Rob Y has once again performed the enormous task of organizing all 282 eligible films of 2012 into a simulated Oscar ballot so that Awards Daily readers can feel what it’s like to be a simulated Academy member.
This is, of course, the nominations phase and we’re also simulating this year’s sense of accelerated desperate urgency by setting a tight deadline — you must complete your ballot by Saturday at midnight (PT). Rob’s made things easy by making every contender clickable on drop-down menus, so the process should be intuitive and self-explanatory. If you have second thoughts you can make changes and recast your ballot, but naturally only your last ballot counts.
NOTE: Here’s one way this annual ballot experiment differs from how the Academy runs things. We encourage you AD voters to share your picks with us publicly. You’re invited to do so, after the cut. I wonder if the Oscars would honor winners any differently if more Academy members were asked to share their choices.
Did you know there are 47 ways of spelling Matthew McConaughey?
OK OK, C’mon, really? For Lead Actor, someone put “Old Man” from “Amour”. Help me understand WHY you couldn’t take the extra step and find out his name. HURM
Old Man is so overdue. He was great in Old Man and the Sea. He should have won for No Country for Old Men.
Wait a minute, voting is now closed? God dammit, I wanted to participate but didn’t have time until now. We didn’t even have a full week to do this.
My picks in order
Picture = Lincoln, The Avengers, Skyfall, Silver Linings Playbook, The Hunger Games
(hey, Zero Dark Thirty, if you’d have come out here in middle America, I’d have gone to see you. I don’t know what moron thinks that the American masses wouldn’t want to see a movie about the killing of Osama bin Laden. Also, I was disappointed that I couldn’t nominate HEADHUNTERS, I thought it came out this year, ah well)
Actor: Daniel Day Lewis, Richard Gere, Jason Segel (Jeff Who Lives at Home), Bradley Cooper, Liam Neeson (The Grey)
(Ben Affleck was close for ARGO, don’t see why he’s not getting pushed harder in this category)
Actress: Jennifer Lawrence (Hunger Games), Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook), Helen Mirren (Hitchcock), Elizabeth Banks (Man on a Ledge), Kelly MAcDonald (Brave)
(quite an achievement when you give the TWO best performances of the year in a category! Sorry Jessica Chastain, no one made your movie available! I realize the Elizabeth Banks thing is out there, but here was a smart, capable competent heroine and if the movie didn’t quite work it sure wasn’t her fault, plus she acted on a ledge 200 feet off the ground which not everyone could do. Loved Princess Merida, but I have animated actor bias, so I’m loathe to nominate people for just voice acting, maybe that’s wrong)
Supporting Actress: Anne Hathaway, Scarlett Johansen (The Avengers), Emily Blunt (looper), Scareltt Johansen (Hitchcock), Eva Green (Dark Shadows)
(good year for action heroines and Scarlett Johansen, I don’t know why Blunt registered so strongly with me in a movie I really didn’t get into but I don’t seem to be the only one, I sat thru Dark Shadows going “who is that woman, she’s great!” but I guess no one else did)
Supporting Actor: Frank Grillo (The Grey), MacConnaughhey (magic Mike), Sam Jackson (Django), Tommy Lee Jones (Lincoln), James Spader (Lincoln)
(Frank Grillo had the most interesting character arc in a movie this year, but even fans of THE GREY aren’t pushing him. What’s up with that?)
Adapted Screenplay: Lincoln, Silver Linings Playbook, 21 Jump Street, Hunger Games, Argo
Original Screenplay: Safety not Guaranteed, Jeff Who Lives at Home, Arbitrage, Sinister, Looper
(sorry, haven’t seen FLIGHT)
Cinematography: Skyfall, The Grey, Jack Reacher, The Hunger Games, Lincoln
Editing: The Avengers, The Hunger Games, Skyfall, Silver Linings Playbook, Argo
(we didn’t vote for Art Direction, but I think DREDD should be nominated for creating a futuristic, mile-high housing project that was both recognizable and futuristic, while keeping the geography making since, which is essential for this sort of movie)
Woops, missed the deadline. For the hell of it, here are my favorites!
(Haven’t seen “Zero Dark Thirty,” “Django Unchained,” or “Amour”.)
1. Lincoln
2. Silver Linings Playbook
3. Life of Pi
4. Argo
5. The Master
(runners-up: Les Miserables and Seven Psychopaths)
Best Director:
1. Steven Spielberg
2. David O. Russell
3. Ang Lee
4. Ben Affleck
5. Paul Thomas Anderson
Best Actor:
1. Daniel Day-Lewis
2. Hugh Jackman
3. Joaquin Phoenix
4. Bradley Cooper
5. John Hawkes
Best Actress:
1. Jennifer Lawrence
2. Quvanzhane Wallis
Best Supporting Actor:
1. Christopher Walken, Seven Psychopaths
2. Tommy Lee Jones
3. Philip Seymour Hoffman
4. Robert DeNiro
5. Tom Waits, Seven Psychopaths
Best Supporting Actress:
1. Anne Hathaway
2. Sally Field
3. Amy Adams
4. Helen Hunt
5. Anne Hathaway, The Dark Knight Rises
Best Original Screenplay:
1. Seven Psychopaths
2. The Master
3. Moonrise Kingdom
Best Adapted Screenplay:
1. Lincoln
2. Silver Linings Playbook
3. Argo
4. Life of Pi
5. Beasts of the Southern Wild