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.

BEST PICTURE

127 Hours

Animal Kingdom
Another Year
Black Swan
Blue Valentine
The Fighter
The Kids Are All Right
The Social Network
Toy Story 3

Winter’s Bone

BEST DIRECTOR

Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan
Lisa Cholodenko, The Kids Are All Right
Debra Granik, Winter's Bone
David Fincher, The Social Network
Mike Leigh, Another Year
David Michod, Animal Kingdom

My Best Picture and Best Director picks always end up splitting. While the former remains reserved for my favorite of the year, I usually tend to give Best Director to the best made film of this year. In this case, nobody crafted a better film in the past year than David Fincher, who maintained his signature style while tackling a project incredibly different than his previous. The result was possibly his best film, and at the very least in the company of Fight Club and Zodiac.

BEST LEADING ACTOR

Stephen Dorff, Somewhere
Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network
Colin Firth, The King's Speech
James Franco, 127 Hours
Ryan Gosling, Blue Valentine
Ewan McGregor, The Ghost Writer

For what its worth, Colin Firth will sweep the awards race this year and deservedly so. His is not my favorite performance, but it is a great one, although not as great as his performance last year in A Single Man which was my Oscar pick. James Franco carried 127 Hours perfectly and just barely edges out Eisenberg's excellent depiction of the creator of Facebook.

BEST LEADING ACTRESS

Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right
Jennifer Lawrence, Winter's Bone
Lesley Manville, Another Year
Nicole Kidman, Rabbit Hole
Natalie Portman, Black Swan
Michelle Williams, Blue Valentine 

It must not make sense that Black Swan is my favorite movie of the year, but not actress or director. Well, in this case, it's been one of the most stacked years for actresses that I can remember and there are simply so many amazing performances that its tough. In any other year, any of these women would make a case to win the award, but in this year, unfortunately only one can. Lawrence's performance is breathtaking and in the end, won me over slightly more. In terms of nominees, Emma Stone just (and I mean just) missed out here. As did Carey Mulligan, but she earned my Best Actress prize last year anyway.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Christian Bale, The Fighter
Andrew Garfield, The Social Network
John Hawkes, Winter's Bone
Ben Mendelsohn, Animal Kingdom
Jeremy Renner, The Town
Mark Ruffalo, The Kids Are All Right

Armie Hammer in The Social Network just missed out on a spot in this category, as did Sam Rockwell for Conviction. But in the end, this category had plenty of noticeable turns, but nothing to be hugely passionate about. Nobody will understand why Christian Bale is not my pick, but his work, while very impressive, was just too much "ACTING!" to fully register.  Whereas Mark Ruffalo, whose been turning out underrated work for years, really captured his character perfectly for me, was both funny and moving, and nailed his last scene that left you both feeling for him and seeing his flaws.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Elle Fanning, Somewhere
Greta Gerwig, Greenberg
Barbara Hershey, Black Swan
Melissa Leo, The Fighter
Olivia Williams, The Ghost Writer

Jacki Weaver, Animal Kingdom 

I hadn't realized how stacked this category had been this year, having been outshone by the Leading Actress category, but this category was equally as difficult to nail down. And it's still too bad I couldn't find room for Mila Kunis for Black Swan and Dale Dickey for Winter's Bone. But in the end, it's all about one performance for me, and that is Jacki Weaver's crime family matriarch in Animal Kingdom, quite possibly my favorite performance of the whole year. In any other year, Melissa Leo's excellent work in The Fighter would take the crown, but this year she'll have to settle for second place.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
 

Animal Kingdom

Another Year
Blue Valentine
The Fighter
The Kids Are All Right
Please Give

This wasn't a great year for original screenplays and most of the films that will inevitably nominated for Oscars don't overlap with my own choices here. But my favorite original script of the year undoubtedly belong to The Kids Are All Right, the perfect balance of comedy and family drama that remains true to itself while also being a massive crowd-pleaser

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

The Ghost Writer
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
The Social Network
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter's Bone

Again, there's pretty much no contest here. Aaron Sorkin's script for The Social Network is a masterwork, although there's a lot to be said about all of the other nominees here, and other scripts for Rabbit Hole, How To Train Your Dragon and 127 Hours, all of which just missed out on this strong field.

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Black Swan

I Am Love
Inception
The Social Network
True Grit
Winter's Bone

Of course, Matthew Liabtique's brilliant work on Black Swan was both beautiful and creative. As was Roger Deakins' work on True Grit, one of his best efforts in a long career. The works of I Am Love (one of the many beautiful thing in a film filled with stunning work) and Winter's Bone (which made the bleak world of the Ozarks much more striking) have both been seriously underrated this year.

BEST ART DIRECTION

Black Swan
The Ghost Writer
I Am Love
Inception
Shutter Island
True Grit

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

Black Swan
I Am Love
Inception
The Fighter
The King's Speech
True Grit

BEST EDITING

Black Swan
Blue Valentine
Inception
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
The Social Network
Winter's Bone

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

Black Swan
The Ghost Writer
Inception
Never Let Me Go
The Social Network
Tron: Legacy

God, this was a great year for original scores. I could also add in two more animated film scores (How To Train Your Dragon and Toy Story 3) and two more Alexander Desplat scores (Harry Potter and The King's Speech) and not be satisfied. But the most effective score of the year was Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross on The Social Network's pitch perfect score, closely followed by Clint Mansell and Daft Punk.

BEST ANIMATED FILM

How To Train Your Dragon
Toy Story 3
Tangled

This category, unlike last year, is not quite as stacked as it should be because I still haven't seen some major animated titles (The Illusionist and Megamind, etc.) but we can all assume that Toy Story 3, one of my favorite movies of the year, is at least the best animation had to offer.

BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM

12th and Delaware
Exit Through The Gift Shop
Gasland
Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work
Restrepo

Take this with a grain of salt as I haven't seen some of the highest profile documentaries of the year (Waiting For Superman, Inside Job, The Tillman Story), but I saw a great number and these were some of the few that stuck out, especially my top two of the year, both of which were some of the funniest times you could have watching a movie this year.

Now, the follow categories are my own creations and not covered by the Academy Awards (although Best Ensemble is awarded by the SAG). But still, these are some of my superlatives for the past year in film that have stuck out in my mind.

BEST ENSEMBLE CAST

Another Year
The Fighter
The Kids Are All Right
The Social Network
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
Winter's Bone

For me, the best ensemble in any given year is not based on how big the cast is or how many good performances there are, but the quality of each performance and how well the cast plays off each other. In The Kids Are All Right, each cast member is able to play perfectly off of each other and makes their family come to life. The same goes for The Fighter, in which each absurd character is made into a real human by the extensive cast.

MOST UNDERRATED FILM

Animal Kingdom
Another Year
How To Train Your Dragon
Never Let Me Go
Please Give
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

In both terms of box office success, critical notices, and awards, these are the films that I felt didn't get their proper due in the long run and should have.

MOST UNDERRATED MALE PERFORMANCE

Kieran Culkin, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
Stephen Dorff, Somewhere
Ryan Gosling, Blue Valentine
Armie Hammer, The Social Network
John Hawkes, Winter's Bone
Ben Mendelsohn, Animal Kingdom

MOST UNDERRATED FEMALE PERFORMANCE

Dakota Fanning, The Runaways
Elle Fanning, Somewhere
Barbara Hershey, Black Swan
Lesley Manville, Another Year
Carey Mulligan, Never Let Me Go
Anika Noni Rose, For Colored Girls