“The Help” was the clear winner on both questions; 47.9% of responding readers have seen the movie, and 30.8% believe it should win an Oscar.  

“Moneyball” came in second for most seen (31.5%), followed by “Midnight in Paris” (26%), “The Descendants” (24.7%), “War Horse” (23.3%), “The Artist” (13.7%) and “Hugo” (12.3%). Only 6.8% of readers responding said they have seen “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close”; only 4.1% have seen “The Tree of Life.”  

Twenty-one percent of readers indicated they have seen none of the Best Picture nominees.  

As for which picture should win, NewsDash readers weren’t extremely passionate about any of the films. Following “The Help,” 15% voted for “War Horse” and 14% voted for “The Descendants.” Fourteen percent said none of them should win.  

 “The Artist” received 9.6% of reader votes, and “Hugo,” “Midnight in Paris” and “Moneyball” each received votes by 5.8% of respondents. “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” and “The Tree of Life” received no votes.  

In comments, readers expressed distaste with expanding the number of nominations to 10, and many indicated they hadn’t heard of some of the nominations. Some expressed that not only did they not see many of the nominations, but they had no interest in seeing them.  

The general feeling was summed up best by one reader who commented: “I suppose that the Academy did the best they could with what they had to work with.” 

Verbatim 

sure wish the "good" movies would not all be released during the busiest time of the year! It is going to take me until NEXT year to catch up. 

I saw parts of "Midnight in Paris" and slept through the rest. 

I suppose that the Academy did the best they could with what they had to work with. Unfortunately, despite the Acadameys insinuation that they would focus more on what the average joe preferred vs. what experts consider art, this year's class includes some very "artsy" movies that the average movie goer most likely never saw or were even in interested in seeing. 

When I was a kid (cough-chuckle), they called today's "animation-enhanced" movies cartoons! Gimme back the good 'ol sparkler-propelled spaceships dangling by fishing line and piloted by foam rubber monsters. 

Without seeing them all, it's difficult to identify which would win. Of the four I've seen, I would vote for The Artist as the most inventive and expressive of the year. That said, will it have GWTW staying power - not likely. The Help will have that. 

There are too many best picture nominees. I think it is more prestigious to have a set number of nominees each year (like the 5 or so in the past) rather than a range of up to 10. 

The only one I’ve seen is “Moneyball”, and although pretty good, it’s not what I’d call “Oscar material”. Life makes me cry enough, which rules out “Extremely Loud & Incredible Close” and “Warhorse” as those two have ‘tear jerker’ written all over them. I’ve read “The Help” and I hear they did a great job with the movie, so even though I haven’t seen it, it probably gets my vote. The others, I know nothing about (not enough hours in the day to see movies). 

A much better mix than prior years! 

The Tree of Life, seriously? I was like what I imagine a bad acid trip would be. 

Some of the best actors were not nominated. 

I really didn't expect to like The Artist as much as I did since it is mostly a silent movie but it is fantastic. This is the first year in a long time that I've seen most of the nominated films and I agree with all the nominations. It's been a grat year for film. 

Of all of the nominated movies, I only saw Moneyball. Therefore, it receives my vote for Best Picture. 

On Movies In General: When political comment and dark/evil themes become more important than entertainment, then movies have no value. And for all Hollywood's so-called "realism" they are so fond of bragging about, they produce the most UNREAL trash imagineable while pandering to the lowest form of mankind. The ads alone are just revolting. Yet the masses follow along behind the Pied Piper dishing out praise and buying tickets. 

Midnight in Paris should not be nominated. It was o.k., but not that good. 

they are not really that great! Kind of relates the quality of movies being made these days. 

I use the nominations and awards to populate my Netflix queue. 

Expanding the field to 10 films is all about making money, It's hard enough finding 2-3 that are worthy of best film. The Artist is by far the best movie of the year. Nothing compares. 

Verbatim (cont.)   

Have not even heard of many of them. Don't want to see any of them based on titles. Seen the ads for War Horse and there is no way I will see it. I am not interested in The Artist as it is silent. If I want that, I will read a book. 

I haven't seen any movies for so long now I forgot what a movie is - I have read The Help - does that count? 

I've only seen one nominee, Moneyball, but if the others are the same caliber, I think I'll skip them all. Moneyball equals two hours of my life I'd like back, please. 

Boring! 

I haven't seen the film War Horse, but I have seen the play. If the film is as good as the play, then it should be the Best Picture. 

This was good year for the movies. I think it will be a real "horse race" to detemine the winner. Go War Horse! 

None of them were as good as The King's Speech. 

Yet again, about half of these, as usual, I have never heard of. 

There was a time when I would have made a point of seeing all the nominees, even if I were not otherwise interested in the film. I'm glad they still hold the competition, but I don't participate anymore, even as an observer. 

Apparently I need to schedule more date nights with my husband as I have only seen 2 of the movies! 

Chose War Horse for Best Picture. Heard it was good but I have not seen any of the movies nominated.