Movieline Helps: Simplified Best Picture Voting Instructions for the Confused Academy Member

As we've previously discussed, the preferential voting system the Academy adopted for this year's ten-nominee-strong Best Picture race can be terribly, terribly complicated, with even our best efforts to explain the process generating more confusion than clarity. It's not at all surprising, then, that some Oscar voters find themselves so flummoxed by the blank ballot in front of them that they'd rather open a vein with the nibs of their pens rather than puzzle out what, exactly, the Academy expects them to do with the poorly explained voting thingy before them. (Have a look at Pete Hammond's new Gold Derby piece for some firsthand accounts of the rampant voter confusion now gripping the electorate.) We at Movieline feel the pain of these uncertainty-plagued individuals, and so we're offering the Academy a helping hand by providing a simplified set of Best Picture voting instructions so that the members' collective will can be communicated as painlessly as possible to the soon-to-be-harried accountants of PriceWaterhouseCoopers. Hit the jump for our helpful directions!

Hello, Academy Voter! Thank you for taking the time to fill out your ballot for Best Picture! Simply follow these easy, step-by-step instructions and sooner than you can say, "I'm up in the air for Up in the Air!" your votes will be in the mail, the vomiting from the panic-induced migraine will subside, and you can go back to making the Hollywood magic we're all going to celebrate on March 7th! Here we go!

1. Read the list of the ten Best Picture nominees.

2. Ask yourself, "Which of these ten films was my favorite?"

3. Place the number "1" in the space following the title of your favorite film. (The Academy recommends that you do not write out the number as "one" on the ballot; even though the accountants will still tabulate your vote, they find that an inelegant voting method.)

4. Congratulations! You have cast your vote for Best Picture!

5. Put aside the nagging thought, "Wait, am I supposed to vote for my 'favorite' film, or the 'best' film? These might be two different things." For the purposes of Best Picture voting, "favorite" and "best" will be considered the same thing.

6. But they're not really the same, you say? We're telling you: to us, they are! Don't sweat it!

6b. Fine. If you insist on obsessing over semantics, you can erase (or cross out) the "1" next to the name of your "favorite" film and place a new "1" next to the name of what you think is the "best" film. It's probably to the greater good that you now are recognizing the cinematic artistry of The Hurt Locker or Avatar instead of the feel-good simplicity of The Blind Side.

7. Are you suddenly a little worried that maybe it's not clear which film you actually voted for, the crossed-out/erased "1" or the "1" with the new, slightly smudgey "1" you wrote in after reevaluating your personal Best Picture criteria? Don't be. PriceWaterhouseCoopers' accountants are trained to discern the intent of even the sloppiest ballot. Please don't make an even bigger mess of things by circling your choice, or drawing little arrows that point to it, or writing "I MEANT THIS ONE" near it. They'll figure it out, promise!

8. Congratulations! You have cast your vote for Best Picture!

9. OK! Now on to choices 2 through 10!

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