4 Rules to Win Your Oscar Pool

4 Rules to Win Your Oscar Pool: "By far the best predictors are the winners of other major awards, like the Golden Globes. That isn’t rocket science, I know. But there is some utility in knowing which awards have the best track records in which categories. In the best picture category, for instance, awards given out by ‘outsiders’ like critics tend to be far less reliable predictors than those given out by professionals like directors and producers"

Compare this to the promotions last year, when the perfectly coiffed hosts, Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin, wore tuxedos and stood in a brightly lit, stark white space, simply introducing themselves and talking up the show, and it becomes clear that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is making a major play for a new audience, one that communicates in satire and snark, not just reverence. 

The theme of this year’s show on ABC is “You’re Invited,” and the normally staid Academy has been working overtime to lift the veil on its big night. It’s live-streaming backstage moments on a newly revamped Web site, Oscar.go.com. A new app will feature footage from the Governors Ball, the Academy’s official, exclusive afterparty. Fans can submit questions for nominees to the Academy online; a few mothers of nominees — “mominees” — have even been corralled to post on Twitter.