Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Are You "Best Actress" Psychic?

NEW CONTEST

I've been teasing this but it's time to get it underway. This is the longest Oscar contest evah... and it's only recommended for boys and girls who like truly luuuurve their movie actresses. You'll pick five female performances to predict for next year's Oscars. You'll experience the thrill of victory and defeat as your stars fall and rise throughout the next 10 months and your point totals escalate... or don't. Best Actress related prizes (tba) go out to the winner and runner-up in January when the contest ends.

Predicting Oscar nominations this far in advance is not easy. The best I've ever done a year out in this category is naming 2 of 5 women. Last year I would've tied that record with Kate Winslet (Little Children) & Meryl Streep (The Devil Wears Prada) but I had Streep incorrectly reigning o'er the supporting actress category. Can you name 2 lead nominees so many months in advance? 3?




...how the points work (there's more than just the Oscar nominations --this is closer to a contest about the race to those) and the details of 50+ women who might show up in the movie theaters in what might be the lead roles which might find favor with awards bodies. So many unknowable variables. So much obsessiveness...

* You've got one week to enter so if you have any questions after reading the instructions, ask in the comments. Do not list your predictions in the comments. That's NOT how you enter the contest. Here's how

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why is Helen Mirren's right nipple claiming victory?

NATHANIEL R said...

breast actress

adam k. said...

Good question. It's definitely either the right nipple of the oscar speaking. And the left nipple had JUST AS MUCH to do with that win, so that's not really fair.

This is crazy, Nathaniel. I hope you have fun judging this contest. I myself could never take something like this on. This is more complicated than poker, and I can't even seem to learn that. Well, I could if I actually tried.

Another fun way to do contests is to have people enter and be able to change their picks later, and then lose points if they change after a certain date. Like, anyone who entered before April would have 10 points each pick, and then new deadlines would give fewer points, etc. I used to enter one contest on the web that did that every year. Maybe it's still around.

I'd host something like that, but I don't know how. There's a whole site where people log in, and enter all their picks and change them. God, how complicated.

adam k. said...

Also, guessing "Meryl Streep for Prairie Home Companion OR Devil Wears Prada" totally does not count. You could pick Meryl Streep for every slot every year and you'd have like a 15% success rate. If you can't guess the film OR the category, you've done nothing notable.

I'm just sayin'... anybody who could've predicted LEAD for Prada before the film came out... now that woulda been something.

DL said...

Question: I picked Julie Christie in Away From Her, which had its world premiere at TIFF last year. Does this mean I automatically get the 2 points? Or does it have to premiere at TIFF this September?

DL said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
NATHANIEL R said...

well i hope the complicated nature of the points doesn't turn people off. you guys just have to pick 5 women (& films) ---I'm the one who has to track the points... ;)

basically it's set up so you get more points in the end if you can predict people who are less automatically likely (Blanchett's finally nominations for instance, since she opens in the fall, already has nominations and win, isn't worth quite as much... etc...)

and people who choose the surprise snubs will still do well... since it's about the whole awards season.

NATHANIEL R said...

DL, no. only things that occur between 04/01/07 and the nomination announcement count towards points

Anonymous said...

All those available general media points would seem to encourage the pretty young things who score magazine covers. I thought we loved the old broads?

Anonymous said...

http://www.gcapp.org/G-CAPP/annualFundraiser.html

Georgia Rule Poster...I just found it when I was looking up the movie...It looks great and I can't wait too see it...

NATHANIEL R said...

yeah, anonymous... i worried about that but i wanted their to be points for thing BEFORE the awards... and it has to be something trackable.

Glenn Dunks said...

God, this is huge. And crazy. And bonkers. And I love it.

Middento said...

Wow. But WOW! Wow. I am so into this.

And I am SO going to lose.

Anonymous said...

Another actress who could be eligible - Michelle Williams for 'Incendiary'.
It's supposed to start filming at the end of this month, so it could be done and released in time.

Anonymous said...

Hey, Nathanial

I entered your contest... but I'm not sure if it sent or not. I used the email you provided, but the two times I tried it I got "return-to-sender's"

Was there maybe a typo? The two r's I'm thinking. I new to here, so I've never used your email before. When I emailed you with just the one r it went through... I don't know if some random guy with a similar email got it or you.

Awesome site,
-Jaydawg

NATHANIEL R said...

i've fixed the email links. so refresh the page just in case.

i apologize!

NATHANIEL R said...

FYI
Jay i did not receive your entry form.

It's only the first 15 hours or so --there's a ton or regulars who haven't entered yet... maybe they're studying up before choosing ;)

it's 11:00 AM on march 14th. I've received entries from anthony, ben, calum, césar, chris, gerard, jason, jeff, krister, and scott.

so if that's not your name and you ALREADY SENT please resend.