Not so fast, FCM, you don't know what I voted for.
For full disclosure, here was my ballot.
PART I: Which of the nominated films have you NOT yet seen? (Delete the ones you have seen from the list below.)
Seen them all!
PART II: Select your favorite nominee in each category. Again, it's probably cleanest to just leave the nominee you're voting for and delete the other four.
Best Picture Black Swan
Inception The Social Network
Toy Story 3
Winter's Bone
Best Director Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan
Banksy, Exit Through the Gift Shop
David Fincher, The Social Network
Debra Granik, Winter's Bone
Christopher Nolan, InceptionBest Original Screenplay Lisa Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg, The Kids Are All Right
Efthymis Filippou and Giorgos Lanthimos, Dogtooth
Mark Heyman, Andrιs Heinz, and John McLaughlin, Black Swan
Christopher Nolan, Inception David Seidler, The King's Speech
Best Adapted Screenplay Michael Arndt, Toy Story 3 (from characters previously appearing in Toy Story and Toy Story 2)
Michael Bacall and Edgar Wright, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (from the graphic novel series by Bryan Lee O'Malley)
Joel and Ethan Coen, True Grit (from the novel by Charles Portis)
Debra Granik and Anne Rosellini, Winter's Bone (from the novel by Daniel Woodrell)
Aaron Sorkin, The Social Network (from the book The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich)Best Actor Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network
Colin Firth, The King's Speech Colin Firth, A Single Man
James Franco, 127 Hours
Tahar Rahim, A Prophet
Best Actress Kim Hye-ja, Mother Jennifer Lawrence, Winter's Bone
Natalie Portman, Black Swan
Hailee Steinfield, True Grit
Michelle Williams, Blue Valentine
Best Supporting Actor Niels Arestrup, A Prophet
Christian Bale, The Fighter
John Hawkes, Winter's Bone Mark Ruffalo, The Kids Are All Right
Geoffrey Rush, The King's Speech
Best Supporting Actress Helena Bonham Carter, The King's Speech
Dale Dickey, Winter's Bone
Mila Kunis, Black Swan
Chloe Moretz, Kick-Ass
Jacki Weaver, Animal KingdomBest Ensemble Cast Inception
The Kids Are All Right
The Social Network
True Grit Winter's Bone
Best Non-English Language Film Dogtooth
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Micmacs
Mother A Prophet
Best Animated Film How to Train Your Dragon
The Illusionist
Mary and Max
The Secret of Kells
Toy Story 3Best Documentary The Beaches of Agnes
Exit Through the Gift Shop La Danse: The Paris Opera Ballet
Restrepo
The Two Escobars
Best Editing Jonathan Amos and Paul Machliss, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall, The Social Network
Jon Harris, 127 Hours
Lee Smith, Inception Andrew Weisblum, Black Swan
Best Sound Mark Weingarten, David Parker, Michael Semanick, and Ren Klyce, The Social Network
Ed Novick, Lora Hirschberg, Gary Rizzo, and Richard King, Inception
Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke, Steven C Laneri, Douglas Cameron, and Glenn Freemantle, 127 Hours
Ken Ishii, Dominick Tavella, and Craig Henighan, Black Swan Greg Chapman, Chris Burdon, Doug Cooper, and James Boyle, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
Best Score Clint Mansell, Black Swan
Hans Zimmer, Inception
Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross, The Social Network Daft Punk, TRON: Legacy
Carter Burwell, True Grit
Best Soundtrack Greenberg
Kick-Ass
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
Shutter Island Winter's Bone
Best Cinematography Matthew Libatique, Black Swan
Wally Pfister, Inception
Adam Kimmel, Never Let Me Go
Robert Richardson, Shutter Island Roger Deakins, True Grit
Best Art Direction Jean-Andre Carriere, Kikuo Ohta, and Marc Caro, Enter the Void
Thιrθse DePrez and Tora Peterson, Black Swan
Guy Hendrix Dyas, Larry Dias, and Doug Mowat, Inception
Dante Ferretti and Francesca Lo Schiavo, Shutter Island Marcus Rowland and Odetta Stoddard, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
Best Visual Effects Black Swan
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
Inception Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
TRON: Legacy
Best Surprise Animal Kingdom
Cyrus
Easy A
Exit Through the Gift Shop
How to Train Your DragonBest Debut Feature Animal Kingdom (directed by David Michτd)
Exit Through the Gift Shop (directed by Banksy)
Four Lions (directed by Christopher Morris)
The Secret of Kells (directed by Tomm Moore)
Toy Story 3 (directed by Lee Unkrich)Best Scene (Dramatic) Breakup, The Social Network
Dancing the Black Swan, Black Swan
A Father's Hands, Winter's Bone
The Incinerator, Toy Story 3 Shifting Gravity Fight, Inception
Best Scene (Comedic) 12 Bottles of Bleach, Four Lions
Bulletproof Vest Test, Kick-Ass
A Chance Encounter with a Medicine Man, True Grit
Mr. Tortilla Head, Toy Story 3 Sex Scene, MacGruber
Best Shot Final Shot, Mother Hallway Fight, Inception
The Soccer Scene, The Secret in Their Eyes
Teardrop Sitting in His Truck, Winter's Bone
Transformation, Black Swan
Best Line "Cinema is my home. I think I've always lived in it.", The Beaches of Agnes
"I used to encourage everyone I met to make art, or used to think that everyone should do it.
I don't really do that so much anymore.", Exit Through the Gift Shop
"I was even going to steal a kiss despite you being young, feverish, and not considerably attractive.", True Grit
"I'm six-five, two-twenty, and there's two of me.", The Social Network
"TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT ME TO FK!!", MacGruber
Some comments are in order.
Most of them for me were a no-brainer, but some were more tricky.
For Best Ensemble I was wrestling between Inception, The Social Network and True Grit. Ultimately I chose True Grit because those three leads are all amazing. Damon in particular gives an awesome performance. But then there are also all the side characters who are all just perfectly cast.
Best Score was a big fight between Inception and The Social Network. Both are extremely integral to their respective films and both are unique, memorable, propulsive and just sound damn great. But I went with The Social Network in the end because I feel like that score defines that film in a really special way. I think that Inception could have had Zimmer cloning his Dark Knight score and the movie would have been just as good, but on repeat viewings I really feel like The Social Network would be a lesser film without the Reznor/Ross score.
Best Soundtrack was a fight between Scott Pilgrim and Shutter Island, and while I suppose Scott Pilgrim has all those cool original songs, damn, that music in Shutter Island was good. And I might have even just given it the win for this remix of music and Dinah Washington song during the credits:
Dinah Washington & Max Richter-This bitter earth - On the nature of daylightCinematography wasn't so much a fight as an emotional hurdle. Sorry, Chris, you know I love Never Let Me Go to death, and you know I love that cinematography, but when it comes right down to it I thought Shutter Island was the best looking film of the year.
Surprise was not a fight at all, but really none of those films on the list came as a surprise at all other than How to Train Your Dragon. I thought the Dreamworks picture would be mediocre to bad, and I ended up totally digging that boy/dragon relationship. The other films all either looked good, had reasons for me to think they'd be good, or had been reviewed very positively well before they were released here.
Best Scene(s): Where was Harry Potter Dance Scene? Oh well.
Best Shot, well, I'm not sure which shot exactly was being referred to for Inception, but that final shot of Mother was just so, ah, so, damn. Awesome.
The Tally:
Inception - 5
Toy Story 3 - 4
Mother - 3
The Social Network - 2
Animal Kingdom - 1
Black Swan - 1
Exit Through the Gift Shop - 1
How to Train Your Dragon - 1
The King's Speech - 1
MacGruber - 1
True Grit - 1
Winter's Bone - 1
So, another year another Filmspots, now it's time to jump head first into 2011. Thank you to all the wonderful Filmspot Officials, you are the light the guides us through the dark days of January and February.