Quick Oscar Pool Ballot

broderic on March 2, 2014

I’m just going to make my picks really quick. Here we go…

Best Picture: American Hustle
Actor: Chiwetel Ejiofor
Actress: Amy Adams
Supporting Actor: Jonah Hill
Supporting Actress: Jennifer Lawrence
Animated Film: Frozen
Cinematography: Gravity
Costume: American Hustle
Directing: David O Russell, American Hustle
Documentary Film: The Act of Killing
Documentary Short: Facing Fear
Film Editing: Gravity
Foreign Film: The Great Beauty
Makeup: Dallas Buyers Club
Music Original Score: Her
Music Original Song: “Let It Go,” Frozen
Production Design: American Hustle
Animated Film Short: Get A Horse!
Short Film Live Action: The Voorman Problem
Sound Editing: Gravity
Sound Mixing: Gravity
Visual FX: Gravity
Adapted Screenplay: 12 Years A Slave
Original Screenplay: Her

That’s quick. I’m not sure I even have all the categories. Plus, I chose those that were easy to type. I don’t even know if any of these are the front runners. Let’s see how many I get right. How about you?

UPDATED: Missed more than I guessed right. Next year I shouldn’t guess.

Oscars 2013

broderic on February 25, 2013

I didn’t even post my Oscar predictions. All I know is that several weeks ago I thought Argo was going to win best picture. After all the awards it has won, I stand by my prediction.

Consider this an open thread for discussion about tonight’s ceremony.

Let me hear your thoughts and predictions.

My Oscar Picks for 2012

broderic on February 26, 2012

Once again, I must apologize for not doing the fifth annual BrowserMetrics Oscar Pool. It is an end of an era, perhaps we can do this o mobile phone app some day? Here’s my picks done in a hasty manner. I don’t think I’ll get too many, but then I may hit them all. Just my luck I quit doing the Oscar Pool. Anyhow, if you still want, throw your picks in the comments and we’ll see how well we do. It’s a simple Oscar Pool!

Actor Leading Role: Jean Dujardin in “The Artist”
Actor in a Supporting Role: Christopher Plummer in “Beginners”
Actress in a Leading Role: Viola Davis in “The Help”
Actress in a Supporting Role: Melissa McCarthy in “Bridesmaids”
Animated Feature Film: “Rango” Gore Verbinski
Art Direction: Hugo
Cinematography: “The Tree of Life” Emmanuel Lubezki
Costume Design: “Hugo” Sandy Powell
Directing: “The Artist” Michel Hazanavicius
Documentary (Feature): “Undefeated”
Documentary (Short Subject): “The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom”
Film Editing: “Hugo” Thelma Schoonmaker
Foreign Language Film: “A Separation” Iran
Makeup: “The Iron Lady”
Music (Original Score):”Hugo” Howard Shore
Music (Original Song): “Man or Muppet” from “The Muppets”
Best Picture: “The Artist”
Short Film (Animated): “La Luna” Enrico Casarosa
Short Film (Live Action): “Time Freak” Andrew Bowler and Gigi Causey
Sound Editing: “Hugo”
Sound Mixing: “Hugo”
Visual Effects: “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2”
Writing (Adapted Screenplay):”Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”
Writing (Original Screenplay): “The Artist” Written by Michel Hazanavicius

Fifth BrowserMetrics Annual Oscar Pool

broderic on February 22, 2012

Sorry folks, I’m stopped at four. Five is a step too far — sort of like a movie franchise that doesn’t realize it should’ve ended at three. Besides there are better apps for that…

Let me leave you with the 2011 SciTech winners. And Milla Jovovich.

Link of the Day [11.30.11]

broderic on November 30, 2011

As the nights start getting colder (the days stay very warm) and the dark settles in earlier, the winter Oscar season heats up. I haven't watched to many of the contenders: I still haven't seen The Tree of Life. Yet, I been following the Oscar race on Grantland. Grantland is a website writing about sports, but they also have other writers writing about pop culture. I've been reading the Oscarmetrics column with devotion trying to figure out what to watch and to handicap for the Oscar Pool.It also helps me to figure out what to watch. Let's checkout what's playing at the Charles.http://www.grantland.com/search/_/query/mark-harris

Game Theory

broderic on March 5, 2011

Post Oscar Pool thoughts.

I had done the categories part of the Oscar Pool form soon after the nominations had gone out. I didn’t post it for a while because I was trying to figure out a better way to assign points. I had read slate’s take on point assignment and it made me want to change my scoring. I was looking to add a bit of strategy to making the choice. You can see it with the fact that I made the points a choice. (Although, Ness and Angeli didn’t notice).

It was trying to gauge how well you believe in your vote. Unfortunately, the strategy made for choosing the highest value if you wanted to win.

I wanted to make the votes themselves optional, but I feared that someone would win with 1 vote. I had wanted to add a 0 value along with the optional choice — that was the basis for the no-prize reference.

After all the scores had been , I went into theoretical mode. Who wins if all categories were worth the same points? Who wins in the straight pick ’em? I was able to see how the points worked, but not into how you would choose what. I could only see how the points affect your current choice, but not how the point system would affect your choice.

I’m thinking of a better point system for next year.

Scoring Update

broderic on February 28, 2011


Scoring Update
Originally uploaded by browsermetrics.
I graphed the scores from last nights Oscar frenzy showing how each of us did as the winners were announced.

Points if interest:
Everyone who started out bad had no chance. At least Annie, clawed her way out of the bad group and into the mediocre group.
Marge just stunk it up. Maybe if she had seen any movies she wouldn’t have been terrible.
Angeli and Ness could’ve scored higher if they knew about the scoring points.
At the Adapted Screenplay point, those with bad choices went south and the contenders rose. Separation is noticeable.
Akeshia made terrible choices after Documentary Short. I thought she had it, but she let one slip away.
It was all over by the Directing award. Brian and Eleanor jousting for the win.

The winner is actually Brian who guessed correctly on the first tie-breaker question: 4 Oscars to The King’s Speech.

Thanks again to all who played.