Oscar Predictions

Any other movie-crazy fans out there? In my family growing up, The Academy Awards were our Super Bowl night, with lots of appetizers and everyone throwing a dollar into a hat with their predictions. All the money ($11!) went to whomever guessed the most winners correctly.

It was only when I was older that I learned a lot of people watch the Oscars for fashion, or celebrity-spotting. We were oblivious to most of that---we watched for the montages of old favorites and saw it as an extension of our family's celebration of storytelling.

Now, with kids of our own, we're lucky to see five movies a year in a theater. Of course, I hadn't seen them all as a kid either, so that never stops me from rooting for favorites or making my best guesses. Thanks to Redbox, we've seen all but "Black Swan" from the Best Picture category this year.

You can print out your own predictions here: http://awardswatch.fandango.com/2011/assets/pdf/fandangooscarsballot.pdf

And you can put your hat in the ring for prizes (top prize $100,000) if you can out guess Chicagoan Roger Ebert here:
http://mubi.com/oscars

And the NYT has their own contest too at http://oscars.nytimes.com/ballot/category/best-picture

So plan on popping corn on Sunday night and enjoy the show!