Various outlets do features along these lines every year, but for some reason, getting Academy members to share their ballots anonymous never loses its thrill for me — they may just be single voices out of 6000-plus members, but they often make it that much easier to understand where certain Oscar voting trends are coming from. The LA Times has printed the picks of three members — a producer, director and actor, two of them former nominees themselves — with commentary. The actor is clearly indicative of where the Academy’s “Silver Linings Playbook” love has been coming from, voting for it in every possible category, while the producer and director spread their affections around a little more, with “Zero Dark Thirty,” “Argo,” “Lincoln” and “Beasts of the Southern Wild” all getting some respect. No unanimous choices, either. [LA Times]
A Connecticut Democratic representative has found a historical inaccuracy in “Lincoln” that he believes does a disservice to his state. Tony Kushner responds. [The Carpetbagger]
In news that further underlines “Silver Linings Playbook”‘s bid to be seen as more than a romantic comedy, David O. Russell and Bradley Cooper are meeting with Joe Biden to discuss the state of mental health care in the US. [The Race]
Michael Cieply on the complex, and sometimes ugly, process of deciding who makes the Oscars’ In Memoriam montage. [New York Times]
Variety finds this year’s Oscar-nominated screenplays divided evenly along lines of studio and indie, big and small, writer and writer-director. [Variety]
Oscar-nominated short film “Buzkashi Boys” has successfully raised funds to send its two young Afghan stars to the awards. More importantly, they’re putting money toward their education too. [Rally]
Xan Brooks sizes up a BAFTA race that is more open than usual. He calls “Lincoln” the film to beat, but I can’t say I agree. [The Guardian]
Oscar nominee David Magee on the challenges of making “Life of Pi”‘s ending work — it took “dozens and dozens” of drafts, apparently. [Vulture]
aSandie Angulo Chen rounds up 10 Oscar winners whom, he claims, you’re “guaranteed” to think won for different films than the ones they did win for. I sense she’s not speaking for seasoned awards geeks. [Film.com]
The Academy’s Behind the Ballot series takes a look at the Production Design category. (Non-US readers, I’m afraid, won’t be able to access this.) [AMPAS]