Congratulations to Jeff Freeze, a resident of Burns Harbor, Indiana, and a blog reader since 2005, who won the 6th annual Living Room Times Oscar Pool tonight — and set an all-time record in the process, with 74 out of a possible 80 points.
Freeze got only six categories wrong, all worth one point apiece: Best Film Editing, Costume Design, Sound Mixing, and all three of the Short Film categories (live action, animated and documentary). Freeze’s total beats the previous high of 72 points, set by Chris McLemore in 2006 and equalled by Lisa Velte in 2008. (Full pool history here.)
It’s the second time Freeze has won a Living Room Times contest. He won the women’s NCAA Pool in 2008.
In Sunday night’s LRT Oscars liveblog, Freeze explained his predictive methods thusly: “I usually Google ‘expert’ predictions and then go with a favorite or the ‘conventional wisdom’.” Later, 10 awards into the show, he wrote: “I am almost ashamed to be leading this pool. I am shocked I tell you, shocked. I have not even seen most of these flicks. No way it holds.”
When his pick for Best Foreign Language Film, El secreto de sus ojos from Argentina, won the Oscar, Freeze admitted his pick was influenced by the Mark Sanford scandal: “I am ashamed to say, Sanford’s woman is the reason I picked that film. YES I am that shallow! … I figure if women are that hot in Argentina, then I would pick that film.”
Later, when he clinched the pool by virtue of The Hurt Locker winning Best Picture, Freeze gave a brief “acceptance speech” on the liveblog, stating, “I would like to thank…the interwebs, specifically Google for the help.”
Vicki Lopez, who famously almost won the 2005 and 2006 pools, finished in second place with 68 points, six behind Freeze. The screenplay categories doomed Lopez: she picked favorites Inglourious Basterds and Up in the Air, but instead The Hurt Locker and Precious won, as Freeze predicted. If just one of those awards had gone according to Lopez’s picks, it would have resulted in an 8-point swing between Freeze and herself, and she would have won the pool.
Four contestants tied for third place, eight points behind Freeze with 66 points: ’08 pool champion Lisa Velte, pool administrator Brendan Loy, Loy’s former roommate Chris Aemisegger, and A.J. St. John. Dan Dinunzio, Jeff Vaca and Tim Stevens were next with 65 apiece. Rounding out the Top 10 was Seth Revels, with 64 points.
Freeze was one of four contestants who had a chance of winning the pool heading into the final two categories, Best Director and Best Picture, which were considered hotly contested between James Cameron’s Avatar and his ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker. If Avatar had swept those categories, Lauren Taylor would have won the pool. If Avatar had won Best Picture, but not Director, Michael Rosenkrantz would have won. If Avatar had won Best Director, but not Picture, Jessica Cowans would have won.
Instead, The Hurt Locker swept — as Freeze predicted — and Cowans finished 11th with 63 points; Rosenkrantz finished 13th with 56 points; and Taylor finished 26th with 43 points.
Last year’s defending champion, Vlada Shelkova, finished dead last with 6 points. Complete standings are below.
1. Jeff Freeze 74
2. Vicki Lopez 68
3. A.J. St. John 66
3. Brendan Loy 66
3. Chris Aemisegger 66
3. Lisa Velte 66
7. Dan Dinunzio 65
7. Jeff Vaca 65
7. Tim Stevens 65
10. Seth Revels 64
11. Jessica Cowans 63
11. Wobbly H 63
13. Michael Rosenkrantz 56
14. Juan Molina 55
14. Karen Torgersen 55
14. Mark Van Lommel 55
17. Marel 54
17. Marty West 54
17. Tom Chiavetta 54
20. Jen Lopez (Vicki’s Mom) 53
21. Alec Taylor 51
22. Matt Wiser 48
23. Adra Graves 47
23. Mark Jordon 47
25. MT 45
26. Lauren Taylor 43
27. Kathryn Rogers 42
28. Jason Cowans 40
28. Suzanne Ogden Vannatter 40
30. USCROGER 39
31. Jeff Morrison 38
31. Marissa DeMonstoy 38
33. Dave Roberts 37
33. Heather Weinberg 37
33. Mike Marchand 37
36. Mike Wiser 36
37. Scott Schmidt 35
38. Kevin Hauschulz 33
38. Rebecca Loy 33
38. Tim Benson 33
41. Joe Peru 32
41. Melanie Dickson 32
41. Patrick Roach 32
44. Patrick Cullen 31
45. Heather O. 28
46. David K. 27
47. Sandy Underpants 26
48. Chris Evans 25
49. Gahrie 22
50. Uncle Larry 11
51. Briandot 9
51. Carolyn Blessing 9
53. Vlada Shelkova 6