The scientific approach to predicting Oscar winners

Jennifer Lawrence holds the trophy for Best Actress in the press room during the 85th Annual Academy Awards on February 24, 2013 in Hollywood, California.

David Rothchild, a researcher for Microsoft, offers up his Oscar predictions.

With the Oscars coming up on Sunday, this town is abuzz with activity.

There's the makeup artists, the spray tanners, the red carpet rollers, lighting technicians and paparazzi and of course: The Oscar predictors. Everyone from film critics to shopfront psychics and new age gurus are scurrying to look into their crystal balls to foresee the future of Oscar gold.

But if you want a more scientific approach, you'll want to look beyond the tea leaves to big data. That's the statistical approach used by people like Nate Silver to successfully predict elections. That's exactly what our next guest has done.

David Rothschild is a researcher for Microsoft and he publishes his predictions at his site, PredictWise.