Final Balloting is Underway...
Tuesday, February 20, 2018 at 11:12AM 
Members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (that's AMPAS to you!) can now cast their votes on the Oscar winners in all categories. They have one week to do so with ballots closing on February 27th. The long stretch between nominee and winner voting should ostensibly give them time to screen all the movies they may have been late in getting to and to really suss out their views of "Best" in each category, but strangely this waiting period doesn't usually result in the game-changing upheavals, contrarian impulses, or reconsiderations that you would think would be possible. That's especially true when the precursors march forward in total agreement (as recently discussed in the BAFTA winners post).
So while we can't bring you DRAMA in these last 12 days pre-Oscar (del Toro, McDormand, Oldman, Janney and Rockwell are all as locked as locked can be) we hope to find other ways to entertain you as we count down and wrap up the film year in these next two weeks.
Nevertheless if you have a miracle request / FYC to Academy voters put it out their into the universe (i.e. the comments) in a positive 'look at this beauty' way.
Oscars (17), Punditry
Reader Comments (30)
Nathaniel, when is your Top 10 going to be revealed? I'm waiting with bated breath here.
I hope Lesley Manville pulls a Marcia Gay Harden and wins Best Supporting Actress.
Adapted Screenplay: Call Me By Your Name - seems like a lock, but I've read some of the secret Oscar voter articles and some of them sound like they haven't even watched the film, so I'm not sure it really is, plus it is a great adaptation)
Original Screenplay: Get Out or Lady Bird - both of these might go home empty-handed, but I really hope this one doesn't go to 3 Billboards
Because Manville expresses more with a glance than Janney does by using a whole compilation of excessive hand gestures and movements.
I have seen the future. Three Billboards Original Screenplay. Call Me by Your Name killer surprise in Best Picture.
Since my favorite, The Post, is obviously roadkill, I hope Lady Bird or Get Out, or Dunkirk even, can pull out a Best Picture win. And if there's an upset in the acting races I hope it's Willem Dafoe as Supporting Actor. Oh yeah, and Loveless for Foreign Film.
Get Out for Best Picture
Miracles do happen: how else did Marcia Gay Harden win?
Just a surprise! A dramatic twist! Like Hollywood used to do!!!!!!!!
I am too hoping Manville or Day Lewis prevail though highly unlikely but PT win will probably come from costumes or score.
I really hope we also get a shock in BA,Ronan is campaigning so hard and not that I don't like McDormand in it she's fine it's the film surrounding her,how can I take the serious subject to heart when it's treated with such foolishness and sometimes glibness,only Woody escapes with dignity.
Beat Original Score to Dunkirk. Just re-watched on a plane, and holy hell does it do a good job of ratcheting up the tension.
I know he’s favourite to win but please Deakins Deakins Deakins !!!
Ignore ALL the presumed frontrunners in the acting categories. Instead, give the Oscars to Timothée Chalamet, Saoirse Ronan, Richard Jenkins, and Lesley Manville. And give Call Me By Your Name all four of the Academy Awards for which it is nominated.
There's always predictable locks going into every Oscars, so I'm just glad that this year it isn't Best Picture, like it always used to be.
Call Me By Your Name for
BEST ACTOR Look at Timothee's intricate work. It's brilliant.
BEST PICTURE
BEST SONG
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY.
CHRISTOPHER NOLAN for BEST DIRECTOR.
LAURIE METCALFE FOR BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS.
WILLEM DAFOE FOR BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR.
I would love it if Call Me By Your Name won Best Picture. I've followed the Oscar race long enough to know that that would be a massive stats-breaker. But the film is already a massive stats-breaker: the best gay romance onscreen since...well, since before Driving Miss Daisy won Best Picture without a Directing nomination, that's for sure! So why not break some more stats at the Oscars! It will cheer everybody up.
I'd also love it if Willem Dafoe prevailed. I think Rockwell does fine work in Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri, but I think that Dafoe has the edge. His interactions with all the other cast members are so good. I believed he had been running that residence for years.
Finally, I'd like Get Out to win something. Best Original Screenplay?
I know McDormand and Oldman are pretty much unstoppable now, but I still hope Metcalf and Dafoe can Mark Rylance their way to the stage.
I've resigned to fate w Oldman n Rockwell, but plzzz let Ronan n Metcalf b the surprise wins!!
N Get Out best org sp n 3BB only one win.
N SoW best pic, thereby breaking the SAG ensemble stat!
Miracle request - Sufjan Stevens/Call Me By Your Name for Best Song. It's a lovely piece that fits the film very well and hits at just the right time in the story.
CMBYN the greatest gay romance onscreen? They're not even gay? lol, or were you being more funny than serious? Seriously, though, you need to get out more...
I'd love for Dafoe to win! He's so lovingly understated in TFP. I do like Manville a lot, but I've loved Janney and followed her work since before The West Wing, so I'll never be able to separate my allegiances from her. Manville is wonderful, though, so I wouldn't be TOO upset should she pull a Harden.
CMBYN will win Adapted Screenplay regardless of who's read it because James Ivory is a legend and he wrote the damn thing. Has nothing to do with the script itself; it's the name. I do wish it'd win Original Song... Mystery of Love is wonderful... A bit on the nose, but just gorgeous to listen to.
Here's to Saoirse Ronan, though! Always the underdog, that girl! :)
Just a shout-out here for Sally Hawkins. Much as I want her to win, I am 100% sure she is not going to win. But like many said before, Marcia gay Harden and Marisa Tomei...
Let THE SHAPE OF WATER make history ( with Ben Hur, Titanic and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King) winning 11 Oscars, just losing in the Supporting categories, ALLISON JANNEY so deserves to win, I`ve never really thought that one day people would be fighting against her to take home an Academy Award, she`s just an amazing actress with a range of performances that showcase her incredible depth ( see American Beauty, Away We Go, Margaret and please just be glad she`s finally being rewarded) and also would be really nice to see DAFOE getting some love.
@Eder Arcas, people aren't fighting against Allison Janney; they're resisting the idea of awarding her an Oscar for this *particular* performance. Many, myself included, love Janney, the actress, but do not consider this acting her best or, frankly, Oscar-worthy. (You can be both. It's not a knock on or take down of Janney, the actress, who is super talented and a joyous success story.) Given her competition this year, not to mention your citing of *previous* work of hers, perhaps it's wiser to reward the actress who gave the most accomplished performance in this category in 2017 (*cough* Laurie Metcalf *cough*)—not default to the one we've loved since the West Wing/Drop Dead Gorgeous for something just because it's outrageous and fun.
@Mareko METCALF is wonderful in Lady Bird, which is a better film and there`s in Ronan a tremendous lead, but JANNEY is a force of nature in I, Tonya, she is flamboyant, with her fur coat, a bird on her shoulder and an oxygen line snaking across her face , but also small, sad and bitter after her predictions of disaster come true. Even by Janney’s standards it’s an unforgettable performance. And let`s not start with the Academy rewarding not Oscar-worthy performances because then we would have to place Janney in a category that includes Jennfer Lawrence, Sandra Bullock, Emma Stone, just to mention a few in recent memory. Plus- three of the best performances by an actress in a supporting role in 2017 were not even nominated , Carey Mulligan in Mudbound, Holly Hunter in The Big Sick and Sienna Miller in The Lost City of Z.
The fact that Janney supporters keep mentioning her previous work and then, when they do mention this particular performance, focus on the props (coat, bird, oxygen, etc), proves to me her winning won't even really about this performance, which is a shame. Janney will get tons of opportunities to get nominated again. Metcalf, as she's said in interviews, hardly gets any movie offers. Plus, you know, it's the better performance.
Janney will get tons of opportunities to get nominated again.
Tilda Swinton
Kevin Kline
Gwyneth Paltrow
Paul Giamatti
Alfre Woodard
I didn't say Janney WILL get nominated again, I said she'll get opportunities, just like all those actors you listed have also gotten more opportunities since their win/nomination even if none of those opportunities turn into a nom.
It's an honor just to be nominated is genuine when most nominees and winners are one and done. Never assume multiple chances of people in film. Giants in film have one or none nominations.
Janney's performance is entertaining, effective--but it's static; she's exactly the same in every scene, even the "nice" one. But Metcalf gives us a fully rounded character, with so many facets slowly revealed just through subtle glimpses into that character. No contest. Laurie deserves the win.
@/3rtful
Interesting that you mentioned Alfre Woodard. I was stunned when she didn't get a nomination for Passion Fish. She just seemed like such a shoo-in. And Swinton not being nominated a second time is frankly outrageous. I don't think she helped herself when she admitted after winning that she gave her Academy Award away to her manager. Not because she was ungrateful, but because she thought it was the right thing to do. But, I believe this admit ion rankled all lot of people, especially the actors who covet this award almost above all else. So, it does seem that they are punishing her for an act of generosity.