And the winners are . . .

Yet again, I made my annual Oscars predictions and joined many contests.

Three years ago I correctly guessed 13 categories and two years ago I guessed 14 correctly. (Last year I got lazy.) This year, I didn't take very much time making my picks, and obviously the results show. This is my worst showing yet, as I only correctly guessed 11 of the 24 categories — my first year under 50%. That said, I'm happy with getting seven of the eight major categories correct. I simply did horrendously in the lesser categories this year.

Without further ado, here is how I fared on each of the 24 Oscars categories:

1. Best Picture
   Winner: No Country for Old Men
2. Best Actor
   Winner: Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood
3. Best Actress
   Winner: Marion Cotillard, La Vie en Rose
   My Pick: Julie Christie, Away from Her
4. Best Supporting Actor
   Winner: Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men
5. Best Supporting Actress
   Winner: Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton
6. Best Director
   Winner: Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men
7. Best Original Screenplay
   Winner: Juno
8. Best Adapted Screenplay
   Winner: No Country for Old Men
9. Animated Feature
   Winner: Ratatouille
10. Art Direction
    Winner: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
    My Pick: The Golden Compass
11. Cinematography
    Winner: There Will Be Blood
    My Pick: No Country for Old Men
12. Costume
    Winner: Elizabeth: The Golden Age
    My Pick: Atonement
13. Documentary Feature
    Winner: Taxi to the Dark Side
    My Pick: No End in Sight
14. Documentary Short Subject
    Winner: Freeheld
    My Pick: La Corona (The Crown)
15. Film Editing
    Winner: The Bourne Ultimatum
    My Pick: No Country for Old Men
16. Foreign Language Film
    Winner: The Counterfeiters
    My Pick: Katyn
17. Makeup
    Winner: La Vie en Rose
18. Original Score
    Winner: Atonement
19. Original Song
    Winner: "Falling Slowly," Once
20. Short Film, Animated
    Winner: Peter and the Wolf
    My Pick: Madame Tutli-Putli
21. Short Film, Live Action
    Winner: Le Mozart des Pickpockets (The Mozart of Pickpockets)
    My Pick: Tanghi Argentini
22. Sound Editing
    Winner: The Bourne Ultimatum
    My Pick: Transformers
23. Sound Mixing
    Winner: The Bourne Ultimatum
    My Pick: Transformers
24. Visual Effects
    Winner: The Golden Compass
    My Pick: Transformers

Oh well. Better luck next year.

For more details on Oscars prediction contests, read the Academy Awards Prediction Contests page. For the most recent Oscars posts, be sure to check out the Oscars/Academy Awards category page. There, you should find contests, predictions, and results.

Here are a handful of contests I have found since my previous post of contests. The Academy Awards Prediction Contests page has been updated accordingly.

• JoBlo
  Prize: Apple 80 GB iPod classic Silver ($236 ARV)
• AbsolutePunk
  Prize: Sports Night: The Complete Series DVD ($48 ARV)
• York Daily Record
  Prize: $30 gift certificate to Regal Cinemas ($30 ARV)
• Awards Daily
  Prize: Nothing ($0 ARV)

Oscar

For more details on Oscars prediction contests, read the Academy Awards Prediction Contests page. For the most recent Oscars posts, be sure to check out the Oscars/Academy Awards category page. There, you should find contests, predictions, and results.

Make sure you know who's in the running for each category! Print the official Oscars printable ballot.

The Contests:

• Oscars.com — ABC.com membership required
  Prize: One Women’s Right-hand ring from the Kwiat Star Collection, set in 18k white gold with 1.53cts or round brilliant and marquise cut diamonds.; One pair of Men’s Cufflinks from the Kwiat Men’s Solaris Collection, featuring black and white diamonds set in 18k white gold with 1.28cts or round brilliant diamonds. ($11,720 ARV)
• CNN.com
  Prize: 47" Flat Screen HDTV ($1,500 ARV)
• eFilmCritic — Unique method of entry for this one, as you can vote for multiple films in each category
  Prize: 50 DVDs (Est. $1,000 ARV)
• DE Concierge
  Prize: $100 gift certificate to Burke Williams Day Spa in CA, a $100 restaurant gift certificate, and a $100 gift certificate to the Arclight Cinema in LA ($300 ARV)
• AroundCinci
  Prize: Movie showings from Movies on Demand for an entire year — probably only redeemable by customers of Time Warner Cable in the Cincinatti region ($179.64 ARV)
• the-numbers.com
  Prize: All five Best Picture Nominees on DVD. (Est. $100 ARV)
• Kentucky.com
  Prize: $50 in movie tickets and a $50 gift certificate to a Lexington-area restaurant ($100 ARV)
• Movie City News
  Prize: Stanley Kubrick Box Set of DVDS and an MCN Know It All tee ($87 ARV)
• PredictTheOscars.com
  Prize: $50 VISA gift card ($50 ARV)
• Scuba.com
  Prize: $50 scuba.com gift certificate ($50 ARV)
• Fort Worth Public Library
  Prize: Two AMC movie passes, The Departed DVD, 2-liter bottle of Coca-Cola Classic, and a box of Orville Redenbacher's Microwave Gourmet Popping Corn (Est. $35 ARV)
• web-goddess
  Prize: One Striking Writer sock monkey (Est. $30 ARV)
• The Daily Camera and The Video Station
  Prize: Dinner and a movie for two (ARV unknown)
• The Augusta Chronicle
  Prize: An entertainment prize package (ARV unknown)
• The News Tribune
  Prize: Unknown
• Practicalmadness
  Prize: Unknown
• Box Office Mojo
  Prize: Nothing?
• Variety
  Prize: Nothing ($0 ARV)
• Entertainment Weekly
  Prize: "Bragging rights" ($0 ARV)
• TheEnvelope.com (Los Angeles Times) (Coming soon???)
  Prize: $1,000

Good luck to you, and have fun! (And if you win a prize, please feel free to share it with me!)

Here is the last batch of movies that are the third of three in its series:

• Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles: D Didn't we already see this movie? In the original, he goes to NYC and says the "That's not a knife" line. This time he goes to the west coast, where the jokes are exactly the same.
• Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: A+ This was a great sequel with stellar perfoemances from Harrison Ford and Sean Connery.
• Ocean's Thirteen B- This is a sequel of a sequel of a remake. It's more or less the same plot as before. But as long as it makes money, we'll keep seeing it.
• Star Wars—Episode III: Revenge of the Sith: B I enjoyed watching this dark chapter to the Star Wars saga, despite Hayden Christensen who seemed to be fresh out of the Keanu Reeves acting school when he showed up for Episode II.
• Star Wars—Episode VI: Return of the Jedi: B+ This movie tied up the entire plot, and Vader was taken care of in a semi-respectable manner. On the other hand, Ewoks abound in this movie. There was a huge uproar over Jar Jar with Episode I, but he paled in comparison to the annoying Ewoks.

Please feel free to leave a comment. What do you agree or disagree with, and why? Which third in a trilogy movies do you wish were included that I didn't cover in these four posts?

Here are some movies that are the third of three in its series:

• Austin Powers in Goldmember: B+ Again, there was a drop in quality by the time they reached the third episode of Austin Powers. The movie kept trying to play on the jokes that caught on in the first two movies, and it came across as desperate instead of funny. This was a funny movie, though, but if it had come first, there wouldn't have been any sequels.
• Friday After Next: C+ They lost Chris Tucker and Tony Cox after the original but picked up Mike Epps and Terry Crews. The writing was still as solid as the original, but the constant change in cast threw each sequel off pace a bit.
• The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King: A This movie kept the great pacing of the first two movies, with the exception that it had to tie up all the plots by the credits. For once, I can say that it was a good thing that a movie was not true to the book. Despite the 12 conclusions at the end of the movie, we didn't have to sit through the ridiculous ending the book offered us.
• Spider-Man 3: B+ This probably won't be a trilogy for long. Spider-Man 3 was at least better than Spider-Man 2, the movie I like to call "Tell Everyone I'm Peter Parker".
• Red: A Krzysztof Kieslowski is my favorite director, so the final installment of the Three Colors trilogy is a shoe-in! A beautiful story and a wonderful plot. So long as you don't mind subtitled, check it out.

Please feel free to leave a comment. What do you agree or disagree with, and why? Which items do you wish were included that I didn't cover here?

Here are some movies that are the third of three in its series:

• Back to the Future Part III: C+ A decent film, but not nearly as good as the first two. Though the plot picks up right from the end of BTTF2, it seems like a completely disconnected storyline.
• Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult: A- Leslie Neilsen could keep pumping this stuff out until he is 110 at the same quality.
• Look Who's Talking Now: D The two original movies were different from all those stupid talking animal movies because it featured talking babies After running out of material for that gag through two movies, they apparently decided to fall back on the standard talking animals.
• The Matrix Revolutions: B- The original Matrix was a truly great movie and left us wanting more. Sometimes it's best if that's the end of the story. The plot did get to play its One/Jesus analogy out in this final film, but after this one, we weren't wanting more.
• The NeverEnding Story III: B- There's a little more leniency with children's movies. (After all, they've made twelve The Land Before Time videos!) You could probably keep telling stories from this fantasy universe for decades to come . . . but just because you can, doesn't mean you should.

Please feel free to leave a comment. What do you agree or disagree with, and why?

Here are some movies that are the third of three in its series:

• Godfather Part III: D- This is the classic "ruining a classic series by making one too many". The Godfather Part II was a great sequel and even won six Oscars . . . and then they had to go and make this.
• Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves: F Execs knew this was a lousy idea, I think, so that's probably why it went straight to video. They did shrinking, then they did enlargening. And now we're back to shrinking again? Been there, done that.
• Major League: Back to the Minors: C+ This one isn't up there with the original, but it really wasn't that bad a movie for its genre. The only real problem is the oxy moron between the title and the subtitle.
• Naqoyqatsi: A- If you enjoyed Koyaanisqatsi and Powaqqatsi, this one lives up to the same standards.
• Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over: C- This one really played like a direct-to-video film. It lacked the luster of the first two Spy Kids movies.

Please feel free to leave a comment. What do you agree or disagree with, and why?