Yesterday, I covered the Hollywood Reporter story where THR sat with an anonymous director as he filled out his Oscar ballot. Many of you (hilariously) joked that the director sounded exactly like David O. Russell, and that was so, so true. Anyway, what’s great is the THR is doing this feature with other anonymous Academy members from different branches. Yesterday, they published another ballot, this time with an Academy member from the sound branch. He is a lot nicer than the director, but they still manage to get some shade in there about some things. Also, this sound person could not remember “Philomena” whatsoever. Here’s the ballot:
➻ BEST PICTURE
12 Years a Slave impacted me the most as a moviegoer and as a father, so it was my number one. Dallas Buyers Club also really moved me — just watching him change his heart. I thought Gravity was really phenomenal. I love Captain Phillips, just like I love all Tom Hanks movies; it was a travesty that its director wasn’t nominated. American Hustle I liked because everyone in its ensemble did a great job. Her was interesting, but it was a little too weird for me. Nebraska was like watching paint dry — it just bored me to death. Wolf of Wall Street was just so gratuitous and offensive — it’s supposed to be funny to watch people get screwed over by this schmuck? I had a friend who was wiped out by Bernie Madoff. And, finally, Willamena [Editor’s note: Philomena], which was not my cup of tea.
MY PICK: (1) 12 Years a Slave; (2) Dallas Buyers Club; (3) Gravity; (4) Captain Phillips; (5) American Hustle; (6) Her; (7) Nebraska; (8) The Wolf of Wall Street; (9) Philomena➻ BEST DIRECTOR
[Alexander] Payne and [Martin] Scorsese were immediately out for me. [Steve] McQueen or [David O’] Russell would deserve to win if we were just talking about directing actors. But [Alfonso] Cuaron got my vote because the fact that his movie got made at all is amazing and groundbreaking. I know people who worked on it who said he is a control freak and was all over every aspect of it.
MY PICK: Alfonso Cuaron (Gravity)➻ BEST ACTOR
[Christian] Bale did a great job, but the ensemble resonated for me more than any one person. I just need more going on than [Bruce] Dern gave me. [Leonardo] DiCaprio was great but I got tired of the movie — it was just way too long and repetitive. The guy in 12 Years a Slave — I can never pronounce his name — was just phenomenal. And yet I was really taken with [Matthew] McConaughey, even though I have not really been a fan in the past. He was just ridiculously good — plus the weight loss and what he had to do was just unbelievable. This was the hardest choice for me.
MY PICK: Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club)➻ BEST ACTRESS
My wife loved Willamina, but I didn’t care for it. [Sandra] Bullock was good, but it was hard for me to not see Sandra Bullock—or George Clooney. Meryl Streep is just always fantastic; I never feel that she’s just doing the same sh-t. Amy Adams did a phenomenal job, but I didn’t love the movie. [Cate] Blanchett was bold; I don’t think you could have found any person on the planet who could have played that role better.
MY PICK: Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine)➻ BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Jonah Hill was out from the gate for me — I just can’t. Bradley Cooper was good. But Jared Leto gave a crazy performance, truly becoming this person. I thought he was flawless.
MY PICK: Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club)➻ BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
I’m not usually a big Julia Roberts fan, but I thought she did a fantastic job — it was really gritty and ballsy and didn’t remind me of everything else she’s already done. Jennifer Lawrence does a great job, but I didn’t feel like she had enough screen time. But the 12 Years a Slave woman I just found to be so compelling; she ripped my heart out. For me, it’s all about the impact a movie or a character has on me.”
MY PICK: Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years a Slave)➻ BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Gravity begs the question: What’s cinematography and what’s visual effects? I talked to some cinematographer friends and they assured me that a lot of what looks great in the film is owed to its camera work.
MY PICK: Gravity➻ BEST FILM EDITING
One of my dear friends is the editor of Captain Phillips, so how do you think I voted? I also happen to think he did a phenomenal job.
MY PICK: Captain Phillips➻ BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
Gravity was a cinematic spectacle unlike anything that’s ever been done before. The Hobbit? Been there, done that.
MY PICK: Gravity
This sounds like a much more typical ballot, and I’m guessing that most of these choices are going to be the actual winners, not like the American Hustle-crazed director yesterday. That being said, I didn’t like that this sound guy abstained from so many categories – he abstained from Costume, Animated, Documentary, Foreign Film and a few more. I also kind of like the honesty of “I’m voting for this person because I know them and they’re a good friend.” That’s why George Clooney wins Oscars, you know? It’s not just about being friendly with the big-name celebrities, you have to develop friendships with the behind-the-camera people who will vote for you because they know you and like you. My favorite shade here? “Jonah Hill was out from the gate for me — I just can’t.” LMAO. Jonah Hill: I just can’t. Someone needs to make t-shirts for that.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Awww I actually liked Jonah in Wow. One of the few things I liked about it. Oh well.
“That’s why George Clooney wins Oscars, you know?”
Lordy, I knew there had to be some reason….
Same reason why Leo won’t have any. Too much time spent with VS models and his silly manturage instead of creating those “behind the camera” friendships.
I don’t care if Hill turned out the most memorable performance ever, his attitude ruins him for me. I selfishly wish his career would tank. I simply cannot stand him.
+10000000 agreed!
Why? I’ve seen him on Graham Norton and he seems really nice.
He lost me at the Rolling Stone “This Is The End” interview. When James Franco calls you out from being too pretentious you’ve got a problem.
He’s talked his less prestigious acting jobs down. Talked about how he’s an arteest! About how he grew up very wealthy. He gave the strong impression he considers himself better than many people and isn’t appreciative of his fans or praise because he deserves it.
You can cross check these tid bits in his various print interviews within the past year. Or pretty much since Moneyball.
Yep. Why I don’t like him. And I died laughing at the whole Jonah Hill I just can’t.
+1
“Voter hates Jonah Hill.”
We have something in common. I love the “I just can’t.”
+1000
I can’t even look at him
I’m loathe him and he’s not worthy of another Oscar nod (he wasn’t worthy of the first one). I can’t look at him either. Hideous and a horrid person.
The “12 years a slave woman” and “Willamina”, for God’s sake. This man is voting for (or against) people and movies whose names he can’t even be bothered to learn/remember.
He remembers and rates the performance over who actually was in that role, which is kinda the whole point, no?
Too often Hollywood has given Oscars to big names and It Girls at the expense of great performances by lesser-knowns, i.e. the wholly-unworthy Julia Roberts, Gwyneth, Halle & Sandra Bullock. I’d rather hear a voter say “This girl was great, but imma have to get my assistant to Google her name” than just write down one they can remember!
Wow. You missed the point by a hundred miles.
These voters are SUPPOSED to care about movies. They’re SUPPOSED to be adept at judging art and performance and actually CARE.
This man couldn’t even remember or say the name of the actress HE HAD JUST PRAISED.
It’s pathetic and unprofessional.
I agree, Tapioca. Remembering a performance and voting for that has a lot more integrity than voting for the name. It very apparently removes the usual built-in head start given to more famous actors.
“They’re SUPPOSED to be adept at judging art and performance and actually CARE. ”
Not really, on either count. There are certainly passionate cinephiles in the Academy, but a lot of members are technicians, like this guy, who is a sound engineer. He’s spent his life learning about and honing a highly technical, scientific craft that does not leave a lot of time for “art appreciation”. Look at all the categories he abstained from because he openly admitted he didn’t understand the craft or feel qualified to judge good from bad in that category. As for not remembering people’s names, it could have just been a momentary lapse and the minute the interview finished he went, “Lupita Nyong’o! D’oh!”, but it’s more likely that he only got to see a handful of movies this year and very likely did so at crowded, last-minute guild screenings and the performance made an impression but he doesn’t have the time or desire to read all the coverage and memorize a newcomer’s name.
A lot of the technicians are overworked, sound guys especially. At the top level, there’s only a handful working on pretty much every movie that comes out (and TV shows, and most the big commercial campaigns, too). There’s an engineer who has twenty-something Oscars because for a long time, he was the *only one* capable of racking sound at the level the top tier directors demanded. When it comes to the science techs, many of them are not all that interested in movies. They’re in it because they love the science of what they do, and it just so happens that movies are the medium in which they work. The scientific guild members are notorious for voting only for their category and not even attempting any of the others, so give this guy a little credit for at least trying to see some movies and vote in some other categories. He’s part of a minority when it comes to that.
While I agree with Maureen’s point Tapioca is making a valid one as well.
The Oscars aren’t just about handing out awards to those who pull out a great perforance. IT’s about ratings and giving the awards to the “IT” crowd.
And I still think many get their Oscars for work they’ve done in previous years. Lots of actors win for terrible movies and roles, but should have won for previous years and roles. They can only give 1 award per catagory per year. Some just have to wait.
And IMO Anne deserved an Oscar for Rachels Getting Married… Not Les Mis. I’m holding firm to that.
How? I’ve never heard anything bad about him. Why the hate?
Willamina cracked me up, honestly. 😀 I’m not sure if I like this voter or if he drives me nuts. On one hand he seems like a pretty average viewer who basically decides “like/like not” without much further thought. I guess that represents a lot of a general movie audience. On the other hand he doesn’t know the names of the movies/actors and his explanations seem far from profound. The director yesterday was way less nice about his opinions (and quite a bit the “American Hustle” fanboy, probably because he was oh-so-right-there-back-then-in-the-golden-70s), but he could exactly define why he did or didn’t like something, e.g. the somewhat overdone editing in Captain Philips, the supposed 20mins too much in 12YAS, originality of the screenplay etc. Perharps it’s the film geek in me, but I actually prefer the bitchy American Hustle fanboy. I mean it IS an acadamy that’s voting and not the MTV movie awards.
He couldn’t remember (or write) the name from none of the black actors? I’m surprised he didn’t refer to 12 Years A Slave as “that black slave movie”. Are we sure this ballot was not written by Paula Deen?
He voted for Lupita Nyong’o. Not that I’m excusing his manner of addressing the names.
They should be grateful the voter could remember what movie they were in/ sarcasm, sarcasm, oh for the love of GOD so much sarcasm….
To be fair, I can’t spell the guy’s name at all. I’d insult him if I tried so I’m not going to.
And I really probably wouldn’t know lupita except for the obsession with her on this site.
This is a sound guy so he’s not super focused on the actors. At least he was focused on performances more than reputation or anything
I agree with you on this. +1.
But if you were going to talk to a reporter about the performances of Chiwetel Ejiofor or Lupita Nyong’o, I would hope you’d have the sense to learn their damn names.
He’s anonymously filling in a ballot, not giving a professional interview. I thought this was his random thoughts as he filled it in and nothing more.
My random thoughts would be”that hot guy from 12yas whose name I can’t spell or pronounce.” I’d get it right for a real interview but not when sharing my honest thoughts
I noticed that too, BUT to be fair — both of their names are difficult to pronounce and spell. Their notoriety is also a relatively new phenomenon, whereas someone like Leo or Bale has been around forever… everyone is familiar with their names.
That being said, if I was going to be voting, I would have studied up.
@Brown:
Exactly!
If you’re voting for anything, you should at least know the name of the contenders, especially the ones you’re voting for. He could have checked on IMDb or even Google.
He was judging their preformances and voted for Lupita (whose last name I can never remember or spell either). I didn’t consider his comments racist because he couldn’t remeber “Philomena” too.
“LUPITA” is difficult to pronounce? LOU-PEE-TAH? The name is Spanish, for God’s sake (she was born in Mexico). It’s not even African. And it’s easy to say and easy to remember.
The point is this man didn’t bother to learn the names of the people he’s voting for/against. When I’m really touched and moved and impressed by someone’s performance I automatically want to know their name. And I don’t forget it.
@Brown: yes – at least their first names. Lupita and Chiwetel. Not so hard. In the fashion industry a lot of models have also rather hard-to-remember-names (Tanya Dziahileva anyone?), but at least everybody uses first names and not just “that blonde chick from Russia”. 😉
Lupita’s first name isn’t difficult to pronounce, and Chiwitel’s name isn’t difficult to pronounce period. His name is pronounced EXACTLY like it’s spelled. If someone actually stops to say it, odds are they’re going to be right or close to right. I realize there’s a pushback in people’s brains that says that anything that doesn’t arrange letters like they’re used to is “to hard” and they don’t even try to parse the syllables, but it’s not a good habit for people to get into.
If it had been Paula Deen, she’d have been complaining about how ungrateful those silly slave people were towards their handsome master and that’s why they shouldn’t get their Oscars.
I find your comment unfunny and offensive.
Not to WendyNerd
@Lindy
It’s a joke for christ sake
@ Lindy – Relax. WendyNerd was only expressing what Paula Deen might have said. She isn’t being offensive (and yes, I’m black). Just go back and read what Wendy said then you’ll get where she’s coming from :).
This is definitely a lot closer to reality lol. Though I do think Jennifer has a 50/50 shot at best supporting actress. It could go either way.
I really want MM to win and I feel weird about that cause I keep having Failure to Launch and How to Lose a Guy flashbacks. They make me feel nuts for thinking he deserves it.
And he calls himself a father, so it’s a dude
I love that he called out WOWS for being too damn long. I thought so too and that AH was just an ensemble and no one really stood out.
I hate to be that nitpicky douche but are the names Chiwetel and Lupita really that hard to remember? Really??
Will be interesting to see if these selections are closer to the winners than the ballot printed yesterday. My eyes hurt for a few hours after all the eye rolling over the Bradley Cooper love.
Actually they are…the only reason I remember them to an extent is because I’m on celebitchy all the time. I wouldn’t remember them (or even Bradley cooper and Jared Leto) if I wasn’t browsing celeb gossip all the time
Same. I have trouble remembering co-worker’s names ( honest truth). I spend way too much time on this site.
I can remember Lupita, but I don’t know how to pronouce Chiwetel so I haven’t committed it to memory because I can’t fully recognize it.
Yeah, Lupita less so, but…I think Chiwetel is an amazing actor and hotter than 1000 suns, but it is not easy or intuitive for my ‘Murrican mouth to remember/pronounce his name. Agree on the eye rolling over the B. Coop love. I thought he was amazing at playing the manic side of bipolar in Silver Linings Playbook. And then I saw AH and realized he was just a scenery-chewing spaz whenever O’Russell directed him- ha!
My shade for this man is that is only the names of the black actors he can’t remember…”the 12 years a slave woman”…”the guy in 12 years a slave”… But I’m sure he’s not the only voter to reference them like that. I got shades of Paula Deen’s “that black football player…”
+1000
Are these face to face/phone interviews or are these guys writing their thoughts down for THR? Because it reads to me like he knows their names (after all isn’t he meant to be going through the ballot, their names should be right in front of him), but he’s avoiding saying them because he knows he’s going to butcher the pronunciation.
He also get’s the pronunciation of Philomena wrong, so probably better he didn’t attempt Chiwetel Ejiofor or Lupita Nyong’o.
They’re hard names to remember…nothing to do with race. Not everyone browses celebitchy where Lupita’s name is on every other damn post.
Yes, that’s true. People also don’t remember Mia Wasikowska’s surname. On the other hand he’s a member of the darn academy and has a right to vote for the oscars. Not knowing the names of the movies/actors is like not knowing the names of the politicians when you’re electing your state president.
This pretty much sums up what we all thought, that decisions are based largely on personalities and professional ties. That said, we’re all human, and I guess that’s the way it goes. I usually think Scorsese’s films are pretty interesting, but like the guy said, WOWS is not a film I’m compelled to see because the subject is a class A douche, and may be benefiting from the film, indirectly. I saw him interviewed, so that put me off watching the movie.
When will we see the female voters? I wonder if any will have issues with Woody Allen, although I doubt it.
“decisions are based largely on personalities and professional ties” – it’s always like that, how do you think people decide what politician to vote for, ultimately? and that’s a hell of a lot more important than praise for being good at pretending to be some imaginary person…
Yeah, Kelly, that is much more depressing.
Most of the other nominees are household names, and Lupita and Chiwetel probably aren’t yet, so that might be contributing to it, but I think if you’re going to speak with THR, take a moment to learn their names.
This guy seems to have a more thoughtful approach to making his selections, and I like that he spoke with people in the categories he wasn’t as familiar with to get their take on it.
I have to agree with him on Jonah Hill in general, I find him very unlikable.
I think it was great that he obstained when he hadn’t seen all the movies in the category. He was really trying to judge things by what he thought was best.
Whoever this guy is, he’s totally bad with names.
Look I like Matthew McConaughey and Leo just fine and I think he was phenomenal in Dallas Buyers Club, but I think it will be a damn shame if Chiwetel Ejiofor loses the Oscar. I feel the same way about Jared Leto, wonderful performance but I would still give it to Fassy.
The problem with Fassbender is that I would have given him that Oscar already years before. And yes, I’m biased because I would give the man probably everything he does and doesn’t deserve, but nobody can deny that he’s an outstanding actor.
And people think these awards matter at all. 70% of them are men over 60 which explains why basic actresses win and why they will almost always go for Hollywood asskissers instead real talent. The more average the film the higher the chances are to win. You’ll see they will vote for American Hustle and J. Lawrence.
It will be like Argo last year or Crash.
Your point? Argo and crash were amazing movies that deserved their awards…they were not average at all in my book. I guess you’re just hurt that Lincoln or broke back didn’t win…because a movie about a president or a romance isn’t ‘average’ at all. Sorry to be on a rant here, but all of you commenters that don’t care about the academys: why are y’all still fighting for who wins what and upset about this thing winning over that things? We all have different preferences and opinions (this includes voters), and that’s the great thing about these movies: there are enough good ones to argue about which one is better.
As a side note: I hope The Wind arises wins best animated…it was such a touching and beautiful movie.
I love that you called yourself Crank and then lived up to the name. I mean that without snark. It ticked me.
tickled, not ticked.
Lol I went a little overboard with my comment, I tend to be cranky but not in a ‘blow my top’ way haha.
No, not at all. The whole thing was entertaining for me.
JMO but I think it’s dumb to give someone an award in part because they lost weight for a role. I’m sure the weight loss wasn’t pleasant, but losing (or gaining) weight shouldn’t get any more praise than other methods actors use to get into character, if that makes sense. — Because what if the role doesn’t involve a physical transformation?
“Wolf of Wall Street was just so gratuitous and offensive — it’s supposed to be funny to watch people get screwed over by this schmuck?”
This is why I refused to even SEE Wolf of Wall Street. Glad someone else agrees.
Also, Jonah Hill. I just can’t.
Meh, the sound guy was hardly “brutally honest”. The whole article reads like a bunch of butt licking.
May I ask a question? Is this the format with which the votes are cast for the Oscars? Is it like, tick/number a box and add your reasons, or is it just freestyle – write things on a blank paper? Or..? Because I honestly cannot understand how such unprofessional votes like that, are considered. The tone the voter (member of the Academy?) took was just so incredibly disrespectful and too Valley Girl casual. You’d think official votes from members of the Academy would be more professional in standard, writing and tone. This cannot be serious?
No, they don’t add their reasons. They assign numerical values next to the nominees. That’s it. As for professionalism, Academy members cover a broad spectrum of people in different types of jobs. Some Academy members are highly trained scientists or musicians or even highly educated actors while others never made it through high school.
The numerical ranking only applies to the Best Picture winner; the rest of the winners are determined by a straight vote. I have no idea why :/
I can’t help but be a little baffled and disappointed about the ‘average’ Oscar voter. THIS is how Oscars are voted? This man didn’t even bother to remember Lupita’s or Chiwetel’s name! Yes, they are not average names, but come on, you’ve just watched a movie with them and voted for them, the least you can do is remember at least their first name!
Also he constantly refers to Philomena as Willamena. Just WOW!