Before the results, some quick hit observations from last night's show:

My side bet with Jim on who would be the last man in the "In Memoriam" package was lost on a technicality: John Hughes didn't get included because he got his own segment.

Although I don't think anybody had Karl Malden slotted into the final slot. That was the upset of the night.

One more "In Memoriam" observation: whither Farrah Fawcett?

Okay, one more "In Memoriam" observation: what does it say about the show that the most second-most talked about segment was clips of dead people? They should have added "Interest in the Oscar telecast" to the reel after last night's snooze-fest.

Literally. Suzi was snoozing.

The most talked about segment, of course, was the director of the winner for documentary short getting Kanye'd by his producer. The fascinating backstory: they ended up suing each other over control of the film, she took her name off of it, and they haven't spoken in two years.

That link via Roger Ebert's twitter feed, as are all links on the internet these days. Honestly, I don't think the man sleeps.

Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin as co-hosts was a seemingly good idea that went horribly wrong, like a fall season of "So You Think You Can Dance."

Speaking of which: was I the only one playing the "spot that SYTYCD alum" during the musical score dance montage? I was?

This year's pool had 15 participants. Some interesting trends I noticed:

There was one 0/15 category (doc short) and one 15/15 category (animated feature).

According to our group, the biggest upset of the night was a tie between Inglourious Basterds losing Original Screenplay to The Hurt Locker (12/15 picked Basterds, only 1 vote for THL) and A Matter of Loaf and Death losing Animated Short to Logorama (12/15 for Loaf, 1 vote for Logorama).

Awards for Special Achievement in Prognosticating are given out to anybody who is the only participate to get a category correct. This years winners are:

Steph for selecting Logorama in Animated Short.
Melissa for selecting The New Tenants in Live Action Short.
Greg for selecting The Hurt Locker in Original Screenplay.
Matt for selecting The Secret In Their Eyes for Foreign Film.

Enough foreplay! On with the winners!


Tier 1

Selma, 14 pts

You didn't do your homework, did you?

Tier 2

Melissa, 22 pts
Jeff, 22 pts
Rose, 24 pts
Suzi, 26 pts

0/4 on Best Picture, 1/4 on Director, but also missed some layups, with misses in locked up categories like Supporting Actor, Actor, Original Score, and Best Song.

Tier 3

Daytrader, 28 pts
Yaworm, 31 pts
Steph, 32 pts
Greg, 32 pts
Matt, 33 pts

The little misses added up in a very competitive year.

Tier 4

Kevin, 35 pts
Jesse, 35 pts
Heather, 39 pts
Jim, 39 pts

Oh, Kevin, Kevin, Kevin. You had such a great showing after last year's abomination, but you are going to be kicking yourself for that miss in Best Picture (and the 7 points you would have gotten) when you see the score of our winner, and first back-to-back champion.

Tier 5

Elisa, 42 pts

One of only 2 players to go 4/4 on the top categories (Jim being the other - CONSPIRACY!) Elisa also picked up critical points in doc feature and editing, which helped separate her from the pack. Well done, Elisa. Expect your prize in the mail shortly. In fact, its there right now. Its nothing. Your prize is nothing.