
Love the list Kris, especially since it gives me a good few films to check out. I found a few things interesting: it looks like Manville was in Supporting for you, and I’m wondering if AMPAS will move her there (or if she’ll miss a nod because of category confusion); Jim Carrey missing the cut after your review, though that is a very good group; and all the love for A Prophet. I snuck that into my own categories last year, but if I ruled the world the film, Audiard and Arestrup would be Oscar nodded and Rahim would be an Oscar winner. Love that both you and Anne spoke so highly of it in the podcast.
BTW, for anyone reading this, Exit Through the Gift Shop is available to watch instantly on Netflix as of yesterday.
Andrew Garfield, Ryan Gosling, Lesley Manville and Michelle Williams mentions immediately makes this infinitely better than any lineup released by critics so far this year.
John T. – I believe Red Riding is ineligible this year because of the whole thing about on-demand movies or something. Shame, though.
If I had a ballot –
Black Swan would win Best Picture, Best Editing, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Makeup, and any possible sound nominations
Inception would only win for Best Visual Effects (for the zero gravity fight sequence alone)
The Social Network would win Best Director, Best Score, Best Original Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor Andrew Garfield
Annette Bening would win Best Actress for TKAAR
Mike: Actually it was Oscilloscope. My mistake.
Kris, I would personally nominate Rebecca Hall in the Town instead of Red Riding. I like the series, but the first one was a bit too “artsy” for me, all mood and not much else. She and Garfield are good, but I love the one with Paddy in it (the middle one?).
Enough! A Prophet was released last year, and nominated. I’m sick of bloggers and critics putting films a year late.
Steinfeld gets my vote for Best Actress
Maxim: I realize you like to argue with every point I make, but if you can explain how never being eligible for general categories “benefits” a film like “A Prophet,” go for it.
Can you imagine how much harder it would be for a non-US released film to get support in other categories if that was the only year they were eligible for them?
You’re completely missing the point, which is that non-US released films that have been nominated for Best Foreign Language Film are not permitted to compete in other categories in the year of their eventual US release. Clearly, we’re both in favour of enabling these films to get support in other categories, so I have no idea what you’re arguing about.
I just wish the academy would go back to its old rules on Foreign Language films, it doesn’t seem to me to be that big a deal that films like 8 1/2 and Day for Night got FL noms and general Oscar noms in different years, and I hate the idea that a film is punished for getting a FL nomination.
Exit Through the Gift Shop wasn’t released by IFC or Oscilloscope. It was an independent boutique company called Producers Distribution Agency. Oscilloscope only has the DVD rights.
Kris, did you ever write up a reaction to Hereafter? Glad to see some recognition for it on here, though I’m curious to hear your thoughts of the film as a whole.
Also, I’m a bit surprised to see DiCaprio left off the Best Actor list, but I guess it is a pretty crowded lot.