My Personal Oscar Ballot

Less than a week away from the Academy Awards and today at 5:00PM PST, the ballots are due from all voters. The myriad campaigns will halt (or at least be diminished greatly) giving way to the process of tabulating the results and stuffing those envelopes with the winners' names. So what better time to let you all know what *I* would've done if I had the honor to fill in one of these ballots.

Note: For Best Picture, Academy voters are asked to rank their choices from 1 to 9. For the other categories, they are only asked to pick their choice of winner. These are NOT my predictions, but rather my picks if I was an Academy member voting in the privacy of my own home.

Best Picture
1 - Midnight in Paris
2 - The Artist
3 - The Help
4 - Moneyball
5 - Hugo
6 - Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
7 - The Descendants
8 - Tree of Life
9 - War Horse

Best Director: Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris
Best Lead Actor: Jean Dujardin, The Artist
Best Lead Actress: Michelle Williams, My Week with Marilyn
Best Supporting Actor: Kenneth Branagh, My Week with Marilyn
Best Supporting Actress: Jessica Chastain, The Help
Best Animated Film: Rango
Best Original Screenplay: Midnight in Paris
Best Adapted Screenplay: The Ides of March
Best Foreign Language Film: A Separation
Best Original Score: The Artist
Best Original Song: "Man or Muppet," The Muppets
Best Editing: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Best Art Direction: The Artist
Best Cinematography: Tree of Life
Best Costume Design: The Artist
Best Makeup: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows II
Best Documentary: Undefeated
Best Documentary Short: The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom
Best Animated Short: La Luna
Best Live Action Short: Tuba Atlantic
Best Sound Editing: Drive
Best Sound Mixing: The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo
Best Visual Effects: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows II

The headline here is that I really liked Midnight in Paris giving it Picture, Director, and Screenplay, but that's not too surprising considering it's my favorite film of the year. The likelier behemoth as this year's race, The Artist, however, has to live with just getting the most wins from me (4) including one for its leading actor. My love for My Week with Marilyn translated to two acting wins with Dragon Tattoo and Harry Potter also getting a pair of wins albeit in technical categories. Finally, two Ryan Gosling films (Ides of March and Drive) which also cracked my top five films of the year, expectantly won their lone nominations. What would your ballot look like? Extra points if you're actually an Academy member!