Truth matters. Community matters. Your support makes both possible. LAist is one of the few places where news remains independent and free from political and corporate influence. Stand up for truth and for LAist. Make your year-end tax-deductible gift now.
Make Your Friends Think You Have Secret Psychic Superpowers With Our Oscar Pool Insider Tips
If you want to win your Oscar pool, pay close attention to categories like costume design and sound. Correct selections in those categories allow for more misses in the top races.
(
Lewis Joly-Pool
/
Getty Images
)
What’s the key to winning your Oscar pool? Not losing your Oscar pool.
It sounds glib, but it’s serious advice: No matter how well you might do in the major categories — let’s say you hit all four acting winners and best picture, too — your psychic Academy Award powers are meaningless if you miss an equal number of lesser categories. It’s like making a hole-in-one, and then totally whiffing on your next two golf shots.
There are always upsets at the Oscars (best picture winners Crash and Shakespeare in Love, for example), but there are far more heavy favorites who end up winning.
I can’t say with any confidence who’s going to go home with the best actor statuette — Elvis’ Austin Butler, The Whale’s Brendan Fraser and Colin Farrell from The Banshees of Inisherin all have a legit shot — but I’d swear on my daughter’s life that All Quiet on the Western Front will be named best international feature. (Note: I don’t have a daughter.)
Here are some of the less-famous categories that I believe are near locks.
So trust (pray?) that I’m right, mark them down on your ballot, and see if you’ll have enough of a cushion that you don’t have to nail every top category to triumph.
Sponsored message
International film: All Quiet on the Western Front
Cinematography: All Quiet on the Western Front
Costume Design: Elvis
Song: Naatu Naatu, RRR
Adapted screenplay: Women Talking
Visual effects: Avatar: The Way of Water
Animated feature: Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio
Sponsored message
Supporting actor: Ke Huy Quan, Everything Everywhere all at Once
Director: Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, Everything Everywhere all at Once
Animated Short: The Boy, The Mole, The Fox And The Horse
Good luck, and if you win, be sure to donate at least half the proceeds at LAist.com/join.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our connected community. We are free to tell the full truth, to hold power to account without fear or favor, and to follow facts wherever they lead. Our only loyalty is to our audiences and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen our community.
Right now, LAist has lost $1.7M in annual funding due to Congress clawing back money already approved. The support we receive before year-end will determine how fully our newsroom can continue informing, serving, and strengthening Southern California.
If this story helped you today, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
Your tax-deductible donation keeps LAist independent and accessible to everyone.
Right now, LAist has lost $1.7M in annual funding due to Congress clawing back money already approved. The support we receive before year-end will determine how fully our newsroom can continue informing, serving, and strengthening Southern California.
If this story helped you today, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
Your tax-deductible donation keeps LAist independent and accessible to everyone.
Senior Vice President News, Editor in Chief
