If I had an Oscar ballot ...

Oscar ballots are due this weekend, and the new rules allow ten best-picture nominees, which will be announced the morning of Feb. 2. To ensure that a film can't win by merely taking 11 percent of the vote, a pretty complicated process of counting the votes has been implemented, explained here in a piece by Entertainment Weekly. The short version: Each voter ranks their ten favorite films, and an elimination system drops the lowest vote-getter at each rank.

Couple these voting rules with this piece by Pete Hammond which claims many Academy members aren't even filling out all ten slots, and you get the chance for some major surprises on Feb. 2. The example Hammond uses goes something like this: If Voter X writes down four prestige pictures (let's say "Precious," "Up in the Air," "An Education," "Invictus") and then can't think of any other "deserving" nominees, he or she may start listing films that are seen as "lesser" films, but which entertained that voter ("Drag Me To Hell," "Star Trek" and so forth).

If I were a voter, I'd load my ballot with those kinds of movies.

There are five movies that are virtually guaranteed to be nominated for best picture: "Avatar," "The Hurt Locker," "Inglourious Basterds," "Precious," and "Up in the Air." So why should I, Fake Oscar Voter, even bother to put them on my ballot? I'd want to give some underappreciated films that I really enjoyed a chance at glory. While my actual list of the ten best films of 2009 would be topped by "Up in the Air" and "Basterds," my Oscar ballot for best picture would probably look something like this:

1. "Fantastic Mr. Fox"
2. "Star Trek"
3. "The Princess and the Frog"
4. "Drag Me To Hell"
5. "District 9"
6. "Away We Go"
7. "Coraline"
8. "Funny People"
9. "(500) Days of Summer"
10. "Watchmen"

Of those ten, I'd say only "Trek," "District 9" and "(500) Days" have an honest shot at making the cut on Feb. 2.

If I had a ballot, I'd also stump for the underappreciated performances of Zachary Quinto ("Star Trek"), Maya Rudolph ("Away We Go"), Sharlto Copley ("District 9") and Lorna Raver ("Drag Me To Hell").

What longshot would you like to see make Oscar's cut on Feb. 2?