My Oscar Ballot 2013

For some strange reason, I have yet to be asked to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. I can't think of why. Perhaps my invitation got lost in the mail. But how else will they be able to factor in my choices for the best of the year? Luckily, over at The Film Experience, we've submitted our own Oscar ballots. Check back on Tuesday at The Film Experience, after the votes have been counted, to see who our collective winners are. In the meantime, below is the ballot I submitted for consideration. And I have to say that it was a lot harder to compile than I thought. I kinda felt like I was just picking the same movies over and over again in a different order. But, I looked over a list of all the films released over the year, and these were definitely the ones that I thought were the best of the year.

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Best Picture

1. Her

2. 12 Years a Slave

3. Frances Ha

4. Gravity

5. Frozen

6. The Wolf of Wall Street

7. The Place Beyond the Pines

8. Stories We Tell

9. Inside Llewyn Davis

10. Before Midnight

Best Director

1. Steve McQueen 12 Years a Slave

2. Spike Jonze Her

3. Alfonso Cuarón Gravity

4. Sarah Polley Stories We Tell

5. Martin Scorsese The Wolf of Wall Street

Best Screenplay

1. Spike Jonze Her

2. Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig France Ha

3. John Ridley 12 Years a Slave

4. Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke & Richard Linklater Before Midnight

5. Terence Winter The Wolf of Wall Street

Best Actor

1. Joaquin Phoenix Her

2. Oscar Isaac Inside Llewyn Davis

3. Chiwetel Ejiofor 12 Years a Slave

4. Leonardo DiCaprio The Wolf of Wall Street

5. Michael B. Jordan Fruitvale Station

Best Actress

1. Cate Blanchett Blue Jasmine

2. Greta Gerwig Frances Ha

3. Brie Larson Short Term 12

4. Emma Thompson Saving Mr. Banks

5. Julie Delpy Before Midnight

Best Supporting Actor

1. Michael Fassbender 12 Years a Slave

2. Ryan Gosling The Place Beyond the Pines

3. Keith Stanfield Short Term 12

4. Matthew Goode Stoker

5. Colin Farrell Saving Mr. Banks

Best Supporting Actress

1. Lupita Nyong'o 12 Years a Slave

2. Scarlett Johansson Don Jon

3. Sarah Paulson 12 Years a Slave

4. Elizabeth Debicki The Great Gatsby

5. Léa Seydoux Blue Is the Warmest Color

Best Cinematography

1. Hoyt Van Hoetema Her

2. Emmanuel Lubezki Gravity

3. Sean Bobbitt 12 Years a Slave

4. Sean Bobbitt The Place Beyond the Pines

5. Bruno Delbonnel Inside Llewyn Davis

Best Production Design

1. Catherine Martin The Great Gatsby

2. K.K. Barrett Her

3. Adam Stockhausen 12 Years a Slave

4. Bob Shaw The Wolf of Wall Street

5. Michael Corenblith Saving Mr. Banks

Best Costume Design

1. Suzy Benzinger Blue Jasmine

2. Kurt and Bart Stoker

3. Michael Wilkinson American Hustle

4. Casey Storm Her

5. Catherine Martin The Great Gatsby

Best Hair and Makeup

1. American Hustle

2. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

3. 12 Years a Slave

Best Visual Effects

1. Gravity

2. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

3. Star Trek: Into Darkness

4. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

5. Elysium

Best Editing

1. Michael Munn Stories We Tell

2. Alfonso Cuarón, Michael Sanger Gravity

3. Joe Walker 12 Years a Slave

4. Jeff Buchanan, Eric Zumbrunnen Her

5. Jennifer Lam Frances Ha

Best Sound Design

1. Gravity

2. The Conjuring

3. Captain Phillips

4. World War Z

5. Frozen

Best Music

1. T-Bone Burnett Inside Llewyn Davis

2. Owen Pallett and Arcade Fire Her

3. Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Robert Lopez, Christophe Beck Frozen

4. Hans Zimmer 12 Years a Slave

5. Craig Armstrong, Jay-Z & Various Artists The Great Gatsby

Best Documentary

1. Stories We Tell

Best Animated Film

1. Frozen

2. Monsters University

Best Foreign Language Film

1. No

2. Blue Is the Warmest Color

(Clearly I need to watch more documentaries and Foreign Language films...)