Unofficial Academy Awards Discussion Board

I just barely managed to see all the Best Picture nominees before they start handing out the awards. I haven't seen anything else though, not even the stuff that's already available in Netflix.

1. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
2. Lady Bird
3. Call Me By Your Name
4. Phantom Thread
5. Get Out
6. The Shape of Water
7. The Post
8. Dunkirk
9. Darkest Hour

I feel 1-4 would be respectable winners, 5-6 are respectable nominees while I would be disappointed to see them win, and 7-9 shouldn't be on this list at all.

1. Phantom Thread
2. Get Out
3. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
4. The Post
5. Dunkirk

Shamefully haven't seen the others yet.

1. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
2. Call Me by Your Name
3. Lady Bird
4. The Shape of Water
5. Dunkirk
6. Phantom Thread
7. Get Out
8. The Post
9. Darkest Hour

After seeing them all:

1. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
2. Phantom Thread
3. Call Me by Your Name
4. Dunkirk
5. Get Out
6. Lady Bird
7. The Shape of Water
8. Darkest Hour
9. The Post

I really really liked numbers 1 and 2 and could switch them depending on the mood.

The Post is probably the worst Spielberg in my book.

Now I've seen them all. Time to rank them:

1. Call Me By Your Name
2. Phantom Thread
3. Lady Bird
4. The Shape of Water
5. Get Out
6. Dunkirk
7. The Post
8. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
9. Darkest Hour

Question: do Academy members have to nomination the films from 1 to 9 or can they elected to just nominate 1 to 5 or 1 to 6 if they see fit?

I do believe they have to write it down or at least have the option to not have to rank all 9 nominees. I seem to remember that in some of those "brutally honest" ballot articles, some voters don't rank movies they weren't able to or didn't care to see or even didn't want to vote for at all. Hell, a few would only vote for one. But in not completing your ballot you risk your vote not being counted because let's say you only ranked one or two films and those two films were eliminated from previous rounds of balloting, your ballot will simply be thrown and not be counted.

I've finally seen them all.

1. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
2. Phantom Thread
3. Lady Bird
4. Call Me By Your Name
5. The Shape of Water
6. Get Out
7. Dubkirk
8. The Post
9. Darkest Hour

But only 1 to 4 are really good, and deserving of a Best Picture nomination.

Beautiful year for films. This is my favorite Best Picture lineup since 1975. Deeply loved my top choice. Second is a great film. Three to six are truly exhilarating, unforgettable cinematic experiences in their own distinctive ways. Seven and eight are perfectly solid craft, and the last one is not that bad, come on. Still no idea on which one’s winning. The more I try to make crazy or sound theories, the more confused I get.

1. Call Me by Your Name
2. Phantom Thread
3. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
4. Dunkirk
5. Lady Bird
6. Get Out
7. The Post
8. The Shape of Water
9. Darkest Hour

1. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
2. Phantom Thread
3. The Shape of Water
4. Lady Bird
5. Call Me by Your Name
6. Dunkirk
7. Get Out
8. The Post
9. Darkest Hour

Darkest Hour is the only one I flat-out resent being there, though The Post is borderline. The rest all certainly qualify, at least under the expanded system, and the top five might all have competed for the number one spot in several fairly recent years. Best year in a while.

1. Call Me by Your Name
2. Phantom Thread
3. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
4. Get Out
5. Lady Bird
6. Dunkirk
7. The Post
8. The Shape of Water
9. Darkest Hour

For what it's worth, I would have ranked The Florida Project number one had it been nominated.

1. Dunkirk
2. Phantom Thread
3. Lady Bird
4. Call Me By Your Name
5. Get Out
6. The Post
7. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
8. The Shape of Water
9. Darkest Hour

I've only seen Dunkirk more than once; I could see some movement on this list if I saw some others again.

1. Call Me By Your Name
2. Get Out
3. Lady Bird
4. The Shape of Water
5. The Post
6. Dunkirk
7. Three Billboards
8. Darkest Hour (there is no "The" in the title)
9. Phantom Thread

Phantom Thread is last because I haven't seen it yet. If I could stop earlier in the list, I'd put everything through The Post and leave off all the rest.

1. Lady Bird
2. Phantom Thread
3. Get Out
4. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
5. Call Me By Your Name
6. The Shape of Water
7. Dunkirk
8. The Post
9. Darkest Hour

1-3 are close to great films IMO. 4-5 are just beneath greatness. A few qualms get in the way. Then a big drop to 6, which has much to recommend about it but ultimately doesn’t hold together for me. I dislike 7-9.

Mine:

1. Call Me By Your Name
2. Phantom Thread
3. Dunkirk
4. Three Billboards

Of the films nominated ideally my ballot ends with the above 4 films.

I didn't hate the other 5 films but to me they are all head scratcher nominees and none of them deserved to be on the final ballot.

Putting these 5 in order:

5. Darkest Hour
6. The Shape of Water
7. Lady Bird
8. Get Out
9. The Post

With just over two weeks to ago hopefully most board members will have seen most if not all of the best film nominees. What would your ballot look like?

Question: do Academy members have to nomination the films from 1 to 9 or can they elected to just nominate 1 to 5 or 1 to 6 if they see fit?

Mine:

1. The Shape of Water
2. Call Me By Your Name
3. Phantom Thread
4. Get Out
5. Lady Bird
6. Dunkirk
7. The Post
8. Three Billboards
9. The Darkest Hour