Haven't seen Oscar movies? You could still Beat Beifuss

Photo by AP

Readers beat The Commercial Appeal movie critic John Beifuss at picking Oscar winners, and the lucky 10 won 20 free Malco movie passes.

The first ceremony for the Academy Awards of Merit (the now- trademarked nickname "Oscar" had yet to be coined) took place on May 16, 1929, at a private dinner at the then-spanking-new Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.

The ceremony lasted only 15 minutes, in part because the winners -- including actor Emil Jannings, screenwriter Ben Hecht and special honoree Charlie Chaplin, to name a few -- had been announced three months earlier.

Last year's ceremony, in which "The King's Speech" was enshrined, lasted 15 minutes too -- then continued for another three hours. And it was lauded for its relative brevity.

Unlike the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, we here at the "Beat Beifuss at the Oscars" contest don't like to waste your time. In fact, it takes only a minute or two to play, once you follow the link on The Commercial Appeal's website at gomemphis.com/ beatbeifuss.

There, you will find 10 top Oscar categories for 2012. Pick and submit your choices. If your guesses are more accurate than mine, you will be eligible to win 20 tickets to Malco movie theaters.

Having actually seen the nominated movies isn't necessarily helpful. In fact, it's almost easier to predict the Oscars than to predict what will happen with the Beat Beifuss contest.

Some years, many people have bested me, in which case we've drawn the names of the winners at random from the roll call of Beifuss beaters. But you never know.

In 2006, when I went 9-1 in my picks, only three people beat me. But last year, when I also was 9-1, 33 people beat me.

In 1999, the "Shakespeare in Love" year, my record was 3-7. So many hundreds of the contest's 1,300 entrants beat me that the top-notch Beat Beifuss tabulators on the newspaper's staff didn't even bother to count them.

The deadline to vote is 11:59 p.m. Friday, Feb. 24 -- two nights before the Oscars ceremony. Which will probably last close to four hours. Believe me, the program will be much more enjoyable if you can add to the glitz and glamour the pleasure of beating Beifuss.

© 2012 Go Memphis. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.