I look forward to the Hollywood Reporter’s Brutally Honest Oscar Ballot series every year, but I completely missed the fact that they published the first piece several days ago! This series is so popular, other sites now do their own versions of it, where they give anonymity to an Oscar voter and then the voter explains why they’re voting for certain people or movies. In years past, the series has exposed the ridiculous racism, sexism and conservative world views of many Oscar voters, and that helps me understand why certain (bad) films or performances win (I’m still torn up about Green Book). Well, THR’s Ballot #1 came from a male member of the short-films and feature animation branch. You can read the full piece here. Some highlights:

The guy loved Barbie: “I would have preferred to see Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse as a nominee over Maestro — it’s an incredible feat of animation and storytelling. American Fiction and The Holdovers were enjoyable, but very old-fashioned — meaning, not edgy — in terms of their stories and their filmmaking. When I first heard about Barbie, I couldn’t even imagine that it would be here, and then after seeing it I couldn’t imagine that it wouldn’t, and that’s because Greta [Gerwig] nailed it.”

Complaints about KOTFM: “Killers of the Flower Moon had a lot of great stuff in it, but no movie needs to be three hours and 25 minutes — like me, a lot of people had to watch it at home, and unlike me, a lot of people probably didn’t make it to the end. If it was made by anyone other than Martin Scorsese, a studio would have said, “You’ve got to cut that, we don’t need to see the landscape for two and a half minutes.” But I guess he earned that.

He loved Past Lives & Poor Things: “Past Lives was beautifully simplistic — I love movies like this, that tell you a human story, have so much going on beneath the surface and really don’t have an antagonist other than time and space. Poor Things is some of Yorgos [Lanthimos’] best work, the whole cast was phenomenal, and I can’t wait to see it again. Anatomy of a Fall grew on me over time — that monologue where Sandra Hüller tears her husband apart is just incredible.

His favorites: But for me, choosing between Oppenheimer and The Zone of Interest was so hard. Oppenheimer is a movie that advanced cinema — with the invention of a new film stock, the use of Imax cameras in close-up and dialogue scenes, and the marriage of image and sound. This is the sort of cinematic experience that you live for if you love movies; it makes me sad that one day I’m going to die, because I won’t get to see movies like this. But no movie made me feel like Zone of Interest. That is what filmmaking is supposed to do. It wasn’t trying to tell you that the Holocaust was bad; it was showing you how little it mattered to the people who were doing it, just like today, when people are going about their lives while horrible things are happening all over the world. I’ve seen a lot of reviews by people who didn’t get it, including the critic for The New York Times. Some think they are watching a boring movie that’s trivializing the Holocaust. But they need to elevate their understanding of what’s happening here.

How he voted for Best Picture: (1) The Zone of Interest, (2) Oppenheimer, (3) Anatomy of a Fall, (4) Poor Things, (5) Past Lives, (6) Killers of the Flower Moon, (7) Barbie, (8) The Holdovers, (9) American Fiction, (10) Maestro

He voted for Christopher Nolan for Best Director: “This was an easy one: [Oppenheimer’s] Christopher Nolan has deserved to win this award since The Dark Knight, and he really deserves to win it for this one, the most monumental achievement of his career.”

How he voted for Best Actor: [Maestro’s] Bradley Cooper was really good. [American Fiction’s] Jeffrey Wright was phenomenal. [The Holdovers’] Paul Giamatti and [Oppenheimer’s] Cillian Murphy were great and one of them is going to win. But I’ve always loved Colman Domingo as an actor and I loved his performance in Rustin — Bayard Rustin has always fascinated me — so I want to throw him some love. VOTE: Colman Domingo, Rustin

Best Actress: Emma [Stone, of Poor Things] was phenomenal — I mean, the bravery and balls that it takes to put yourself out there in the way that she did! And Lily [Gladstone, of Killers of the Flower Moon], there’s such quiet power to her performance. I was going to vote for Lily, but I ended up moving my mouse at the last minute. I decided to vote for Sandra [Hüller, for Anatomy of a Fall]. I had never seen this woman in anything before 2023, and then seeing her give great performances in two totally different roles [the other in The Zone of Interest] made me appreciate just how talented she is. I want to see her in more stuff. VOTE: Sandra Hüller.

He met RDJ: “I was torn between [Poor Things’] Mark Ruffalo and [Oppenheimer’s] Robert Downey Jr., and even though it’s cheesy I’ll be real with you: I met Downey at an awards season party, we had an interaction that I did not initiate, and it tipped the scales for me. Campaigning matters! (Laughs.) What’s really great about him as an actor, in this film and so many others, is his ability to be believable all the time. I loved watching him turn as the story turned on Strauss. VOTE: Robert Downey Jr., Oppenheimer

His vote for Best Supporting Actress: I would have liked Sandra Hüller to be in here for Zone of Interest, but I can’t really argue with the ones who got in. Jodie [Foster, in Nyad] and Emily [Blunt, in Oppenheimer] were very good, and [Barbie’s] America Ferrera, [The Color Purple’s] Danielle Brooks and [The Holdovers’] Da’Vine Joy Randolph were great. Danielle will be back here very soon. But Da’Vine was just so emotionally captivating, so subtle that you could miss it if you weren’t paying attention. Actresses like her — a plus-sized Black woman — don’t often get opportunities like the one that Alexander Payne gave her. It was really smart of them [Focus] to pair her for a lot of stuff with Paul [Giamatti], which kept a bigger spotlight on her. VOTE: Da’Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers

[From THR]

It’s quite something to listen to Oscar voters explain why they’re voting for Da’Vine – she’s a lock for Supporting, absolutely, and her performance was quietly devastating, but voters keep talking about her race and her body, and this guy makes it sound like she was lucky to be cast, rather than she was the right person for the role and she was great in the film.

That being said, I’m not mad about the way he voted in general – Huller would have been my pick for actress, and I think RDJ has run a brilliant campaign for a genuinely great performance in a great movie. I like that this guy wanted to show Colman Domingo some love too, knowing that Cillian is probably a lock. I can’t believe he rated Barbie so low, below Past Lives?

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images, Backgrid.