Ten years at the Oscars!

Our tenth Oscar contest was a repeat of our very first contest -- 1998 -- and our 2005 contest, with victory going to Gary and Lindsey in a very close race.

The first two statuettes went to "Pan's Labyrinth," and the third to the animated short "The Danish Poet" (which none of us chose). So our race didn't really take shape until the 5th category, Sound Editing, when Samantha and Teghan were in a tie for the lead at three each. After the next envelope, Sam was in the lead all by herself -- and would stay there for the next 16 categories!

After Best Animated Feature ("Happy Feet"), her lead had extended by three over everyone else, and she had correctly picked seven of the the eight awards so far.

With Costume Design, the tenth envelope, Erika moved into second place; and two envelopes later Teghan and Livy caught her in a 3-way tie for second. But Livy took over the second spot with the very next award, and was only one point behind Sam, who was stalled at 7.

The 14th envelope, for Best Supporting Actress, had Jennifer Hudson's name on it, and Gary and Marsha caught Livy in another 3-way tie for second place. Sam was moving again, extending her lead even more and beginning to look out of reach.

At the end of 15, Teghan was now tied with the eventual winner in her category (Lindsey), and tied also with Amanda and Erika -- and ahead of Brent, Donna, Grandma, John, Karen, Paul, Ryan, and Tristen. Teghan so far had made cinq correct picks (she was making her tally in both Spanish and French!) and was at this point the Metcalf family's best hope for taking the trophy to their new house.

Three envelopes later, with Best Original Screenplay, Gary moved to 2nd place all alone -- but still trailed Sam by two. Looks like her night!

But at the very end of the show with one envelope to go, Gary caught up with Sam. They each had different picks for the Best Picture category, so it was suddenly a real horse-race that could go to either one of them.

With "The Departed" as the winning picture, Gary and Lindsey moved ahead of the pack. Of the top six awards (Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor and Actress), Gary made five correct picks.

Thanks to everybody who played along this year. See you next year!

(Number of correct picks out of 24 categories)
13  Gary
12  Samantha
10  Karen
10  Marsha
 9  Amanda
 9  Emily
 9  John
 9  Lindsey
 8  Donna
 7  Grandma
 7  Olivia
 6  Brent
 6  Erika
 6  Paul
 6  Ryan
 5  Teghan
 5  Tristen

And totalling all the results of the past ten years, here are the standings, in order of percentage of correct picks:

56%   Gary       123 right out of 220
52%   Donna      114 right out of 220
50%   Sean        12 right out of  24
48%   Marsha     106 right out of 220
48%   John       105 right out of 220
46%   Amanda     101 right out of 220
44%   Grandma     97 right out of 220
42%   Zachary     36 right out of  86
39%   Karen       85 right out of 220
38%   Lori        56 right out of 148
37%   Paul        82 right out of 220
36%   Ryan        70 right out of 196
35%   Anna        55 right out of 158
35%   Lindsey     76 right out of 220
35%   Samantha    78 right out of 220
30%   Brent       28 right out of  95
30%   Emily       66 right out of 220
24%   Erika       49 right out of 205
24%   Olivia      29 right out of 119
22%   Tristen     31 right out of 142
15%   Teghan       7 right out of  48