It's easy to forget their are thousands of Academy members voting on which films win what at the Oscars. While we find out the overall winners, the individual ballots remain a secret.

Except when a voter anonymously breaks their silence from time to time. And one 'brutally honest' Academy member has spoken to the Hollywood Reporter about her ballot for this year's batch of nominees.

The female member of the Academy's public relations branch says she chose The Imitation Game as her first choice for best picture, followed by Birdman. She explains "what you should try to do is vote for the movie that, years from now, people will still watch and talk about. For some years, it's like, 'Huh?! Around the World in 80 Days [the winner for 1956] won best picture? Are you kidding me?' So I try to vote in a way so that, in 50 years, people aren't going to go, 'Huh?!'?

For best director, she opted for Boyhood's Richard Linklater, but added "I thought all of the others were fine except for one: I could have watched my hair grow during Foxcatcher — it was so slow."

One of her reasons for choosing Michael Keaton as best actor? She says what he "had to do was harder than what the others had to do because they had the benefit of playing real people." Also because he seems "like a completely sane person".

It's well worth reading the whole article for an illuminating and indeed honest look behind the scenes of this Sunday's awards. And, while you're at it, you can check out Philip Molloy's predictions for the awards.