Hello there, ReelViews board members. My name's Pedro, and I'm here to announce the fourth annual ReelViews Academy Awards, or Pedros as we call them now!

You'll have to pardon me: as usual, much of this post is going to be a regurgitation of last year's thread, with some slight changes.

Anyway, giving credit where credit is due, p604 came up with the idea. His thought process was, "Everyone complains about the Oscars. Why don't we have our own?" It's brilliant. Here's how it works:

1. Anyone (that's you!) can vote for nominees, so long as you're signed up on the board. Make sure your votes are for who YOU want to win. If you think Hotel Transylvania's the best film of the year, then damn it vote that way! (I'm STILL looking at you, Vexer, who likes unconventional things.)
2. People who do choose to vote can suggest up to five nominees per category, ranked 1-5 with 1 being the theoretical winner. This applies to all categories INCLUDING Best Picture. If the films are not ranked, I will automatically put them in the order in which they are listed.
3. You don't need to vote for every category.
4. There are twenty-one categories: nineteen that the Academy uses, the Best Ensemble award that SAG uses, and a modified Best Original Score. They are listed at the end of the post, accompanied by a sample ballot.
5. Many documentaries and foreign language films were excluded from the Academy shortlist of said categories. Same goes for make-up, score, and visual effects. IGNORE THIS. If the film came out domestically between January 1, 2012 and December 31, 2012, it's valid for any category. FOR EXAMPLE: Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (Turkey) came out in January 2012, so it's valid despite being released in 2011 in its home country. However, No (Chile) is not valid because it comes out in February 2013. Checking IMDb is a good way determining validity, which means yes, I kind of fucked up by including Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory in last year's set of potential nominees. That one's complicated, though.
6. PM your votes to me, Pedro, to keep the nomination process secretive and exciting and shit.

The voting cut-off is February 24rd at 10:00 AM, though I'd like them sooner. That coincides with the date of the ceremony, so I'd like to have the nominations up by then.

I've decided to include some category suggestions in case people are confused. I've based their placements on the definition of Lead/Supporting, irrelevant of screen time. PM any other category confusions to me. If I decide you have committed category fraud, I will discard that vote.

Helen Hunt (The Sessions) looks like a lead from the outside, but I'm fine with her being in the supporting category. There's not enough evidence to move her.
Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained) also looks like a lead from the outside, and there's a more compelling argument for him to be moved from the supporting category. However, I want to keep him where he is.
That's all I have for now, but I'll add more as they come up.

Happy voting, fellow members! Don't be shy. If you haven't seen enough films from the year, don't worry about it! Vote on what you know. I want to see a bigger turnout this year!

Best Actor in a Leading Role
Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Best Actress in a Leading Role
Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Best Animated Feature
Best Art Direction
Best Cinematography
Best Costume Design
Best Director
Best Documentary Feature
Best Ensemble Cast
Best Film Editing
Best Foreign Language Film
Best Makeup
Best Picture
Best Sound Editing (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdnrfkFywoc the creation of sound effects through various layers of manipulation)
Best Sound Mixing (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rq6ZXnbbQUY bringing various sound elements together to make a convincing viewing experience)
Best Use of Music
Best Visual Effects
Best Writing - Adapted Screenplay
Best Writing - Original Screenplay

SAMPLE BALLOT: BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
1. Bradley Cooper - Silver Linings Playbook
2. Kodi Smit McPhee - ParaNorman
3. Jean-Louis Trintignant - Amour
4. Jared Gilman - Moonrise Kingdom
5.

And finally, here's a semi-comprehensive list of foreign films that came out domestically in 2012:

Amour
Unforgivable
Easy Money
Farewell, My Queen
The Well Digger's Daughter
Beloved
Once Upon a Time in Anatolia
The Turin Horse
Miss Bala
Chicken With Plums
Little White Lies
Rust and Bone
Casa de Mi Padre
A Royal Affair
The Intouchables
Holy Motors
Jiro Dreams of Sushi
The Raid: Redemption
A Simple Life
Oslo, August 31
Alps
Doomsday Book
Barbara
Tabu
Sister
Hermano
Footnote
Monsieur Lazhar
Turn Me On, Dammit!
Goodbye First Love
The Woman in the Fifth
Headhunters
Polisse
The Kid With a Bike
Elena
The Secret World of Arriety
The Rabbi's Cat
More I'm sure....

The Pedros are upon us!

Damn you, Holy Motors, for having your Bluray release on February 26th!

D:

I'm seeing that in New York this weekend with any luck. Otherwise, that might be a good one to watch... by whatever means necessary........

I'm not saying anything, I'm just saying.

If someone wants to start a FYC topic, I'll sticky it. If it's not done by the time I get back, I'll make one.

Long term, these topics will get moved to their normal forum.

I'm new to this. Can't wait to vote.

I would also like to plug the 3rd Annual YouReviewers Movie Awards, a YouTube movie awards show of the people, by the people, for the people. I've been tuning in for the past three years, and I love it. The show is hosted by Jeremy Jahns and Kristian Harloff and Mark Ellis of Schmoes Know, who all run YouTube channels devoted to reviewing movies. Definitely check it out. I'm sure that most of you will enjoy it.

I am so horny for this.

Ready. So ready for this.

I read the title and I was like, "the fuck is the Reelviews Academy Awards? We do the Pedros!" Thankfully the thread itself corrected this.

One question... should there be a separate "For Your Consideration" thread? Or should those go here?

Oh God, I can't tell you how excited I am for this. Fuck the Oscars, the Pedros are where it is at. You guys let me play God. You rock!

I've not seen as much as I did in 2011 where I had a lot of free time. Django doesn't make it here till March which is complete bullshit. Lincoln is a Spielberg film and hasn't yet made it here which is again bullshit. ZDT, Les Miz and a few others are making it in time. The others I'm going to watch in one way or the other. Good news is that I saw Holy Motors and Amour during the Chennai Film Festival.

I am hoping to done with my nominations by mid-February, but I guess I'll still end up missing some of the good stuff.

*celebrates wildly for The Pedros*

I'll try my bestest to see some more 2012 releases between now and the deadline date. Barring that I will nominate Parental Guidance in every category.

Question: In previous years we had a nomination phase followed by a voting phase. Is this a single phase year?

Comment #1: It's ed_metal_head with an XKCD avatar! *swoons*

Comment #2: I've had my rough draft picks filled out for a couple days now, but I may update them when I see Zero Dark Thirty. Or not! Who knows?!

A couple lead/supporting guesses I'm making, but I'm happy to switch either of them the other way:

Aubrey Plaza - Safety Not Guaranteed (lead role)
Kara Hayward - Moonrise Kingdom (supporting role)

They're both leads, though I could see Focus pandering Kara as a supporter if they thought she had any chance at a nomination a la Hailee Steinfeld in True Grit.

You know, 'cause she's a youngin'.

Do we pm our nominees to Pedro?

Yessir.

Yo Pedro, I heard you mention somewhere that we can push the deadline to the day after the Oscars. I am assuming that would mean Feb 25th 10 AM (No idea what time zone). The reason I'm asking is that it would allow me to squeeze some viewings in on the 24th by virtue of being far ahead in time than you guys.

Yeah, the new deadline is the day after the Oscars, the 25th, at 10:00 AM PST. Generally, I accept late votes as long as I'm still in the process of tabulating.

IF YOU'RE READING THIS, I WANT YOUR VOTE. Berard, Vexer, mgames, ram, major (if you're still alive), Rob (if you're still alive), aameen (if you're still alive), etc: do your civic duty of being better than the Oscars and votey vote vote!