10^th Annual Predict The Oscars! Contest Wrap-Up!

What can I say about this year.  Not much, unfortunately, because I spent the weeks leading up to the big event preparing for a warehousing system rollout in Canada.  Because I was on conference calls much of the time during the show, I watched mostly on mute so had to read the captions.  Despite all this I hope those of you who played enjoyed it.  I wanted to make the 10^th anniversary of the game more grand than ever but that just wasn't in the cards.  Cross your fingers along with me that I have a little more free time this coming year and we'll make the 11^th Annual Predict the Orcars! Contest the biggest and best ever!.

So straight into the winners.  We had a two way tie for first place.  Jerry and Aaron both picked the same most willing movie, The Artist, and the same number of wins, 6, so the winner of the first place prize was chosen by random drawing and is:

I return home this weekend and I will contact the winners to get your prizes delivered.  Thank you to all who played this year.  Thanks to the film makers and actors who worked tirelessly to make such a great group of movies for us.  Thanks to the Academy for hosting the awards again.  And a special thanks to their legal council who graciously listened and acknowledged that our purpose is to support the AMPAS mission and therefore didn't close us down.  But that's a story for another day.  I look forward to this coming year with great eagerness and hope that you will join us again for the 11^th Annual Predict the Orcars! contest.

Bob Stanza - Editor - Predict The Oscars!

6^th Annual Predict The Golden Globes! Contest Wrap-up

I sure hope the lack of interest in this contest doesn't reflect a general disinterest in film, television or for that matter, awards shows!  I know I got things started a bit late but really expected a few more players.  Thanks to those of you who did cast votes this year.  I appreciate your continued participation.  Maybe if I sold tickets to watch George Clooney and  Michael Fassbender play golf I'd make enough to offer prizes next year.

Is it just me or did the guests at the the Beverly Hilton seem less than enthused about having Ricky Gervais back this year?  Maybe not.  A lot of them seemed loaded up with their own ammunition to shoot back.  But actually, this year's show seemed a little lack luster.  There were some fun moments.  Thank you to the cast of Modern Family for one of the funnier acceptance speeches of the show.  Octavia Spencer didn't fall off of her high heels or we'd have missed that thank you for table 10.  We learned that William H Macy and Felicity Huffman could hold a tune and that Matt LeBlanc is much more interesting in Episodes than Matt LeBlanc is in real life.  No wait, we already knew that.  

It was great to see Sidney Poitier and Helen Mirren present the Cecil B DeMille Award to Morgan Freemen.  He certainly deserves the honor.  AFI presented him with the lifetime achievement award in 2011 so it's been a special 12 months for this wonderful actor.  I truly hope these were presented too soon and that Morgan continues to make touching, funny and exciting films for years to come.

Enough about the show, on to our winners of the 6^th annual Predict the Golden Globes! contest.  Some familiar names showed up at the top.  In fact, our winner and runner up from last year switched places this year and turned in some fantastic scores!  Congratulations to our top three scoring contestants:

I'm glad my score doesn't show up on the leader board because I came in last place!  Going to have to spend a good bit of time at the theatre and downloading films from Netflix over the next 6 weeks.  Have to be ready because it's the 10^th anniversary for the Predict the Oscars! contest.  Please come back in a couple of weeks to cast your ballot!

Bob Stanza - Editor - Predict The Oscars!

6^th Annual Predict The Golden Globes! Contest

As usual, far too many things going on to not fall behind on most of them but I finally carved out time for a couple of days and the 6^th Annual Predict The Golden Globes! contest is now open!  Unfortunately I still have no sponsor so there are no prizes this year except the notoriety you will surely receive from getting your name and score published on our site throughout the awards season.  If anyone out there would like to donate some prizes in return for being named as our exclusive sponsor, well, that would be pretty cool too.  Just drop me a line through Feedback and we'll work something out.

Looks like The Artist, The Descendants and The Help are the films to see this season, at least according to the Hollywood Foreign Press.  Given the success of the print versions of The Help and The Descendants staring, George Clooney I doubt anyone is greatly surprised to see these at the top of the nominee heap.  But to date, The Artist has grossed about $5 million so people just don't seem to be picking up on the buzz on this little film yet.  It is now showing at one theatre in St. Louis and my wife and I will be there within the next week to see for ourselves.

Please set yourself up an account if you haven't already.  It makes things so much easier for you and for me to have you just change your predictions rather than entering a new ballot.  I hate having to sort through duplicates just because you need to make a single change.  As I've been saying for years now, we give this information to no one.  It's just something that makes the game more fun for everyone.

Good luck this year!  Be sure to get out to, rent or download some of the fine nominees this season.  I'm sure you won't be dissapointed.

Bob Stanza - Editor - Predict The Oscars!

Oscar Predictions - Art Meets Science

I got an email from Brian at Movie Gamut telling me about a site that he, Nick and Eric have put together.  They have combined their knowledge of statistics with their love of movies to help people with their Oscar predictions.  You can see the results of this unlikely marriage on their Final Countdown page.  Please take a look at what they have to offer as well as their explanation of the method used in the calculation.

But keep in mind, it takes a lot of skill and a little bit of luck to win this contest.  They seem to have a pretty good handle on the skill but as my brother-on-law Danny always said about the football pool, it's picking the upset special that will make or break you!

Bob Stanza - Editor - Predict The Oscars!

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.