82nd Academy Awards / “I don’t go to the Oscars anymore. I stay home and watch them on television. That way, I can boo.”

That voice, crackling on the other end of the telephone line, belongs to a long-time Academy Awards voter, a member of five movie-industry guilds, a lady who said we could quote her as long as we didn’t use her name. She’s one voice among the 5,800 voters weighing in this year. Here are excerpts from her commentary.

On Best Picture: “Well, you have to give it to Avatar, don’t you? Although it gave me a headache. And James Cameron is a real putz. Nonetheless…”

Backstory: Avatar has grossed more money than any movie ever made. And it employed more than 3,000 technicians, most from the American film community.

On Best Actress: “I thought Meryl Streep was by far the best, but I voted for Sandra Bullock: it’s her turn.”

Backstory: Bullock is first female star to open a movie which then went on to make over $200 million. She had no name co-stars to help.

On Best Actor: “I voted for Jeff Bridges. He’s wonderful in a nothing picture. I knew his father, and Jeff has a stable, long-running marriage.”

Backstory: A genuine Hollywood home-town boy.

Best Director: “James Cameron–he’s a big liberal. The Hurt Locker depressed me.”

Backstory: Old-fashioned story plus revolutionary technique trumps realism.

On Best Original Screenplay: “Inglourious Basterds, although I didn’t stay for the whole thing. Too violent.”

Backstory: Killing Nazis is always big in Hollywood.

On Best Supporting Actress: “That talk-show girl Mo’Nique for Precious, but it wasn’t my kind of picture. Do people really live like that?”

Backstory: Our voter has lived in L.A. her whole life, but doesn’t go downtown because there are “too many of those people” there.

On Best Supporting Actor: I voted for Matt Damon, but, my God, Christopher Plummer is 80–how many more chances is he going to get? But Damon is such a good boy.”

Well, you get the idea. There are lots of reasons people vote the way they do: some are more conscientious than our interviewee, some probably even less. But it does remind this scribe of John Cusack’s famous line: “Hollywood is like high school with money.”

On March 7, on the ABC network, the Oscars, hosted by Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin, will be televised, claiming, as always, that it will be streamlined this time. However this year, there are l0–not five–nominated movies, so we’ll see what happens.

The Weeklies

Here’s our list of overlooked movies and performers somehow left out of the Oscar nominations. Best Cameo: Bill Murray in Zombieland; Funniest Foul-Mouthed Movie: In the Loop; Best Scenestealer: John Krasinski in It’s Complicated; Best 3-D movie: Coraline; Overlooked Performances: Julianne Moore in A Single Man, Peter Sarsgaard in An Education; Best Soundtrack: Up in the Air; Best Unbilled Role: Colin Farrell in Crazy Heart.

The 2011 Oscar-nomination season officially opens March 5 when Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland debuts.