I'm the Academy

[rockmarooned]

Imagine, for a moment, that someone put me, and me alone, in charge of the Oscar nominations. Actually, you don't need to imagine; I'll fill in the blanks for you.

Best Actor:
Nicolas Cage, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
Matt Damon, The Informant!
Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker
Sam Rockwell, Moon
Michael Stuhlberg, A Serious Man
Jeff Bridges and Colin Firth are fine in their respective movies, ditto Clooney, but these parts strike me as more challenging and more fully formed and, yeah, a bit more supported by the movies they're in (well, Clooney's movie is more than just boutique Oscar bait, but he doesn't make my final five). I prefer pure performance pieces to be a little more enjoyable than the likes of Crazy Heart or A Single Man.

Best Supporting Actor:
Alec Baldwin, It's Complicated
Peter Capaldi, In the Loop
Woody Harrelson, Zombieland
Alfred Molina, An Education
Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds
This isn't a knock against The Messenger, which I haven't seen yet, and want to. It's just that it's kind of a thin supporting-actor year, so without The Messenger I figure I can just sub in another Harrelson performance that I did, in fact, think quite highly of.

Best Supporting Actress:
Marion Cotillard, Public Enemies
Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air
Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
Mo'Nique, Precious
Rachel Weisz, The Brothers Bloom
I hate to ignore Gyllenhaal, but nominating her without Bridges feels a little silly (plus I'd be happy to imitate the actual Academy's placement of Gyllenhaal and spiritual older sister Vera Farmiga in the same category). Cotillard's emotional scenes (pretty much the only strong emotion in that movie) let her squeak ahead of Diane Kruger in Basterds.

Best Actress:
Melanie Laurent, Inglourious Basterds
Carey Mulligan, An Education
Maya Rudolph, Away We Go
Gabourey Sidibe, Precious
Meryl Streep, Julie and Julia

Best Picture:
Adventureland
The Brothers Bloom
Inglorious Basterds
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Observe and Report
Public Enemies
A Serious Man
Star Trek
Up
Where the Wild Things Are
I thought it was weird to list my ten favorite movies of the year when several of them wouldn't be up for major awards even in my universe, but then I figured, that's basically what happened with the actual Best Pictures, so whatever. My alternates would only include one actual nominee (Avatar) and a bunch more no-actual-chance choices (Funny People, Away We Go). I'm just happy three of my favorites made it in, and I don't have a huge problem with any of the other seven except maybe The Blind Side, which I haven't seen, but boy am I not liking its vibe. Oddly, if Star Trek had made the actual cut, I think I would've considered that a somewhat silly call.

Best Original Screenplay:
Adventureland
The Brothers Bloon
Inglourious Basterds
A Serious Man
Up

Best Adapted Screenplay:
Fantastic Mr. Fox
In the Loop
The Informant!
Where the Wild Things Are
Up in the Air
I didn't through-and-through adore In the Loop, but I was pretty happy to see it make the actual cut in this category, because it was thoroghly hilarious.

Best Cinematography:
Avatar
Inglourious Basterds
Public Enemies
A Serious Man
Where the Wild Things Are
I watched Public Enemies again recently to review the DVD and good lord, almost every shot is amazing.

Best Editing:
Avatar
Inglourious Basterds
Public Enemies
A Serious Man
Star Trek

Best Art Direction:
Avatar
The Box
The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus
Moon
Where the Wild Things Are
Just as the Academy will nominate any period piece for this award, I will nominate just about any sci-fi/fantasy movie.

Visual Effects:
Avatar
District 9
Star Trek
These are the exact same three that the Oscars put up. They can't be wrong about everything.

Questions?