The Smarmy Carny

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.