An Oscar Voter's Brutally Honest Ballot

One director shares his choices, calling "Argo" a "whole lot of nothing," saying "Django Unchained" is "Tarantino masturbating" and passing on "Amour" because "there's only so much diaper-changing I can tolerate."

by Anonymous, as told to Scott Feinberg, The Hollywood Reporter

February 20, 2013

A version of this story first appeared in the March 1 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.

One of the 371 members of the Academy’s directors branch recently invited me over to his office to listen in as he openly deliberated about how to fill out his final ballot for the 85th Oscars. As you can tell from his remarks -- highlights of which have been reprinted below, category-by-category -- he has seen virtually all of the contenders and has very strong but carefully considered opinions about them. He opted to vote online rather than via paper ballot -- “because I want to feel young again,” he said with a chuckle -- and did not experience any issues with the voting system. His main issue, in fact, is with the studios that have inundated him with promotional swag, most of which he doesn’t want. “I’ve gotten books, cookbooks and just about everything short of Lincoln condoms,” he cracked. “It’s ridiculous.” Eventually, we got down to business, and, in no particular order, touched upon all 24 Oscar categories.

BEST SOUND MIXING

“This is the award for sound that is mixed on the set on the day. I’m going to dismiss Life of Pi because it seems like very much of a postproduction movie. And I’m going to vote for Les Miserables because they recorded the singing for live on the set and every quaver had to be caught. They had to be absolutely perfect, and they were.”

Vote: Les Miserables

BEST SOUND EDITING

“This is more about sound effects done in post. I’m going to dismiss Argo, Django and Life of Pi because I don’t think their post sound effects were terribly interesting or original. Zero Dark Thirty? I imagine that a great deal of the raid was done with sound effects editing. But I’m gonna go with Skyfall. The sound of that movie was absolutely extraordinary -- in particular, when the train comes colliding into the station.”

Vote: Skyfall

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

“I did not see all of the nominees, but with something like visual effects you can see enough of a film, in many cases, to make an informed decision. The Hobbit lost me with the 48 frames-per-second; I think it’s failed experiment -- noble, but failed. The Avengers and Prometheusare the same old thing. Snow White and the Huntsman lost me when they went into the woods. But Life of Pi is pretty extraordinary—the visuals are as magnificent as anything I’ve seen in a movie in a very long time. I was also very impressed that the tiger is so realistic and so unsentimental.”

Vote: Life of Pi

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

“In general, I object to movies that primarily feature CGI production design, like The Hobbit and Life of Pi. Les Miserables? One of its weakest things was its production design -- for example, in the beginning of the movie, that huge boat looked ridiculously fake. So that leaves Anna Karenina, which is a movie I loathed, and Lincoln. I’m not gonna vote for Lincoln for best picture, but I have a lot of personal respect forSteven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy and I want to help the film, so when I can throw it a vote, like here, I will.”

Vote: Lincoln

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

“This is No-Brainer City: ‘Skyfall’ is one of the best songs that has ever been in the best song category and Adele is f---ing brilliant. Plus I think it’s about time that a James Bond song won best song. In a way, this is my F-you for not giving it to ‘Live and Let Die’ back in 1973. I will say that ‘Before My Time,’ which is sung by Scarlett Johansson, is pretty good. ‘Pi’s Lullaby’ I couldn’t remember if my life was on the line. ‘Everybody Needs a Best Friend’ is a simple song. And ‘Suddenly’ from Les Miserables is a very boring song and an absolutely blatant attempt to win a best song Oscar; that upsets me. If ‘Skyfall’ does not win I will fillet my next-door neighbor’s dog.”

Vote: “Skyfall” (Skyfall)

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

“Life of Pi is an absolutely perfect score. [Lincoln composer] John Williams has enough f---ing Oscars, and I really feel that the score was a weak part of Lincoln and just self-plagiarism for Williams. Thomas Newman should have won the Oscar a couple of times, but I just didn’t see anything particularly new or interesting in the music of Skyfall.”

Vote: Life of Pi

BEST MAKEUP & HAIRSTYLING

“I don’t think it’s a very impressive category this year. They should have nominated Lincoln because of how much they made Daniel Day-Lewis look like Lincoln. In Hitchcock Anthony Hopkins just looked like a man in a fat-suit—I didn’t really buy it. The Hobbit? You know, whatever—it’s what they do every time. So I guess I’m going to vote for Les Miserables here, only because of how well they aged Hugh Jackman. And I think they did a good job beating the shit out of Anne Hathaway, as well.”

Vote: Les Miserables

BEST FILM EDITING

“I think one of the worst things about Silver Linings Playbook was its editing; there was a lot of mismatching. Lincoln? There really isn’t much editing to speak of. Life of Pi is interesting because it was mostly computer-generated, I think there were not that many decisions to be made with editing, as opposed to when you get a shitload of stuff and have to figure out what you’re going to use. Argo had some pretty good editing, especially that sequence at the end when they’re making their escape. But the undeniable winner is Zero Dark Thirty, which must have had a massive amount of footage to boil down and made that raid at the end very understandable.”

Vote: Zero Dark Thirty

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

“It’s a very good group; I saw them all. The most powerful might be The Gatekeepers, so that could win. But, in order to win this Oscar, you usually have to make a film that makes people feel absolutely great or makes people feel like they want to slit their wrists; something that’s jovial or something that’s important. I think that Searching for Sugar Man is going to win, and I’m going to vote for it because I just felt like a million bucks after watching it -- and I bought Rodriguez’s album.”

Vote: Searching for Sugar Man

BEST SHORT (ANIMATED)

[Had not seen any of the films, but had heard good things about Paperman so he voted for it.]

Vote: Paperman

BEST SHORT (DOCUMENTARY)

[Had not seen any of the films and knew nothing about any of them, so he declined to vote.]

Vote: [Abstained]

BEST SHORT (LIVE ACTION)

“Curfew is the least depressing of five films guaranteed to prevent you from getting laid, as I personally learned.”

Vote: Curfew

BEST DIRECTING

I would have voted for Bigelow -- I certainly nominated her and Affleck. Silver Linings is a screenplay; the direction is not particularly important -- although it took David O. Russell to figure out that Bradley Cooper is a great actor. Life of Pi is very well-directed and extremely well-thought-out, but I was put off by the religious message at the end. Beasts? I know many people loved it, but I got seasick and found it to be almost impossibly boring. Amour is purely a performance piece; besides, Michael Haneke has pissed me off in the past because he’s made movies that are so misanthropic. He just hates human beings, and I happen to be a human being and don’t like being shit on. That leavesLincoln, which I don’t feel is the best-directed film of the year -- there’s nothing innovative about it -- but I’m swept away with the gravity of the subject matter, with the respect that Spielberg showed to it and with him guiding Day-Lewis in a direction different than we’d normally associated with Lincoln. Plus, Spielberg deserves an Oscar every 10 years or so out of respect for what he does for the industry.

Vote: Lincoln

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

“This always goes to the nominee with the puffiest dresses. Just once I’d like to see a more modern film put into this category. Mirror Mirror is out for me. Lincoln is out for me. I just don’t want to support Anna Karenina, even though it’s probably going to win because it’s exactly the kind of movie that does win this award; people who haven’t even seen the film are going to vote for it because it just has that smell. But I’m gonna go for Snow White because you had the knights in the shining armor and then you had the more mythical costumes and on and on. I think it was just a little bit more inventive than the others.”

Vote: Snow White and the Huntsman

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

“I liked Life of Pi, but I’m suspect of any nominee that used a lot of CGI, since you can manipulate the photography so much. Lincoln was way too milky for me; I have that problem with almost everything Janusz Kaminski does. The Anna Karenina cinematography was totally unimpressive. Django Unchained was Robert Richardson, and he, in general, does far too much top-lighting for me. I’m voting for Skyfallbecause I want Roger Deakins to win an Oscar. Now, I’m a person who knows that Roger Deakins shot Skyfall, but a lot of people in the Academy will have no clue who did because they don’t tell you on the ballot; in fact, they won’t vote for it because it’s a James Bond film -- you know, ‘How can you give James Bond an Oscar?’ But they should go back and rewatch that opening shot where Bond is approaching the camera, and he’s out-of-focus and he slams into focus in a way that I’ve never seen done before. I also really love the way that Deakins plays with dark and light in the film.”

Vote: Skyfall

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

“It’s a tough category because everything is mediocre. I’m definitely not voting for The Pirates. I’m not voting for Frankenweenie. Brave was unimpressive. So I guess it’s between ParaNorman and Wreck-It Ralph. So… " [At this time, he assigned the screen-side of his iPhone to the former and the back-side of it to the latter, and spun it on his desk.]

Vote: Wreck-It Ralph

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

“It’s a very interesting category.  Jacki Weaver? I don’t even know why she’s there, and she knocked out Ann Dowd, who probably deserved that spot for Compliance. Helen Hunt is really a lead actress. Sally Field is undeserving in this category -- I didn’t find a single moment in the film where I thought she did anything extraordinary; she’s playing an annoying character, and she is rather annoying, plus she’s about 20 years too old for the role. Amy Adams is going to be nominated 20 more times, but this one’s a total throwaway role. Which leaves Anne Hathaway, who’s going to win because she makes you cry and because I find her charming. Sometimes it’s one scene that wins it for you. Not just anybody can come in and kill one song; there are many songs that Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe should have killed, and, in fact, they killed them literally.”

Vote: Anne Hathaway (Les Miserables)

BEST ACTRESS

“For the first hour of The Impossible, you can’t imagine how Naomi Watts cannot win, but her character basically becomes a person who is exclusively struggling and who disappears for large chunks of the film, so I can’t vote for her. I also don’t vote for anyone whose name I can’t pronounce. Quvez---? Quzen---? Quyzenay? Her parents really put her in a hole by giving her that name -- Alphabet Wallis. The truth is, it’s a very sweet but immature performance from a 9-year-old. I’ve directed children. They probably did a thousand takes and put the best ones together. Jennifer Lawrence I was on the fence about, but she lost me with that Saturday Night Live bit; I thought it was mean-spirited and shows a lack of maturity on her part. So, for me, it’s between Jessica Chastain and Emmanuelle Riva. I didn’t like Amour, but I think Riva was extraordinary in it. Chastain was just fantastic in Zero Dark Thirty -- she is the major star of tomorrow and probably has another 10 Oscar nominations in her future. Meanwhile, Emmanuelle Riva may not even live through Oscar night, so …”

Vote: Emmanuelle Riva (Amour)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

“I rule out Christoph Waltz because this is a fake nomination — he’s a co-lead with Jamie Foxx, and it’s unfair for the others to compete with that. Also, much of his performance is just like in Inglourious Basterds. Robert De Niro was just Robert De Niro; yes, he had one crying scene, but crying is not enough. Alan Arkin in Argo? I’m shocked he’s even nominated. Tommy Lee Jones has been such a bitter guy -- all that scowling at the Golden Globes? I’m telling you, people don’t like the guy. So I turn to Philip Seymour Hoffman, who was sublime inThe Master. It’s a very original performance. What’s interesting about it is you don’t know where the character is coming from; you sort of assume he’s insincere, but sometimes he comes across as extremely sincere. Now, you could argue that it’s also a lead, but if you go back and take out a stopwatch, you’ll realize that it really is Joaquin Phoenix’s movie.”

Vote: Philip Seymour Hoffman (The Master)

BEST ACTOR

“I would be surprised if Daniel Day-Lewis doesn’t get 80 percent of the vote -- people like and respect him and also the character. I’ll bet you that none of the other nominated guys have even written a speech. I, too, thought he was very good, but basically it was a lot of soliloquies, you know, so I didn’t see that much range from him. For Bradley Cooper, the nomination is his award. Hugh Jackman did a terrible job singing many of the songs in Les Mis -- I think the live singing, in many cases, actually hurt the movie because the singing just isn’t as good as it could be. Denzel Washington plays a drunk and an addict, which is very difficult to do, and it’s a brilliant performance, but so much of it goes on the natural fumes of Denzel, and he’s already won two Academy Awards. So I’m gonna vote for Joaquin Phoenix, who gives a performance for the ages. So much went into that performance. He created a character as distinct as Daniel Plainview [Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood], from always hunching and putting his right hand on his hip to crying as he’s being audited.”

Vote: Joaquin Phoenix (The Master)

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

“It’s a rather strong category, but I’m partial to Life of Pi because we all thought that it was an unfilmable book, and yet David Magee came up with a way to structure it that was faithful to the book but also cinematic. Lincoln was a little too much of a history lesson. Plus, I thought the opening scene with the black soldier and the scene featuring Tommy Lee Jones’ character and his maid were both very contrived, and that the ending, as is so often the case in Spielberg’s movies, was overkill. Silver Linings is a pretty good screenplay, but I wasn’t wowed by it.Argo is a whole lot of nothing; it’s a very engaging story, but with nothing particularly clever in the writing. And I didn’t understand what was going on in Beasts of the Southern Wild; up until this very second, I didn’t even realize it was an adapted screenplay.”

Vote: Life of Pi

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

“Amour is immediately disqualified -- it’s just a woman dying, and there’s no real story, and it made me feel like shit. There’s only so much diaper-changing that I can tolerate. Django? If Tarantino had never made a film and this was his first screenplay, I might consider voting for him, but he’s made the same movie eight times. Moonrise Kingdom? It’s a personal thing, but I don’t like this guy’s movies. Flight offers a look at addiction unlike any we’ve seen. But Mark Boal’s Zero Dark Thirty script is even more amazing, with very good moments and great tension. Also, this whole torture thing is nonsense. Knowing that it’s not gonna win best picture, part of me just wants to try to push through an award for it as an ‘I’m sorry.’”

Vote: Zero Dark Thirty

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

“I’ve seen all of the nominees at official Academy screenings held over the past few weeks. You go into that theater, you sit there, you look around, and you just hope that there’s an ambulance outside because a lot of the members in attendance must have aged out of AARP at this point. I really wonder if these people are going to vote for Amour, because they’re really looking at themselves and they’ve gotta be saying, 'This is what’s in my future? This is f---ing depressing.' It’s depressing for people who are dying and for people who have to take care of people who are dying. It’s like, who needs that shit? I personally didn’t care for it. A Royal Affair is the kind of film that bores me; I fell asleep as I was watching it. No is a very good film, but it’s shot in a very weird way. War Witch is a really great film, but it’s an absolute f---ing bummer, and when you have children in jeopardy, people check out. That leaves Kon-Tiki, which has a very weird beginning but is very moving by the end; when they showed the photos of the real-life people at the end, my eyes were welling up. There is a tendency among voters in this category to vote for something that uplifts or energizes them, and this certainly does that.”

Vote: Kon-Tiki (Norway)

BEST PICTURE

“This is a preferential system. I’m putting Amour at No. 9 because I’m just pissed off at that film. Beasts of the Southern Wild is a movie that I just didn’t understand, so that’s my No. 8. Les Miserables goes in seventh place -- it’s not just the most disappointing film of the year but the most disappointing film in many years. Above that I’m putting Silver Linings Playbook, which is just a “blah” film. Django Unchained will go into my fifth slot -- it’s a fun movie, but it’s basically just Quentin Tarantino masturbating for almost three hours. Next up is Life of Pi because of how unique it is and for holding my attention up until its irritating ending. Argo is gonna go in third place, but I don’t want it to win because I don’t think it deserves to win and am annoyed that it is on track to win for the wrong reasons. Actually, come to think of it, do we have to put a film in every slot? Because what I want is for my best picture choice to have the best possible shot, so why even give any support to the others? [He has his assistant call the Oscar voting helpline, finds out that voters can leave slots blank and promptly removes all of the aforementioned selections.] I’m basically OK with one of two films winning. Lincoln is going in my second slot; it’s a bore, but it’s Spielberg, it’s well-meaning, and it’s important. Zero Dark Thirty is my No 1.”

Vote: (1) Zero Dark Thirty, (2) Lincoln, (3) [blank], (4) [blank], (5) [blank], (6) [blank], (7) [blank], (8) [blank], (9) [blank]

COMMENTARY:

Someone posted this on Facebook and after I read it this is what I said:

Unfortunately I think this may be how the majority of voters vote. I don't think Mr. Anonymous is an—anomaly. Maybe I take the nominees way more seriously because I'm NOT an "industry insider" like he is and he takes his position for granted. Oh the privileged few... 

Related
MY Oscar picks for 2013 

Cool Black's Oscar Picks 2013

By Dankwa Brooks AKA Cool Black

For the first time in my recollection I have seen ALL of the films nominated for "Best Picture". Quite a feat since there are NINE this year. I have also seen several other films that I thought would get nominated so I have seen a majority of the entire Oscar nominated categories.

Since I have seen the majority of the nominated films (I will ONLY bold in red the correlating nominations that I have NOT seen.)

My pick will be under “Cool Black’s Oscar Pick:” These are NOT who I think WILL win; it’s who I think SHOULD win based on my opinion and those who know me, know I am quite discerning. While I do think some films were "omitted" I'll vote by the nominations as selected by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.

Every year I try to keep my Oscar picks as general as possible and try not to get to into the technical categories, but this year there are some I must mention and give my vote to. For the first time I’ll tell you who should get the Oscar for Production Design, Costume and Visual Effects.  

And now...the awards.

_____________________________________

As a screenwriter two of my favorite categories are the two screenwriting ones. For the record:
The Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay is the Academy Award for the best script not based upon previously published material and the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay is awarded each year to the writer of a screenplay adapted from another source (usually a novel, play, or short story but also sometimes another film). All sequels are automatically considered adaptations by this standard (since the sequel must be based on the original story).

This year what are usually the clear cut choices for me, the screenwriting awards, are the hardest.

Writing

(Adapted Screenplay)

Argo
Chris Terrio, adapted from the books The Master of Disguise by Antonio J. Mendez and The Great Escape by Joshuah Bearman

Beasts of the Southern Wild
Lucy Alibar and Benh Zeitlin, adapted from the play Juicy and Delicious by Lucy Alibar

Life of Pi
David Magee adapted from the book of the same name.

Lincoln
Tony Kushner adapted from the book Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin.

Silver Linings Playbook
David O. Russell adapted from the book of the same name.

Cool Black’s Oscar Pick: Lucy Alibar and Benh Zeitlin for Beasts of the Southern Wild. The little I know about the play is it’s as abstract and fantastical as the film ‘Beasts’ and I thought they did a wonderful job at transforming that for the screen.

Writing

(Original Screenplay)

Michael Haneke for Amour 

Quentin Tarantino for Django Unchained 

John Gatins for Flight 

Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola for Moonrise Kingdom 

Mark Boal for Zero Dark Thirty

Cool Black’s Oscar Pick: Michael Haneke for Amour. While I liked the screenplays for Flight and Zero Dark Thirty, I thought the screenplay for Amour was wholly original and dealt with a subject not explored on the screen and depicted it with honesty and strength. 

________________________________

FILM EDITING

Argo—William Goldenberg
Life of Pi—Tim Squyres
Lincoln—Michael Kahn
Silver Linings Playbook—Jay Cassidy and Crispin Struthers
Zero Dark Thirty—Dylan Tichenor and William Goldenberg

Cool Black’s Oscar Pick: TIE William Goldenberg for Argo and … William Goldenberg again this time with Dylan Tichenor for Zero Dark Thirty. Both films had excellent climaxes and much of that was due to the editing in those climatic scenes. 


PRODUCTION DESIGN
(Build and or design sets for the film)

Sarah Greenwood & Katie Spencer for Anna Karenina
Dan Hennah, Ra Vincent & Simon Bright for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Eve Stewart & Anna Lynch-Robinson for Les Misérables
David Gropman & Anna Pinnock for Life of Pi
Rick Carter & Jim Erickson for Lincoln

Cool Black’s Oscar Pick: Eve Stewart & Anna Lynch-Robinson for Les Misérables. Even though I didn't see Anna Karenina and The Hobbit, the sets in Les Misérables were just outstanding especially the very last scene in the film.


COSTUME

Anna Karenina – Jacqueline Durran
Les Misérables – Paco Delgado
Lincoln – Joanna Johnston
Mirror Mirror – Eiko Ishioka
Snow White and the Huntsman – Colleen Atwood

Cool Black’s Oscar Pick:  Colleen Atwood for Snow White and the Huntsman. While the costumes in Les Misérables were really great Chalize Theron’s costumes in SWATH were outstanding. 

VISUAL EFFECTS
(The special, often computer generated, effects for a film) 

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey – Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton, and R. Christopher White

Life of Pi – Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik-Jan De Boer, and Donald R. Elliott

Marvel's The Avengers – Janek Sirrs, Jeff White, Guy Williams, and Dan Sudick

Prometheus – Richard Stammers, Trevor Wood, Charley Henley, and Martin Hill

Snow White and the Huntsman – Cedric Nicolas-Troyan, Philip Brennan, Neil Corbould, and Michael Dawson

Cool Black’s Oscar Pick: Life of Pi – Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik-Jan De Boer, and Donald R. Elliott. This was a hard category because the visual effects in The Avengers, Prometheus and Snow White and the Huntsman were all really great, but I had to pick the film with the most outstanding computer generated tiger I have ever seen. Without the great work on the tiger (a main character) the movie would have failed. 


CINEMATOGRAPHY

Seamus McGarvey for Anna Karenina
Robert Richardson for Django Unchained
Claudio Miranda for Life of Pi
Janusz Kamiński for Lincoln
Roger Deakins for Skyfall

Cool Black’s Oscar Pick:  Roger Deakins for Skyfall. Some of the most stunning visuals and shots that I’ve seen in any picture 2012. Life of Pi had stunning visuals as well, but most of them were CGI, computer-generated imagery. The visuals in Skyfall were practical…or so they seemed. In any case great work by Mr. Deakins.

__________________________________

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Alan Arkin in Argo 
Robert De Niro in Silver Linings Playbook 
Philip Seymour Hoffman in The Master
Tommy Lee Jones in Lincoln  
Christoph Waltz in Django Unchained

Cool Black’s Oscar Pick: Tommy Lee Jones in Lincoln. I've seen all of these nominated performances and while all worthy, Tommy Lee Jones was outstanding in Lincoln and one of the best things about the film!  

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Amy Adams in The Master
Sally Field in Lincoln
Anne Hathaway in Les Miserables
Helen Hunt in The Sessions
Jacki Weaver in Silver Linings Playbook

Cool Black’s Oscar Pick: Helen Hunt in The Sessions. I've seen all of these nominated performances as well and again while all worthy, Helen Hunt gave a brave and nurturing performance in the film.


ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Bradley Cooper in Silver Linings Playbook
Daniel Day-Lewis in Lincoln 
Hugh Jackman, in Les Miserables 
Joaquin Phoenix in The Master
Denzel Washington in Flight

Cool Black’s Oscar Pick: Joaquin Phoenix in The Master. Daniel Day-Lewis was great as ever in Lincoln, Hugh Jackman, gave the performance of his life in Les Miserables and Denzel Washington gave one of his best performances in years in Flight, but it was Joaquin Phoenix’s performance in The Master that was just phenomenal. 


ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Jessica Chastain in Zero Dark Thirty
Jennifer Lawrence in Silver Linings Playbook
Emmanuelle Riva in Amour 
Quvenzhané Wallis in Beasts of the Southern Wild
Naomi Watts in The Impossible

Cool Black’s Oscar Pick: Emmanuelle Riva in Amour. Jessica Chastain was really great in Zero Dark Thirty and carried the whole picture; Jennifer Lawrence was great as ever in Silver Linings Playbook and one of the best things about the film, and Quvenzhané Wallis…she was truly remarkable at such a young age. I really loved her performance in Beasts of the Southern Wild, but if there was a better performance by an “Actress in a Leading Role” than Emmanuelle Riva in Amour in cinema 2012—I haven’t seen it. 

________________________________

DIRECTING

Michael Haneke for Amour
Benh Zeitlin for Beasts of the Southern Wild
Ang Lee for Life of Pi
Steven Spielberg for Lincoln
David O. Russell for Silver Linings Playbook

Cool Black’s Oscar Pick: As I've seen all of these films I can say that all of these directors are worthy of their nominations. 

Michael Haneke did a really great job at conveying the love and angst of the couple in the middle of an adverse situation that many face as they get older. 

Ang Lee did a really great job at converting what many though was an in-adaptable book into a spiritual, visual delight. 

Steven Spielberg brought all of his cinematic mastery to capture the historical period piece and political dealings of Lincoln. 

David O. Russell did a great job of capturing mental illness and making it funny without turning it into satire or buffoonery in Silver Linings Playbook.

My PICK though has to be Benh Zeitlin for Beasts of the Southern Wild. Zeitlin composed a cinematic feat that was touching, emotional and magical. 

__________________________________

BEST PICTURE

Amour
Producers: Margaret Menegoz, Stefan Arndt, Veit Heiduschka and Michael Katz

Argo
Producers: Grant Heslov, Ben Affleck, and George Clooney

Beasts of the Southern Wild
Producers: Dan Janvey, Josh Penn, and Michael Gottwald

Django Unchained
Producers: Stacey Sher, Reginald Hudlin, and Pilar Savone

Les Misérables
Producers: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Debra Hayward, and Cameron Mackintosh

Life of Pi
Producers: Gil Netter, Ang Lee, and David Womark

Lincoln
Producers: Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy

Silver Linings Playbook
Producers: Donna Gigliotti, Bruce Cohen, and Jonathan Gordon

Zero Dark Thirty
Producers: Mark Boal, Kathryn Bigelow, and Megan Ellison

Cool Black’s Oscar Pick: While all these pictures, save for one, deserved to nominated for Best Picture, I have to mention: 

Amour, a searing yet veritable film about love. A wonderfully composed story about adversity among a couple that does not sugarcoat it. 

Argo was a fantastic tale of suspense based on real life events that will have you on the edge of your seat until pretty much the end.

Les Misérables was an ornately orchestrated musical with some really great performances and songs.

Life of Pi while a visual delight was also in the end a very spiritual story of survival.

Silver Linings Playbook was a funny love story that dealt with mental illness in a way that did not make light of it or make it overwhelming. 

Zero Dark Thirty breaks down a lot of the politics it took to track down Osama bin Laden and by the end, the action packed way they got him.


My PICK for BEST PICTURE goes to Beasts of the Southern Wild. 

I’ve also picked Beasts of the Southern Wild as my favorite film of 2012 and this is what I said 

My favorite film of 2012 had to have been the one that moved me the most. Watching this film was a reminder of the power of cinema to me. A phenomenal film.

That pretty much summed it up why I think its Best Picture.

So that’s it, my picks this year. As always looking forward to the ceremony!

Hatfields & McCoys - The Cool Black Review

Kevin Costner (left) and Bill Paxton (right) as their characters in Hatfields & McCoys

I liked Hatfields & McCoys, a good old fashion tale of revenge. This feud proves that war is war no matter what scale it’s waged on. While it got a little melodramatic at times this was a good miniseries especially if you like westerns. 

Hatfields & McCoys is a three-part 2012 television miniseries based on the Hatfield–McCoy feud produced by History channel. Each episode aired for two hours on May 28, 29, and 30, 2012 and starred Kevin Costner and Bill Paxton as the chief Hatfield & McCoy respectfully. 

The entire cast of characters, and there were an entire cast of characters on both sides of the feud were really good, replete with their country twang, but Kevin Costner did an outstanding job as the chief Hatfield “William Anderson "Devil Anse" Hatfield”

Apart from the story I was amazed at the total authenticity of the miniseries. The miniseries had really great direction by Kevin Reynolds and outstanding cinematography by Arthur Reinhart, outdoor cinematography—in the woods—day and night! (For the record it’s kind of hard to balance light outside especially at night)

I also have to mention the other components of the crew that lead to the miniseries’ authenticity. Production Design by Derek R. Hill, Art Direction by Serban Porupca and John B. Vertrees, Set Decoration by Sally Black, Costume Design by Karri Hutchinson and the 11 people in Makeup. 

These were the grungiest country folk you ever seen in your life, but it was due to their rural lives of the 1800s. Because of the great work of the people I mentioned above you were transported to that time of the 1800s and believed every second of it. Without their painstaking authenticity the miniseries wouldn't have been as good as it was.

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