Enter the 2nd Annual Oscar Pickin' Contest!

The 2nd Annual Way Things Turn Oscar Pickin' Contest is open for business! The online survey is linked at the bottom of this post.

Choose the most correct winners in the nine pre-selected Academy Award categories, and win a $25 Gift Card to the movie theater of your choice!

The rules are simple and the contest is free. You may enter only one time, and we can accept only the first 100 respondents. Don't wait until the deadline or you'll miss out!

Here's all you have to do:

1. Click the link below before 6:00PM (Eastern) / 3:00 PM (Pacific) on Sunday February 24. After the cutoff time, no entries will be accepted.
2. Follow the electronic survey instructions and mark your answers for ALL questions listed; provide your name / email in the space provided.
3. Click "Done" after you've answered all 10 questions.
4. Check The Way Things Turn blog site on Monday February 25 to see if you won.

Here's a link to a printable list of nominees in all the categories for your reference. You won't be able to print your completed picks from the survey, so be sure to record your answers to track your progress during the Awards show.

Make sure to follow me on Twitter (@waythingsturn) as I'm planning to live Tweet the awards show on Sunday night. We'll be updating the blog with fun facts and updates throughout the evening too!

Best of Luck!

Click Here to Enter Your Contest Picks

Second Annual Online Oscar Pickin' Contest

On Sunday February 24, ABC will broadcast the 85th annual Academy Awards ceremony.

That's all fine and good, but more importantly, next Sunday we will host the second annual Way Things Turn Online Oscar Pickin' Contest!

Sure, our contest won't have a red carpet or a celebrity host, but we will have live results updates throughout the broadcast (on the  blog and on Twitter @waythingsturn) and a $25 gift card prize for our winner.

And dammit, we'll have fun!

Here are the basic contest details.

• Entry in the contest is free.
• Ballots will be collected via online survey (I'll publish a link a few days before the show).
• Participants will vote on 9 categories (one more than last year):
• Best Picture
• Best Director
• Leading Actor
• Leading Actress
• Supporting Actor
• Supporting Actress
• Cinematography (our new addition)
• Original Screenplay
• Adapted Screenplay
• We'll once again use the Oscar broadcast "end time" as our official tie breaker.

We'll announce the winner on The Way Things Turn website, and I'll mail a movie theater (or Starbucks) gift card to the participant who makes the most correct picks.

Here's a printable list of all the Oscar nominees for your reference. There are nine Best Picture nominees, and a host of other films that received nominations for their screenplays and for the outstanding performances of their stars.

You only have one week left and there are tons of films to consider, so get busy with your last minute movie-watching and stay tuned to The Way Things Turn for updates and the official contest link!

Our Oscar Contest Winner Is...

Congratulations to Raquel Matta who won our Online Oscar Pickin' Contest.

We had three other "finalists" who finished in a tie for second place - Bei Li, Karla Schmidt, and Tony Meredith.

I'll be sending Raquel's $50 Gift Card out this week, but thanks to all who played.

Here are some fun contest facts.

• 59 people participated.
• 17 people (amazingly) tied for first with 7 of 8 correct picks.
• 4 finalists emerged after the tiebreaker was applied (their end-time guesses were each off by one minute).
• Having exhausted our official tiebreaker, we resorted to a coin toss flip-off to determine the final winner.

We definitely know our stuff - our group's "majority pick" was correct in every category except Best Actress (who would guess that Meryl Streep would be the dark horse candidate to fool us all).

Critics felt the awards show itself was a bit lackluster this year, with no performances of Original Song nominees, few surprises among the winners, and a dearth of overly-memorable acceptance speeches, Octavia Spencer notwithstanding. Most of us also wouldn't mind if this were Billy Crystal's last year hosting (and I bet it is).

Having said all that, I had tons of fun Live-Tweeting and Facebook-ing about the Awards show and providing online updates about our contest. The creativity and humor of the online community constantly amazes and entertains me. I can't wait for the next opportunity to host a contest or online event.

Thanks again to everyone who participated! We hope you had as much fun cheering for your picks and watching the Oscar show as we did!

The Shallow End - Oscar The Very Weird Handstand Peeing Dog

It's been a tough and uncomfortable news day. Swim down to the shallow end and treat yourself to 45 seconds of lightness and laughing. The title of the blog post kind of says it all.

Viewing Tip: Click the title bar at the top of the clip to view in a larger window.