Oscar

For more details, hints, and tips 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.

81st Academy Awards Prediction Contests:

• Oscars.com
  Prize: Unknown ($? ARV)
• eFilmCritic — Unique method of entry for this one, as you can vote for multiple films in each category
  Prize: 50 DVDs, Robert Osborne's 80 Years of Oscar book, 2 passes to your local IMAX theatre (Est. $1,315 ARV)
• DE Concierge
  Prize: a $100 gift certificate to Burke Williams Day Spa in CA, a $100 gift certificate, and a $100 gift certificate to the Arclight Cinema in LA ($300 ARV)
• The Golden Schmoes
  Prize: iPod Video ($250 ARV)
• the-numbers.com
  Prize: All five Best Picture Nominees on DVD. (Est. $100 ARV)
• web-goddess
  Prize: One pair of Batman and Joker sock monkeys (Est. $60 ARV)
• Scuba.com
  Prize: $50 scuba.com gift certificate ($50 ARV)
• Fort Worth Public Library
  Prize: No Country for Old Men DVD, Two AMC movie passes, 2-liter bottle of Coca-Cola Classic, and a box of Orville Redenbacher's Microwave Gourmet Popping Corn (Est. $35 ARV)
• York Daily Record
  Prize: $25 gift certificate to Regal Cinemas ($25 ARV)
• The Augusta Chronicle
  Prize: An entertainment prize package ($? ARV)
• Practicalmadness
  Prize: Store credit or gift certificate ($? ARV)
• PredictTheOscars.com
  Prize: Unknown ($? ARV)
• The Daily Camera and The Video Station
  Prize: Unknown ($? ARV)
• The News Tribune
  Prize: Unknown ($? ARV)
• Box Office Mojo
  Prize: Unknown ($? ARV)
• Variety
  Prize: Unknown ($? ARV)
• Awards Daily
  Prize: Unknown ($? ARV)
• Rochester, MN Post-Bulletin
  Prize: Unknown ($? ARV)

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

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!)

This post discusses Oscars contests for the Academy Awards that took place on Sunday, March 5, 2006. 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.

Oscar's no grouch

Here is my annual list of Oscars prediction contests. For those of you who enjoy predicting the winners each year (and also for those of you who hate it, but predict it anyway), here's a way to take up an hour or two and possibly win some cool swag if you're lucky. Enter away, and good luck!

I included some hints and suggestions at the end of this post. Also, I have some guidelines that determine which contests are displayed and which are not. Contests must be:

1. Skill-based. You pick the winners. No "enter your name and cross your fingers" lottery-style games here. If you've got knowledge and skill, get them all right. Then, you'll have a better chance.
2. English only. Sorry, no hablo francais.
3. National. No regional contest prizes. Most people reading this won't care about winning a dinner for two in Vancouver. If regional prizes are open to people in any location with non-regional prizes, they will be included. If there is a regional prize included but the grand prize also includes a generic prize, I will probably include the contest.
4. Open to Americans. Americans must be eligible to enter. If you are under 18 (and maybe even if you're under 21), you'll want to double-check the rules to see if you're eligible.
5. Free. Must be free. Registration might be a requirement, but
6. Up to you. I will do my best to skim rules and regulations to confirm what I've mentioned above. No promises that I didn’t miss something. It’s up to you to read the rules yourself. I'm not responsible. I am also not responsible for any spam you might receive as a result of entering these contests. The guidelines above do not check for privacy or anything of the sort. I myself have created a special e-mail just for contests to catch all the spam (and congratulatory winners' e-mails, of course).

Listings will be of the following format:

• Site name (links directly to contest page) — Description or details, if necessary.
  Grand Prize(s) offered. You can read the details for any lesser prizes.

And now, without (even further) ado . . .

The Contests:

Confirmed Contests:

I have entered these and confirmed that they abide by my guidelines above. Unless noted, you can enter these until at least midnight (or 11:59PM) before the Oscars ceremony. Some will let you enter right up until the ceremony begins.

• Oscars.com & Entertainment Weekly — ABC.com membership required
  Prize: All-expense paid weekend in Hollywood to watch your favorite stars arrive at the 79th Academy Awards in 2007
• CNN.com
  Prize: Home Theater System including a 32" LCD HDTV
• Minnesota Post-Bulletin
  Deadline: Thursday, March 2, 2006, 12:00 Midnight CST
  Prize: $100
• Lexington Herald-Leader and Kentucky.com
  Deadline: Friday, March 3, 2006, 12:00 Noon. Time zone unknown.
  Prize: $50 in movie tickets; $50 gift certificate to the Lexington restaurant Oscars
• CentreDaily.com
  Deadline: Friday, March 3, 2006, 5:00 PM. Time zone unknown.
  Prize: Movie theater gift certificate
• Louisville Courier-Journal
  Deadline: Friday, March 3, 2006, 5:00 PM. Time zone unknown.
  Prize: $200 plus an official Oscar program and 78th annual Academy Awards poster
• oregonlive.com
  Deadline: Friday, March 3, 2006, 8:59 PM PST
  Prize: 40 Regal Cinema Movie Passes
• WoKJ's Ultimate Oscar Contest
  Deadline: Saturday, March 4, 2006, 12:00 Noon EST
  Prize: DVDS of 72 of the 77 Best Picture Oscar winners.
• Scuba.com
  Deadline: Saturday, March 4, 2006, 12:00 Noon PST
  Prize: $100 gift certificate for scuba.com
• Fort Worth Public Library — Enter once per day!
  Prize: Million Dollar Baby DVD; Two (2) free passes to AMC Theatres; 2-liter bottle of Coca-Cola Classic; A box of Orville Redenbacher's Microwave Gourmet Popping Corn
• Movieline's Hollywood Life
  Prize: JVC TH-C5 Digital Theater System; over a dozen Oscar-nominated films
• FilmGuru.Net
  Prize: $25 gift certificate to the FilmGuru.Net store; FilmGuru.Net t-shirt
• the-numbers.com
  Prize: Three Best Picture winners of your choice on DVD or video
• n:zone Movies
  Prize: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on DVD; Corpse Bride on DVD; Mrs. & Mrs. Smith on DVD; Robots on DVD; Harry Potter t-shirt; Harry Potter hat; North Country hat; North Country t-shirt; North Country thermal shirt
• Box Office Mojo (Registration required, but not only do you get to predict who you think will win, you get to also vote for who you think should win!)
  Prize: Last year, it was a one-year Premier Pass on Box Office Mojo. As I cannot find official rules this year (yet), I am not sure that it's the same prize, or even if there is a prize at all.
• The Daily Camera
  Prize: $500 Gift Certificate from McGuckin Hardware
• AroundCinci
  Prize: 17" SpongeBob SquarePants TV/DVD; Premium items from your favorite movies
• TV Oracle
  Prize: $25 gift certificate to Best Buy
• web-goddess
  Prize: one-of-a-kind, never-before-produced gay sock monkey cowboys with hats, boots, and lots of love.
• OscarWatch
  Prize: Unknown (possibly none)
• DE Concierge
  Deadline: Friday, March 3, 2006, 12:00 Noon. Time zone unknown.
  Prize: Three Oscar winning films on DVD; a relaxing massage at the day spa of your choice; dinner for two at the hot restaurant of your choice; six AMC Gold movie tickets
• Raven's Cry Theatre
  Prize: Unknown. Possibly movie passes
• Practicalmadness — This one's a bit different. Read carefully. Registration required but only uses Name/e-mail/password.
  Prize: TBA
• The Augusta Chronicle
  Deadline: Friday, March 3, 2006, 5:00 PM. Time zone unknown.
  Prize: an entertainment prize pack featuring a selection of CDs, DVDs and other surprises
• Drew's "Predict The Oscars…Poorly" Contest — With Drew's contest, be sure to pick losers for every category.
  Prize: Fifty movie goodies (posters, promos, keychains, magnets, hats, postcards, buttons, soundtracks, bumper stickers, bookmarks, yadda yadda)
• Norwich Bulletin — No online form. You must e-mail your picks. (See page for further details.)
  Deadline: Monday, February 27, 2006, 3:00 PM. Time zone unknown.
  Prize: $50
• Lansing State Journal
  Deadline: Monday, February 27, 2006, 5:00 PM. Time zone unknown.
  Prize: $100 (You may have to travel to Lansing to pick the prize up within 60 days.)
• The News Tribune — Enter once per day! Registration required.
  Deadline: Wednesday, March 1, 2006, 5:00 PM. Time zone unknown.
  Prize: Take nine of your closest friends to the movies

Tiebreakers:

Here are the tiebreaker and/or nontraditional questions you will encounter in some of these contests:

• Which film will win the most awards?
• How many awards will the most decorated film win?
• How many awards will Brokeback Mountain win on Oscar night?
• Who will win the Best Live Action Short Film award?
• Who will win the Best Song award?
• Who will design Reese Witherspoon's dress?
• Pick a number between 1 and 100.
• Choose A Number between 1 and 1,000.
• How many films did my mom see in the theater in the calendar year 2005?
• How long will the Oscar ceremony last?
• How many dead people will be featured in the annual Hollywood obituary tribute reel?

Before you start entering, be sure you already know what has been nominated in which categories! Print the official Oscars printable ballot or the Yahoo's printable Oscars ballot and make your picks first. Based on years of contest entry experience, I guarantee that this will make your life easier. You might also want to decide on your tiebreaker answers ahead of time, too. See the end of this post for the current list. Also, it's up to you, but I suggest entering the same picks in every contest you enter. First, this makes it much, much easier to keep track of how well you do in the contests. Second, you might think that "If I enter in multiple contests and try various selections, I'm more likely to win something," but the problem is that, even if you get all the selections correct, you're (usually) still in a drawing among all the other winners. If you nail the picks, then you've got a dozen or so chances to win. If you only get the correct picks in one or two different contests, you might not win anything at all.

Feel free to bookmark the Academy Awards page. There, you will find this information, as well as predictions and results.

Oscar and his friends

This post discusses Oscars contests for the Academy Awards that took place on , 2005. For the most recent Oscars posts, be sure to check out the Oscars/Academy Awards category page. There, you should find prediction posts, present and past, and perhaps some other Oscars-related thoughts.

Update: The contest entry windows have all closed! For crying out loud, if you're waiting until now, you've procrastinated longer than I have. Congratulations. You lose.

Every year, I go ahead and look for various Academy Awards predictions contests. Every year I sort through dozens of pages to find a bunch of contests. This year, I figured I would share my findings. Sorry that I'm putting this up so late, but I'm a procrastinator, so I'm just getting it done now. Perhaps next year I'll work on getting this out sooner. In fact, many contests have already ended.

Strategically, you're best off figuring out which picks you will make before you start. Print the official Oscars ballot or EW's pretty ballot and make your picks. That will save you time.

Well, I do have some guidelines I used in picking which sites to show here. I'm not too discriminatory about this, but I do have some limits.

1. You pick the winners. No "enter your name and cross your fingers" stuff here. If you've got knowledge and skill, get them all right and have a better chance than just a regular lottery-style game.
2. English only.
3. No regional contest prizes. I don't care if I win a dinner for two in Vancouver, and you probably don't either. Some regional sites will be used if they offer a generic prize.
4. No Canada. I didn't look at sites from .ca because most of those are restricted to Canadians.
5. Not expired. If the contest expires before some time on Sunday, I noted that fact.
6. I will do my best to skim rules and regulations to confirm what I've mentioned above. No promises that I didn't miss something. It's up to you to read the rules yourself if you care.
7. Of course, I make no claims about spamming resulting from these contests. I myself have created a special e-mail just for contests to catch all the spam (and congratulatory winners' e-mails, of course).

Listings will be of the following format:

• Site name (links directly to contest page) — Description of the page, along with any pertinent restrictions.
  Grand Prize(s) offered. You can read the details for any lesser prizes.

Confirmed contests: I have entered these and confirmed that they abide by my guidelines above. Unless noted, you can enter these until at least midnight before the Oscars ceremony. Some will let you enter right up until the ceremony begins.

• Oscars.com — The official site. Need I say more?
  Ultimate Home Theater System
• CNN.com — Skewed news, nice prize
  32" LCD HDTV; $1000 cash
• HardRock.com — Entry did not work when I tried it first, but worked later.
  Two Red Carpet bleacher seats to the 78th Academy Awards Red Carpet pre-show
• The New York Times — More skewed news, decent prize
  Dream vacation for 2. Destination options: London, England (Finding Neverland); Hollywood, CA (The Aviator); or California's Central Coast wine country (Sideways)
• Movieline
  JVC TH-M505 Home Theater System; 60 Oscar-nominated DVDs
• filmguru.net — Small prizes, but probably a better chance of winning
  $25 Amazon.com gift certificate; FilmGuru.Net t-shirt
• the-numbers.com
  DVDs of your choice
• Quad-Cities Online
  Trip for 4 to Universal Orlando Resort in Florida
• N:Zone
  A Million Dollar Baby "Hit Pit" Hoodie Sweatshirt; A Troy Candle set, t-shirt, hat and envelope opener; A Phantom of the Opera music box, t-shirt, magnets and bracelet; A Ray movie poster; A Sideways golf ball set and polo/golf shirt; The Motorcycle Diaries on DVD
• Miami Herald(click "Enter the Herald's Oscars Contest") — Contest closes Friday, February 25, 2005 at 3 p.m. EST
  Panasonic DIGA DVD Recorder with TV Guide On Screen(TM)
• oregonlive.com — Contest closes Friday, February 25, 2005 at 9 p.m. PST
  20 movie tickets
• scuba.com — Contest closes Saturday, February 26, 2005 at 12 noon PST
  $100 Gift Certificate for scuba.com
• Lexington Herald-Leader — Contest closes Friday, February 25, 2005 at 12 noon PST
  $50 gift certificate to the Lexington restaurant Oscar's; plus $50 in movie tickets; the official Oscars poster
• Box Office Mojo
  one-year Premier Pass on Box Office Mojo

After the Oscars are over, I'll probably post my picks and how they stacked up with the actual winners. I usually do fairly horribly, so it should be funny. Update: I did, in fact, decide to do this. Read my picks here.