2013 Primetime Emmy Ballot.

Emmy nominations come tomorrow and it is time for my yearly tradition of writing up my personal picks so I can be filled with righteous indignation when the Academy disagrees tomorrow. It is truly what keeps the world turning.

Below are my picks in most of the major categories (unless I really didn't feel knowledgeable of enough of the submissions) and a few extras I've decided to include. Winners are pictured and any runner-up is noted in italics. In a few instances, I've gone beyond the official submissions of each show, but sometimes you just have to stick up for what you believe and if I don't defend what is right then who will? Enjoy, if you will.

Dream Oscar Ballot 2012

One of the most unpredictable yet strangely disinteresting Oscar races gets into full gear tomorrow when the nominations are finally announced. I say finally despite the fact that they're coming early because so many of the contenders seemed like sure things the minute they went into production. Was the world ever not going to bow at the feet of an Abraham Lincoln biopic created by Steven Spielberg and Tony Kushner starring Daniel Day-Lewis?

Not that many of these choices are bad (or even close to it) yet there's lots of opportunities for exciting choices and perhaps just as many chances for disappointment. This year, more than ever, my own picks seem particularly far from the Academy's realm. Which is not to do a disservice to their choices, but to say that this year the typical Oscar fare by-and-large didn't do it for me. On the other hand, a number of under the radar films took me by surprise and found themselves popping up regularly throughout my list.

Coinciding the two is hard yet I have one basic rule: if I'm stuck between a film/performance that I admire on a technical level and one I connect with on a personal one - I'll likely choose the latter. After all, these are my choices, and who knows how long they'll stick. Some decisions were particularly grueling (Jessica Chastain and Jennifer Lawrence might be my two favorite actresses to emerge in the last few years, yet I had to choose against both of them here, although they each have taken a win from me before) and others entirely simple (the Supporting Actor category is a wasteland with only one performance I can genuinely say I'm passionate about making it an easy victory).

Each category runs between 5-6 nominees (you can never have too much) and has a bolded winner and italicized runner-up (because why not?). Most of my categories follow Oscar territory until the end where I have fun and throw in my own for good measure. Agree or disagree as you wish. Read along and enjoy!

The Best Films of 2012.

After all is said and done, I don't know if 2012 was a great year for movies. People keep telling me it was and yet as I look over everything I watched, there is much more in the middling-to-good category than the great one. This year's Oscar frontrunners exemplify that. Hardly a bad film among them (although one or two are close) but very few films to get passionate about.

Updating the blog kind of fizzled out for me over the second half of the year, but I saw no less films than I normally do. Overall, between theaters, DVDs and the persistent glory of Netflix, I saw about 80~ films compared to last year's 90. Hardly a quiet year, but as I compiled this list, there were few films I felt absolutely rushing to write about.

But it wasn't a bad year. And this list, filled with films I nonetheless do feel passionate about, showcases that fact. It actually ended up being semi-difficult to whittle it down to merely ten (with five runners-up because you can never have too many). List making is fun, but ultimately useless, especially looking back. Sometimes it has its purposes - my last two #1's, Drive and Black Swan, still remain films I love - but things sometimes get murkier. Last year, The Artist made my #5, and in the time since I have hardly felt compelled to go back and rewatch it even once. While my Top 5 here seem the most solid and filled with films I feel will only increase in stature with time, that caveat tells you all you need to know. And so, with that, enjoy.

2012 Emmy Award Picks.

It wouldn't be an awards season without obsessively making my own picks. The Emmy nominations come out this week, and there are a lot of opportunities for them to get things right, but perhaps just as many pitfalls along the way. Shows likely to be honored like The Big Bang Theory and Boardwalk Empire continue to not live up to any such hype for me, and even the likely big winner Modern Family has stopped being one of my favorite comedies. So instead, I offer my own selections, many will show up, but others will likely not. So it goes.

I'm keeping my picks to what was actually submitted to the Emmys and where. I may not agree with who is a lead vs. supporting, or what is a comedy vs. drama, but I'll humor them. That's also why a show like Sherlock is nowhere here when it might have been everywhere because it is technically a miniseries to them. When I looked back over my choices, I noticed that at least half of them are repeats from years before. By no means was this a lackluster TV season, and it was hard to cut some shows out, but for the most part, my favorites in each category continued to deliver, even in the case of my two picks for the best shows on television.

Dream Oscar Ballot 2011

Oscar nominations are a few days away. As always, a lot of what gets in is going to be standard awards bait. But whenever the Academy gets the chance to truly break ground, they typically stay away from it. Even this year, while they have the opportunity to honor difficult-but-rewarding material like Shame or We Need To Talk About Kevin, we can't be sure they'll ultimately bite. Meanwhile, actors like Leonardo DiCaprio and Glenn Close will likely glide by on name recognition and prestige despite the fact that their films are very near terrible.

So each year, I like to highlight what I would have paid attention to if I was ever given the chance to vote for these awards. Of course, some of our tastes inevitably overlap (you cannot deny the charms of Michelle Williams or The Artist and you shouldn't try) but many do not. The Academy keeps it to five for each category (except Best Picture, which now can be 5-10, I'll be going with the latter) yet I usually let myself go beyond to six and sometimes seven. After all, what's with the reluctance to honor too many great works?

There are a number of works I didn't have time for this year, and some smaller ones that simply never came around to me. (Most notably, everyone's favorite foreign language film A Separation still has not arrived, as well as a number of other foreign and documentary entries). But these choices are almost perfectly representative of what the year was for me and more than a few surprises are surprising even for me. Winners are bolded (and pictured) while runners-up are italicized for fun. And, of course, these are inevitably subject to change, but for now, enjoy.

The Best Films of 2011.

If you looked at the list of presumed Oscar nominees, you might have no idea what a fairly great year of film it happened to be. With their need to embrace the mediocre (The Help, War Horse) and sometimes plain bad (Albert Nobbs, J. Edgar) this year's best films will likely go unnoticed by the Academy and other awards bodies. Yet 2011 carried a number of gems, some you have surely heard of, others perhaps not, but all worthy of your attention.

This year was so good, in fact, that I don't even feel compelled to write about the worst the year had to offer. Mostly because I avoid that which seems obviously bad (no Jack & Jill reviews for me) but also because it's hardly worth talking about a piece of dreck like Green Lantern when focusing on the films that made this year so memorable seems far more important. I will have more to say when I write up my personal Oscar ballot as this year, more than any other, featured a number of great performers and technical achievements in less satisfying works. But for now, let's celebrate that which makes going to the movies my continued favorite past time, and the people who make that possible.

Over the year that was, I managed to see about 90 films and wrote about a great deal of them (not most, of course). Looking back on it, I had neglected to realize how difficult it would be to narrow that list down to my very favorite. 10 features made my final list, with a few honorable mentions, and a number of others that merit a note among this year's best. Before you is a mix of mainstream and independent, homemade and foreign, silent and talkie (okay, perhaps only one silent), but all films that stuck with me over the year that was 2011. Let me know if you agree, or just as intriguingly, if you don't.

2011 Emmy Award Picks.

Since my most anticipated movies of the summer seem determined to avoid playing around me at all costs, it's been a slow summer movie-wise for me. I've needed a good distraction during the calm before the storm that is Harry Potter and while I wait to finally see Tree of Life. With there being so much quality TV on right now, I've managed to watch enough to last a lifetime. And with the Emmy nominations coming out this week, I'm putting out my picks for who my favorites in the TV world are.

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.

2010 Primetime Emmy Award Picks.

Since there's nothing much on the movie front to write about, i've decided to delve into one of my own personal guilty pleasures: award shows.  The Primetime Emmy Awards are this Sunday at 8pm and this is the first year that I can say i've seen a good majority of the nominees, so i've decided to write about my picks in the top categories for the upcoming ceremony.  These picks are my own opinions, not who I think will win, and will probably not coincide with the inevitable winners.  But I can dream, can't I?

And so it begins.

Considering I currently use my Facebook to profess my opinion about every movie I see, I figured I should pursue some kind of outlet that makes that easier. I also figure I better start jotting down all of my thoughts on movies so I can come back later on and reflect. I hope this goes as successfully as I want it to and maybe gets a few hits out of it.

Let's see.