55 Days Until Oscar ~ Ballots Go Out Today
Monday, December 29, 2014 at 8:19AM 
Alas I have no Oscar Trivia involving the number 55 to parcel out on this occassion but it's an important day to mark nonetheless. Oscar ballots fly out to the members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences today (Monday, December 29th) so consider this coming week the buzz freeze. Whatever's happening now is the last minute push.
Many voters have already made up their minds of course but it's up to the campaigns to keep the names and titles of those in the hunt ever present so they don't slip the mind when it comes time to fill out those ballots. This weekend's box office holiday festivities brought coveted attention to Into the Woods and Unbroken (both probably on the Best Picture bubble) and to a lesser degree to Selma (which feels like a sure thing despite its late start) and American Sniper. But other earlier releases have already made their cases. Only A Most Violent Year (with a hugely entertaining performance by Jessica Chastain) and the foreign film hopeful Leviathan have yet to open and are risking New Year's Eve releases.
Though there's a place for advocacy in film-blogging we do enough of it here that we shouldn't press our luck by doing it again today. We only ask that any AMPAS member who has stumbled upon this message watch three more screeners before returning their ballots. Carve out six more hours, you can do it. Especially if you're not quite satisfied with your ballot.
And try this nifty trick: Glance over your choices for your branch category and for Best Picture. Are any of the names or titles you've scribbed down simply from power of suggestion - because you've heard it over and over again? If you're looking at the name and you don't feel any passion, chuck it. Vote your heart. Or if you're stumped check out the Oscar charts and consider a longer shot that you totally loved. The only way those triumphs ever get nominated is if the passion vote turns out. It's just like a real election in that way.
No, Keira. You don't get points for finishing your ballot first. Take your time.
I love what James Marsh, the director of The Theory of Everything told me about his ballot (read the interview)
I take it quite seriously. I do indeed evaluate. You can separate technical virtuosity in a film that doesn’t necessarily cohere for you as a movie.
It’s both a pleasure and a duty that should be done carefully and properly. It’s an honor to be an Academy member. And should be one where you meet your responsibilities and not in a cavalier way.
Happy balloting!
P.S. If you're not lucky enough to have a ballot, let's play the game that the gurus of gold just played (they stumped for Nightcrawler en masse) and suggest three final screeners that each voter should watch before returning their ballot. Go!
Reader Comments (29)
Two Days One Night
Boyhood
Ida
Nightcrawler
Ida
Inherent Vice
Love is Strange - because it should totally be in the Best Picture conversation
Under the Skin - because it is essential viewing if the voter in question nominates for best score
Obvious Child - because an Amy Adams nomination would be unforgivably lazy this year
Wild
Begin Again
Two Days One Night
Watch earlier releases - Grand Budapest Hotel, Under the Skin - and tell me they aren't deserving of multiple below-the-line nods in addition to the top categories in which people constantly stump for them.
And watch Pride. Just because it's exactly the kind of good old-fashioned heartwarming crowd-pleaser you guys used to nominate even when they weren't very good, except this one is EXCELLENT.
Le Week-End. Not for Best Picture, because it's a small film, but certainly for Acting honors.
The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Her – Actress, Jessica Chastain
Inherent Vice – All eligible categories for consideration
Nightcrawler – Supp. Actress, Rene Russo
Pride
Ida
Gone Girl (revisit it!)
Love is Strange
Nightcrawler
Force Majeure
3rtful, ELEANOR RIGBY: HER did not get a release. It was only THEM. I haven't seen any of them so I'm not sure if she's still even a lead in THEM.
What branch is James Marsh a member of that he has to consider stuff that much? He won for documentary and I can't imagine he'd be a member of any other branch.
Force Majeure
Ida
Snowpiercer
Glenn -- he's a member of the doc branch so he gets to nominated for doc & best pic.
But all branches get to vote on all wins once nominations are announced so he'd have a ballot for everything in January
I still have some stubborn hope, the AMPAS members will do a 1995 and do with "The Lego Movie", the same they did with "Babe" and it surprises way beyond the locked Animated Feature and possible Song nomination. It deserves way more. Screenplay, Film Editing, both Sound cathegories would be out of question if the film didn't have "Lego" in the middle of its title. The more I analyze it, the more impressed I am, about its ambition and scope, and mastery to juggle with entertainment and philosophy, directly inspired of the allegory of the cave, by Plato, and bringing out of it, a social and political and metallingual commentary about family, creativity, destiny, and plenty of themes, without ever, ever, stop being witty and fun, and accessible for both children and adults and enjoyable both in surface and in depth.
This film, to American Animation is what Watchmen was, as a book, to superheroes.
Snowpiercer
Nightcrawler
Interstellar
And/or anything Cotillard, 2D1N or The Immigrant!
Snowpiercer
2 Days, 1 Night
Under the Skin
I notice that I forgot the spirit of the thread...
1) The Lego Movie
2) Snowpiercer
3) Stranger by the Lake
Please watch:
1. "Under the Skin" (in case you didn't decide between Cotillard and Aniston, then go for Johansson; you also have a unique original score and incredible cinematography work here...)
2. "Gone Girl" (watch this one again so you don't dare to snub Fincher's direction and Pike's performance)
3. "What Now? Remind Me" (the wonderful Portuguese submission)
Begin Again
Pride
Love Is Strange
Leviathan
Snowpiercer
Two Days, One Night
1. The Grand Budapest Hotel - refresh their minds about all its technical merits, and in a perfect world remind them that Ralph Fiennes should be nominated.
2. Begin Again
3. Two Days, One Night
1. Grand Budapest Hotel
2. Calvary
3. The Immigrant
Grand Budapest -- for Fiennes
Obvious Child -- for Slate and screenplay (is it eligible?)
Foxcatcher -- for acting, screenplay, cinematography and EDITING
Wild
Nightcrawler
Whiplash
TRIVIA:
Three days after her 55th birthday, at the Oscar ceremony on April 8, 1963, Bette Davis lost her final bid for Best Actress.
Glenn -- Weinstein is committed to an eleventh hour push for Chastain in Best Actress for Eleanor Rigby: Her. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/weinsteins-fire-up-best-actress-754059
Two Days One Night
Under The Skin
Snowpiercer
Go back and watch some of the smaller indies
1. Hard Sun because of Robyn Buck's brilliant performance
2. Night Moves underrated movie and the performances of Fanning and Eisenberg were fabulous
3.Begin Again
Big Eyes
Inherent Vice
The Immigrant
I doubt some of these have screeners, but:
--Under the Skin (picture, director, screenplay, score, cinematography)
--Le Week-End (actress, screenplay)
--Land Ho! (picture, screenplay; I'd add song but it's not eligible... le sigh)