Even though the bean counters at AMPAS are currently hard at work figuring out how much it’s going to cost them to fashion this year’s Best Picture Oscar statuette out of unobtainium instead of gold, academy members still have to figure out the other nine films besides Avatar that they’re going to nominate in the newly expanded category. There’s only one little problem, though: According to Pete Hammond of the Los Angeles Times, a number of Oscar voters are having a really difficult time putting together a list of ten films that are worthy enough to lose to the HMFIC’s bazillion-dollar-grossing opus. So, other than obvious choices like Up in the Air and Precious, what films are racking up votes?
With the deadline for filing Oscar ballots just five measly days away, there’s no possible way that voters can possibly make their way through all of the screeners that are sitting on top of their DVD players. So, in an effort to fill in all ten lines and not to feel like a loser, at least one voter tells Hammond that they made an unorthodox choice when filling out their ballot:
After listing the usual suspects like “The Hurt Locker,†“Up in the Air,†“An Education,†etc., one guy said he selected “Drag Me To Hell†because that’s the best time he had at the movies all year and it doesn’t matter that it can’t possibly be nominated because he has nine other slots in which to “influence†the race, as the academy language suggests.
You hear that, other Academy voters who also enjoy procrastinating? Drag Me to Hell. Make it happen! Really, it’s the least you could do for Sam Raimi.
’Drag Me to Hell’ for best picture? Deadline looms for Oscar voters [Notes on a Season/LAT]