Take One Last Look at the Oscar Nominees!

See who won our polls, earned our picks, and vote on the rest!

by | March 5, 2010 | Comments


Oscar Poll

With just two days to go until Sunday’s 82nd Annual Academy Awards, we at RT have our classy monkey suits and lucky undies pressed, ballots checked and ready, and homeopathic Tomato brews boiling in our dungeon/pantry to take us through our coverage of the show. We’ve made our picks, collected nearly 60,000 of your poll votes, gone through hundreds of your reviews of the nominees, and created an Oscar ballot for you to use during the show. So before you make your final picks with your feather dipped in ink from the neighborhood nightingale, we’re going to sum up all the biggest awards for you and give you the opportunity to vote on every remaining category and see who others think will win. This way, you can wear the winner’s crown at every Oscar party you attend this weekend (we won’t even ask for a cut of the proceeds!).

Don’t forget that you can watch the Oscars with RT this coming Sunday night! Our Editor-in-Chief Matt Atchity will be on Twitter live from the Oscars and you’ll be able to follow him on our Awards Tour Oscar headquarters. There, you’ll also be able to use your Facebook account to share your reactions to the show with RT staffers and RT users from around the world who will be merging with you onto our exit of the information superhighway. And to bring it all together, we’ll be placing the newest Best Picture winner in its correct historical context with our latest Best of the Best Pictures guide on Sunday night!

With imminent Oscar-age and all the urgency of a Biggest Loser last chance workout, here’s one last look at this year’s biggest nominees and your last chance to vote on the rest of the categories before we leave it all in the envelope-opening hands of this year’s presenters. See you on Sunday!


Best Picture

With over 40% of RT readers’ votes, a 92% RT Community Tomatometer (only topped by Up at 94%) and an arguably as impressive endorsement from RT’s editors, The Hurt Locker looks like the front runner for this year’s Best Picture race. Avatar and Locker appeared to be headed to a photo finish in our poll, but the Iraq War drama pulled away in the latter part of the week to take a sizable lead. RT user Ambrish Gokuldas believes The Hurt Locker “will be the best war movie ever made in our times” and so with that being said, and a little producer drama aside, it stands as the movie to beat.


Avatar


Avatar

82%


An Education


An Education

94%


The Hurt Locker


The Hurt Locker

98%




Inglourious Basterds


Inglourious Basterds

88%


The Blind Side


The Blind Side

70%


District 9


District 9

90%


Precious


Precious

91%


A Serious Man


A Serious Man

87%


Up


Up

98%


Up in the Air


Up in the Air

90%


Achievement in Directing

Winning our Oscar poll with half of the total vote, sustaining the highest RT Community Tomatometer score, and representing RT’s pick for the category, The Hurt Locker completes the prediction trifecta for the Best Director category. RT user Alex G. says Kathryn Bigelow “achieves what few are able to; make a war film that is unbiased, suspenseful and emotionally draining.” Beating out both her former beau James Cameron (28%) and a crowd pleasing Quentin Tarantino (18%) by a sizable margin in our poll, Bigelow’s chances at taking the “big two” look pretty strong.


Avatar


Avatar
(James Cameron)


82%


The Hurt Locker


The Hurt Locker
(Kathryn Bigelow)


98%




Inglourious Basterds


Inglourious Basterds
(Quentin Tarantino)


88%


Up In The Air


Up In The Air
(Jason Reitman)


90%


Precious


Precious
(Lee Daniels)


91%


Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role

With all the momentum of a New Orleans Saints (“WHO DAT?!”) run through the NFL playoffs, we named Jeff Bridges’ performance in Crazy Heart as our pick for the Best Actor category. Garnering over 60% of the votes in our Oscar poll, followed by Up in the Air‘s George Clooney and The Hurt Locker‘s Jeremy Renner, both of whom have won awards this year, Bridges is the far and away favorite in the collective eyes of our users. Bill D 2007 says, “Let’s hope this is Bridges’ Oscar year at last. It’s been a long time coming. Perfectly coiffed movie stars like George Clooney and Brad Pitt get all the attention, but Bridges has put out vastly more interesting material than they have for 25 years running.” Interestingly, Invictus‘ Morgan Freeman, who took home Best Actor honors from the National Board of Review, received the lowest number of votes in our Oscar poll, trailing A Single Man‘s Colin Firth, who has yet to take home a Best Actor award this season.

Jeff Bridges

Jeff Bridges


Crazy Heart

94%



George Clooney


George Clooney


Up in the Air

90%

Colin Firth

Colin Firth


A Single Man

83%

Morgan Freeman


Morgan Freeman


Invictus

77%

Jeremy Renner

Jeremy Renner


The Hurt Locker

98%

Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role

One of the more competitive categories in our Oscar poll was the race for Best Actress. Though Sandra Bullock won our poll with over 40% of the vote, An Education‘s Carey Mulligan, Precious‘ Gabourey Sidibe, and Julie & Julia‘s Meryl Streep all pulled similar percentages from our users, despite the popular thought that the category is largely a race between Bullock and Streep. RT user Rriter says The Blind Side benefits from an “Oscar moving performance by Bullock that has your eyes watering from both a funny and sincere way.” Here at RT, we think it’s Bullock’s year too and the surprisingly high RT Community Tomatometer (92%) that leads the category nominees makes Sandra Bullock the RT consensus pick for the win.

Sandra Bullock


Sandra Bullock


The Blind Side

70%



Helen Mirren

Helen Mirren


The Last Station

64%

Carey Mulligan


Carey Mulligan


An Education

94%

Gabourey Sidibe


Gabourey Sidibe


Precious

91%

Meryl Streep

Meryl Streep


Julie & Julia

75%


Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role

If one nominee has the potential to win a landslide victory this year, his last name would be Waltz… Landslide Waltz. After pulling nearly 90% of the user vote in our poll (no other nominee got over 4% of the vote), winning nearly every award all season, and being named RT’s pick for the category this week, barring any surprises, Waltz looks like a shoo-in for any Oscar pools this year. And, on top of all that, Inglourious had the highest RT Community Tomatometer score out of all the movies with supporting actor nominees. RT user Dylon M. says, “He gives the audience a glimpse into the future of acting, and portrays his character so good, I would dare to say it’s some of the better acting I’ve seen in years.” If you want to make a controversial pick, go with anyone but Waltz. But if you’re looking for one to bet the hypothetical farm on, this would be the one.

Matt Damon

Matt Damon


Invictus

77%

Woody Harrelson

Woody Harrelson


The Messenger

90%

Christopher Plummer

Christopher Plummer


The Last Station

64%

Stanley Tucci


Stanley Tucci


The Lovely Bones

40%

Christoph Waltz


Christoph Waltz


Inglourious Basterds

88%




Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role

While not as convincing of a win as Waltz, Precious‘ Mo’Nique left quite the impression on our readers this year by pulling close to 70% of the vote in our poll. A far away second was Up in the Air‘s Anna Kendrick, followed by fellow Air co-star Vera Farmiga. While there could still be an opening for Kendrick in the category, ultimately, we, along with our users, think that the buzz on Mo’Nique’s transformation for her gritty role will set her apart from the competition. And don’t forget, RT user Christopher Small said, “If Mo-Nique doesn’t win the academy award for best supporting actress, I shall eat my shoe.”

Penelope Cruz

Penelope Cruz


Nine

37%

Vera Farmiga

Vera Farmiga


Up in the Air

90%

Anna Kendrick


Anna Kendrick


Up in the Air

90%

Mo’Nique


Mo'Nique


Precious

91%




Maggie Gyllenhaal


Maggie Gyllenhaal


Crazy Heart

92%

Next up, see RT’s picks for the rest of the categories and show us if you agree or disagree by voting before Sunday’s show!

Best Original Screenplay


The Messenger


The Messenger


90%


The Hurt Locker


The Hurt Locker


98%


Inglourious Basterds


Inglourious Basterds


88%


Up


Up

98%


A Serious Man


A Serious Man


87%





Best Adapted Screenplay


District 9


District 9


90%


An Education


An Education


95%


In the Loop


In the Loop


93%


Precious


Precious

91%


Up in the Air


Up in the Air


90%





Animated Feature Film


Coraline


Coraline


94%


Fantastic Mr. Fox


Fantastic Mr. Fox


92%


The Princess and the Frog


The Princess and the Frog


83%


Secret of Kells


Secret of Kells

100%


Up


Up


98%





Achievement in Art Direction


Avatar


Avatar

82%


The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus


The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus

66%


Nine


Nine

37%


Sherlock Holmes


Sherlock Holmes

69%


The Young Victoria


The Young Victoria

75%





Achievement in Cinematography


Avatar


Avatar

82%


The Hurt Locker


The Hurt Locker

98%


Inglourious Basterds


Inglourious Basterds

88%


Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince


Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

83%


The White Ribbon


The White Ribbon

83%




Achievement in Costume Design


Bright Star


Bright Star

83%


Coco Before Chanel


Coco Before Chanel

64%


Nine


Nine

37%


The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus


The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

66%


The Young Victoria


The Young Victoria

75%






Achievement in Film Editing


Avatar


Avatar

82%


The Hurt Locker


The Hurt Locker

98%


Inglourious Basterds


Inglourious Basterds

88%


District 9


District 9

90%


Precious


Precious

91%





Original Song


Princess and the Frog


“Almost There”

83%


Princess and the Frog


“Down in New Orleans”

83%


Paris 36


“Loin de Pename”

59%


Nine


“Take it All”

37%


Crazy Heart


“The Weary Kind”

92%






Original Score


Avatar


James Horner

82%


Fantastic Mr. Fox


Alexandre Desplat


92%


The Hurt Locker


Marco Beltrami & Buck Sanders

98%


Sherlock Holmes


Hans Zimmer

69%


Up


Michael Giacchino

98%





Achievement in Visual Effects


Avatar


Avatar

82%


District 9


District 9

90%


Star Trek


Star Trek

94%






Achievement in Sound Editing


Avatar


Avatar

82%


The Hurt Locker


The Hurt Locker

98%


Inglourious Basterds


Inglourious Basterds

88%


Star Trek


Star Trek

94%


Up


Up

98%






Achievement in Sound Mixing


Avatar


Avatar

82%


The Hurt Locker


The Hurt Locker

98%


Inglourious Basterds


Inglourious Basterds

88%


Star Trek


Star Trek

94%


Transformers 2


Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

20%





Achievement in Makeup


Il Divo (92%)


Star Trek (94%)


The Young Victoria (75%)





Documentary Feature


Burma VJ (96%)


The Cove (96%)


Food, Inc. (97%)


The Most Dangerous Man in America (100%)


Which Way Home (100%)





Foreign Language Film


Ajami (96%)


El Secreto de Sus Ojos (100%)


The Milk of Sorrow (86%)


The White Ribbon (86%)


Un Prophete (98%)





Documentary Short

China’s Unnatural Disaster

The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner

The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant

Music by Prudence

Rabbit a la Berlin





Animated Short Film

French Roast

Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty

The Lady and the Reaper

Logorama

A Matter of Loaf and Death





Live Action Short Film

The Door

Instead of Abracadabra

Kavi

Miracle Fish

The New Tenants





Come back and watch the Oscars with RT this Sunday, March 7 starting at 4:00PM Pacific/7:00PM Eastern for live coverage of the 82nd Annual Academy Awards! With our trusty Oscar ballots in hand, we’ll be covering the show via Twitter and Facebook on our Awards Tour headquarters with all the latest winners and pictures live from the show!