OscarMania '15!

[Michael Davidson]

Hey all,

It's time to make your picks for my annual Academy Awards Pool! I know I'm sending out the ballot a little later than in years past, but most people don't make their picks until the last week anyway, so you all should have plenty of time.

 For those who haven't played in the past, there's no money involved (since none of us are particularly good at this), so there's no reason NOT to play. For those who have played before, you can skip down to the "Here's how to play" section for the ballot and tie-breaker rules.

Here's how it works:

At the bottom of this e-mail is a link to a ballot with the names of all of the nominees for all of the categories (see? you don't even have to do any research!). All you'll need to do is fill out the ballot with who you think will win each category (or with wild-ass guesses, if that's more your style). The ballot also has a slot for a tie-breaker (see below for details).

We've divided up the categories into two chunks: The Top Half (which includes Best Picture and Director, both Screenplay awards, all four Acting awards, and Animated Feature), and The Bottom Half (which includes everything else).

When all the awards have been handed out, I will tabulate the scores and announce the top 5 pickers/guessers for The Top Half, The Bottom Half, Overall, and the Tie-Breaker.

Here's why you shouldn't be scared of playing:

If you're thinking "I'm going to totally suck at this! The only movie I saw this year was Let's Be Cops!", my answer is: seriously? My other answer is: we're all kind of bad at this. Our overall performance is mediocre at best. Our group tends to average around 50% correct for the top-half, 35% for the bottom half, and 40% overall. If you do horribly, you'll be in good company. Also, if you've seen the third Hobbit movie, the second Captain AmericaGuardians of the Galaxy, X-men: Days of Future Past, The Lego Movie, Big Hero 6, or Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, you've seen at least one nominee.

Here's how to play:

Just click this link:

http://goo.gl/forms/yzGW9xY53G


And fill out the ballot, if you want in. The ballot must be submitted by 6:30 ET on Sunday, February 22!

I use Google Drive to tabulate scores, and while I will send a summary of the results (e.g. Top Fives and some random stats) out over e-mail, if you want a look at the full results, you'll need a Google/Gmail account. The last couple years, I have been posting scores in real time on Oscar Night and it worked out pretty well. I'm not sure I'll be able to stay awake till the end this year, but we might be doing that again. If so, you'll need a Google/Gmail account to get live score updates.

We are going to stick with the tie-breaker system we've used for the last few years, which worked pretty well:

How many people will be named in this year's In Memorium montage (you know, the series of clips where they show all the people who have died in the past year)? I will be counting names, not faces, so if they show somebody but don't give their name, they won't be included.

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions about any of this,
let me know.

Good luck!

- Mike

P.S. If there's anyone I'm missing that should be in on this, let me know. And I'm sorry if you've received this twice. And if you want me to stop sending you these e-mails every year, because you are not interested in participating ever, let me know that, too. I promise I won't be offended.