My Dream 2010 Oscar Ballot.

In addition to laying out my favorite films of the year, I also enjoy filling out my own imaginary Oscar ballot to help deal with the inevitable disappointment that comes Oscar morning when great films and performances are snubbed in favor of industry favorites.  This year, however, a great number of my own picks will most likely hear their names called on nomination morning.  However, the Academy never gets it completely right, especially not by my own standards.

Below are my picks in many of the major Academy Award categories.  I keep away from very specific categories where i'm not qualified to make picks (sound, makeup, etc.) although I still make attempts at some other technical categories where I like to think my picks are appropriate, even though i'm no professional.  Each of my categories typically uses 6 nominees, as i've always felt that the Academy would benefit from an extra nomination as the Emmys recently introduced, but some categories still stick at 5.  I also add in my own personal categories that I think the academy should have, and some of my own superlatives for the films of the year.

My winner in each category is bolded, and for my own amusement, the runner-up is italicized. Enjoy.

The Best Films of 2010.

 

Although the year is now almost a month behind us, the film world's staggered schedule has prevented me from seeing all of 2010's major releases until now.  And I still haven't.  Only one film from my "most anticipated" list has still alluded me (the animated feature The Illusionist) and there are still some films garnering awards that haven't been released yet (the foreign language Biutiful).  Not to mention some major foreign language and documentary releases that never came my way and still aren't available to view in any medium.  But still, with all of that given, it's safe to say I got through a great deal of films over the past year.

As for my picks of the year, I tried my best to include a little bit of everything: both mainstream and indie, box office successes and failures, from all kinds of genres, etc.  But ultimately, it comes down to two criteria: what films were (in my opinion) the best executed of the year and, of course, which were my personal favorites.  Those that managed to fit under both categories came out on top and although tastes always change, this list looks pretty fitting for now.  Below, I have 10 runners-up listed alphabetically (all of which just missed out, but still rank high in my mind) and then my ranked list from 10 to 1.  Enjoy.