I Semi-Promise This Will Be The Last Oscar-Related Poll...

One last poll before the big day (Feb 22nd), when some really mediocre movies get handed awards, and hopefully, just to make the whole thing not a total disaster, Mickey Rourke and the FX teams on Benjamin Button get their gold-plated just desserts too. By now it's probable that even though Slumdog has mysteriously been hit with all sorts of unsavoury accusations of child exploitation and dismissal by India, it's going to romp home. Though I am on record as not being best pleased about that, I'll just be happy if people stop referring to it as the longshot. It really isn't. By now people desperately want it to succeed, and it will. Benjamin Button will go home with some technical stuff, and Slumdog will get the biggies, a decision that will be the sanity-twisting equivalent of this...


...and, eventually, just as regrettable and embarrassing for the Academy members and the folks at home as this.


That inevitability aside, there are some actual longshots in that list. The ones no one thinks to bet on. In some awards the longshot occasionally wins (no one expected Bryan Cranston to get an Emmy for his Breaking Bad work as there were other, better known nominees there), but with the Oscars it pretty much never does. That doesn't mean they should be ignored though. Hence this new poll. Which longshot nominee would you most like to see score an upset and win?

Richard Jenkins (Best Actor for The Visitor)

Melissa Leo (Best Actress for Frozen River)

Michael Shannon (Best Supporting Actor for Revolutionary Road)

Viola Davis (Best Supporting Actress for Doubt)

Gus Van Sant (Best Director for Milk)

Thomas Newman (Best Soundtrack for Wall*E)

Martin McDonagh (Best Original Screenplay for In Bruges)

Peter Morgan (Best Adapted Screenplay for Frost/Nixon)

Wally Pfister (Best Cinematography for The Dark Knight)

Kung Fu Panda (Best Animated Feature Film)

The Baader Meinhof Complex (Best Foreign Language Film)

Milk (Best Picture)

Iron Man (Best Visual Effects)

Hellboy II: The Golden Army (Best Makeup)

The Dark Knight (Best Sound Editing)

Wanted (Best Sound Mixing)

I will admit, I have no idea if Wanted really had amazingly well mixed sound. I just want to know if anyone out there is eager for a movie featuring a Loom of Fate, bullet-curving, and bomb-rats to win an Oscar. If anyone votes for it, I'll assume Mark Millar popped by. Anyway, have at it, my pretties.