Dear Academy Members...
Thursday, January 2, 2020 at 5:00PM 
You have just six days to vote this year on nominations (starting now) so if you'll do us this one favor please read these four tips. We're not telling you how to vote... just reminding you of some truths that are too often ignored.
1) As difficult as critics groups and precussor bodies make it to remember otherwise, it is an absolute truth that movies existed before Parasite and The Irishman began to excite people in mid to late October...
Some of them garnered lots of praise and are eligible for your votes like Pain & Glory, The Farewell, Missing Link, Her Smell, Booksmart, Diane, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (well, you know about that one), Rocketman, and Us. Please don't only vote for Christmas releases. Make the world safe for quality movies to come out year round!
2.a) If you are actor, please remember that imitation is not the only acting skill worth commemmorating each year. Other valuable things in the actors toolbox include creativity, imagination, surprise, deft line readings, and storytelling through gesture and physicality. You can find all of those things in say, Lupita Nyong'o's performance in Us. She's not pretending to be someone that's famous but do you really think that requires less skill if you want your character to feel like a three-dimensional person? We'd argue it requires more so remember: there is life outside of biopics and mimicry.
2.b) If you are not an actor the same thing probably applies in your field. Remember that joke someone makes every year "Most Costume Design" or "Most Editing" or what not, rather than Best. The obvious choice is not always the best choice. For example. It's easy to see which films have a leg up in Production Design -- think big period pieces with ample budgets. But are Parasite's houses (they're both sets!) not absolutely inspired work? You don't have to be recreating something (see the acting thing again) you can just be involved in the act of creation, and that's worthy too!
3. Remember to rank your ballot in preference order. Preferential voting is complicated to explain in the math (the Wrap does an excellent job though) but it's not complicated to do in the making of. Who doesn't love listing their favourites?
4. You don't have to vote on the first day. Squeeze a few more screenings in. Why not?!
Reader Comments (26)
AMEN to all 4 (or 5). Well said
Please have Avengers: Endgame nominated for Best Picture
“...and honestly, it’s going to look embarrassing in a decade if you didn’t vote for Elisabeth Moss.”
Boy, if Lupita doesn’t make it in, this Best Actress lineup will be DIRE.
I would nominate Christ Hemsworth as Fat Thor in "Avengers: End Game".
Thank you for mentioning Diane AND Booksmart two of the best movies of 2019 in my humble opinion with the strongest female acting work of the year!
I agree with you on the mimicry thing, but don't overlook Taron Egerton, because he doesn't JUST imitates Elton John... it's more of an evocation and he creates a full-fledged and engaging character, without losing the original source. That's a fantastic performance! (And he sings too, unlike some actor that won last year).
@Jaragon-ALRIGHT!!!!!! He was great in that film. As someone who went through depression, his depiction of it is actually spot-on though I don't drink but the fact that he feels sorry for himself and drowns his sorrow in food and booze. I can understand where he's coming from. I think Hemsworth deserves more credit for what he does.
@JJ-Yes, Lupita should be nominated for Best Actress for Us.
I’ll add in that voters are not limited to voting for one film not in the English language in categories that aren’t Best International Film. There’s room for Parasite and Pain and Glory and Atlantics and countless others if they choose to vote that way.
Dear Academy Members,
Please remember that you wasted nominations for Octavia Spencer two years in a row in lieu of nominating real acting achievements, so please remember to nominate her when she actually deserves it!!
Don't be like SAG. See Little Women before you vote.
Avengers Endgame does not deserve any nods outside of visual fx.
Vote for Parasite and Antonio and Scarlett and Laura and Joaquin!
5. Be bold! In five years today's group think won't matter and people will be wondering why some of these tired, predictable films got nominated. Go for the surprising and the new.
6. Remember women's experiences are as important as men's experiences. Poor ordinary peoples' lives are as revealing as (checks notes) those of gangsters, popes, movie stars, and the like.
Dear Academy : please nominate Adam Sandler in Uncut Gems for Best Actot. What a performance!
and 5) Vote for May Kay Place
I saw Little Women last night...my goodness, Saoirse was sexy and LUMINOUS. We already knew she was a gifted character actress, dramatic actress, what have you...but this movie confirms she is a STAR. In terms of level of difficulty, maybe Jo March is not on par with Lupita's character in US or Judy Garland, but she sells every moment, emotion effortlessly...totally behind a nomination.
Charlea- Octavia Spencer is amazing, and all her nominations are well deserved in my opinion.
Academy - please take a stand and place lead acting achievements in the lead categories and give space for true supporting parts to get their due.
Nobody likes a hard sell, so lets keep our manners in check esp when we r asking for favors 😁
Dearest Academy Members,
Beside checking the top (ten for films/five for the rest) predictions in Gold Derby, pls kindly also consider:
1) Mary Kay Place
2) Alfre Woodard
3) Portrait of a Lady on Fire, in all eligible categories
4) Matthais S in The Mustang
5) The cast o Parasite in the acting categories
& last but no least ...
6) Honey Boy in all eligible categories.
why argue against Parasite?
it would be both deserving, thematically timely, and historical if it won.
RJ -- i dont wanna be misunderstood I LOOOOOOOVE PARASITE and hope it gets all the nominations. Point one is only that critics groups and precursors do a completely shit job each year of remembering that the year is 12 months long. It doesn't begin with the first "frontrunner" breakout in October or November (as they usually pretend)
there are so many movies with Oscar nominations that are quickly forgotten and I'd argue that MANY of those candidates are things that arrived in December and the critics groups fell in line because somewhere along the way they forgot that their job was not Oscar prognostication.
Dear academy,
I live in a country where the motion pictures exists for 12 months, not only on holidays. I grow up watching for Peter Jackson's masterpieces (Lotr Trilogy and King Kong), to Almodóvar, Antonioni, Pixar and Bergman. My life is full of extraordinary movies memories, and, I want you all to know that:
Parasite cast deserves nominations;
Almodóvar deserves to be remembered in the Best Picture + Directing + Original Screenplay categories (besides Actor, Supporting Actress, Production Design, Score, Editing, Sound and Cinematography);
Alfre Woodard + Lupita + Awkafina + Zhao + Mary Kay Place + Florence Pugh + Saoirse Ronan + Tomasin Mackenzie deserves to be remembered!
Matthias S is the best international male commodity we have in a long time. And it has being fucking grate since Bullhead. Remember him this year, please?
Your guides should be not "most awarded", "most crafted", but... Most excelence, most international, most deserved!
Taran Egerton and Paul Walter Hauser for Best Actor.
Charlize Theron for Best Actress
Zhao Shuzhen for Best Supporting Actress.
Taika Waititi for Best Supporting Actor.
Curiously Nathaniel is the BFCA the only “critical. Group you qualify for or with minimal effort could you jump ship to another? Because I judge by the end result so when I think of Nathaniel and the Film Bitch Awards = Critic. When I think of Nathaniel the BFCA member who painstakingly updates prediction charts (sometimes in lieu of more interesting and individual content) = Prognosticator.
Dearest Academy Members,
I forgot to mention the warm, gorgeous n lush cinematography o Little Women by Yorick!! When u bestowed nods to Little Women, pls rem him too.
+ Claire Mathon for either Atlantics or Portrait of a Lady on Fire. Both r deserving.
Many Thx!! 🙏
Amen Nathaniel !
12 month ! Diversity is what I wish for ... what really MOV(I)ED YOU last year - not everyone else !?
I agree about the "Parasite" cast- but what a great movie that is!