We’re going to periodically run these polls for the fun of it. But to make tabulations slightly easier we’re putting it online. So if you would, please head to this link to rank your preferences for Best Picture. If you haven’t seen all of them just vote for the ones you have seen.
My ballot
1 Drive My Car
2The Power of the Dog
3 Belfast
4. Licorice pizza
5 CODA
6 West Side Story
7 King Richard
8 Dune
9 Midnight Alley
10 Don’t look Up
west
I have seen 9 out of 10 entries. Dune still outstanding. I were an AMPAS voter, it would be:
1. Drive My Car
2. West Side Story
3. The Power of the Dog
Done and send. Off to play with my cat.
So you’d just rank 3? Because you wouldn’t want any of the other 6 to win, under any circumstances?
It’s more like, I’m okay with the 3 listed to win. If these 3 don’t make it, I really don’t care who else would win. Maybe I should have put Dune at #4 even if I hadn’t seen it. The stature of the film would be worthy. I think a sizable of people would vote like this. That was the point of my post. 🙂
That’s fair. Makes sense.
I saw 7 out of 10. I will probably see West Side Story sometime before the Oscar ceremony. I don’t know if am able to access Drive my Car and Licorice Pizza but really want to watch them.
1. Belfast
2. Nightmare Alley
3. Dune
4. King Richard
5. Power of the Dog
6. Coda
7. Don’t Look Up
Now, this is a ranking I can get behind! (Except I’d have Don’t Look Up a lot higher. Other than that, only slight alterations.) So, we’ve seen/not seen the same ones, except I’ve seen West Side Story and you’ve seen Nightmare Alley. (Which I will almost definitely be watching before the ceremony. Probably also Drive My Car. Not sure what I’ll do with Licorice Pizza, like I said earlier.)
1) The Power of the Dog
2) Licorice Pizza
3) Dune
4) West Side Story
5) Drive My Car
6) CODA
7) King Richard
8) Nightmare Alley
9) Don’t Look Up
10) Belfast
Noting that CODA is very consistently falling below TPOTD on ranked ballots.
I don’t think any ballot that mentions more than a few films commented here has CODA above The Power of the Dog (although some seem to rank CODA low/not rank it because they haven’t seen it yet, which shouldn’t be an issue for Oscar voters). But once again, the people who vote for ballot simulations on Oscar sites have in the past proven to be the kinds of people who are likelier to go for The Power of the Dog rather than CODA, whereas I don’t necessarily think the same distinction could be made about the Academy
SCOTTMC6
I put this order
Belfast
The Power of the Dog
Don’t Look Up
Nightmare Alley
Drive My Car
Dune
King Richard
Coda
West Side Story
Licorice Pizza
Here’s what I submitted on Twitter:
1. Drive My Car
2. West Side Story
3. Licorice Pizza
4. The Power of the Dog
5. Nightmare Alley
6. King Richard
7. Dune
8. Belfast
9. Don’t Look Up
N/S yet: CODA.
I voted. Here’s my ‘ballot’:
10. Don’t Look Up
9. Dune
8. Belfast
7. King Richard
6. Licorice Pizza
5. West Side Story
4. Coda
3. Nightmare Alley
2. Power Of The Dog
1. Drive My Car
My preference if I was an Oscar voter:
West Side Story
Dune
Belfast
The Power of the Dog
King Richard
CODA
Don’t Look Up
Drive My Car
Nightmare Alley
Licorice Pizza
I ranked CODA first. Only because Annette, The Man With the Answers, Tick…Tick..Boom, Flee, and Stowaway weren’t an option. Midnight Mass was the best production of the year of any variety.
I have deliberately been avoiding Drive My Car. The most intensely sad book I’ve encountered is Haruki Murakami’s Norwegian Wood, I couldn’t finish a second read as it just tore me apart. I just feel like Drive My Car might be too close to that experience.
Drive My Car the movie is not particularly sad. It’s poignant but full of variant feelings.
Agreed. I would say it even ends on something of an uplifting note.
You liked Stowaway that much? Interesting… It’s a good movie, in some ways, but I never imagined anybody would be that passionate about it, to have it in their top 5.
I found the image at the end, Kendrick sitting in space, waiting to die, to be completely haunting. Imagine yourself on that spaceship in that situation. I’m serious. It’s mind-shattering. I think her performance was really strong, an overlooked gem that will hopefully get some attention as the years pass.
It probably won’t end up in my top 5. After my second viewing of CODA, I put that higher. And there are a few heavyweights I’ve yet to see. And eventually there will be that obscure gay film that everyone else ignored that will find a firm place in my psyche (such movies in the past include Mysterious Skin, one of the great films of all time, in my opinion.)
I suspect Drive My Car will be my favorite of the nominees. I watched the first hour on HBO Max and then the subtitles stopped working. Still hasn’t been fixed. But I love Haruki Murakami to no end (the film Burning is a fave of that year) and when he writes about death, really, it’s the best out there. Just the opening of the film was captivating, telling the story of the girl who breaks into houses – pure Murakami. I loved that first hour!
The Worst Person in the World is one I suspect will resonate with me. Oslo, August 24th shook me to my core, I watched it like 5 times in that first week.
The Souvenir, Part 2 is interesting to me. I didn’t like the first one until the very end. And I mean the very end. I like got up, turned off the TV in frustration and on my way to the bathroom it’s brilliance overtook me.
And then there is Almodovar he is very hit or miss with me, but when he hits it’s a marvel.
Oh and Belfast is right up my alley. Jamie Dornan in suddenly one of my fave actors. Wild Mountain Thyme is a great undiscovered film from last year. He’s good in Barb and Star and I like him a great deal in The Tourist which just debuted on HBO Max. Heck, I might have to go back and watch 50 Shades of Grey!
“I found the image at the end, Kendrick sitting in space, waiting to die, to be completely haunting. Imagine yourself on that spaceship in that situation.”
Oh, but I don’t want to! 🙂 It’s too brutal to contemplate… I just thought the movie didn’t quite earn that payoff and it having as much power as it could have – but, yeah, Anna Kendrick… always been a big fan. Of course she was great. 🙂 She always is. Cast MVP, pretty clearly.
“Mysterious Skin, one of the great films of all time, in my opinion.”
Interesting… I’m not 100% sure I’d heard of this one before – maybe. Does sound rather intriguing…
“I love Haruki Murakami to no end (the film Burning is a fave of that year)”
Very cool! Hadn’t realized the same guy was involved. Yeah, Burning was excellent. I think I might have had it in my top 10.
The Worst Person in the World is one of the ones I’m most looking forward to seeing, too. (Likewise, Drive My Car. Even more so, after learning of the Burning connection.) And Belfast is in my current, provisional top 3. 🙂 I loved it. And Dornan was fantastic. Totally should have been nominated, maybe even ahead of Hinds.
Mysterious Skin got good reviews when it came out. It’s a Gregg Araki movie (if you aren’t familiar he’s an odd duck) that’s more restrained and less fabulous. It has it’s flaws to be sure and sometimes the shock value is offputting (as it needs to be). But, damn, that final scene is one of the great ones in history if you ask me.
But since it involves both compassion and homosexuality, the powers that be overlook it.
Indeed, hadn’t heard of Gregg Araki before either…
he is truly an iconic gay director. Every single one of his films comes from an extreme outsider “I don’t give a fuck” perspective, which makes all of his films interesting, even his bad ones.
If you are interested check out his first film that received a fair amount of attention – The Living End – you can rent it for 2.99 on Amazon. It’s budget limitations are obvious, but the rawness of it all made it work for me. It perceived as a terribly depressing film, but then 1992 was a terribly depressing time for a gay guy in his 20’s.
Definitely hadn’t heard of that one before. 🙂 Thanks for the tip! HIV is a subject that always hits hard with me, in movies and not only.
1. Drive My Car
2. The Power of the Dog
3. Coda
4. Belfast
5. Nightmare Alley
6. King Richard
7. West Side Story
8. Dune
9. Licorice Pizza
10. Don’t Look Up
I think at least before seeing Licorice Pizza and Belfast (which of course might make my argument completely irrelevant), the story of this year’s lineup is the unusually large gap that occurs between the best of the nominees and the mid-tier. My ranking:
Among the very best of the year:
1. Drive My Car
2. West Side Story
Also exceptional:
3. The Power of the Dog
Unnotable:
4. Nightmare Alley
5. King Richard
6. CODA
Just astonishingly lifeless and boring:
7. Dune
Annoying and shallow:
8. Don’t Look Up
I feel like the BP winner never makes your top 10 of the year. 🙂 I guess Parasite might have. Any others in the last 12 years?
Also by the way, the idea of “the very best of the year” was kind of meant more as “competing for first place” rather than for example “in the top 10” so I’m not sure if inferences can be made from that. But it is also quite unlikely that the best picture winner is in my top 10 this year either so if one were to somehow claim that is a weird personal stat about how I supposedly intuitively know the movie that is going to actually win best picture (even if my conscious mind seems to fail to recognize the best picture winner quite often) and don’t put it in my top 10, most of the big contenders are safe this year
Got it. 🙂 In any case, I actually would have made the same assumption about most of the big contenders. (In terms of likelihood of being in your ten.) Your top 10 usually looks a lot more like Sight and Sound’s, containing very few things that get anywhere near Best Picture. And no, of course, I don’t think you do that on purpose. Your taste is just very different from the Academy’s. Probably the case with a lot of folks – especially critics, of course. (Since they, like you, also see a lot more movies than most people.)
I’ll go year by year (although the reliability of the original ballots of course diminishes as we move back from the current day because in the earlier half of the 2010s I was in my early teens when I made the first ballots so I’ll also mention where they are now):
Nomadland: originally perhaps around 12th or something along those lines, nowadays perhaps a few spots down, somewhere around 15
Parasite: it seems like it was not in my top 10 originally (I actually have a distinct memory of moving it into my top 10 after shouting so loud when it won best picture, realizing that it was an incredibly valuable movie to me), nowadays in 8th place
Green Book: lower tier of the year, never even close to any best of the year list
The Shape of Water: middle to lower tier of the year, never even close to any best of the year list
Moonlight: in first place then and now
Spotlight: was around sixth or seventh, currently somewhere around 15-25
Birdman: originally in second place, nowadays somewhere around 25-40
12 Years a Slave: originally in fourth place, currently somewhere around 15-25
Argo: originally in third place, nowadays gets nowhere near any best of the year list
The Artist: originally fourth, nowadays gets nowhere near any best of the year list
The King’s Speech: originally third, nowadays somewhere around 25-40
The Hurt Locker: I was too young to have a genuine ballot and I hadn’t seen The Hurt Locker but I loved Avatar, nowadays The Hurt Locker is around 15-25 for me
Very interesting – so just Parasite and (of course, makes sense) Moonlight. So I guess you saw a lot of stuff (long) after the Oscar ceremonies in those earlier years, correct? And that’s why a lot of the winners moved down so much. Or was it just because of rewatches? Where would Avatar rank nowadays? (I hate asking such clearly “loaded” questions, but I trust you know I do it with no malicious intent whatsoever – just curious. Needless to say, as I’ve expressed it many times, I didn’t like it almost at all when it came out and I’ve never even been able to muster enough motivation to rewatch it. Although maybe my opinion would change, so I probably should, some day.)
“The Shape of Water: middle to lower tier of the year, never even close to any best of the year list”
Big fan of this line in your post, by the way. 🙂
I’ll answer the Avatar question first. My love of Avatar was a flash in the pan. I remember walking into a room either the Summer after it came out or the Summer after that and a scene from the movie with Giovanni Ribisi was playing on the TV and I felt just really annoyed. I knew at that moment that I no longer even liked the movie. And I think we’ve discussed previously how I feel about Cameron in general (that I think he’s made 1.5 good movies: The Terminator and the first half of Titanic) and in retrospect my issues with Cameron are very present in Avatar.
As for the shifts in my top 10s over the years, it’s a collection of things: very few things have been demoted due to rewatches and not particularly many Oscar movies have risen due to rewatches. However, my ranking system does not always need a rewatch to make a signficant change in my opinion of a movie. Let’s take as an example the year 2013: I dug up an old list from 2015 and back in the day my top 5 of the year was at that point:
1. Her
2. Inside Llewyn Davis
3. 12 Years a Slave (apparently I misremembered the placing of it)
4. The Wolf of Wall Street
5. Gravity
6. Captain Phillips
7. Before Midnight
8. Short Term 12
9. Blue Is the Warmest Color
10. Prisoners
I’ll go through this top 10 film by film:
Her: I haven’t rewatched it in full since probably the Summer of 2014, when I still loved it, but it simply hasn’t stuck with me in the way I’d want a first place film to do. I still have fond memories of it but I just almost never think about it. Nowadays I think it’s around the 25th position.
Inside Llewyn Davis: similarly I haven’t watched it in full since the Summer of 2014 but that movie has stuck with me and is still in my top 5 for that year.
12 Years a Slave: haven’t rewatched since the Summer of 2014, certain parts of it have really stuck with me but as a whole I feel like my enthusiasm for the film has dropped a little. It’s a brilliant movie but I had to move it down a little on my list
The Wolf of Wall Street: same as with Inside Llewyn Davis
Gravity: haven’t rewatched since maybe 2015, kind of actually what happened with Avatar. I think it’s a spectacle on the big screen but it does not play well in my opinion on a small screen.
Captain Phillips: haven’t rewatched since the Summer of 2014, I still remember liking elements of it but looking back at it, the whole just don’t seem particularly impressive
Before Midnight: haven’t rewatched in a few years but it has stuck with me and is still in my top 10
Short Term 12: only watched once, it was such an exciting surprise back in the day but I feel like as that surprise went away, my opinion of it calmed down a little. Still, I remember that movie being wonderful and put it at least in my top 25 for the year.
Blue Is the Warmest Color: only watched once, upon reflection I think I loved the performances a lot more than the movie and I don’t think that’s sufficient for a top 10 position anymore
Prisoners: only watched once, I feel like I’ve really soured on Denis Villeneuve and upon reflection, Prisoners and even the way I talked about Prisoners is emblematic of all of my issues with Villeneuve
Comparing this to my current top 10:
1. The Wind Rises
2. The Grandmaster
3. Inside Llewyn Davis
4. The Wolf of Wall Street
5. Like Someone in Love
6. Before Midnight
7. Frances Ha
8. Something in the Air
9. Stories We Tell
10. To the Wonder
I’ll go through with how I felt about the ones that weren’t on my original list here as well:
The Wind Rises: I watched it when it first came out and kind of shrugged. Then I rewatched it perhaps in 2017 and fell in love with it, and rewatched it again in 2019
The Grandmaster: also watched it when it first came out but didn’t really like it at all. Then I fell in love with Wong Kar-wai, rewatched it in perhaps 2018 and realized how incredible it was
Like Someone in Love: I’ve only seen it once I think in 2017 but I’m not sure if I would have liked it had I seen it in 2013.
Frances Ha: nearly missed my top 10 back in the day, has only grown in estimation and through one rewatch in 2017
Something in the Air: I think I watched it twice in 2016, I feel like I would have loved it had I seen it back in 2013
Stories We Tell: nearly missed my top 10 back in the day, haven’t rewatched it
To the Wonder: watched when it first came out, hated it, rewatched it in 2021 and loved it.
So it’s really a varied collection of paths. I also think that my taste was in constant motion during the early half of the decade but has slightly steadied after that (or so it feels at least, both in terms of smaller variance in a movie’s position on best of the year lists in an interval of a few years and in terms of whether I feel like I trust my taste) partially because of growing up, partially because I think the process of finding my taste and interests was through just watching hundreds of movies and trying out different things as good or interesting feels like a natural part of a process like that
I remember that discussion, of course – I had just forgotten what your opinion of Avatar was, within it. Yes, my memory is that bad… 🙂 Fascinating stuff about how much your tastes have changed over the last decade – makes sense at that age, true. I guess I, too, experienced my biggest turnarounds on movies I had first seen before I was 18 or whatever. Like Lost in Translation (you may remember my mentioning, more than once – it’s my go-to example for such things –, how I found it completely boring the first time I saw it, a year or two after it came out – I was around 18 –, then, many years later, rewatched and completely loved it) or movies I saw even earlier than that. It took a lot of rewatches for me to no longer like A Beautiful Mind so much. Still hoping I’ll turn back around on that one, because I really did love the c**p out of it pre-2015 or whenever it was I last saw it and it’s pretty sad to me when I lose that love for a movie. But I definitely don’t turn around on movies too much or too often, anyway. It happens more these days than it used to, I suppose. But most of the movies I truly loved as a child/adolescent I do still love (often even more, which does happen to me with rewatches with a lot of movies, anyway – Shakespeare in Love has gone up considerably for me, compared to the first viewing, around 2000-2002, and, likewise, Chicago) – two of which are Gigi and Terms of Endearment, which we’ve already talked about more lengthily.
Her I wasn’t as wowed by even in 2013 – I thought it was very interesting and good but never fell in love with it like others did. (I didn’t fully buy ScarJo’s voice performance or how that “character” was written. It was still very good in spite of that, and it’s not like I hated that aspect of it, either.) I’d probably feel about the same if I rewatched it now (or maybe nowadays that performance/character would resonate with me more), but I don’t know if I will. Like you, I don’t really find myself thinking about it… And La vie d’Adèle I saw the way you do now from the start 🙂 – as a movie, I didn’t think it was anything to write home about at all, but the performances, particularly the lead (which was my favorite in Best Actress that year), were absolutely stellar. Of course, I haven’t rewatched it since – but I doubt I would change my mind on it much.
I’m not sure if Nomadland managed – I think it was borderline top 10, at best.
1. The Power of the Dog
2. Drive My Car
3. Licorice Pizza
4. Belfast
5. Nightmare Alley
6. CODA
7. King Richard
I abstain from the rest as I don’t consider them good enough films to merit an award for “best”..
Stands Alone/Year’s Best:
1. Drive My Car
Stretches the Medium:
2. West Side Story
3. Dune
Important Family Values:
4. King Richard
5. Belfast
Mildly Diverting:
6. Licorice Pizza
Bogus “Seriousness”:
7. Don’t Look Up
Visually Distinctive/Sensually Repulsive (Totally inferior to 1947 version):
8. Nightmare Alley
Emotionally Incomprehensible/Static Direction:
9, The Power of the Dog
Haven’t Seen/Didn’t Rank:
10. CODA
1. The Power of the Dog
2. Coda
3. Drive my Car
4. King Richard
5. Dune
6. Nightmare Alley
7. Belfast
8. West Side Story
9. Licorice Pizza
10. Don’t Look Up
off topic… is it me, or “The Bubble” begins to look like this year’s “Don’t Look Up”, just with less A-Listers (but awesome comedic cast!) and changing subject from an apocalyptic disaster, to how Hollywood is/has handled the pandemic? McKinnon and Bakalova in the trailer, seem to be already stealing the show, but I guess everyone is a scene stealer in this one… I normally don’t love Apatow, but this one, I am strangely really, really interested in.
It looks like a sure-fire GG Comedy/Musical contender (if any good, of course), and Gillian may be frontline – not frontrunner – among the cast, for some GG acting nom… maybe Bakalova or Duchovny could also be pushed, both have strong narratives behind, if the critics do like it/them. On Oscar… well, I don’t really see Oscar going for this beyond Original Screenplay and some technical, unless, again, Gillian, Bakalova or McKinnon (or some other) gets raves and strong precursor – most likely in Supporting – and score a Marisa Tomei / Joan Cusack / Maria Bakalova kind of nom, for pure comedic performance… at least the movie appeals heavily to SAG and Oscar, due to be a movie, well, about movies, which is always a plus.
1. Drive My Car
2. The Power of the Dog
3. West Side Story
4. King Richard
5. Belfast
6. CODA
7. Nightmare Alley
8. Dune
9. Licorice Pizza
10. Don’t Look Up
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/098d1d27ea5710d6af94aa6a08160358bc727548e63f7e6eb878f6d41dcfb04b.jpg
I’ve seen 5 only – so the last 5 were placed in order of appeal.
1. West Side Story
2. Don’t Look Up
3. Belfast
4. The Power of the Dog
5. Dune
6. Drive my car
7. Nightmare Alley
8. Licorice Pizza
9. King Richard
10. CODA
I voted eleven times here. Just like I did for Trump in the 2020 Presidential Election.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3eabd86f6f4b311d41916a8fc476d5b54cf6063a09b0cf10af866e500d6ddcab.gif
Dick?
1. Dune
2. West Side Story
3. Licorice Pizza
4. Power of the Dog
5. Nightmare Alley
6. King Richard
7. Drive My Car
8. CODA
9. Belfast
10. Don’t Look Up
One film I loved (#1, duh), 2 films I loathed (9 & 10, double duh), 4 films I liked ok, I guess (2-5), and 3 I didn’t really care for much (6-8), therefore:
1. Nightmare Alley
2. Drive My Car
3. Licorice Pizza
4. West Side Story
5. Belfast
6. The Power of the Dog
7. Dune
8. Don’t Look Up
9. King Richard
10. CODA
When do we get to vote in the other categories?
1. Licorice pizza
2. Drive my car
3. West Side Story
4. The power of the dog
5. Belfast
6. Dune
7. Nightmare alley
8. Don’t look up
For me the ranking would be
1. Power of the Dog
2. CODA
9/10 films, both in my top 10
3. Nightmare Alley
4. King Richard
5. Drive My Car
All of the above are 8/10 films for me and I very much think they deserve to be here
6. Dune
7. West Side Story
8. Belfast
Those 3 are 7/10 films for me, I wouldn’t nominate them but I’m fine with them
9. Licorice Pizza
10. Don’t Look Up
I actually don’t hate either of these either I just don’t think they deserve this level it praise, both 6/10 films for me
There are 4 films that I liked more than any of these this year – Spencer, Flee, Mass, The Worst Person in the World
havent seen Drive my car yet but for now..
1st: Dont look up (only one i really LOVED)
close 2nd: Nightmare alley
very distant 3rd; Belfast or CODA
1 West Side Story
2 Dune
3 Nightmare Alley
4 CODA
5 Power of the Dog
6 Don’t Look Up
7 Belfast
8 Drive My Car
9 King Richard
10 Licorice Pizza