8^th Annual Predict The Oscars! Contest

The 82^nd Academy Awards opened with a rather grand spectacle to usher in co-hosts, Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin.  They did a fine job tying together the show although I didn't find this year's awards as exciting or funny as I expected.  Most of the acceptance speeches were pretty good with just a few rambling on until the hook pulled the recipient off the stage.  And I was greatly relieved to hear after the presentation of the animated short subject award that no logos were harmed during the making of Logorama.

The  Vote Summary and final Leader Board are still available if you didn't get a chance to see how people voted or where you finished the night.   In general people scored pretty well this year and predictions were certainly focused onto the winners except in a few instances where there was a fair split between The Hurt Locker and Avatar.  Awards were spread throughout a number of films this year but The Hurt Locker was clearly the big winner and Up In The Air was shut out.

Congratulations to our contest winners:

Well, as they say, that's a wrap, and in keeping with the situation, I'd like to thank all the contestants who played our game again this year.  I hope it made your evening more enjoyable.  It certainly does for me.  Thanks to ABC for televising the presentations.  Congratulations to all the Oscar winners and nominees.  Your awards were very well deserved.  And finally, special thanks to the often under recognized members of the film industry (those names you see roll by in the credits long after the directors, producers and stars) without whom we wouldn't have such a large number of high quality films again this year.

Bob Stanza - Editor - Predict The Oscars!

4^th Annual Predict The Golden Globes! Contest

So the 2010 Golden Globes are in the books.  The Hollywood Foreign Press always seems to put together a good show and I appreciate their support of film.  They are a great leading indicator for what will happen during the Oscars later in the awards season.

Since I leave the country (again) tomorrow morning I'm going to make this pretty short for now.  I think the most interesting thing about these awards was that there was no film (or television show) that cleaned up.  Five films/shows received two awards (Avatar, Crazy Heart, Up, Grey Gardens and Up) so predicting other awards is going to take some thought this year.  Nine and Invictus were shut out, probably limiting their prospects for a turn around at the box office.  Both received a lot of early talk but that hasn't lead to box office or award success so far.

For our game, scores actually ran higher than any of our other Golden Globe contests.  Congratulations to our winners:

The Oscars are a little later this year.  Nominees are to be announces on Feb 2 so get out to the theatre and catch up on what you've missed and remember to come back and play the 8th Annual Predict The Oscars! contest.

What's On Your List To See

I've had this out for a while and it seems, at least for the most part, to be a pretty good "must see" list   Here it is (courtesy of Entertainment Weekly).

Why Do I Have To Pick Them All To Save?

I've been asked several times, "Why do I have to pick all the nominees before I save my ballot if I can change them later?"  Fair question.

The reason is, before I required this I had people leave some blank and not remember to update them until it was too late.  That gives you a 0% chance of getting points.  If you just make your best guess to start with you can always change your entry later an if you don't get around to it you're still in the running for points in that category.  I think no matter which way I set it up, someone would want it the other way.  So I choose to have you put in a little more effort now instead of being disappointed later.

Predict The Oscars! Accounts

The option to set-up user accounts was added in a limited way last season so you could modify your ballot selections.  These have now been fully integrated into the site including options to review, print and modify your contest ballot, set-up private games for you and your friends and maintain your own Movie Log page.

What we're doing is making available to everyone the features we want for ourselves.  Simple as that.  There is no charge and of course we promise never to provide any membership information to others.

Help!

Since we now have a number of features that require your interaction we have started adding Help pages in case you aren't sure how to use them.  These aren't yet complete but many are available.  If you don't find what you're looking for you can still contact us using feedback for more information.

Site Mission

The primary purpose of the Predict The Oscars! site is to increase appreciation of the motion picture arts.  As such it will focus on films, the film industry and the professional lives of those who make them.  It is not a fan page for a particular movie and will not report on the personal lives of actors.

As the title suggests, this site resulted from an annual contest to predict Academy Award winners.  Again this year you will be able to submit your predictions on-line and set up an account where you can review your predictions and submit movie reviews.