Academy Awards Challenge

A bleak mid-winter? Ms. Rossetti, you don't know the half of it. We cannot yet smell a hint of tightly mown grass or the fresh vial of androstendione for baseball spring, yet the trailing residue of football tailgate bratwurst has surely faded from even the least-frequently-washed jeans. In mid-February, what are we then to do? Basketball can wait until March, hockey even longer, and curling is, frankly the nuclear option. We need something else to watch and gamble on. Perhaps something with Nazis, backwardly aging people, Indian gangs, and Sean Penn…

Welcome to the first annual Poolmaster Academy Awards Challenge!

Wait, I know what you’re thinking. Don't worry, I won’t ask you to try to tell the difference between art direction, cinematography, and costume design. This isn’t some high-minded indie critic type of ironic pool. The Poolmaster wouldn’t do that to you.

Attached is the entry form where you pick the winners of the major categories as well as some … um … bonus questions to spice things up a bit. Entry fee is $5 US or $6 CAN. Please pay your local poolmaster representative as usual.

Please fill out the form and return it to me by Sunday Feb 22, sometime before any of the red carpet shows begin. Winner will get 67%, second place 33%, and last place their money back. Please forward this on to any friends and enemies.

Hopefully this will tide us all over until selection Sunday!

Also, updates and snarky comments will be posted on the Poolmaster blog website here. There is an outside possibility I will be live-blogging the show! But there is also a possibility I will forget and watch the rerun of Mythbusters where they try to slice a pig in two with a snapping high-tension cable.

Some websites to help with your research:

Official site

Wikipedia on nominees

Statistics nerd handicaps the field

NYTimes Oscars Blog

Good Luck!

Poolmaster