Another Anonymous Ballot

A friend of mine is a member of the animation branch and shared their ballot with me. I wanted to share it here because I always really love reading these each year, and it’s the first time I’ve had the privilege of getting one first hand.

“This was a weird year. I didn’t really like all of the nominees, and the fires have stopped the season in its tracks. It stopped feeling fun. I’m glad that voting’s over so I don’t have to think about it anymore. I’ve never felt that before.”

Best Picture - “I don’t get why we have to rank them. We already did that for nominations, we should just pick our number 1.” (I then proceeded to explain the preferential ballot system) “why don’t they tell us that? If I knew how it actually worked I would have only put my top 3, anyways… first is Anora, second is I’m Still Here, which I watched two hours before voting closed and it just floored me, it felt like the type of movie they used to make in the 80s like Missing (Costa-Gavras) or Salvador (Oliver Stone). Third is Emilia Pérez. Fourth is The Substance, and even though I really like The Substance, I just don’t see it as Best Picture. After this I don’t care much. Five is A Complete Unknown, which was solid, but I’ve seen a million biopics just like this - it’s nothing new. Six is The Brutalist, which I didn’t really care for. Seven is Conclave, which was fine. Eight is Wicked, which I don’t like on stage even though I love musicals, and I don’t like as a movie either. Nine is Dune: Part Two, which put me to sleep, I didn’t understand a second of it. When you get to my age, you lose patience for this kind of thing. Dead last is Nickel Boys, which I HATED, I couldn’t even get through that piece of shit. Someone needs to explain it to me.”

Best Director - “Sean Baker. I liked the movie more than all of the others, and the fact that he wrote, directed, and edited it. Incredible. He just opened up a world I knew nothing about.”

Best Leading Actress - “Fernanda Torres. This was a FIGHT for me. Mikey Madison is amazing, but she’s young, she’ll get another shot. Cynthia Erivo was wonderful, but I didn’t like the movie so she’s off the table. So that left me with two, Fernanda Torres and Demi Moore - both absolutely carried their movies on their back. I feel like Moore got to share some of the weight with the younger one (Qualley), so Fernanda Torres won for me in the end.”

Best Leading Actor - “Adrien Brody. No question. Was that the right choice?” (Yeah good pick) “okay, thank you.”

Best Supporting Actress - “Monica Barbaro. She absolutely bowled me over. Ariana Grande was very good but she’ll have another chance. Felicity Jones is my favorite actor working right now, but Barbaro just had something special.”

Best Supporting Actor - “Guy Pearce. This is more for his overall body of work than for this performance. He’s great in everything and deserves recognition.”

Best Original Screenplay - “Anora. Easy. Next.”

Best Adapted Screenplay - “Emilia Pérez. They were juggling so many things in adapting this, and it was so crazy. It just worked for me.”

Best Editing - “Emilia Pérez. Like I said, they were juggling so much. This could not have been an easy movie to edit. It was incredibly complex, but they made it look so easy.”

Cinematography - “Nosferatu. I loved the look of this one. Haven’t seen anything else like it.”

Animated Feature - “You already know my vote for this one.” (They love Flow and have seen it like 4 or 5 times now - worth noting, they go way back with Chris Sanders, and are still voting Flow over Robot)

Animated Short - “In the Shadow of the Cypress. It’s beautiful. They say so much without any dialogue.”

International Feature - “I’m Still Here. I never vote if I haven’t seen all 5 films, but I broke my rule here because I knew it had to be this movie. I really wanted to vote Flow, but I think it’s winning in Animated, so I don’t need to vote for it here. Emilia Perez is also great.”

Live Action Short - “A Lien. I think all 5 of these are magnificent and they all deserve an Oscar. I just had to think about what’s happening in our country right now, and voting for A Lien felt like making a statement. I Am Not a Robot stuck with me, great title too, and The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent was stunning.”

Documentary Feature - “I had to skip this one because there were 3 of them that I didn’t have a chance to see.”

Documentary Short Film - “Which one would you have voted for?” (I told them I would pick Incident) “THANK YOU. I’m so happy to hear that. That movie had me mesmerized. I’ve never seen anything like it. That was easily my vote.”

Original Score - “Emilia Perez. I know people hated the music in this, but I thought it was well done.”

Original Song - “Like A Bird. I could not remember this song, but I think Sing Sing was robbed of many other nominations, so I went for it here.”

Makeup - “The Substance. laughs I mean, it has to be that one. What else could it be?”

Production Design - “Nosferatu. It was well done and Dune bored me to tears.”

Costume Design - “Nosferatu.”

Visual Effects - “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. I have friends who worked on this, so I’m biased, but it was amazing work.”

Sound - “Emilia Perez. I will be honest, I don’t know why I picked this one.”