If I Had An OSCAR Ballot ...

... It would look something like this. Please keep in mind that while I loved certain movies (like THE RAID and THE GREY, which as you'll read soon, were two of my top-10 movies of 2012) it's hard to vote for them for Best Picture. These have to be somewhat REALISTIC choices, otherwise there would be no point to this exercise. Also of note: I haven't seen AMOUR and I have abstained from voting in categories which I am ill-informed about (like Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Art Direction, Original Song) or could not find five choices for due to my lack of familiarity with the possible nominees (all shorts categories). Feel free to show off your own Oscar ballot in the comments section below, and thanks in advance for reading. I hope you enjoy my choices.

Important Note: An asterisk (*) denotes my vote to WIN.

BEST PICTURE

Argo

Beasts of the Southern Wild

Django Unchained

The Impossible

Life of Pi

Lincoln

Moonrise Kingdom

The Sessions

Silver Linings Playbook

Zero Dark Thirty*

BEST DIRECTOR

Ben Affleck, Argo

Juan Antonio Bayona, The Impossible
Kathryn Bigelow, Zero Dark Thirty*

Ang Lee, Life of Pi

David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook

BEST ACTOR

Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook

Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln

John Hawkes, The Sessions*

Joaquin Phoenix, The Master

Denzel Washington, Flight

BEST ACTRESS

Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty

Marion Cotillard, Rust and Bone

Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook*

Michelle Williams, Take This Waltz

Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Smashed

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Robert De Niro, Silver Linings Playbook

Leonardo DiCaprio, Django Unchained

Phillip Seymour Hoffman, The Master

Samuel L. Jackson, Django Unchained*

Ezra Miller, The Perks of Being a Wallflower

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Emily Blunt, Looper
Ann Dowd, Compliance

Anne Hathaway, The Dark Knight Rises

Kara Hayward, Moonrise Kingdom

Helen Hunt, The Sessions*

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Django Unchained

The Master
Moonrise Kingdom

Safety Not Guaranteed

Zero Dark Thirty*

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Argo

Beasts of the Southern Wild

Lincoln

Rust and Bone

Silver Linings Playbook*

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

Frankenweenie*

ParaNorman

Wreck-It Ralph

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope

The Imposter*

Room 237

Shut Up and Play the Hits

West of Memphis

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FEATURE

A Hijacking

Michael

The Raid

Rust and Bone*

Snabba Cash

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

The Impossible

Life of Pi

The Master*

Skyfall
Zero Dark Thirty

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

Anna Karenina

Django Unchained

Les Miserables

Magic Mike

Moonrise Kingdom*

BEST EDITING

Argo

The Impossible

Life of Pi

Moonrise Kingdom

Zero Dark Thirty*

BEST MAKEUP

Hitchcock*
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Men in Black 3

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

Beasts of the Southern Wild

Compliance*

The Impossible

The Raid

Zero Dark Thirty

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

The Hobbit

The Impossible

Flight

Life of Pi*

Prometheus

BEST ENSEMBLE (not an actual award)

Argo

Lincoln
Django Unchained

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Silver Linings Playbook*

FINAL TALLY (out of 18):

Zero Dark Thirty - 4 (Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, Editing)
Silver Linings Playbook - 3 (Actress, Adapted Screenplay, Ensemble)
The Sessions - 2 (Actor, Supporting Actress)
Compliance 1 - (Original Score)
Django Unchained - 1 (Supporting Actor)
Frankenweenie - 1 (Animated Feature)
Hitchcock - 1 (Makeup)
The Imposter - 1 (Documentary Feature)
Life of Pi - 1 (Visual Effects)
The Master - 1 (Cinematography)
Moonrise Kingdom - 1 (Costume Design)
Rust and Bone - 1 (Foreign Language Feature)