Oscars

Surprise! David Fincher didn't win the Best Director award. But King Colin (pictured above, arriving with Livia Giuggioli for the Oscars ceremony) did exactly as everyone predicted, winning the Best Actor award.

Last year I did pretty well with my Oscar predictions when not deviating too far from the bookies' favourites. You know they do their homework. Longshots very rarely make it.

The Hurt Locker was expected to fare well at the Oscars, but even the team behind the Afghanistan-set feature looked like they never dreamed of doing quite as well as this. In the end, they took six Oscars, including the big two - Best Picture and Best Director, for Kathryn Bigelow (as I predicted in my Oscars preview).

“After you're nominated, it's like a crapshoot, it's like throwing dice.” Morgan Freeman

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences ballot system is still done in the same way as it was in 1936 - by hand.

This is a description of how the Academy decides Oscar-winners.

There's no doubting Oscar's effect on us.The Oscars mean...

Studios hold back their best until the Academy Awards draw close.