Rocket Surgeon
Guest
Raiders lost of course, to some film I haven't and will never see...(of course because you should be aware of this - not that it was less deserving). Besides being a general catch all, (like the Oscars) following is a great peek at the voting process...for one member. I will forever cringe at the revelation made during an Oscar episode of At The Movies, it was common knowledge that members aren't required to see the films they vote for.
I'll never see any "winner" loft the statue without picturing Oscar's taint...
An Oscar Voter's Brutally Honest Ballot
[
I'll never see any "winner" loft the statue without picturing Oscar's taint...
An Oscar Voter's Brutally Honest Ballot
[
One of the 371 members of the Academy’s directors branch recently invited me over to his office to listen in as he openly deliberated about how to fill out his final ballot for the 85th Oscars. As you can tell from his remarks -- highlights of which have been reprinted below, category-by-category -- he has seen virtually all of the contenders and has very strong but carefully considered opinions about them. He opted to vote online rather than via paper ballot -- “because I want to feel young again,” he said with a chuckle -- and did not experience any issues with the voting system. His main issue, in fact, is with the studios that have inundated him with promotional swag, most of which he doesn’t want. “I’ve gotten books, cookbooks and just about everything short of Lincoln condoms,” he cracked. “It’s ridiculous.” Eventually, we got down to business, and, in no particular order, touched upon all 24 Oscar categories.
BEST SOUND MIXING
“This is the award for sound that is mixed on the set on the day. I’m going to dismiss Life of Pi because it seems like very much of a postproduction movie. And I’m going to vote for Les Miserables because they recorded the singing for live on the set and every quaver had to be caught. They had to be absolutely perfect, and they were.”
Vote: Les Miserables
BEST SOUND EDITING
“This is more about sound effects done in post. I’m going to dismiss Argo, Django and Life of Pi because I don’t think their post sound effects were terribly interesting or original. Zero Dark Thirty? I imagine that a great deal of the raid was done with sound effects editing. But I’m gonna go with Skyfall. The sound of that movie was absolutely extraordinary -- in particular, when the train comes colliding into the station.”
Vote: Skyfall
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
“I did not see all of the nominees, but with something like visual effects you can see enough of a film, in many cases, to make an informed decision. The Hobbit lost me with the 48 frames-per-second; I think it’s failed experiment -- noble, but failed. The Avengers and Prometheus are the same old thing. Snow White and the Huntsman lost me when they went into the woods. But Life of Pi is pretty extraordinary—the visuals are as magnificent as anything I’ve seen in a movie in a very long time. I was also very impressed that the tiger is so realistic and so unsentimental.”
Vote: Life of Pi
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
“In general, I object to movies that primarily feature CGI production design, like The Hobbit and Life of Pi. Les Miserables? One of its weakest things was its production design -- for example, in the beginning of the movie, that huge boat looked ridiculously fake. So that leaves Anna Karenina, which is a movie I loathed, and Lincoln. I’m not gonna vote for Lincoln for best picture, but I have a lot of personal respect for Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy and I want to help the film, so when I can throw it a vote, like here, I will.”
Vote: Lincoln
BEST ORIGINAL SONG
“This is No-Brainer City: ‘Skyfall’ is one of the best songs that has ever been in the best song category and Adele is f---ing brilliant. Plus I think it’s about time that a James Bond song won best song. In a way, this is my F-you for not giving it to ‘Live and Let Die’ back in 1973. I will say that ‘Before My Time,’ which is sung by Scarlett Johansson, is pretty good. ‘Pi’s Lullaby’ I couldn’t remember if my life was on the line. ‘Everybody Needs a Best Friend’ is a simple song. And ‘Suddenly’ from Les Miserables is a very boring song and an absolutely blatant attempt to win a best song Oscar; that upsets me. If ‘Skyfall’ does not win I will fillet my next-door neighbor’s dog.”
Vote: “Skyfall” (Skyfall)
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
“Life of Pi is an absolutely perfect score. [Lincoln composer] John Williams has enough f---ing Oscars, and I really feel that the score was a weak part of Lincoln and just self-plagiarism for Williams. Thomas Newman should have won the Oscar a couple of times, but I just didn’t see anything particularly new or interesting in the music of Skyfall.”
Vote: Life of Pi
BEST MAKEUP & HAIRSTYLING
“I don’t think it’s a very impressive category this year. They should have nominated Lincoln because of how much they made Daniel Day-Lewis look like Lincoln. In Hitchcock Anthony Hopkins just looked like a man in a fat-suit—I didn’t really buy it. The Hobbit? You know, whatever—it’s what they do every time. So I guess I’m going to vote for Les Miserables here, only because of how well they aged Hugh Jackman. And I think they did a good job beating the **** out of Anne Hathaway, as well.”
Vote: Les Miserables
BEST FILM EDITING
“I think one of the worst things about Silver Linings Playbook was its editing; there was a lot of mismatching. Lincoln? There really isn’t much editing to speak of. Life of Pi is interesting because it was mostly computer-generated, I think there were not that many decisions to be made with editing, as opposed to when you get a ****load of stuff and have to figure out what you’re going to use. Argo had some pretty good editing, especially that sequence at the end when they’re making their escape. But the undeniable winner is Zero Dark Thirty, which must have had a massive amount of footage to boil down and made that raid at the end very understandable.”
Vote: Zero Dark Thirty
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
“It’s a very good group; I saw them all. The most powerful might be The Gatekeepers, so that could win. But, in order to win this Oscar, you usually have to make a film that makes people feel absolutely great or makes people feel like they want to slit their wrists; something that’s jovial or something that’s important. I think that Searching for Sugar Man is going to win, and I’m going to vote for it because I just felt like a million bucks after watching it -- and I bought Rodriguez’s album.”
Vote: Searching for Sugar Man
BEST SHORT (ANIMATED)
[Had not seen any of the films, but had heard good things about Paperman so he voted for it.]
Vote: Paperman
BEST SHORT (DOCUMENTARY)
[Had not seen any of the films and knew nothing about any of them, so he declined to vote.]
Vote: [Abstained]
BEST SHORT (LIVE ACTION)
“Curfew is the least depressing of five films guaranteed to prevent you from getting laid, as I personally learned.”
Vote: Curfew
BEST DIRECTING
I would have voted for Bigelow -- I certainly nominated her and Affleck. Silver Linings is a screenplay; the direction is not particularly important -- although it took David O. Russell to figure out that Bradley Cooper is a great actor. Life of Pi is very well-directed and extremely well-thought-out, but I was put off by the religious message at the end. Beasts? I know many people loved it, but I got seasick and found it to be almost impossibly boring. Amour is purely a performance piece; besides, Michael Haneke has pissed me off in the past because he’s made movies that are so misanthropic. He just hates human beings, and I happen to be a human being and don’t like being **** on. That leaves Lincoln, which I don’t feel is the best-directed film of the year -- there’s nothing innovative about it -- but I’m swept away with the gravity of the subject matter, with the respect that Spielberg showed to it and with him guiding Day-Lewis in a direction different than we’d normally associated with Lincoln. Plus, Spielberg deserves an Oscar every 10 years or so out of respect for what he does for the industry.
Vote: Lincoln
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