Hello again, much-maligned readers of Watch This! I was very busy in January with all the podcasts I produce ā including Follow Friday, which just passed its first anniversary! We celebrated with a special episode where Garbage Dayās Ryan Broderick interviewed me about who I follow online, which you can listen to right here.
Outside of work, though, Iāve been working my way through a long list of movies on my watchlist that Iāve seen either on other peopleās best-of lists, or which seem to have Oscar buzz (as determined by my Twitter bubble). The official Oscar nominations come out on Feb. 8, and I thought it would be fun to build my own Oscar ballot this year.
Thereās still a bunch of acclaimed films I need to get to ā including Spencer, The Power of the Dog, and The Worst Person In the World ā BUT based on what Iāve seen so far, hereās how I would vote. My preferred winners are in bold; all categories except have 5 nominees, except for Best Picture which has 10, and except for the categories in which I havenāt seen five movies that I think deserve to be nommed.
And letās just get this out of the way: As has been widely reported, Disney did not submit āWe Donāt Talk About Brunoā or āSurface Pressureā from Encanto to the actual Oscars, so they wonāt be nominated on Feb. 8. But I donāt care. My ballot, my rules, and āBrunoā wins.
Best Picture
Dune
Drive My Car
The French Dispatch
The Green Knight
In the Heights
The Last Duel
Pig
Red Rocket
tick, tick ā¦ BOOM!
West Side Story
Best Director
Denis Villeneuve - Dune
Ryusuke Hamagachi - Drive My Car
David Lowery - The Green Knight
Ridley Scott - The Last Duel
Steven Spielberg - West Side Story
Best Actor
Hidetoshi Nashijima - Drive My Car
Dev Patel - The Green Knight
Jeffrey Wright - The French Dispatch
Simon Rex - Red Rocket
Nicolas Cage - Pig
Best Actress
Leslie Grace - In the Heights
Jodie Comer - The Last Duel
Lady Gaga - House of Gucci
Alana Haim - Licorice Pizza
Rachel Zegler - West Side Story
Best Supporting Actor
Oscar Isaac - Dune
Ben Affleck - The Last Duel
Mike Faist - West Side Story
Al Pacino - House of Gucci
Bradley Cooper - Licorice Pizza
Best Supporting Actress
Rebecca Ferguson - Dune
Rita Moreno - West Side Story
Olga Merediz - In the Heights
Ana de Armas - No Time to Die
Alicia Vikander - The Green Knight
Best Original Screenplay
Red Rocket
The French Dispatch
The Card Counter
Wolfwalkers
Licorice Pizza
Best Adapted Screenplay
Nightmare Alley
The Last Duel
Dune
Drive My Car
West Side Story
Best Editing
West Side Story
Pig
In the Heights
The French Dispatch
Dune
Best Cinematography
Nightmare Alley
West Side Story
Dune
No Time to Die
The Green Knight
Best Visual Effects
Dune
Spider-Man: No Way Home
The Matrix Resurrections
Last Night in Soho
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
Best Sound
Dune
No Time to Die
The Suicide Squad
Nightmare Alley
The Last Duel
Best Original Score
The Green Knight
Dune
Spider-Man: No Way Home
West Side Story
The Matrix Resurrections
Best Original Song
āWe Donāt Talk About Brunoā - Encanto
āGuns Go Bangā - The Harder They Fall
āSurface Pressureā - Encanto
āDos Orugitasā - Encanto
Best Production Design
The Last Duel
The Green Knight
West Side Story
Last Night in Soho
Dune
Best Costume Design
The Green Knight
Dune
The Last Duel
West Side Story
House of Gucci
Best Makeup and Hairstyling
The Green Knight
Nightmare Alley
Dune
The Matrix Resurrections
The French Dispatch
Best Animated Feature
Wolfwalkers
Encanto
Raya and the Last Dragon
Summit of the Gods
Best Documentary Feature
Alien on Stage
Derek DelGuadioās In and Of Itself
The Sparks Brothers
Summer of Soul (ā¦ or When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)