UPDATED: You Nominate Five Films for Best Picture of 2009

READ THIS FIRST: The first round has completed and the second round of voting is now open. To vote for the 53 films that moved on to the second round CLICK HERE.

UPDATE #2: Comments have been closed as polling for the first round has ended and the second round will be opening very shortly.

UPDATE: After looking over the logs I have noticed SEVERAL people have been voting for fewer than five films. Of course the poll allows you to do this, but the rules clearly state you need to vote for FIVE films, which will make for a far more accurate count. As a result I have deleted the logs and votes for those that voted for three films or less. I can understand how you may have accidentally voted for only four films, but no fewer. I will continue to monitor the logs up and through the closing of the poll and before we move into final voting so please stick to the rules.

What this means is if you are part of the group that had your votes deleted you can vote once again, but will need to be sure to vote for five films this time as the rules clearly stipulate. This is obviously a work in progress so please bare with me as the kinks are worked out. If I try this again next year I will most likely wait until mid-February and develop my own voting system as opposed to using a generic polling widget.

I will also be including more than 15 films in the upcoming poll in search of a top ten. Right now I am thinking more like 50 and allow you to vote for ten films out of that 50. Like I said… a work in progress. Thanks for bearing with me and stay tuned.

I have never tried this before so I’m working blind here in hopes this is something you like and can be expanded upon next year. I have listed 175 movies from 2009 below and am asking you to nominate five films as your choice for Best Picture of 2009. Notice, this is not a prediction article. I’m asking for your opinion only. What five films do you consider to be the best of 2009?

How this will work, is I will close this poll on Wednesday night, at which time I will take the top 15* nominated films and post a new poll so we can get down to a final list of the top ten films of 2009 as determined by RopeofSilicon users, which will obviously include your choice of the #1 film of 2009. My plan is to post the final results on Tuesday, January 5, the day after I post my personal award choices in the 2nd Annual RopeofSilicon Awards. So start voting and share this poll with your friends around the Internet so we can get a large group of opinions.

Also, while I included 175 movies, if one is not on the list that you wish to be on the list be sure to comment below, because if you don’t there is no chance it will be included in the final voting. If enough people mention the same film in the comments.

Now get to nominating, and remember you are voting on FIVE films. I must admit, I am extremely curious to see how your opinions rank. Will Avatar top your lists? I would bet Pixar’s Up will be in the final 15 and the same goes for Inglourious Basterds, District 9, Star Trek, (500) Days of Summer and The Hangover. But how about some of the middle-range buzzy films such as Zombieland, Moon, Where the Wild Things Are. Or perhaps the box-office surprise superstar The Blind Side or limited release awards contenders such as Up in the Air, The Hurt Locker, An Education and Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire? Any Meryl Streep fans out there going to rush to support Julie and Julia and/or It’s Complicated? Is it possible there are enough Watchmen fans to give it a chance?