It's ten days until Oscar night so each day going forward expect "final predictions" for each category and one last look at the 8 Best Pictures. But a quick question: If we can't go back to a 5 wide shortlist (TFE's preference) would you prefer that AMPAS had stuck with a top ten for symmetry's sake? It's so difficult to compare years with 5, 8, 9, and 10 nominees, you know? If it were still a top ten as it was for two short years (2009 & 2010) which films do you think would have been the two additional nominees in Best Picture this year? It appears obvious that against the odds Foxcatcher, given that "lone director" nomination, was one of them but maybe Nightcrawler wasn't given that it only won a Screenplay nomination?
But we only have 8 movies to deal with this year and since the Oscar race is all subjectivity let's get real objective and rank them by totally measureable stats for a moment.
| Box Office | Longest To Shortest | RT/MC Ratings | Most Contemporary to Oldest Setting | |
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| 1 | Sniper (284) | Boyhood (166) | Boyhood (98/100) | Birdman (Now) |
| 2 | Imitation (75) | Sniper (132) | Selma (98/89) | Whiplash (Now) |
| 3 | Budapest (59) | Selma (127) | Whiplash (95/88) | Boyhood (2002-2013) |
| 4 | Selma (46) | Theory (123) | Budapest (92/88) | Sniper (1998-2013) |
| 5 | Birdman (35) | Birdman (119) | Birdman (92/88) | Theory (1963-1990s) |
| 6 | Theory (32) | Imitation (114) | Imitation (89/73) | Selma (1965) |
| 7 | Boyhood (25) | Whiplash (106) | Theory (80/72) | Imitation (1920s-1954) |
| 8 | Whiplash (9) | Budapest (100) | Sniper (73/72) | Budapest (1930s) |
I guess I'm in a dark cloud mood today because I thought about adding "most to least onscreen deaths" but I realized beyond 1. Sniper 2. Budapest 3. Selma it was a 5 way tie for the others... unless well, what to do about Birdman? Again I was trying to stick to measureable things for fun this afternoon. And I thought about adding The Bechdel Test because it was just too damn depressing since I think only Boyhood passes it (maybe Birdman and Selma and Theory, too? Only if you're being generous and if they do its just barely)
While we're on the topic, make sure to vote on the Best Picture poll and on the other polls on the individual chart pages.