# Oscar ballot: Best Picture **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 4, 2018, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oscar-ballot-best-picture/810020 "2018-03-04T19:41:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2018, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oscar-ballot-best-picture/810020/1 "2018-03-04T19:41:08Z")
As you may know, Best Picture operates on a preferential ballot, so unlike the other categories which only require a plurality of 20%+1 to win, the process of redistributing the ballots as nominees are “phased out” in the Best Picture tabulating means that a film that may have started with the third highest number of votes (among nine) might end up being the one to get a majority at the end of the day. So for the purpose of this poll, vote for what your #1 choice would be, but then reply with a list of all nine nominees in order of preference. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2018, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oscar-ballot-best-picture/810020/2 "2018-03-04T19:57:35Z")
1. Get Out 2. Three Billboards 3. Shape of Water 4. Lady Bird 5. Dunkirk Have not seen the rest. None of these were my best movies of 2017, though. Get Out was pretty cool, though. It should win. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2018, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oscar-ballot-best-picture/810020/3 "2018-03-04T20:18:02Z")
1. Get Out 2. Phantom Thread 3. Lady Bird 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 ---
**Author:** ![mikecurtis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikecurtis/32/3284_2.png) [@mikecurtis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mikecurtis)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2018, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oscar-ballot-best-picture/810020/4 "2018-03-04T20:59:41Z")
1. The Shape of Water 2. Three Billboards 3. Get Out 4. Lady Bird mc ---
**Author:** ![Lantern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d26b3c/32.png) [@Lantern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lantern)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2018, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oscar-ballot-best-picture/810020/5 "2018-03-04T21:19:48Z")
1.Dunkirk 2.Shape of Water 3.The Post 4.Phantom Thread 5.Darkest Hour Haven’t seen the others. ---
**Author:** ![peccavi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peccavi/32/388_2.png) [@peccavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peccavi)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2018, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oscar-ballot-best-picture/810020/6 "2018-03-05T00:26:20Z")
[ol] [li]The Shape of Water[/li][li]Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri[/li][li]Lady Bird[/li][li]The Phantom Thread[/li][li]Call Me By Your Name[/li][li]The Post[/li][li]Dunkirk[/li][li]Darkest Hour[/li][/ol] (I haven’t seen Get Out, so I don’t know where I would place it) ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2018, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oscar-ballot-best-picture/810020/7 "2018-03-05T00:31:47Z")
1. Three Billboards 2. The Post 3. Get Out 4. Call Me By Your Name 5. Phantom Thread 6. The Shape of Water 7. Lady Bird 8. Darkest Hour 9. Dunkirk ---
**Author:** ![snoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@snoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snoe)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2018, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oscar-ballot-best-picture/810020/8 "2018-03-05T01:25:29Z")
1. Call me 2. Get out 3. Shape of water 4. Phantom thread 5. Lady bird 6. The post 7. 3 billboards ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2018, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oscar-ballot-best-picture/810020/9 "2018-03-05T03:50:45Z")
I was shocked by how good “Dunkirk” was. I had no idea; I entered the film with low expectations and was wowed. It was truly original. I was shocked at how terrible “Three Billboards” was; I had high expectations and was appalled at what ill-conceived Oscar bait it was. Just total junk. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2018, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oscar-ballot-best-picture/810020/10 "2018-03-05T10:37:59Z")
This statement is past its due date; I should’ve made it well before the awards: to me, **Dunkirk** wasn’t a movie. It was a sensory immersion science film I would see at the Exploratorium - just the best one ever. “Dunkirk: You Are There!” To me, it wasn’t trying to accomplish what a Movie tries to accomplish. It was closer to a gaming experience than a movie, given what it was trying to do as an immersive experience. Personally, I find many Overly Cerebral Directors to be too Meta. The whole time I’m thinking “I, Christopher Nolan, filmcraft genius, am taking you deep into this pivotal event - isn’t this (and aren’t I) amazing?!” ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2018, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oscar-ballot-best-picture/810020/11 "2018-03-05T14:06:52Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > I was shocked by how good “Dunkirk” was. I had no idea; I entered the film with low expectations and was wowed. It was truly original. > > I was shocked at how terrible “Three Billboards” was; I had high expectations and was appalled at what ill-conceived Oscar bait it was. Just total junk. Dunkirk was a huge disappointment to me. I hoped for so much better. Three Billboards is the director’s worst movie. Check out “In Bruges” if you haven’t. I think it is in my top 5 of the last decade. Should have been Best Picture. Shape of Water was disappointing to me, too. It was not even the director’s best movie. Pan’s Labyrinth was way better. ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2018, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oscar-ballot-best-picture/810020/12 "2018-03-05T16:43:24Z")
…um…is it too late to vote? ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2018, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oscar-ballot-best-picture/810020/13 "2018-03-05T16:59:07Z")
Well I picked right but I wasn’t too confident in my choice. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2018, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oscar-ballot-best-picture/810020/14 "2018-03-06T17:20:27Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > Dunkirk was a huge disappointment to me. I hoped for so much better. > > Three Billboards is the director’s worst movie. Check out “In Bruges” if you haven’t. I think it is in my top 5 of the last decade. Should have been Best Picture. > > Shape of Water was disappointing to me, too. It was not even the director’s best movie. Pan’s Labyrinth was way better. I loved In Bruges. I thought it could have been seven minutes shorter, but that’s true of most movies in the last twenty years, I guess.