Welcome to

The Friday Night Movie
Annual Oscar Contest

Sunday, February 25, 2007

Hey, Movie Lovers!

The ballots have been tallied and the 2007 Friday Night Movie Oscar Contest is over! I had 38 participants this year, including many first-timers.

And the winner is Margaret O'Connell who got 15 out of 21 correct guesses!!! Congratulations to Margaret for her win! She will be receiving movie passes and a kitchy prize chosen especially for her.

Second place finishers were Katie Wallace and Joanna Winslow with 14 correct guesses. Rounding out the top 3 was a three-way tie for 3rd place with a score of 13: Paul Haus, Lyn Ketterer and Paul Rivenberg. Congrats to all! Check out http://www.kestrelsnest.net/fnm/oscarresults2007.html for the full results. (Note: This year, I did not count short films for purposes of the contest.)

This Oscar show was okay as Oscar shows go, Ellen was a great host, but I have to admit I did fall asleep at one point, during Ennio Morricone's long acceptance speech in Italian, I think. There were a few surprises, like Germany's The Lives of Others beating Pan's Labyrinth for Best Foreign Language Film, despite the latter film winning 3 other Oscars and the former opening in wide release in the States only recently. Melissa Etheridge's win for Best Song was amazing considering Dreamgirls had three other nominations in this category. Another surprise was Alan Arkin's upset over favorite Eddie Murphy for Best Supporting Actor. But this will give my tale of meeting and doing a crossword puzzle with Mr. Arkin on a plane trip from Albuquerque to Dallas a bit more clout now. (True story.)

Check out the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) Oscar Site for more details on this year's event.

Thanks for participating, for making Friday Night Movies the fun and thriving event it is and for sharing my love of cinema.

And the Winners are...

Best Motion Picture of the Year
   Babel
   The Departed
   Letters from Iwo Jima
   Little Miss Sunshine
   The Queen

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
   Leonardo DiCaprio for Blood Diamond
   Ryan Gosling for Half Nelson
   Peter O'Toole for Venus
   Will Smith for The Pursuit of Happyness
   Forest Whitaker for The Last King of Scotland

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
   Penélope Cruz for Volver
   Judi Dench for Notes on a Scandal
   Helen Mirren for The Queen
   Meryl Streep for The Devil Wears Prada
   Kate Winslet for Little Children

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
   Alan Arkin for Little Miss Sunshine
   Jackie Earle Haley for Little Children
   Djimon Hounsou for Blood Diamond
   Eddie Murphy for Dreamgirls
   Mark Wahlberg for The Departed

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
   Adriana Barraza for Babel
   Cate Blanchett for Notes on a Scandal
   Abigail Breslin for Little Miss Sunshine
   Jennifer Hudson for Dreamgirls
   Rinko Kikuchi for Babel

Best Achievement in Directing
   Clint Eastwood for Letters from Iwo Jima
   Stephen Frears for The Queen
   Paul Greengrass for United 93
   Alejandro González Iñárritu for Babel
   Martin Scorsese for The Departed

Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen
   Babel
   Letters from Iwo Jima
   Little Miss Sunshine
   Pan's Labyrinth
   The Queen

Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published
   Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
   Children of Men
   The Departed
   Little Children
   Notes on a Scandal

Contest Participants
with # of correct quesses

15 Margaret O'Connell
15 Kevin Tyrrell
14 Katie Wallace
14 Joanna Winslow
13 Paul Haus
13 Lyn Ketterer
13 Paul Rivenberg
12 Jen Petitt
12 Jill
12 Megan Anderson
12 Ricardo deFrutos
12 Rob Stone
12 Tim Clifford
11 Jed Shumsky
11 Jeff Colman
11 Kelcie Cooke
11 Leslie Berman
11 Scott Sughrue
11 Entertainment Weekly's predictions
10 Andrew Plummer
10 Christopher Camp
10 David Aurelio
10 Lisa Connell
10 Steven Procopio
9 Jerry Green
9 Leslie Baker
9 Scott Schroeder
9 Ursula Boyle
8 Allison Keaton
7 Lisa Martinko
7 Philip Roberts
7 Wendell Wyatt
6 Bob Finkenaur
6 Emily Berman
6 Michael Keane
5 Nicole Lanthier
4 Brian Candido
3 David Andreasen
1 Bill Barnert