Readers Poll Results: Who *Should* Win?
Sunday, February 22, 2015 at 8:16AM
NATHANIEL R in Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Picture, Directors, Oscars (14), Screenplays, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, The Film Experience, Year in Review, polls

With the Oscars arriving in 12 hours and your host (er, Nathaniel -- your host here at TFE-- not NPH) still sick as a dog, I turn the time over to you. Your votes have been tallied from the polls we ran on the individual Oscar Chart pages over the past month and here's who YOU -- the collective you at least -- are rooting for tonight.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Grand Budapest Hotel won 37% of your hearts. In solid second place was Birdman with 30%. Nightcrawler and Boyhood had their fans with 16% and 12% of the vote respectively. Trailing them all with a poor showing was Foxcatcher with 4%.

acting, director, picture after the jump

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Interestingly the leader here won by the same percentage. Whiplash whipped 37% of you into a frenzy with its shouty quotables. Inherent Vice and The Imitation Game were neck and neck for second place with 25% and 24% of your votes which is amusing because could they be more diametrically opposed? The Theory of Everything and American Sniper were way in the back with 8% and 3% respectively.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

J.K. Simmons who steamrolled through the precursors also wins by a significant margin here with 42% of the votes. Edward Norton comes in a respectable second with 31% and I really do believe that if J.K. Simmons weren't in the running he'd be pretty lockish for the Oscar. Ethan Hawke took 15%, Mark Ruffalo 9%, and Robert Duvall's 1% proves that he still has his fans. Which is right considering the filmography but yeesh, that movie!

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Patricia Arquette hogged 54% of your vote with everyone else far far behind. Streep fans are never quiet so the Supreme Actress was in second place with 16%. The other contenders had equal passion. Emma Stone came in third place with 10% and Laura Dern and Keira Knightley tied for last with 9% each.

BEST ACTOR

Surprisingly in that formidable Best Actor race where we assumed votes would be more evenly spreadd, Michael Keaton took 56% of the votes -- the biggest win in any of the polls! Eddie Redmayne was a distant second with 24% (they both made my best actor ballot). Bradley Cooper, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Steve Carell brought up the rear in a close battle with 7%, 6% and 5% of the remaining vote crumbs.

BEST ACTRESS

Julianne Moore, fending off the formidable Marion Cotillard, managed 49% against Cotillards 28%. Rosamund Pike was in third with 16% and naturally this was the most popular poll to vote on since we attract the actress-lovers here. (I actually expected Pike to do much better given the comments over the film year on Gone Girl right here). Reese Witherspoon was a distant 4th with 3% and Felicity Jones tied Robert Duvall for worst showing in a poll with only 1% of the votes. 

BEST DIRECTOR

Richard Linklater was way out front with 52% of the votes for his 12 year filmmaking experiment. Alejandro G Inarritu and Wes Anderson were in 2nd and 3rd with 24% and 18% for their very distinctive visions. Bennett Miller took 3% for Foxcatcher and Morten Tyldum made it a three way tie for worst individual showing with Felicity and Duvall with only 1% of the readership behind him. 

BEST PICTURE

Boyhood prevailed with 39% of The Film Experience readers vote.  Birdman and Grand Budapest Hotel were the only films to put up a fight with 23% and 16% of the vote. The rest of the films fought over scraps: Selma: 7%; Whiplash 5%; The Imitation Game 3%; American Sniper: 2%; and The Theory of Everything: 1%.

Thanks for voting! Given how close some of these races are tonight there's no telling how happy y'all will be tonight. Happy Oscar Watching regardless. 

Article originally appeared on The Film Experience (http://thefilmexperience.net/).
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